The Second Book Of Adam And Eve
1926 anthology, complete selected publisher reading text
Rutherford H. Platt
14 And they did so until the end of Seth drew near.
CHAP. XII.
Seth’s family affairs. His death. The headship of Enos. How the outcast branch of Adam’s family fared.
THEN Seth, the just, called his son Enos, and Cainan, son of Enos, and Mahalaleel, son of Cainan, and said unto them:--
2 “As my end is near, I wish to build a roof over the altar on which gifts are offered.”
3 They hearkened to his commandment and went out, all of them, both old and young, and worked hard at it, and built a beautiful roof over the altar.
4 And Seth’s thought in so doing, was that a blessing should come upon his children on the mountain; and that he should present an offering for them before his death.
5 Then when the building of the roof was completed, he commanded them to make offerings. They worked diligently at these, and brought them to Seth their father who took them and offered them upon the altar; and prayed God to accept their offerings, to have mercy on the souls of his children, and to keep them from the hand of Satan.
6 And God accepted his offering, and sent His blessing upon him and upon his children. And then God made a promise to Seth, saying, “At the end of the great five days and a half, concerning which I have made a promise to thee and to thy father, I will send My Word and save thee and thy seed.”
7 Then Seth and his children, and his children’s children, met together, and came down from the altar, and went to the Cave of Treasures--where they prayed, and blessed themselves in the body of our father Adam, and anointed themselves with it.
8 But Seth abode in the Cave of Treasures, a few days, and then suffered--sufferings unto death.
9 Then Enos, his first-born son, came to him, with Cainan, his son, and Mahalaleel, Cainan’s son, and Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, and Enoch, Jared’s son, with their wives and children to receive a blessing from Seth.
10 Then Seth prayed over them, and blessed them, and adjured them by the blood of Abel the just, saying, “I beg of you, my children, not to let one of you go down from this Holy and pure Mountain.
11 Make no fellowship with the children of Cain the murderer and the sinner, who killed his brother; for ye know, O my children, that we flee from him, and from all his sin with all our might because he killed his brother Abel.”
12 After having said this, Seth blessed Enos, his first-born son, and commanded him habitually to minister in purity before the body of our father Adam, all the days of his life; then, also, to go at times to the altar which he Seth had built. And he commanded him to feed his people in righteousness, in judgment and purity all the days of his life.
13 Then the limbs of Seth were loosened; his hands and feet lost all power; his mouth became dumb and unable to speak; and he gave up the ghost and died the day after his nine hundred and twelfth year; on the twenty-seventh day of the month Abib; Enoch being then twenty years old.
14 Then they wound up carefully the body of Seth, and embalmed him with sweet spices, and laid him in the Cave of Treasures, on the right side of our father Adam’s body, and they mourned for him forty days. They offered gifts for him, as they had done for our father Adam.
15 After the death of Seth Enos rose at the head of his people, whom he fed in righteousness, and judgment, as his father had commanded him.
16 But by the time Enos was eight hundred and twenty years old, Cain had a large progeny; for they married frequently, being given to animal lusts; until the land below the mountain, was filled with them.
CHAP. XIII.
“Among the children of Cain there was much robbery, murder and sin.”
IN those days lived Lamech the blind, who was of the sons of Cain. He had a son whose name was Atun, and they two had much cattle.
2 But Lamech was in the habit of sending them to feed with a young shepherd, who tended them; and who, when coming home in the evening wept before his grandfather, and before his father Atun and his mother Hazina, and said to them, “As for me, I cannot feed those cattle alone, lest one rob me of some of them, or kill me for the sake of them.” For among the children of Cain, there was much robbery, murder, and sin.
3 Then Lamech pitied him, and he said, “Truly, he when alone, might be overpowered by the men of this place.”
4 So Lamech arose, took a bow he had kept ever since he was a youth, ere he became blind, and he took large arrows, and smooth stones, and a sling which he had, and went to the field with the young shepherd, and placed himself behind the cattle; while the young shepherd watched the cattle. Thus did Lamech many days.
5 Meanwhile Cain, ever since God had cast him off, and had cursed him with trembling and terror, could neither settle nor find rest in any one place; but wandered from place to place.
6 In his wanderings he came to Lamech’s wives, and asked them about him. They said to him, “He is in the field with the cattle.”
7 Then Cain went to look for him; and as he came into the field, the young shepherd heard the noise he made, and the cattle herding together from before him.
8 Then said he to Lamech, “O my lord, is that a wild beast or a robber?”
9 And Lamech said to him, “Make me understand which way he looks, when he comes up.”
10 Then Lamech bent his bow, placed an arrow on it, and fitted a stone in the sling, and when Cain came out from the open country, the shepherd said to Lamech, “Shoot, behold, he is coming.”
11 Then Lamech shot at Cain with his arrow and hit him in his side. And Lamech struck him with a stone from his sling, that fell upon his face, and knocked out both his eyes; then Cain fell at once and died.
12 Then Lamech and the young shepherd came up to him, and found him lying on the ground. And the young shepherd said to him, “It is Cain our grandfather, whom thou hast killed, O my lord!”
13 Then was Lamech sorry for it, and from the bitterness of his regret, he clapped his hands together, and struck with his flat palm the head of the youth, who fell as if dead; but Lamech thought it was a feint; so he took up a stone and smote him, and smashed his head until he died.
CHAP. XIV.
Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears away another generation of men.
WHEN Enos was nine hundred years old, all the children of Seth, and of Cainan, and his first-born, with their wives and children, gathered around him, asking for a blessing from him.
2 He then prayed over them and blessed them, and adjured them by the blood of Abel the just saying to them, “Let not one of your children go down from this Holy Mountain, and let them make no fellowship with the children of Cain the murderer.”
3 Then Enos called his son Cainan and said to him, “See, O my son, and set thy heart on thy people, and establish them in righteousness, and in innocence; and stand ministering before the body of our father Adam, all the days of thy life.”
4 After this Enos entered into rest, aged nine hundred and eighty-five years; and Cainan wound him up, and laid him in the Cave of Treasures on the left of his father Adam; and made offerings for him, after the custom of his fathers.