FIRST BOOK OF AḎAM AND ḤAWWAH 73

The betrothal of Aḏam and Ḥawwah.

1 THEN Elohim looked upon the words of Aḏam that they were true, and that he could long await His order, respecting the counsel of Satan.

2 And Elohim approved Aḏam in what he had thought concerning this, and in the prayer he had offered in His presence; and the Word of Elohim came unto Aḏam and said to him, “O Aḏam, if only thou hadst had this caution at first, ere thou earnest out of the garden into this land!”

3 After that, Elohim sent His messenger who had brought gold, and the messenger who had brought incense, and the messenger who had brought myrrh to Aḏam, that they should inform him respecting his wedding Ḥawwah.

4 Then those messengers said to Aḏam, “Take the gold and give it to Ḥawwah as a wedding gift, and betroth her; then give her some incense and myrrh as a present; and be ye, thou and she, one flesh.”

5 Aḏam hearkened to the messengers, and took the gold and put it into Ḥawwah’s bosom in her garment; and bethrothed her with his hand.

6 Then the messengers commanded Aḏam and Ḥawwah, to arise and pray forty days and forty nights; and after that, that Aḏam should come in to his wife; for then this would be an act pure and undefiled; and he should have children who would multiply, and replenish the face of the earth.

7 Then both Aḏam and Ḥawwah received the words of the messengers; and the messengers departed from them.

8 Then Aḏam and Ḥawwah began to fast and to pray, until the end of the forty days; and then they came together, as the messengers had told them. And from the time Aḏam left the garden until he wedded Ḥawwah, were two hundred and twenty-three days, that is seven months and thirteen days.

9 Thus was Satan’s war with Aḏam defeated.