In the year 15 of Abraham's dwelling in the land, Abraham returned to Haran to see his father and mother, and Abraham and his wife and all that he had stayed in Haran. He dwelt there five years, and Abraham was 75 [(2023 after the Garden of Eden)]. Many more people went after Abraham from the people of Haran - 72 men - and Abraham taught them the ways of Hashem [(Sefer HaYashar)].

It is written [In Yalkut Reuven Parshat Vayera in the name of Pesikta Rabbati, at the Covenant Between the Parts Abraham was 70 years old. Tosafot wrote on this in Berachot (7, 2), the first chapter of Avodah Zarah (9), and Shabbat (10, 2): What it says that Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran means that he left twice - after Hashem spoke with him he went down to Haran and spent 5 years there, and so in Seder Olam.

The Ralbag in Parshat Lech Lecha responded to the Seder Olam. In Bereishit Rabbah, Parshat Lech Lecha chapter 46, and Yalkut Kohelet it says Abraham was 85 years old. But in Yefat maintains the Seder Olam text. In Shir HaKallah 7, 2 it says he was 76 years old [(see 1948)]].

In his days, Hashem appeared to Abraham and said: "Have I not spoken to you these 20 years: Go from your land," etc., "and there I shall make you a great nation. Now arise, return to the land of Canaan." Abraham took Sarai his wife and all the members of his household and the souls they had made in Haran, and they left to go to the land of Canaan. Lot his brother's son went with him, and Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran.

He settled at Elonei Moreh, and Lot was with him, etc. [(Sefer HaYashar)]. The place of Elonei Moreh was divided into three parts where the three angels rested. In the middle was a wide stone where the angels ate. There was a pleasant tree with good fruits to eat, and nearby was Sarah's mikveh with good water in it.

There was Sarah's tent, and Sarah was beautiful, also Abraham's well had good water in it. From well to well was 100 cubits, and there was a wide stone about 12 cubits, and there was Abraham's salt. From that mountain they take sand to put in the circumcision wound of infants. There was Abraham's tent with five openings [(Beit Yisrael)].

Behind the mountain to the east toward Beit El was where Abraham pitched his tent [(Beit Yisrael there)]. Hashem appeared to him and said: "To your seed I give this land," etc., and he built an altar there.

In his days there was in the land of Shinar a wise man, intelligent in all wisdom and very handsome, but poor. He was a bad man whose name was Rekayon, and he was troubled about his livelihood. He decided to go to Egypt to Ashverus son of Anam king of Egypt to show the king his wisdom, perhaps he would find favor in his eyes to elevate him and give him his sustenance. When he came to Egypt, he asked about the king, and they told him that the custom of the king of Egypt was that he did not leave the king's palace and was not seen in the land except one day a year when he judged the land.

Everyone who had a matter for the king would come on that day, and afterward the king would return to his palace. When Rekayon heard that he could not come before the king, he was very distressed. In the evening he found an empty building among the Egyptian burial houses and slept there in bitterness of soul and hunger. He could not sleep from his eyes and spoke to his heart: "What shall I do in the city until I see the king's face?

How can I sustain myself in the city?" He rose in the morning and met vegetable sellers and asked them, and they told him that they sustain themselves with vegetables and seeds that they would buy and sell to the inhabitants of the land. He wanted to do likewise to sustain himself but did not know the ways of the people of the land. He was like a fool among them, and he took vegetables, and worthless men gathered around him and mocked him and snatched from him all the vegetables.

He went in bitterness of soul to the burial house and lay there on the second night. He took counsel in his wisdom what to do. He rose in the morning and went and hired 30 men, mighty warriors and worthless men, with their weapons of war, and brought them to the entrance of the Egyptian cemetery and stationed them there.

He commanded them, saying: "Thus says the king: Be strong and be men of valor, and do not allow any man to be buried here until they give 200 pieces of silver." They did so, and it was for eight months, and they gathered great wealth - silver and gold and precious stones and pearls without number. Rekayon took horses and donkeys in abundance and hired more men and gave them horses and they were with him.

It was at the end of the year, when the king went out to the city, all the inhabitants of Egypt gathered and said: "What is this thing that you do to your servants?" etc. "For the king's custom is to take tax from the living, and you also from the dead take," etc. "And the whole city is destroyed by this matter." When the king heard, he was very angry for he knew nothing of this matter. He said: "Who is this one?" etc.

He sent to bring Rekayon and his men. Rekayon took about a thousand children, boys and girls, and dressed them in fine silk and embroidery and put them on horses and sent them with his men. He also took a gift for the king - silver and gold and precious stones and pearls in abundance and a very great and fine horse - and came before the king and bowed to the king. The king was amazed, and his servants and all the inhabitants of Egypt, at Rekayon's deeds, etc.

The king asked him about all his deeds, and Rekayon spoke all his words wisely, and Rekayon found grace and favor in the eyes of the king and his servants and the inhabitants of Egypt, and they loved him greatly. The king said: "Your name shall no longer be called Rekayon, but Pharaoh shall be your name, because you collected tax from the dead," etc. They all consulted to make him king under the king, and they did so.

Rekayon Pharaoh reigned over Egypt the whole year to judge the city, and Ashverus the king would judge one day a year when he went out to be seen. Rekayon Pharaoh took the kingdom of Egypt by force and cunning, and they loved him and wrote a law to call every king who would reign over them and their seed in Egypt: Pharaoh [(Sefer HaYashar, Parshat Lech Lecha)].

