The Second Book Of Adam And Eve
1926 anthology, complete selected publisher reading text
Rutherford H. Platt
9 “And except that they know I am come to this place to bring up to it my offering, they would not be separated from me one hour; neither should I go to any other place, unless they let me. But they treat me most kindly, because I come back to them quickly.”
10 Then Satan said to him, “What will happen to thee if thou hide thyself from them one night, and return to them at break of day?”
11 But Seth, when he saw how he kept on talking, and that he would not leave him-ran, and went up to the altar, and spread his hands unto God, and sought deliverance from Him.
12 Then God sent His Word, and cursed Satan, who fled from Him.
13 But as for Seth, he had gone up to the altar, saying thus in his heart. “The altar is the place of offering, and God is there; a divine fire shall consume it; so shall Satan be unable to hurt me, and shall not take me away thence.”
14 Then Seth came down from the altar and went to his father and mother, where he found in the way, longing to hear his voice; for he had tarried a while.
15 He then began to tell them what had befallen him from Satan, under the form of an angel.
16 But when Adam heard his account, he kissed his face, and warned him against that angel, telling him it was Satan who thus appeared to him. Then Adam took Seth, and they went to the Cave of Treasures, and rejoiced therein.
17 But from that day forth Adam and Eve never parted from him, to whatever place he might go, whether for his offering or for any thing else.
18 This sign happened to Seth, when he was nine years old.
CHAP. VII.
Seth marries Aklia. Adam lives to see grand children and great-grand-children.
WHEN our father Adam saw that Seth was of a perfect heart, he wished him to marry; lest the enemy should appear to him another time, and overcome him.
2 So Adam said to his son Seth, “I wish, O my son, that thou wed thy sister Aklia, Abel’s sister, that she may bear thee children, who shall replenish the earth, according to God’s promise to us.
3 “Be not afraid, O my son; there is no disgrace in it. I wish thee to marry, from fear lest the enemy overcome thee.”
4 Seth, however, did not wish to marry; but in obedience to his father and mother, he said not a word.
5 So Adam married him to Aklia. And he was fifteen years old.
6 But when he was twenty years of age, he begat a son, whom he called Enos; and then begat other children than him.
7 Then Enos grew up, married, and begat Cainan.
8 Cainan also grew up, married, and begat Mahalaleel.
9 Those fathers were born during Adam’s life-time, and dwelt by the Cave of Treasures.
10 Then were the days of Adam nine hundred and thirty years, and those of Mahalaleel one hundred. But Mahalaleel, when he was grown up, loved fasting, praying, and with hard labours, until the end of our father Adam’s days drew near.
CHAP. VIII.
Adam’s remarkable last words. He predicts the Flood. He exhorts his offspring to good. He reveals certain mysteries of life.
WHEN our father Adam saw that his end was near, he called his son Seth, who came to him in the Cave of Treasures, and he said unto him:--
2 “O Seth, my son bring me thy children and thy children’s children, that I may shed my blessing on them ere I die.”
3 When Seth heard these words from his father Adam, he went from him, shed a flood of tears over his face, and gathered together his children and his children’s children, and brought them to his father Adam.
4 But when our father Adam saw them around him, he wept at having to be separated from them.
5 And when they saw him weeping, they all wept together, and fell upon his face saying, “How shalt thou be severed from us, O our father? And how shall the earth receive thee and hide thee from our eyes?” Thus did they lament much, and in like words.
6 Then our father Adam blessed them all, and said to Seth, after he had blessed them:--
7 “O Seth, my son, thou knowest this world--that it is full of sorrow, and of weariness; and thou knowest all that has come upon us, from our trials in it. I therefore now command thee in these words: to keep innocency, to be pure and just, and trusting in God; and lean not to the discourses of Satan, nor to the apparitions in which he will show himself to thee.
8 But keep the commandments that I give thee this day; then give the same to thy son Enos; and let Enos give it to his son Cainan; and Cainan to his son Mahalaleel; so that this commandment abide firm among all your children.
9 “O Seth, my son, the moment I am dead take ye my body and wind it up with myrrh, aloes, and cassia, and leave me here in this Cave of Treasures in which are all these tokens which God gave us from the garden.
10 “O my son, hereafter shall a flood come and overwhelm all creatures, and leave out only eight souls.
11 “But, O my son, let those whom it will leave out from among your children at that time, take my body with them out of this cave; and when they have taken it with them, let the oldest among them command his children to lay my body in a ship until the flood has been assuaged, and they come out of the ship.
12 Then they shall take my body and lay it in the middle of the earth, shortly after they have been saved from the waters of the flood.
13 “For the place where my body shall be laid, is the middle of the earth; God shall come from thence and shall save all our kindred.
14 “But now, O Seth, my son, place thyself at the head of thy people; tend them and watch over them in the fear of God; and lead them in the good way, Command them to fast unto God; and make them understand they ought not to hearken to Satan, lest he destroy them.
15 “Then, again, sever thy children and thy children’s children from Cain’s children; do not let them ever mix with those, nor come near them either in their words or in their deeds.”
16 Then Adam let his blessing descend upon Seth, and upon his children, and upon all his children’s children.