"Then Abram saw the hand again cover and extinguish the sun; but lo, instead of night, the universe was lighted by the brightness of the hand, which shone with the splendor of a thousand suns, so that our father fell upon his face, as if dead, before its consuming splendor. When he rose again, the sun shone as before, and he fell prostrate upon the ground and said: "'Lord God of the sun, Creator of all things, what is man, that thou displayest thy glory and revealest thyself to him? I am as a worm before thee! Teach me what thou wouldst have me to do!' "Then a still, small voice answered: "'Arise, go forth from this Chaldea, thy country, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, which I will show thee; and there I will make of thee a great nation, who shall bear thy name; for I will make thy name great, and a blessing to all men; and those who bless thee I will bless, and those who curse thee, I will curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed!'" This remarkable tradition then goes on to say, O Sesostris, that the Chaldean hastened to obey God, and going into the city of Haran, where he dwelt, gathered his substance, and took his wife, and nephew, and all his servants, and departed from the land--being then five-and-seventy years old. By a sign, the Lord God went before him through many lands, until he crossed over the river of the king of Sodom into Palestine, when the Almighty, taking him into a high mountain, showed him all the land, from the lake and fair valley of Gomorrah and Sodom to the great sea westward, and from Libanus on the north to the desert of Arabia on the south, saying: "'Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward, and eastward and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed after thee! Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it to thee; for the whole earth is mine!'" "Night fell upon them while they looked from the mountain, and the Lord God said to our father: 'Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars if thou art able to number them. So shall thy posterity be. But know thou,' said the Lord to him, 'that thou, and thy son, and thy son's son shall be strangers in this land, and thy seed after thee shall also be strangers in the land shadowing with wings, and shall serve its kings, and they shall afflict thee four hundred years; but grieve not, for the nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall thy posterity come out of that land a mighty people, with great substance; and he whom I will raise up as their deliverer, shall lead them unto this land, and they shall enter in and possess it, and shall become a great people, and be in number as the sands of the seashore, and as the dust for multitude.'"