CHAPTER XLIII

The Devil attempts arson.

1 Then Adam and Eve were afraid, and stood still. And Adam said to Eve, "What is that fire by our cave? We have done nothing in it to cause this fire.

1. We neither have bread to bake therein, nor broth to cook there. As

   to this fire, we have never known anything like it, neither do we know what to call it.

2. But ever since God sent the cherub with a sword of fire that flashed

   and lightened in his hand, from fear of which we fell down and were like corpses, have we not seen the like.

3. But now, O Eve, behold, this is the same fire that was in the

   cherub's hand, which God has sent to keep the cave in which we live.

4. O Eve, it is because God is angry with us, and will drive us from

   it.

5. O Eve, we have again transgressed His commandment in that cave, so

   that He had sent this fire to burn around it, and to prevent us from going into it.

6. If this be really so, O Eve, where shall we live? And where shall we

   flee from before the face of the Lord? Since, in regards to the garden, He will not let us live in it, and He has deprived us of the good things thereof; but He has placed us in this cave, in which we have borne darkness, trials and hardships, until at last we have found comfort therein.

7. But now that He has brought us out into another land, who knows what

   may happen in it? And who knows but that the darkness of that land may be far greater than the darkness of this land?

8. Who knows what may happen in that land by day or by night? And who

   knows whether it will be far or near, O Eve? Where it will please God to put us, may be far from the garden, O Eve? Or where God will prevent us from beholding Him, because we have transgressed His commandment, and because we have made requests of Him at all times?

9. O Eve, if God will bring us into a strange land other than this, in

   which we find consolation, it must be to put our souls to death, and blot

out our name from the face of the earth.

1. O Eve, if we are further alienated from the garden and from God,

   where shall we find Him again, and ask Him to give us gold, incense, myrrh, and some fruit of the fig-tree?

2. Where shall we find Him, to comfort us a second time? Where shall we

   find Him, that He may think of us, as regards the covenant He has made on our behalf?"

3. Then Adam said no more. And they kept looking, He and Eve, towards

   the cave, and at the fire that flared up around it.

4. But that fire was from Satan. For he had gathered trees and dry

   grasses, and had carried and brought them to the cave, and had set fire to them, in order to consume the cave and what was in it.

5. So that Adam and Eve should be left in sorrow, and he should cut off

   their trust in God, and make them deny Him.

6. But by the mercy of God he could not burn the cave, for God sent His

   angel around the cave to guard it from such a fire, until it went out.

7. And this fire lasted from noon-day until the break of day. That was

   the forty-fifth day.