upon it (i.e. Zion) ”

Këbra Nagast

nobles of Israel, they accepted him as Solomon’s son and brought gifts to him. Then Bayna-Le˙kem produced the ring which he had brought from his mother and gave it to Solomon, who said that it was unnecessary, for his face and stature proclaimed that he was his son.

Soon after this Tâmrîn had an audience of Solomon, and he asked him to anoint Bayna-Le˙kem king, to consecrate and to bless him and then to send him back to his mother as soon as possible, for such was her desire. This old and faithful servant was afraid that the luxurious living of Solomon’s house would have an ill effect upon his future king, and he was anxious to get him away from Jerusalem as soon as possible. To this Solomon replied that after a woman had brought forth her son and suckled him she had nothing more to do with him, for a boy belongs to his father and a girl to her mother. And Solomon refused to give up his first-born son. But Bayna-Le˙kem himself was anxious to leave Jerusalem (Chap. 36, and he begged Solomon to give him a portion of the fringe of the Tabernacle of the Law of God, and to let him depart. He had no wish to live as Solomon’s second son in Jerusalem, for he knew that Solomon had another son, Rehoboam, who was six years old at that time and had been begotten in lawful marriage, whilst he himself was the son of an unmarried mother. Solomon promised to give him the kingdom of Israel, and wives and concubines, and argued and pleaded with him long and earnestly, but to no purpose (Chap. 37); Bayna-Le˙kem said that he had sworn by his mother’s breasts to return to her quickly, and not to marry a wife in Israel. To swear by a woman’s breasts was a serious matter, and we have an echo of a somewhat similar ceremony in the Annals of the Nubian Nastasen, King of Nubia after B.C. 500 (?). This king paid a visit to the goddess Bast of Tert, his good mother, and he says that she gave him life, great old age, happiness, [and] her two breasts [on] the left (?) side, and placed him in her living,

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Introduction

beautiful bosom.”26 We may be certain that Nastasen swore to do something in return for the gracious kindness of the goddess Bast.

When Solomon saw that it was impossible to keep BaynaLe˙kem in Jerusalem, he summoned the elders of Israel (Chap. 38) and declared to them his intention of making the young man King of Ethiopia, and asked them to send their eldest sons with him to that far country to found a Jewish colony and kingdom there. The elders of course agreed to the king’s request, and then Zadok the priest and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, anointed Bayna-Le˙kem king in the Holy of Holies (Chap. 39); the name which he received at his anointing was David [II], the name of his grandfather. Then Solomon commanded Zadok to describe to the young King of Ethiopia the curses that would fall upon him if he failed to obey God’s commands (Chap. 40), and the blessings that would accrue to him if he performed the Will of God (Chap. 41). Zadok did so, and then recited the Ten Commandments (Chap. 42) as given by Moses, and a number of Hebrew laws concerning marriage, adultery, fornication, incest, sodomy, etc. The anointing of Solomon’s son to be king over Ethiopia was pleasing to the people, but all those whose first-born sons were to leave Jerusalem with him sorrowed and cursed Solomon secretly in their hearts. In Chap. 43 we have a list of the names of those who were to hold positions of honour under David II in Ethiopia, and Chap. 44 contains a series of warnings against abusing and reviling kings.

Now the children of Israel who were to go to Ethiopia sorrowed greatly at the thought of leaving their country, but the matter that troubled them most was leaving the Tabernacle

26 Budge, Annals of Nubian Kings, p. 153.

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