Vol IV.2

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The Kingdom of the Children of Israel After Solomon, the Son of David [108. See I Kings 15:1-8. Rehoboam ruled 928-911 B.C., Abijah 911-908

B.C. For biblical chronology, see New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible,

168-175. ]

Returning to the story of the Children of Israel, after Solomon, the son of David, all the Israelites were ruled by his son Rehoboam. It is said that his reign lasted seventeen years, but it is reported the kingdom of the Israelites split after Rehoboam. Abijah b. Rehoboam ruled over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin but not over the other tribes; the rest of the tribes made Jeroboam their king he was the son of Nabat, a servant of Solomon. This occurred because of the sacrifice offered by Solomon's wife at his home  she had offered locusts to an

idol , [109. A scarab serving as a cult object?] whereupon God threatened (Solomon) that part of the kingdom would be taken away from his son. Rehoboam is reported to have reigned three more years before he died.

Then Asa b. Abijah reigned over the two tribes that his father had ruled over, that is, Judah and Benjamin, for forty-one years up to his death . [110 no. Asa ruled 908-867 B.C. See I Kings 15:9-24) 16:8-29; II Chronicles 14-16. ]

The Story of Asa b. Abijah and Zerah the Indian [111. See II Chronicles 14:8-1$. In biblical lore Zerah is an Ethiopian. Note the expression "from India to Ethiopia," a Hebrew expression derived from Esther 1:1 about far-away places. See also Ginzberg, Legends, II, 11 5; IV, 184. Here the Ethiopian has become an Indian. The Arabic text has Zarj for Zerah.]

According to Muhammed b. Sahl b. 'Askar Ismail b. 'Abd al- Karim  'Abd al-Samad b. Ma'qil  Wahb b. Munabbih : [1 12. Wahb b. Munabbih is the major authority in Islamic literature for biblical lore. His data are based primarily on biblical information, partly on postbiblical legends ( aggadah ) and partly on Islamic elaborations, sometimes with references to the Qur’an. His nephews Isma'Il b. 'Abd al-Karim and 'Abd al- Samad b. Ma'qil served as transmitters of his material. See R.G. Khoury, Wahb b. Munabbih, Wiesbaden, 1972. ] A king of the Israelites called Asa b. Abijah was a righteous man, and he was lame. (And at that time there) was an Indian king called Zerah  a corrupt tyrant  calling upon men to worship himself. (Now) Abijah [1 13. The text reads abiya } perhaps read abiyyan. See next note.] had been an idolworshiper. He had worshiped two idols, not God, and he called upon men to worship those two idols, thus misleading most of the Israelites. He continued to worship the idols until his death . [114. Earlier Abijah is portrayed as a righteous man. Moreover, this reference

to him as an idol-worshiper appears in a story concerning his son Asa and

Zerah the Indian. This may derive from a confusion of Abiyya ( = Abijah) with

abiyyan (scornful), a quality of Zerah. It was Abijah's son Asa who was in-

volved with Zerah.] Following that, his son Asa took over. When he became king over the Israelites, Asa sent a herald proclaiming:

There, unbelief is dead and so are the unbelievers; faith and the believers are alive. The idols and their worship are overturned, obedience to God and acts of faith reappear. As of today, no unbeliever shall raise his head among the Isra-

elites in unbelief in my land and reign, or else I shall slay him. For the flood came upon the world and its population, God made cities sink into the ground, brimstone and fire rained from heaven, only because obedience to God was

abandoned and disobedience was displayed. Therefore, it behooves us not to suffer any disobedience to God, nor spare any effort in obedience to God, until we have cleansed the earth from its impurity, and purged it from its pollution. We shall fight whoever opposes us therein by warfare and expulsion from our land.

When his people heard these words, they became resentful and clamorous. They went to the mother of King Asa, complaining of her son's action against them and their deities, and of his appeal to abandon their religion and embrace the worship of the Lord. She undertook to speak to him and deflect him to the worship of his father's idols. As the king was sitting with the nobles of his people, their leaders and chieftains, the king's mother entered. The king rose, and, giving her her due

and honoring her, he offered her his seat. She refused and said, "You are not my son unless you respond to my appeal, obey me in doing what I command you to do. If you obey me, you will do right and be happy; should you disobey me, you will forfeit your good fortune and wrong yourself. It has reached me, my son, that you have started your people on a stupendous affair; you have called upon them to violate their religion, reject their deities, and to turn away from their ancestors' religion. You set a new path for them, launching heresy among them. You claim

you sought thereby to enhance your dignity and position in order to strengthen your rule. But your step is a misstep and a disgrace. You provoke everybody to oppose you, and you set out single-handedly to fight them. You seek to enslave the free, and to turn the weak into strong support. Thereby you make the opinion of the learned appear foolish, you contradict the sages, and follow the fools. I swear, my son, it is only your great fickleness, youth, and lack of learning that urge you to act this way.

If you reject my words, and do not recognize that I am in the right, you are not of your father's progeny, and kingship is not for a man of your ilk. O my Son, what is it that you propose to your people? Have you been granted revelation in writing, like Moses when he went to Pharaoh whom he drowned, and thus saved his people from evil? [115. Exodus 14:21-31. ] Or have you perchance been granted strength like David, who killed the lion for his people, who followed the wolf and split its jawbone, and who slew, unaided, Goliath the giant? [116. 1 Samuel 17. ] Or have you been granted more of royalty and wisdom than Solomon the son of David — that head of sages whose wisdom has become proverbial even for generations to come? [1 17. Solomon's wisdom was a subject given considerable attention in the Islamic legends that were told about him. Note in particular his contact with Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba. ] O my Son, anything fortunate that comes to you makes me most happy; anything else makes me most distressed about your distress."

