“But it is contrary to the law of the Lord; on Moriah only should the temple and the altar stand. Jehovah spoke to Moses saying,[10] ‘To the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall ye come, and thither shall ye bring your burnt-offerings: but take heed that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in any place that thou seest; in the place which the Lord shall choose there shalt thou offer thy burnt-offerings, and do all that the Lord thy God requires of thee.’ And five hundred years after, when the temple was built, he said to Solomon, when he appeared to him in the night, ‘I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place to myself, as a house of sacrifice.’[11] And this place is Moriah, where Abraham was about to offer up his own son.” Footnote 10: Deut. xii. 1-14. Footnote 11: 2 Chron. vii. 12. “Knowest thou not,” continued the elder, “what Isaiah, the greatest of all the prophets, said two hundred years later? Our high priest wrote the passage to the king and queen at the building of the Oneion. In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of Hosts: one shall be called Irhaheres, Leontopolis.”[12] Footnote 12: Is. xix. 18. Elisama replied, “I adhere to the words of the psalm, ‘The Lord hath chosen Zion and delights to dwell therein.’[13] To Isaiah also the Lord spoke, saying, ‘I will comfort you as one whom his mother comforteth, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.’[14] We might say to you of Alexandria, what the Lord said by the mouth of Jeremiah, 'Go up into Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt!'”[15] Footnote 13: Ps. cxxxii. 13. Footnote 14: Is. lxvi. 13. Footnote 15: Jer. xlvi. 11. 20. “Yet Jehovah, in the same chapter, calls Egypt a fair heifer.” “True, but he threatens her; ‘destruction cometh from the north,’ and in us will his word be fulfilled, 'ye shall be ashamed of Egypt as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.'”[16] Footnote 16: Jer. ii. 36. “Now accursed be he who reviles the Oneion, the temple of the Lord, and Egypt and the queen,” exclaimed the elder, in vehement indignation. They had long ceased to eat, as their conversation became more animated, and sat upright upon their cushions. The elder started on his feet, and seemed about to offer some violence to Elisama; but a grey-headed elder, who had hither only listened, interposed between them, and with the calmness of age said to them both, “Peace, my children! There is enough of strife in Israel; let not us increase it. Do thou remain in Egypt, and thou Elisama take thy way to Jerusalem. The Messiah cometh and will teach us all things.”