Глава 22

Gen.22:2. “And God said to him: “Take your only begotten son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to a high land, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” It is difficult to translate a special expression from Hebrew into Latin. Where it was just said: “Go to the exalted land,” in the Hebrew text there is Moria (מֹּרִיָּ ֑ ה), which Aquila translated τὴν καταϕανῆ, that is, “bright”, Symmachus - τὴν καταφανῆ, that is, “bright”, Symmachus - τής οπτασίας, that is, “vision”. Therefore, the Jews say that this is the mountain on which the church was subsequently built, on the threshing floor of Orna the Jebusite, as stated in the Book of Chronicles: “And they began to build the church in the second month, on the second day, on Mount Moriah” (2 Chronicles 3, I). The name of the mountain is translated as “illuminating” and “shining.” This is due to the fact that there are dabir (דביר), that is, the church (oraculum) of God, the Law and the Holy Spirit, who teaches people the truth and inspires prophecy. Gen.22:3–4. “And he came to the place that God had told him about on the third day.” It should be noted that the journey from Gerara to Mount Moriah, that is, [to] the location of the church, is three days. That is why it is said that they reached there on the third day. Consequently, some people incorrectly believe that Abraham was living at the oak of Mamre at that time, because the journey from there to Mount Moriah would hardly take one day. Gen.22:13. “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and behold, a ram behind him was entangled in a thicket with its horns. σαβεκ ". Eusebius of Emesa said a funny thing about this place. “Σαβεκ,” he says, “is a goat with straight horns that stretches up to its full length to pluck the foliage of trees.” In turn, Aquila translated this as συχνεών, which we can understand as “thorn bush” or “thorns” or, if we try to express the original meaning of this word, dense thickets, the branches of which are intertwined with each other. As a result of this, Symmachus, coming to the same opinion, says: “And after this a ram appeared, entangled in a net with its horns.” "...in the thickets of σαβεκ with their horns." Based on this, it is clear that the word σαβεκ does not mean closed branches or thickets woven like a network, but is the name of the thicket, which is pronounced like that in Hebrew. Although, after careful research, I discovered that it is not uncommon for [the Hebrew word corresponding to] συχνεών to be spelled with the letter samech. Gen.22:14. “And Abraham called that place the name “The Lord Sees,” so that today they say: “On the mountain the Lord sees.” Instead of “sees” here, the Hebrew text says: “He will be seen.” Among the Jews, this became a proverb: if they ever find themselves in a difficult situation and seek support from God, they say: “On the mountain the Lord will be seen,” that is, just as He had mercy on Abraham, so He will have mercy on us. Therefore, they now have the custom of blowing the horn in commemoration of the ram sent down to [Abraham]. Gen. 22:20–22. “And they told Abraham, saying: “Even Milcah bore sons to your brother Nahor: Usa his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kamul the father of the Syrians, and Kased.” Nahor, the brother of Abraham, from his wife Milkah, daughter of Haran, had a first-born son named Us, from whose branch Job came, as it is written at the beginning of the book dedicated to him: “There was a man in the land of Us, named Job” (Job I, I). Therefore, some people incorrectly believe that Job traces his ancestry to Esau, because what is contained at the end of the Book of Job (namely, that the book was translated from the Syriac language, and that Job is the fourth from Esau, and other things that are contained there (Job 42, 17 according to LXX)) are not found in the Hebrew books. Milka's second birth was Vuz, whom the Seventy Interpreters wished to call Vuz. And from the family was the soothsayer Balaam (such is the Jewish tradition), who in the Book of Job bears the name Elihu. At first he was a holy man and a prophet of God, but then, due to disobedience and desire for offerings, when he began to seek to curse Israel, he was given the nickname “soothsayer” (Num. 22–24; Josh. 13:22). It is said about him in the same book: “And Elihu the son of Barachiel the Buzite was angry” (Job 32:2) - it is clear that he comes from the root of that same Buzite. And Kamuel is the father of Damascus. The fact is that this city is [also] called Aram. It is this name that is written here [among the Jews] instead of Syria. Syria is also listed under this name in Isaiah. And the fourth son is Hased. From him the Hasdim, that is, the Chaldeans, were subsequently named.