And When Men Pass This Desert, In Coming Toward Jerusalem, They
Come To Bersabe (Beersheba), That Was Wont To Be A Full Fair Town
And A Delectable Of Christian Men; And Yet There Be Some Of Their
Churches.
In that town dwelled Abraham the patriarch, a long time.
That town of Bersabe founded Bersabe (Bathsheba), the wife of Sir
Uriah the Knight, on the which King David gat Solomen the Wise,
that was king after David upon the twelve kindreds of Jerusalem and
reigned forty year.
And from thence go men to the city of Hebron, that is the mountance
of twelve good mile. And it was clept sometime the Vale of Mamre,
and some-time it was clept the Vale of Tears, because that Adam
wept there an hundred year for the death of Abel his son, that Cain
slew. Hebron was wont to be the principal city of the Philistines,
and there dwelled some time the giants. And that city was also
sacerdotal, that is to say, sanctuary of the tribe of Judah; and it
was so free, that men received there all manner of fugitives of
other places for their evil deeds. In Hebron Joshua, Caleb and
their company came first to aspy, how they might win the land of
Behest. In Hebron reigned first king David seven year and a half;
and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three year and a half.
And in Hebron be all the sepultures of the patriarchs, Adam,
Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob; and of their wives, Eve, Sarah and
Rebecca, and of Leah; the which sepultures the Saracens keep full
curiously, and have the place in great reverence for the holy
fathers, the patriarchs that lie there. And they suffer no
Christian man to enter into that place, but if it be of special
grace of the sultan; for they hold Christian men and Jews as dogs,
and they say, that they should not enter into so holy place. And
men clepe that place, where they lie, Double Spelunk, or Double
Cave, or Double Ditch, forasmuch as that one lieth above that
other. And the Saracens clepe that place in their language,
KARICARBA, that is to say, 'The Place of Patriarchs.' And the Jews
clepe that place ARBOTH. And in that same place was Abraham's
house, and there he sat and saw three persons, and worshipped but
one; as holy writ saith, TRES VIDIT ET UNUM ADORAVIT, that is to
say, 'He saw three and worshipped one': and of those same received
Abraham the angels into his house.
And right fast by that place is a cave in the rock, where Adam and
Eve dwelled when they were put out of Paradise; and there got they
their children. And in that same place was Adam formed and made,
after that some men say: (for men were wont for to clepe that
place the field of Damascus, because that it was in the lordship of
Damascus), and from thence was he translated into Paradise of
delights, as they say; and after that he was driven out of Paradise
he was there left.
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