As the king heard her, his wrath and annoyance grew. He said to her, "O Mother, it does not behoove me to eat at one table with my friend and enemy; nor does it behoove me to worship any deity but my Lord. Now then, either you follow me,

and you will be on the right path, or you desist, and you will be misguided. You must worship God and renounce any other deity. Whosoever rejects this, is but an enemy of God. I lead to God's triumph for I am His servitor."

She said to him, "I shall not relinquish my idols nor the religion of my ancestors and people. I shall not abandon them for your tenet nor shall I worship the Lord you invoke." The king replied, "O Mother, this speech of yours severs the relations between us."

Then, upon the king's command they took her away and banished her. He further ordered the head of his guard and court to put her to death should she so much as question his position. When the tribes around him heard this, they felt out maneuvered and overawed, and they submitted to him. They said, "If this is how he treats his mother, how would he treat us if we should oppose his order, and not respond to his religion?" They tried all manner of evasion, but God sustained him, and crushed their cunning. Discontented and unwilling to give up their religion, they conspired to escape from his country and settle elsewhere.

They set out for Zerah, the king of India, seeking to incite him against Asa and his followers. When they came before Zerah, they prostrated themselves. He said to them, "Who are you?" They said, "We are your slaves." Said he, "Which slaves

of mine are you?" They said, "We are from your country, Palestine (al-Sha'm). We are admirers of your reign. A youthful king, tender of age and foolish, appeared among us, changed our religion and declared our view foolish and our fathers unbelievers.

He disregarded our resentment) therefore, we came to you to advise you of this. You will be worthier to rule our land of which we are the leaders. It is a land of much wealth, a weak population, and easy living; (a land of) much beauty, with the treasures and assets of the thirty kings defeated by Joshua the son of Nun, the successor ( Khalifah ) [118. Note the use of khalifah, which used in the same way denotes caliph, that is, the successor to Muhammad the Prophet.] of Moses who led his people through the sea. [119. Joshua defeated thirty-one kings in his conquest of Canaan. See Joshua 12, especially the last verse. ] We and our land are yours, our country is your country. Nobody in it will oppose you. The people stretch out their hands to you, pleading peacefully for their lives and possessions."

Zerah said to them, "By my life, I shall not respond to your appeal, nor shall I respond to a call to combat a people who are perhaps more compliant than you, until I have sent to them trusted agents from among my people. If what you tell me is true, it will accrue to your advantage, and I shall make you rulers over the land; if, however, it proves to be false, I shall punish you for having lied to me." The men said, "You have spoken justly, and your verdict is fair) we are pleased with it." Zerah gave orders for their maintenance, and they were given pay. He selected from among his people trusted agents to be sent as spies. He threatened them with severe chastisement for false reports but promised to reward them if they reported truthfully. Zerah said to them, "I am dispatching you because

of your loyalty, your religious strictness, and your good reputation, in order to inspect one of my lands. Report to me about its people, its ruler, the numbers of its armies, the quantity of its waters, the paths and roads, the points of entrance and departure, and its weaknesses and strengths. Report this so that I might, as it were, see it with my own eyes and know it as if I were there in person. Take along from the treasuries some sapphires and pearls and raiment that might appeal to the people, and induce them to purchase the goods from you."

He opened his treasures to equip them for travel on land and by sea. He described the people whom they might encounter and who would show them how to proceed. They set out as merchants, and reaching the coast they boarded a ship and arrived at the coast of Jerusalem (Iliya). [120. After Aelia Capitolina, the name given the city by the Romans after the Barkochba revolt in A.D. 135.] Then they went on until they entered Jerusalem. Depositing their baggage there, they displayed their wares and goods, inviting the people to buy from them, but the people were not eager for the goods and trade was slack. They began to sell much at low prices, lest they be expelled from the city before they could leam of its affairs and obtain the data that their king had instructed them to seek.

Now King Asa had warned the women of the Children of Israel that an unmarried woman should not appear in the garb of a married woman, lest she be put to death or exiled to some island in the seas. Woman is the strongest snare used by the

devil to confuse the pious. Unmarried women were to go out only (if they were) veiled and in shabby clothes, and thus unrecognizable.

As these spies were selling their goods, accepting one dirham for what was worth a hundred, the women of the Children of Israel began buying covertly. They bought at night and in secret, so that none of the pious men would notice them. The spies sold all their goods and obtained in turn what they were looking for. They accumulated data about the city, its fortresses, and the water supply. But they had concealed their main wares, their best pearls, corals and sapphires, as a gift for the king. From people they encountered in the city they began to inquire about the king who had bought nothing from them.

They said, "How is it that the king has bought nothing from us? If he is rich, we have wondrous goods to supply him with, whatever he wants, the like of which has never entered his treasuries; if he is poor, what prevents him from visiting us, so that we might give him whatever he desires without any payment?" The men from the city who visited them said, "His wealth, treasures, and various possessions are immeasurable. He took over the treasures which Moses had carried out of Egypt, and the jewels the Israelites had brought. [121. The allusion is to Exodus 12:36. ] He also took over what Joshua the son of Nun, the successor to Moses, had accumulated, and the great wealth and inestimable vessels that Solomon, the head of the sages and kings, had assembled."

