They did thus with the drunken man:  ... the elder of the two went first to her father’s bed.  Nor did the 2600 venerable man know when the two maidens ... were with him in the manner of a bride, fast bound [as he was] in heart, mind, and memory, drunken with wine, 2605 so that he could not escape the enterprise of the maidens.  The young women became pregnant, and the devoted sisters brought men-children into the world, sons to their old father.  One of these noble children was called Moab by his mother, that daughter of Loth who was the 2610 elder in years of life; the Scriptures tell us, the sacred Books, that the younger called her son Ammon.  From these princes sprang numberless people, the glories of 2615 two nations:  one of these nations all earth-dwellers call Moabites, a widely famed race; the other, men and sons of heroes call Ammonites.

XXXII.

Then the brother of Aron set out with his wife to take 2620 his possessions and his household to Abimelech.  Abra-ham told all men that Sarra was his sister, [and] thus preserved his life by his words:  he knew very well that 2625 he had few relatives and friends among that people.  Then the king sent his ministers and bade them bring to him [the wife of Abraham].[36] Thus for the second time in a foreign land, the wife of Abraham was taken 2630 from her husband to the embrace of a stranger.  Then the eternal Lord assisted him, as he had often done:  our Preserver came himself by night to where the king lay drunken with wine.  Thereupon the Lord of Truth 2635 began to speak to the king through a dream, and threat-ened him in wrath: 

“Thou hast taken Abraham’s wife, his bride from the hero; for that deed death shall tear thy soul from thy breast!”

To him thus the sinner, gorged with feasting, replied 2640 in his sleep: 

“What!  Wilt Thou ever, High King of the Angels, through thy wrath let him be deprived of life who lives 2645 here in righteous habits, [who] in his counsel is upright in mind, and who asks mercy of Thyself?  In her own words, unasked, this woman told me first that she was 2650 Abraham’s sister.  I have not sinned against her, nor wrought any evil at all, up to this time!”

Then again the Eternal Lord and True God spoke to him straightway through that dream: 

“Give back this woman to Abraham, his wife, into 2655 his possession, if thou wishest for life any longer in this world, as protector of the nobles.  He is good and wise, and may himself speak with [God] and see the King of Glory.  Thou shalt die, with thy flocks and thy sub-stance, if thou deniest his wife to the warrior:  if he will 2660 at once honestly and patiently prefer to me thy earnest wishes, he may obtain his request that I yet allow thee living to enjoy pleasures and prosperity in thy days, 2665 [allow thee] in sound health [to enjoy thy] riches.”