And it was in that year, there was a severe famine in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went with all that he had to the land of Egypt. They sat by the river of Egypt for some days to rest from the journey. Abraham and Sarah walked on the bank of the river, and he looked at the water and saw Sarah his wife that she was very, very beautiful, etc. He took Sarah and put her in a box [(see Bereishit Rabbah)], and they opened the box by force, etc., and brought her before Pharaoh, and he gave gifts to all who told him of her, etc. [(In the piyyut of the first day of Passover, Sarah was taken to Pharaoh's house (Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer and Midrash Lech Lecha)]].

The king sent silver and gold and precious stones to Abraham and they brought Abraham, and he sat in the king's courtyard. The king honored Abraham greatly that night, etc. Abraham and Sarah prayed to Hashem, etc., "Save me now from the hand of the oppressor," and Hashem sent an angel to save Sarah, etc. Pharaoh took more sheep and cattle and servants and maidservants and silver and gold and gave them to Abraham and returned Sarah his wife to him.

The king took one maiden whom his concubine bore him and gave her to Sarah as a maidservant. The king said to his daughter: "It is better for you, my daughter, that you be a maidservant in this woman's house than be a mistress in my house." Abraham settled in the land of Canaan, etc. Lot also had much livestock, and he let them graze in others' fields, and they quarreled, etc. Lot went and settled in Sodom, etc., and Abraham settled at Elonei Moreh, which is in Hebron, for many days and years [(Sefer HaYashar).

In the Yuchsin it says the fifth time, 2 Pharaohs were in Abraham's days. His name was Tutis, and he died leaving a small son, and his mother the queen was called Turia, and she gave her maidservant Hagar to Sarah. In Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer and Yalkut, Hagar was Pharaoh's daughter].

At that time Chedorlaomer king of Elam sent to all the kings around him - to Nimrod king of Shinar who was under him, and to Tidal and Arioch - "Come up to me and help me, and we shall strike the cities of Sodom and their inhabitants, for they have rebelled against me for 12 years." These four kings went up with all their camps - 800,000 - and struck every person they found on their way. All the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah - five kings: Shinab king of Admah, Shemever king of Zeboiim, Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, and Bela king of Zoar - went out to meet them, and they all joined together with them in the Valley of Siddim.

The nine kings fought and all the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were defeated before the kings of Elam. The Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, etc. They plundered all the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and also Lot son of Abraham's brother and his possessions. Oni, Abraham's servant who was in that war, came and told Abraham.

Abraham took the men with him - 318 men - and pursued these kings that night. They all fell before Abraham and not one of them remained except the four kings alone who fled. Abraham returned all the possessions of Sodom, also Lot and the women and children - nothing was missing. When he returned from striking the kings and passed through the Valley of Siddim, Bera king of Sodom and his men who came out of the tar pits where they had fallen came out.

Also Adonizedek king of Jerusalem, he is Shem, came out with his men to meet Abraham with bread and wine, and they sat together in the King's Valley. Adonizedek blessed Abraham, and Abraham gave him a tithe of the spoil, for Adonizedek was a priest before God. The kings of Sodom begged him to give them the captives and take the possessions for himself. Abraham said: "As Hashem lives, I shall not take," etc.

He sent away the kings of Sodom, and they went with Lot to Sodom. Abraham returned to Elonei Moreh. At that time Hashem appeared to Abraham again in Hebron and said: "Do not fear, your reward is very great," etc. [(Sefer HaYashar). (In Shir HaKallah 8: And behold, arranged before you are Abraham's affairs and his years according to Seder Olam and the Midrashim. When he was born they sought to kill him because they saw in astrology that he would rule the world, and Hashem hid him in the earth for 12 years without seeing the luminaries.

Afterward he went out and was found in the building of the Tower of the generation of the Dispersion until he was 48 years old. At age 51 he began to recognize his Creator and speak in the Holy Tongue and despise idols, and this was 12 years before Noah's death. At age 60 he began to teach the public about the unity of God and was imprisoned for 12 years - 3 in Kutah and 7 in Kardiu, and some say 7 in Kutah and 3 in Kardiu.

He left at age 70. In that year was the matter of the idols and Nimrod threw him into the fiery furnace and he was saved, and he went to Haran to his father's house, for Terach left Ur Kasdim many years before this with all his household. In his opinion, he fled because at Abraham's birth his generation began to set their eyes on him because of Abraham's greatness. After his sons married women, he chose to go to Haran.

Abraham stayed at that time 5 years in his father's house, and then "Go forth" was said to him. And so it says "Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran." In that year was the famine and he went down to Egypt. Two months between this he sat at Elonei Mamre in Hebron, and immediately came the war of the kings. At age 76 came the vision of the Covenant Between the Parts.

He and Sarah his wife were passing through the land of Canaan converting men and women. He stayed in Hebron 25 years and gathered 27 (and in Beit Yisrael 57, 69 and Bereishit Rabbah end chapter 45, 26 years). After 10 years of dwelling in the land of Canaan, he took Hagar as a wife. At age 86 Ishmael was born to him, see above).

See how many confused matters there are here].

Aner [Eshkol and Mamre are Eliezer and Joseph and Joshua, and all three are called Naar. Chanoch was reincarnated in them in three ways (Yalkut Reuven, article Naar, 2, 4 and article Gilgulim). Aner is Chanoch, Eshkol is Eliezer. Caleb is Eshkol [(see year 2249)].

Mamre is Joseph (Bereishit Rabbah Vayera, Lech Lecha and article Gilgulim end of chapter 4). Mamre was reincarnated in Rachel Bilhah [(see year 2192)]. Malchizedek is Shem whose spark is in Aharon (Agan Sahar 1180). Amraphel is Nebuchadnezzar's spark (2083)].