The spies inquired, "How is he at warfare? What is his strength? What about his troops? Suppose, some king attacked and invaded his realm, how would he fight him? What is the king's equipment, the number of his troops? How many cavalry and horses are at his disposal? Or is it that his great treasures inspire people with awe for him?" The people replied, "King Asa's equipment and resources are poor but he has a friend who, if called upon to help move mountains, would do so. As long as the friend is with him, nothing can overcome him." Then the spies asked, "Who is Asa's friend? How numerous are his troops? How can he be confronted? How does he fight? How many soldiers and chariots does he have? Where is

his base and home?" At this, the people answered, "His abode is above heaven, he is upright on his throne, his troops are innumerable, and all creation is at his service. Should he command the sea, it would deluge the land; should he command the rivers, they would dry up. He is not visible and his base is

not known. Such is Asa's friend and helper."

The spies began to record everything they had been told about Asa. Some of these spies came before Asa and said, "O King! We have a gift we should like to offer you from among the curiosities of our land, or you might wish to purchase it

from us, and we would sell it cheaply." He said to them, "Bring it so that I might look at it." When they brought it to him, he said, "Will this remain forever with the owners, and they with  it?" They answered, "No, this will wane, and so will its owners," whereupon he replied, "I have no need of it; what I am seeking is something whose splendor remains with the owners, unabated, and whose owners will remain with it."

He returned their gift, and they left him. They traveled from Jerusalem [ Bayt al-Maqdis ] [122. Bayt al-Maqdis is the Arabic equivalent of Hebrew bet hammiqdash, that is, "the sanctuary, the temple," and more generally "the holy city." Jerusalem is more commonly called al-Quds in Arabic, based on the Hebrew 7r haqqodesh, "the holy city." ] toward their king, Zerah the Indian. Upon arriving, they unrolled the report before him and informed him of what they had learned about King Asa and his friend. Zerah adjured them by his power, and by the sun and the moon which they worshiped and prayed to, not to conceal from him what they had seen among the Israelites. They gave a truthful account. When they had completed their report of Asa and his friend, Zerah said to them, "The Israelites, suspecting that you were spies inquiring about their weakness, mentioned Asa's friend. They lied. They wanted to terrify you. Asa's friend cannot muster an army larger than mine, nor better equipped, nor one with stouter hearts or more valor in battle than mine. If he came against me with thousands , [123. The text reads alf, "thousand"; perhaps read alf alf, "million". ] my forces would easily surpass his."

Zerah then urged every province under his rule to send a fully equipped army. He sought the support of Gog and Magog , [124. Gog and Magog represent the names of obscure and distant peoples of great might. See Genesis 10:2; Ezekiel 28:2; 39:6. Tradition connected them with eschatological events. Note Qur’an i8:92ff. ; 21:96 which mentions Yajuj and Majuj, connecting them with the wall that Alexander erected against invaders. See SEI, s.v. Yadjudj wa-Madjudj.] and the Turks and Persians, and the rest of the subject nations. He wrote:

From Zerah, the mighty Indian, King of the lands, to whomever my messages reach, I have a land whose crop is drawing close, whose fruit is ripe, and I should like you to send me workers upon whom I shall bestow whatever they reap. This land is distant from me, and its people seized some fringes of my land and subdued my subjects who came under their rule. I leave their fate in the hands

of those who rise along with me to fight them; if your strength fails, I shall be your strength; and my treasuries are inexhaustible.

They rallied to him from every direction, supporting him with cavalry, men, and equipment. When they assembled, he supplied them from his stores with arms and implements, and ordered a count of their number and a review. Their number

reached 1,100,000, apart from his own countrymen. He ordered a hundred ships. Mules were hitched, four in a set, carrying a couch and tent, in each tent a slave girl. In each ship were ten servants and five of his elephants. Each of the armies had a hundred thousand men. The retinue which rode with him consisted of a hundred commanders. In each army, he placed experts whom he addressed and spurred on to battle. As he observed them and rode with them, his prestige rose greatly in the hearts of those present.

Then he said, “Where is the friend of Asa? Can he protect Asa from me? Who can defeat me? If Asa and his friend but looked at me and my army, they would not dare fight me. For against each of his soldiers, I have one thousand. For sure, Asa will enter my country as a prisoner, and I shall lead his captive people amidst my troops."

Zerah began to disparage Asa and talk about him abusively. Asa now learned of Zerah's activities and preparations for war. He prayed to God saying:

Oh God, you have created in your power heaven and earth and all those in them, all under Your control. You are of tender patience and mighty wrath. I ask of You not to remember our sins toward You, nor chastise us for disobeying You, but to remember us in your mercy which you did apply to creatures. See our weakness and the strength of our enemy; see how few we are and how numerous is our enemy; see the straights and trouble we are in, and the joy and satisfaction of our enemy. Drown Zerah and his hosts in the sea with the might with which you

plunged Pharaoh and his hosts into the sea while saving Moses and his people. I ask You to surprise Zerah and his men with a sudden chastisement.

Asa had a dream in which God announced to him:

Know that I have heard your word; your supplication has reached My Throne. If I drowned Zerah the Indian and his people, the Children of Israel would not know of it, nor would anybody else. But I shall display to you and to those who follow you My power against Zerah and his people. I shall save you from this trouble and grant you their booty, and I shall place their troops in your hands, so that your enemies may learn that the protege of 'the friend of Asa' is invincible; his army will not be put to flight nor will the friend's devotee be frustrated. I shall bide My time until he completes his scheme, then I shall lead him to you as a slave, and his troops will be chattels for you and your people.

