Page:Light and truth.djvu/24

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light and truth

and it happened that his servants fell into some strife with the servants of Abraham. As it was evident that their property was too great for them to dwell together, Abraham, though in every respect entitled to deference, generously proposed to his nephew to avoid controversy by an amicable separation. He offered Lot his choice of the territory, on the right or left as it pleased him. A rare illustration of meekness and condescension. Lot chose to remove to the eastward, and occupy that part of the fertile plain of Jordan where Sodom and Gomorrah stood.

After the death of Sarah, Abraham's wife, he took a second wife, named Keturah, a Canaanite woman. The nation of the Troglodytes were derived from Abraham by Keturah, by whom he had six sons, men of courage and possessed with sagacious minds—Zambran, Jazar, Madan, Madian, Josabak and Sous. The sons of Sous were Sabathan and Dadan. The sons of Dadan were Latusim, Assur and Luam. The sons of Madian were Ephas, Ophren, Anoch, Ebidas and Eldas. For all these sons and grandsons, Abraham contrived to settle them in colonies: and they took possession of Troglodytes, and the country of Arabia the Happy, as far as it reaches to the Red Sea. It is related of this Ophren, that he made war against Libya, and took it, and that his grandchildren, when they inhabited it, called it from his name, Africa; and, indeed, Alexander Polyhistor gives his attestation to what I here assert. He says: "Oleodemus, the prophet, who was also called Malchus, who wrote a history of the Jews in agreement with the history of Moses, their legislator, relates, that there were many sons born to Abraham by Keturah; nay, he names three of them—Apher, Surim and Japhran; that from Surim was the land of Assyria denominated; and that from the other two, Apher and Japhran, the country of Africa took its name, because these men were auxiliary to Hercules, when he fought against Libya and Antaeus; and that Hercules married Aphra's daughter, and of her begat Diodorus; and that Sophanx was his son, from whom the people called Sophacians were thus denominated." Thus we find that Abraham was the father of many nations: Through Ishmael, he was the