And when the nobles heard this, they answered and said unto the king; 'My lord the king, thou knowest that not only in the years of thy reign, but also in the years of thy father Sarhadum, Ahikar the Secretary was in the habit of resolving questions like these. And now, also, behold his son Nadan, he is instructed in his father's book-lore and wisdom.' And when my son Nadan heard these things, he cried out before the king and said; 'The gods [angels] themselves cannot do things like these; let men alone.'

And when the king heard these words, he was much perturbed, and he descended from his throne and sat on the ground, and spake thus; 'Alas for thee! Ahikar the wise, that I destroyed thee for the words of a boy. Who will give thee to me for such a time as this? I would give him thy weight in gold.'

And when Nabusemakh heard these words, he fell down before the king and said to him: 'He who has contemned the commandment of his lord, is guilty of death; and I, my lord, have contemned the command of thy kingship. Command, therefore, that they crucify me. For Ahikar, whom thou didst command me to slay, is yet alive.'

And when the king heard these words, he answered and said, 'Speak on, speak on, Nabusemakh, speak on, thou good and clever man, unskilled in evil. If it is indeed as thou sayest, and thou show me Ahikar alive, then I will give thee presents of silver, a hundred talents in weight, and of purple, fifty talents in value.'

And Nabusemakh answered and said, 'Swear to me, my lord the king, that, if there be not found before thee other sins of mine, the sin shall not be remembered against me.' And the king gave him his right hand on this matter. And forthwith the king mounted his chariot, and came unto me in haste, and opened (my prison) over me, and I ascended and came and fell before the king; the hair of my head had grown down on my shoulders, and my beard reached my breast; and my body was foul with the dust, and my nails were grown long like eagles'.

And when the king saw me, he wept and was ashamed to talk with me, and in great grief he said to me, 'It was not I that sinned against thee, Ahikar; but thy son whom thou broughtest up, he it was that sinned against thee.' Thereupon I answered and said to him, 'Because I have seen thy face, my lord, no evil is in my mind.' And the king said to me, 'Go to thy house, Ahikar, and shave off thy hair, and wash thy body, and recover thy strength forty days; and after that come to me.'

Therefore I went to my house, and I was in my house about thirty days, and when I had recovered, I came to the king, and the king answered and said to me: 'Hast thou seen, Ahikar, what a letter Pharaoh, king of Egypt, has written me?' And I answered and said, 'My lord the king, let there be no trouble to thee over this affair. I will go to Egypt and build the king a castle: and I will make him answer concerning all that he may ask me: and I will bring back with me the three years' tribute of Egypt.' And when the king heard these things he rejoiced with a great joy: and he gave me gifts: and as for Nabusemakh he set him at the head of all. And after this I wrote a letter to Eshfagni my wife as follows:

'When this letter reaches thee, command my huntsmen that they catch me two young eagles: and command the workers in flax, that they make me hempen ropes; the length of each one of them shall be a thousand ells, and their thickness that of one's little finger. And bid the carpenters to make me cages for the young eagles: and deliver over Ubael and Tabshelim, the two boys, who do not yet know how to talk, and let them teach them to say on this wise: "Give the builders mud, mortar, tiles, bricks, for they are idle."'

And Eshfagni my wife did all that I commissioned her: then I said to the king: 'Command, my lord, and send me that I go to Egypt.' And when the king commanded me to go, I took me a force of soldiers and went. And when we came to the first halting-place, I let out the young eagles and bound the ropes to their feet and made the boys ride on them; and they took them and went up to a great height, and the boys cried out as they had been taught, 'Mud, mortar, tiles, bricks supply to the builders who are idle.' Then I pulled them in again. And when we came to Egypt, I went to the king's gate: and his nobles told the king, 'There is come the man whom the king of Assyria has sent.' And the king commanded and gave me a place to reside in; and on the following day I came in before him and bowed [before] him and enquired after his health. And the king answered and said unto me, 'What is thy name?' And I said to him, 'My name is Abikam: one of the contemptible ants of the kingdom.' And the king answered and said to me, 'Am I thus despised of thy lord, that he hath sent me a despised ant of his kingdom? Go, Abikam, to thy lodging, and come to me early in the morning.' Then the king commanded his nobles, 'On the morrow clothe yourselves in red,' and the king dressed himself in fine linen, and sat on his throne. And he commanded and I came into his presence, and he said to me, 'To what am I like, Abikam; and to what are my nobles like?' And I answered and said to him, 'My lord the king, thou art like unto [an idol], and thy nobles are like unto his priests.' And again he said to me, 'Go to thy lodging, and come to me on the morrow.' And the king commanded his nobles, 'On the morrow clothe yourselves in robes of white linen,' and the king himself put on white and sat on his throne. And he commanded and I came into his presence: and he said to me, 'To what am I like, Abikam, and to what are my nobles like?' And I said to him, 'My lord the king, thou art like to the sun, and thy nobles to his rays.' And again he said to me, 'Get thee to thy lodging, and come to me to-morrow.' And again the king commanded his nobles, 'On the morrow clothe yourselves in black,' and the king put on crimson. And he commanded, and I came into his presence, and he said to me, 'To what am I like, Abikam; and to what are my nobles like?' And I said to him, 'My lord the king, thou art like to the moon, and thy nobles to the stars.' And again he said to me, 'Go to thy house: and come to me to-morrow.' And the king commanded his nobles, 'On the morrow dress in diverse and varied colours, and let the doors of the palace be covered with red hangings.' And the king himself was robed in fine needlework. And he commanded and I came into his presence: and he said to me, 'To what am I like, Abikam? and my nobles, to what are they like?' And I said to him, 'My lord the king, thou art like to the month Nisan, and thy nobles to its flowers.' Then the king said to me, 'The first time thou didst compare me to [an idol], and my nobles to his priests. The second time thou hast compared me to the sun, and my nobles to its rays. The third time thou hast compared me to the moon, and my nobles to the stars. And the fourth time thou hast likened me to Nisan, and my nobles to the flowers thereof. And now tell me, Abikam, to what is thy lord like?' And I answered and said to him, 'Be it far from me, my lord the king, that I should make mention of my lord Sennacherib, whilst thou art seated. My lord Sennacherib [serves] (the GOD of Heaven), and his nobles [are] like the lightnings that are in the clouds: for when He wills, He fashions the rain and the dew (and) the hail; and if He thunders, He restrains the sun from rising, and its rays from being seen; and He will restrain [the idol] from coming in and from going forth in the street, and his nobles from being seen; and He will hinder the moon from rising and the stars from appearing.' And when the king heard these things he was exceeding wroth, and said to me, 'By the life of thy lord, I adjure thee tell me what is thy name?' And I answered and said to him, 'I am Ahikar the Secretary and Great Seal of Sennacherib king of Assyria and Nineveh.' And the king said to me, 'Did I not certainly hear that thy lord had killed thee?' And I said to him, 'I am yet alive, my lord the king: and GOD saved me from something which my hands did not.' And the king said to me, 'Go, Ahikar, to thy house, and come to me to-morrow, and tell me a word which I never heard nor any one of my nobles; and which was never heard in the city of my kingdom.'