Zerah and those with him set forth, then camped on the coast of Tarshish. [125. Tarshish is a biblical coastland outside of Palestine. In this text Palestine is called al-Sham, which is the term for Syria, as the area from Iraq to Egypt. ] Within a day the rivers dried up; the meadows turned barren; the people were harassed by the birds and could not escape the beasts. They proceeded, and when

they were two days' journey from Jerusalem, Zerah dispatched some of his troops to the city. The countryside, mountains and plains were replete with the enemy. The people of Palestine were filled with terror, and feared destruction.

King Asa heard about the enemy; he sent a vanguard of his people toward them, and ordered the vanguard to inform him about the number and array of the troops. The men sent by Asa set out and saw the troops from the top of a hill. Then they returned to Asa, informing him that human eyes had not seen nor had human ears heard anything like it; what with their elephants and horses and horsemen, "We would not have believed that there are such numbers of men and equipment. Our minds did not suffice to count them. We would not know how to fight them, and we lost hope." The city's people heard about it, rent their garments, covered their heads with dust, lamented in the alleys and marketplaces, and began to bid each other farewell.

They then came to the king and said, "We are all going out to those people; we shall stretch out our hands to them, and perchance they will pity us and permit us to remain in our country."

King Asa said to them, "God forbid (that we) surrender to the unbelievers, abandon the House of God and His scripture to the wicked!" They said, "Then find us a ruse; ask your friend and Lord, Whose help you used to promise us, and in the belief in Whom you used to call us to rally. If He rids us of this calamity, well and good. Otherwise, we shall submit to our enemy; perhaps this will save us from massacre."

Asa replied, "My Lord is invincible and can be moved only by supplication, chastity, and humbleness." The people then said, "Then turn to Him. Maybe He will respond to you and have pity on our weakness. A friend will not abandon his

friend in such a position."

Asa went into the prayer chamber, took the crown off his head, changed his robes for sackcloth, and sprawled in the dust. With a heavy heart he stretched out his hand calling upon the Lord. In supplication and profusion of tears, he said:

Oh God, Lord of the seven heavens, Lord of the mighty throne, the God of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob and his sons. You are concealed from Your creation when it pleases You. Your abode is unknown, and the depth of

Your might is inscrutable. You are the waking one who sleeps not; the ever-alert whom days and nights will not weary. I ask of You what Your friend Abraham asked of You when, to rescue him, the fire was extinguished. [126. Qur’an 4:12: "And God took Ibrahim |Abrahamj lor a friend |/dwlil|." Hebron, where the patriarchs are reportedly buried, is called in Arabic al- Khalil. Abraham was saved from the fire into which his heathen compatriots had thrown him. See Qur’an 37 :97ff> 11:68-70; 29-24. Also El 1 , s.v. al-Khalil; Ginzberg, Legends, I, 176, 202ff. ( 206, n6ff. See also Speyer, Erzahlungen, 142-144. ]

You brought the righteous to join him in the fire. I pray to You with the prayer that Your confidant Moses offered, when You saved the Children of Israel from evil and thereby liberated them from slavery, leading them across the sea to land, while drowning Pharaoh and those who followed him. I implore You as did David whom You raised and granted strength after weakness, giving him victory over Goliath, the giant whom You put to flight. It is a request like that of Solomon Your prophet, whom You endowed with wisdom, and to whom You granted high rank, and sovereignty over all living beings. You revive the dead and destroy the world, remaining alone in eternity, indestructible. Oh, my God, I beseech You, have pity on me. Respond to my prayer. For I am wretched, lame, one of

Your weakest worshipers, with the least notion of what to do. Yet a great trouble and grave danger has befallen us, and only You are able to remove it. We have no strength or power but in You. Please, then, have pity on our weakness.

For You pity whomever pleases You, however it pleases You.

Outside, the learned among the Israelites began to pray to God:

Oh God, respond today to Your servitor for he takes refuge in You alone; do not abandon him to Your enemy. Remember his love for You, how he separated himself from his mother and all people, except those obedient to You.

While Asa was in his prayer chamber prostrated, God made him fall asleep, and then, they say, a divine messenger came to him saying:

Oh Asa, a friend will not abandon his friend. God says, "I extend my love to you; my aid to you is forthcoming. It is I who shall rid you of your enemy; for he who trusts in Me shall not be humiliated, nor will he who takes courage in Me prove weak. You remembered Me amidst prosperity, and I shall keep you safe amidst adversity. You prayed to Me in trust; I shall keep you safe while you are afraid." Al- mighty God says, "I swear that even if heaven and earth with everything in them should turn against you, I shall secure for thee a way of escape. It is I who shall send some of My tormentors [zabaniyati ] [127. These are mentioned in Qur’an 96:18. ] to slay My foes. I am with you, and none shall come near you and those with you."

Asa, his face aglow, and thanking God, left his prayer chamber. He told the people what he had heard. The believers gave credence to his words but the hypocrites considered these words lies, and said to one another, "Asa walked in lame, and lame did he walk out. Had he told us the truth and had God responded to him, his leg would be sound; but he is beguiling us and wants us to indulge in hope until war starts and he can destroy us."

