Stone and Sinew
Walking. Always walking. They had walked almost two bēru on that first day out of Aram of the Two Rivers, and blisters had formed on the insides of both her feet. But Sarai learned that was not a typical day’s journey. Before long she would walk three, even nearly four bēru in a day as their herds and pack animals stretched into a long line behind Abram.
Are we rushing somewhere, even though we do not know where we are going? Sarai thought.
Back when they started they had the mighty oaks of the north to shade them. As they moved south the only shade she could find on a break was the feathery grey-green eshel. The other bushes and rocks barely seemed to cast enough shadow for a goat to nap in.
She recalled the breeze coming off the Euphrates back when they lived in Ur. I would give up our best ewe for a long drink of date juice like I used to sip back home. Even the cool evenings at Aram of the Two Rivers were not that bad. Why would God lead us into this desolate wilderness? Where are we going?
After a multi-day stop in Damascus, where traders ended up greeting Abram by name before they left, the path climbed into the hills. Sarai, with blisters upon blisters, lagged behind again. Abram had stopped at a bend when she finally arrived. He had taken the load off his donkey and set it to the side of the path. The tall man hoisted her upon the animal without a word. The relief was instant.
After handing her a skin, he gathered the packs onto his back, adjusted his beard so it would not pinch in the straps, and then took the reins and led them through the rocky hills of the north country of Canaan toward the waters east that sliced these lands in two.
Sarai took a long drag off the skin and was glad for the drink. Her feet had been in enough pain that she had not noticed her mouth was dry as sun-bleached bone. The aftertaste of the water stilted its satisfaction. She recalled the sweet rivers of the north, which contrasted so sharply with the mineral-heavy brackish taste of this. But it was liquid, and she had bigger concerns than flavor now.
By the end of the day Abram was bent under the packs, breathing in a way that concerned her.
Thank you. I needed that. But I can walk again tomorrow.
Abram only nodded and then lay back on the packs without even untying the straps.
A few days later they reached the Kinneret Sea, as they called it. By then her blisters had broken open again and she could barely stand without wincing. Finally some fresh water, she thought.
Sarai fumbled about on her donkey, which was lashed with all her worldly possessions, and found a bronze basin just as Lot’s wife approached.
Edith adjusted her shawl. How are you holding up?
Oh, you know. Sarai bent down slowly to sit on a log.
Let me help you there. Edith reached for the vessel. Would you like me to fill this for you?
Sarai nodded, more grateful than proud.
When Edith returned from the shore with a basin full, the water clouded immediately as Sarai’s feet entered it. Once they sat in that cool water for a while the pain flared less. It had become her nightly ritual.
Oh, and there is Abram doing his nightly ritual. As soon as they had arrived at the shore, Abram and a team of men with his chief servant Eliezar went about gathering the largest stones in the area. They always did this before stopping to drink or eat or rest. Abram must pray, of course.
Abram must pray was the answer to a great many questions these days. He was not so devout back in Ur.
They built an altar there, and as Sarai looked over she saw him sacrifice a lamb, marking the place as claimed in the name of his God. She wondered what the Canaanites made of such claims.
I suppose finding fresh water is enough to start a festival these days.
As she rested by the shore and her feet stopped screaming, she looked around at their company. The herds spread out like a line of migrating birds at the edge of the waters. She heard the sound of a thousand hooves on stone and the lapping of hundreds upon hundreds of goat and sheep tongues as they satisfied themselves on the shore of the Kinneret. Compared to the sea she grew up near this was a mere lake, but it was fresh water, and for that she was glad. She fell asleep there, feet still in the basin, before the men were done setting up the tents.
The sunrise started at our backs when we left Ur, then to our left when we set off for Damascus, then in our eyes toward the Kinneret, and now we turn south again. Where is it that we are going again? It was only a few days later that her feet finally began to grow more accustomed to a day’s travel. Harder now. Less delicate.
Eliezar the servant walked near Sarai as the sun hung low in the late afternoon. He was not looking at her directly, but made a grunt with a kind of humming sound in it.
What are you muttering, good man?
I was just noticing.
And what were you noticing?
It seems an Ur-woman can learn to travel like a Canaanite.
The Sarai back home would not have taken that as a compliment. But her callouses were hard earned, so now she did.
After a while she brought it up. Did you use Akkadian for your work back in Damascus?
Annu, he replied in Akkadian. The yes was one of the only words Sarai knew in the language.
Let us see if an Ur-woman can learn the language of the King’s Highway. Attend me in the coming weeks and teach me.
I need to know what everyone is saying when Abram visits city gates along the way; I have never brought forth a son for him, but perhaps I can carry some of the load of advising.
The man from Damascus nodded.
Anāku Eliezar. He placed a palm on his chest.
Catching on, she mirrored the gesture. Eh-na-kuh Sarai.
Ah-NAH-koo, he corrected gently.
She laughed at his look and tried again. Ah-NAH-koo Sarai.
He judged her, then said slowly, TAH-boo. That is ṭābu. It means good.
And it was good. Now that she had trained her feet it was time to train her mind.
Shadows of Ur
Terah took Abram his son, and his grandson Lot, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Abram, and together they went fort from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But they came to Haran, they settled there. … The LORD spoke to Abram, Get out of your country, from your people, and away from your father’s household, unto a land I will show y…
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