As the king was telling them of God's act for their sake, the messengers arrive from Zerah. They entered Jerusalem with messages from Zerah to Asa that were replete with abuse against Asa and his people, and with the denial of God. Zerah

wrote in them, "Call on your friend, with talk of whom you have misled your people. Let him challenge me with his troops, and let him appear to me; though I know that neither he nor anybody else can prevail over me, for I am King Zerah

the Indian."

When Asa read the messages delivered to him, tears welled up in his eyes. He entered the prayer-chamber, and spread those messages before God, and said:

O God, nothing is more desirable to me than to stand before Thee, but I fear lest this light which Thou hast shown in these, my days, should peter out. These messages have arrived, and Thou knowest their contents. If I were their but, that would be a slight matter; but Thy slave Zerah turns against Thee, insults Thee, speaks vaingloriously and falsely, and Thou art witness thereto.

Then, they say God revealed to Asa:

There is no change in My words, no variation in My promise, no alteration in My command. Therefore go out of thy prayer-chamber, order thy troops to rally, and lead them and those who follow thee until you reach an elevated piece of ground.

Asa came out and related what he had been told, and twelve chieftains, each with his unit, set out. As they were departing they took leave of their families, intimating that they would not return alive. They stood on a hill opposite Zerah, and from there they saw Zerah and his people. When Zerah saw them, he shook his head jeeringly and said, "For fellows like these I came from my country and spent my money?" He then summoned those who had described Asa and his people to him, and exclaimed, "You have deceived me. You asserted that your

people are numerous." He then ordered that they and the spies whom he had sent to obtain information all be put to death.

Meanwhile Asa was imploring God, taking refuge in Him.

Zerah said, "I do not know what to do with these people, nor how few of them there are against us. I consider them too few for warfare, and I think I shall not fight them."

Zerah sent a message to Asa, "Where is your friend whom you were threatening us with and who, you claimed, would save you from my blows? Will you surrender, so that I can carry out my judgment upon you? Or do you seek to fight me?"

Asa's reply was, "O wretch, you neither know nor grasp what you are saying. Do you wish to wrestle with your Lord, to outnumber Him? He is the strongest, greatest, most powerful and forceful, and His creatures are too humble and weak to actually see Him. He is with me here and no one who is with God shall

be defeated. Exert yourself to the utmost, oh wretch, until you have learned what is to befall you."

When Zerah's men lined up, and took their positions, Zerah commanded his archers to shoot. But God sent His angels from every heaven, they say and God knows best to help and aid Asa and his people. Asa had them retain their positions. When the enemy shot their arrows the unbelievers kept the sunlight

from the earth, as if a cloud were rising. The angels diverted it from Asa and his people. Then the angels struck the people of Zerah with the cloud of arrows, and each man was hit by his own arrow, with the result that the archers were all slain. During that time, Asa and his people were praying to God and loudly extolling Him, and they say the angels became visible. When the wretch Zerah saw them, he was seized with terror and bewilderment, and exclaimed, "Great is Asa's cunning, superb his sorcery. Such are the Israelites, unsurpassed, unmatched in cunning. They learned it from the Egyptians; that is how they crossed the sea."

The Indian called out among his people, "Unsheath your swords, attack them, crush them." They pulled out their swords, attacked the angels, and the angels slew them and none of the humans remained except Zerah with his women and slaves. At the sight of this, Zerah took to flight with his retinue, exclaiming, "Asa is victorious overtly, and his friend has destroyed me covertly. I was looking at Asa and those who were standing with him and not fighting, while the battle was

taking its toll of my people."

When Asa saw that Zerah was fleeing, he exclaimed, "Oh God, Zerah is fleeing, and if You do not separate us, he will again rally his people against us." But God revealed to Asa, "You have not slain them; I have slain them. Now remain in

your place. If I were to leave it to the two of you, they would slay you all. Rather, let Zerah squirm in My palm. None will help save him from Me ; he has no escape. I grant as a gift to you and your people his encampments, with their silver, valuables, and animals. This is the reward for your adherence to Me, and I seek no reward for aiding you."

Zerah reached the sea intent on flight. One hundred thousand people were with him. They prepared their ships and boarded them, but at sea God sent winds upon them from every direction of land and sea, and the waves were stormy. The ships struck one another and were smashed while Zerah and his men drowned. The waves were so stormy that the people of the surrounding towns were in terror; the earth trembled. Asa sent men to find out what had happened. But God revealed to him, they say  and God knows best Come down, you and your people, and the people of your towns to pick up the booty that God has bestowed upon you by His power. Be grateful for it. I allow every man to take from these camps whatever he chooses." They rushed down praising and hallowing God. They say and God knows best that for three months they carried that booty to their towns.

After Asa, his son Jehoshafat reigned for twenty-five years, until his death. After that reigned Athaliah  she is also known as Ghazaliah the daughter of Omri, and mother of Ahaziah. She had slain the sons of the kings of the Children of Israel; only Joash, the son of Ahaziah, was hidden from her.

Joash and his men slew her. Her reign lasted seven years. Then Joash b. Ahaziah reigned until his men killed him, the man who had slain his grandmother. His reign lasted forty years.

Then Amaziah b. Joash reigned for twenty-nine years until he was slain by his men. After that Uzziah (also called Ghuzziah) b. Amaziah reigned for fifty-two years until his death. Then Jotham b. Uzziah reigned for sixteen years until he died. Then Ahaz b. Jotham b. Uzziah reigned for sixteen years until his death. After that Hezekiah b. Ahaz reigned until his death.

They say he was a friend of Isaiah, and that Isaiah had announced to him the end of his lifetime. But he implored the Lord, and God added to Hezekiah's lifetime, granting him a respite, and instructed Isaiah to inform him thereof. But Muhammad b. Ishaq maintained that the friend of Isaiah to whom this story refers was called Zedekiah. [128. The chronology of these reigns is as follows: Asa in Judea, 913-873 B. C. or 910-869 B. C.; Uzziah, 783-742 B.C. or 767-739 B.C.; Hezekiah, 715-687 B.C. ; Zedekiah, who ruled from 598-587 B.C., is misplaced here. Isaiah's activity falls into the period between Uzziah and Hezekiah. Hezekiah's illness, imminent death, and the grant of fifteen years of life beyond this moment is announced by Isaiah. See II Kings 20:1-11; Isaiah 38. ]

*

The Story of Isaiah's Friend; the Kings of the Children of Israel

and Sennacherib

According to Ibn Humayd  Salamah b. al-Fadl  Ibn Ishaq: In the divine scripture revealed to Moses, in the account of the Israelites and of what they were going to do after him, it is said , [129. Qur’an 17:4-8. ] "And We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Book, 'You shall do corruption in the earth twice, and you shall ascend exceedingly high' . . . and We have made Gehenna a prison for the unbelievers." So there were the Israelites with their history and sins, and God was letting them go unpunished, out of compassion for them, favoring them. Then God brought (punishment) upon them for their sin, as He had warned them in the Mosaic text. The first of these incidents concerned one of their kings called Zedekiah. When he ascended the throne, God had sent a prophet to instruct and direct him, thus making the prophet an intermediary between the king and God. God thus spoke to Zedekiah about the Israelites, not by books revealed, but rather by commanding them to follow the Torah and its stipulations, and by deterring them from disobedience, as well as by calling upon them to return to obedience. When this king began to reign, God sent to him Isaiah the son of Amoz. That was before the time of, Zechariah, and John the Baptist. [130. The prophet Zechariah is confused here with the New Testament figure who is the father of John the Baptist | Yahya b. Zakariyya). See Luke 1:5,11-13, 59 ff. ] It was Isaiah who announced the advent of Isa and Muhammad. The king reigned over the Children of Israel and Jerusalem for some time. But as his reign was coming to a close, grave events took place while Isaiah was with the king. God sent against them Sennacherib, king of Babylon, with six hundred thousand men, [131. Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah in 701 B.C. See II Kings 18:13, 19-36; Isaiah 36-37. ] and he advanced until he reached the environs of Jerusalem.

The Israelite king was suffering from a rash on his leg. The prophet Isaiah came to him and said, "O King of the Children of Israel, Sennacherib, king of Babylon, has arrived with six hundred thousand of his forces. The people are terrified and

fleeing before them." This depressed the king, who said, "O Prophet of God, do you have a divine revelation for us about what has happened. How will God treat us and Sennacherib and his forces?" The prophet then replied, "No revelation has

come to me about you." Just then God revealed to the prophet Isaiah, "Go to the king of the Children of Israel, and command him to prepare his testament and to appoint whomever he desires from among the members of his house to succeed him."

The prophet Isaiah then came to the king of the Children of Israel, Zedekiah, and said to him, "The Lord has revealed to me that I should command you to prepare your testament and to appoint whomever you desire of your family as your successor, for you shall die."

As Isaiah said this to Zedekiah, the king turned to the sanctuary and prayed. He praised God and called upon him, weeping and imploring amidst tears, his heart sincere and full of reliance upon God, with endurance and a clear conscience, "Oh

God, Lord supreme, God supreme most holy, compassionate, merciful and gracious, whom no slumber or sleep affects! Remember my acts and deeds, and my good rule over the Children of Israel. All that was from You, and You know it

than I myself, for both my conscience and my manifest behavior are open to You." God responded to him for he was a pious worshiper. God inspired Isaiah to inform King Zedekiah that his prayer had been heard, and that God was merciful, "God saw your tears. He has postponed your death by fifteen years and shall deliver you from your enemy, King Sennacherib of Babylon and his hosts."

Upon hearing this the king was relieved of pain, suffering and grief. He prostrated himself and said, "O my God and God of my fathers, You have I worshiped, praised, honored and glorified. You grant kingship to whomever You desire, and

withdraw it whenever it pleases You. You exalt or humble whomever it pleases You. You know the concealed and the manifest. You are the first and the last, Master of the innermost and of the manifest. You have mercy, and answer the

prayer of those in straits. You responded to my prayer, and pitied me when I implored You."

As he raised his head, God instructed Isaiah, "Tell King Zedekiah to command one of his servitors to bring him a piece of the fig and let the king apply it to his rash, and he will be healed. By morning, he will have recovered." The king did accordingly, and was healed. He then said to Isaiah the prophet, "Ask the Lord to give us a sign of what He is going to do to our enemy." God said to the prophet Isaiah, "Tell him, I shall dispose of your enemy and save you from them. They will all be dead by morning except for Sennacherib and five of his scribes."

When they awoke in the morning, a herald came to the king, and announced at the gate of the city, "O King of the Children of Israel, God has disposed of your enemy. Come forth, for Sennacherib and his host have perished." When the king went forth to look for Sennacherib, he was not found among the dead. The king then dispatched men to search for him, and he was found in a cave with five of his scribes, one of whom was Nebuchadnezzar. They were paraded in public places, and then were brought before the king of the Israelites, who, upon seeing them, prostrated himself from sunrise till afternoon. Then he said to Sennacherib, "What do you think of the act of our Lord concerning you? Has He not slain your host with His power while both we and you were unaware?" Sennacherib replied, "I

had heard, even before I left my country, of your Lord and His aid to you as well as His mercy upon you. But I did not obey the right counsel. It is only my foolishness that plunged me into this misery. Had I listened or been reasonable, I would not have attacked you. But misery struck me and my men." The king of

the Children of Israel exclaimed, "Praise God, the mighty Lord whom it pleased to save us from you. Our Lord left you and those with you alive, not in order to honor you but to confront you with increased misery in this world, and chastisement in the world to come; also to have you tell those whom you left at

home what you have seen of the act of our Lord, and to warn those who will come after you. Were it not for that. He would not have preserved you. Your blood and that of those with you is worth less before God than the blood of a tick, should I happen to kill one."

Then the king of the Children of Israel ordered the chief of his guard to parade them before the populace, and for seventy days he paraded them in Jerusalem, while feeding them two loaves of barley bread per man daily. Sennacherib said to the king, "Death is better than what you are doing to us. But do what you were ordered to do." The king gave orders to place them in the death-chamber, but God revealed to Isaiah, "Tell the king to send Sennacherib and his men away, in order to warn their people; let the king honor them and transport them until they have reached their country. The prophet Isaiah informed the king thereof. So Sennacherib and those with him departed for Babylon. When they arrived, he assembled the people and informed them of what God had wrought with his

troops. His sorcerers and soothsayers told him, "O King of Babylon, we used to tell you about their Lord and their prophet, and the divine revelations to their prophet, but you did not listen to us. They are an invincible people, because of their Lord."

The story of Sennacherib frightened them. But God spared them, and it turned into a warning and an admonition. Sennacherib lived seven years thereafter.

Some scholars from among the People of the Book assert that this king of the Israelites attacked by Sennacherib was lame as a result of sciatica, and that Sennacherib coveted his realm because Zedekiah was chronically ill and weak, and that another king of Babylon had set out against him, one Lifar by name.

Nebuchadnezzar, the son of his uncle, was his scribe. [132. For the legends connected with the story of Sennacherib see Ginzberg, Legends, VI, 267-270, 300-301; VI, 362-365. Here Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar are related and take part in the invasion of ludah, thus connecting the invasion of 701 B.C. and the fall of Jerusalem over a century later. ] God sent upon him a wind that destroyed his army while he and his scribe escaped, and Lifar was slain by his own son; but Nebuchadnezzar in his fury about his master's death slew the son, the parricide. Sennacherib later set out against Zedekiah. Sennacherib dwelled then in Nineveh with the current king of Adharbayjan  he was called Salman the Left-handed. Sennacherib and Salman clashed and fought until their armies annihilated one another, so that whatever they possessed became

the booty of the Children of Israel.

Some say, that the one who attacked Hezekiah, the friend of Isaiah, was Sennacherib, the king of Mosul, and that when he surrounded Jerusalem with his armies, God sent an angel to kill 185,000 of Sennacherib's men in one night.

Hezekiah's reign lasted twenty-nine years. It is said that he was succeeded by Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, who ruled for fifty-five years. Amon, his son, succeeded him for twelve years but was slain by his courtiers. After him, his son Josiah ruled for thirty-one years. He was slain by the pharaoh of Egypt, the mutilated cripple. [133. For the Pharaoh Necho, see II Kings 23:29; also Ginzberg, Legends , IV, 160; X, 297 n.71. The name of the pharaoh is construed as a derivative of the root NKY which means "to injure" or "to cripple" in both Hebrew and Arabic. The ancient Syriac Bible and the Targum make use of this etymology. ] Josiah 's son Jehoahaz succeeded him. Raided by the mutilated pharaoh who captured him, he was carried off to Egypt. The pharaoh made Jehoahaz's son, Jehoiakim, king over his father's domain and imposed upon him, so they assert, a tribute to be paid to the pharaoh for twelve years. They further assert that Jehoiakim exacted the money from the Israelites to pay the pharaoh.

Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, ruled after him. After a reign of three months he was attacked by Nebuchadnezzar, who captured him and carried him off to Babylon. His uncle Mattaniah was made king in his stead and was named Zedekiah. He rebelled but Nebuchadnezzar defeated him, bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon after slaying Zedekiah's son before his eyes. He then tore out Zedekiah's eyes, and destroyed the city and the temple. Nebuchadnezzar led the Israelites into captivity in Babylon where they remained until

Cyrus, the son of Jamasb, the son of Asb, returned them to Jerusalem because of the relationship that existed between them. For his mother was Esther, the daughter of the Jew Abihail. The reign of Zedekiah, including the three months of

Jehoiachin's reign, lasted, it is said, eleven years and three months. After that the kingdom of Jerusalem and Palestine became the possession of Ushtasb b. Lahrasib, and Nebuchadnezzar was his governor over all that land.

According to Ibn Humayd Muhammad b. Ishaq Salamah: [134. The Ibn Humayd tradition may go back to the lost Qur’an commentary of Ibn Jubayr (d. 95 A.H./713/4). See GAS, I, 28ff.] When Zedekiah, the aforementioned king of the Jews, passed away, the affairs of the Jews became confused.

There was rivalry for the kingship. They killed one another to attain it, and though their prophet Isaiah was among them, they did not turn to him nor did they listen to him. We heard that because they acted in this way, God said to Isaiah, "Rise

among thy people, let me send a revelation through you."

When he rose, God inspired him. The prophet admonished them and filled them with fear about the vicissitudes of fate; he enumerated God's favors and fate's vicissitudes. As Isaiah finished his speech, they turned upon him to kill him, but the prophet fled from them. A tree that he passed split open, and he entered it. But Satan caught him and seized a fringe of his garment, which he showed to the pursuers. They set a saw across the middle of the tree and sawed through it, and Isaiah was sawn in half. [135. On the martyrdom of Isaiah, see Ginzberg, Legends, IV, 279-, VI, 371, 374ff. It may be noted that the legend concerning Isaiah's death is similar to that told of the Iranian Yima (Jamshed). For a discussion of this similarity see Christensen, Premier homme, II, 73ft.]

Muhammad b. Sahl al-Bukharl also told me the story of Isaiah and his people, the Children of Israel, and of his death at their hands. He said: We were told by Isma'il b. 'Abd al-Karim Samad b. Ma'qil — Wahb b. Munabbih.

The Account of Luhrasb and His Son Bishtasb; the Expedition of Nebuchadnezzar Against the Israelites and How He Destroyed Jerusalem [136. In this conception the legendary kings of Persia succeeded one another

as supreme rulers throughout the ancient Near East. Nebuchadnezzar is, there-

fore, merely a governor serving them. His geographical domain is limited to

west of the Tigris. See Ezra 7:21; Nehemiah 2:9. The name Nebuchadnezzar it-

self, as it is given in the Arabic sources, has a Persianized form. It is consis-

tently written Bukht-Nas(s)ar, where the first part is identical to the Persian

word meaning "saved".]

After Kaykhusraw, the Persians were ruled by Luhrasb, son of KayujI b. Kaymanush b. Kayfashin, who was selected by Kaykhusraw. When the crown was set upon his head, he said, "We prize piety above all." He sat on a gold throne, adorned with all kinds of jewels. By his order the city of Balkh was built for him in Khurasan, and he named it "The Beautiful." He introduced government agencies, strengthened his reign with a select guard, cultivated the land, levied taxes to support the troops, and sent Nebuchadnezzar, whose Persian name was Bukhtrashah , [137. The text reads Bukhtrashah, perhaps read Bukhtrasha. It is not clear what the second element was deemed to denote in either Bukht-Nas(s)ar (the Arabic-Persian form of Nebuchadnezzar) or Bukht-Rasah (if the reading of the latter name is correct).] so it was said, against the Israelites.

I was told on the authority of Hisham b. Muhammad: Luhrasb, the nephew of Qabus, [138. This form of the name is a corruption of Kay-Us. See Justi, Iran Nb, 334, s.v. Usan, and above, n. 1. ] became king and built the city of Balkh. Since at that time the power of the Turks was growing, he dwelt in Balkh fighting the Turks. Nebuchadnezzar was his contemporary and was the commander (isbahbadh) over the area between al-Ahwaz and Western Asia (Ard al-Rum) to the west of the Tigris. He personally concluded the peace with the people of Damascus, and he sent one of his officers to Jerusalem. The latter concluded a peace treaty with the king of the Israelites, a man of David's progeny. The officer took hostages and departed. But by the time he reached Tiberias, the Israelites attacked their king and slew him, saying, "You gave hostages to the Babylonians and humiliated us." They then prepared to fight. Nebuchadnezzar's officer reported to him what had happened, and he was instructed to stay on until Nebuchadnezzar's arrival and to behead the hostages he was holding. Nebuchadnezzar then set out for Jerusalem, took the city by force of arms, slew the fighting men, and took the children captive.

We received word that he found the prohet Jeremiah in the Israelite prison. God had sent him as a prophet to warn the Children of Israel of what Nebuchadnezzar was to bring upon them, and to tell them that unless they repented and gave up

their evil deeds, God would visit upon them the power that would slay their fighting men and capture their children. Nebuchadenzzar said to Jeremiah, "What is it you want?" Jeremiah then told him that God had sent him to warn the Israelites of what was to befall them, but they did not believe it and imprisoned him. Nebuchadnezzar said, "Wretched people, they defied their Lord's messenger." He released Jeremiah and treated him well. The residue of the unfortunate Israelites gathered around the prophet and said, "We were wrong and

wicked, but we are repenting before God the evil we have

An Account of Luhrasb

45

perpetrated. Pray to God to accept our repentance." He prayed,

and the Lord revealed to him that they were not sincere saying,

"If they are [sincere] let them stay with you in this city." Jeremiah told them of the divine command, but they said, "How [647]

shall we stay on in a town that was destroyed and whose

people have aroused divine wrath?" They refused to remain

there. 139 Nebuchadnezzar then wrote to the king of Egypt,

"Some of my slaves have run away from me to you; send them

to me, or else I shall attack you and send my cavalry to conquer

your land." The king of Egypt wrote back, "They are not your

slaves, but free men and the sons of free men." So Nebuchadnezzar attacked him, slew him, took the Egyptians captive, and

proceeded through North Africa (Maghrib) until he reached its

very farthest point. He then returned (home) with many captives from Palestine and Transjordan, among them Daniel and other prophets.