Then I sat down and meditated in my heart and wrote a letter as follows:

'From Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to Sennacherib, king of Assyria and Nineveh, greeting.

'Kings have need of kings and brethren of brethren: and at this time my gifts are become scant, because silver is scarce in my treasury: command, therefore, to send me from thy treasury 900 talents of silver, and in a little while I will return them to their place.'

This letter, then, I folded and held it in my hands: and the king commanded and I came into his presence, and I said to him, 'Perhaps in this letter there is a word that was never heard by thee.' And when I read it before the king and before his nobles, they cried out, as they were ordered by the king to do, and said, 'This has been heard by all of us, and it is so.' Whereupon I said to them, 'Behold, (in the case) there is a debt of 900 talents from Egypt to Assyria.' And when the king heard this, he marvelled. Then he said to me, 'I am planning to build a castle between earth and heaven. Its height from the earth shall be one thousand fathoms.' Then I brought out the young eagles and bound the ropes to their feet, and set the boys on their backs; and they were saying, 'Provide mud, mortar; (foreman, mix) tiles and bricks for the builders, because they are idle.' And when the king saw it, he was confounded. Then I, Ahikar, took a switch and beat the king's nobles, till they all took to flight. Then the king was indignant with me, and said to me, 'Thou art gone clean mad, Ahikar: who is able to carry up anything to these boys?' And I said to him, 'Concerning the affairs of Sennacherib my lord, say ye nothing; for if he had been at hand, he would have built a couple of castles in one day.' And the king said to me, 'Have done with the castle, Ahikar, and go to thy lodging; and in the morning come to me.' And when it was morning, I came into his presence, and he said to me, 'Explain to me, Ahikar, the following matter. The horse of thy lord neighs in Assyria, and our mares hear his voice here, and their foals miscarry.' Then I went forth from the king's presence, and commanded my servants to catch me a cat, and I whipped it in the streets of the city; and when the Egyptians saw it, they went and told the king that Ahikar had lifted himself up against our people and makes mock of us. 'For he has caught a cat and whips it in the streets of our city.' And the king sent for me and called me; and I came into his presence. And he said to me, 'In what way art thou insulting us?' and I answered and said to him, 'This cat has seriously damaged me in no slight matter; for a cock had been entrusted to me by my lord, whose voice was extremely beautiful, and by the time that he crowed I understood that my lord wished for me, and I went to the gate of my lord. And in this past night this cat went to Assyria and tore off the head of this cock of mine and returned.' And the king answered and said to me, 'As far as I can see, Ahikar, since thou art grown old thou art become stark mad. For it is 360 parasangs from here to Assyria; and how canst thou say that in a single night this cat went and cut off the head of the cock and came back?' Then I said to him, 'And if it is 360 parasangs from Egypt to Assyria, how do thy mares in this place hear the voice of the horse of my lord, and their foals miscarry?' And when the king heard this, he was sore vexed, and he said to me, 'Ahikar, expound to me this riddle: A pillar has on its head twelve cedars; in every cedar there are thirty wheels, and in every wheel two cables, one white and one black.' And I answered and said to him, 'My lord the king, the ox-herds in our country understand this riddle that thou tellest. The pillar of which thou hast spoken to me is the year: the twelve cedars are the twelve months of the year; the thirty wheels are the thirty days of the month; the two cables, one white and one black, are the day and the night.'

Again he said to me, 'Twine me five cables from the sand of the river.' And I said to him, 'My lord the king, bid them bring me from thy treasury one rope of sand, and I will make one to match it.' Then he said to me, 'Unless thou do this, I will not give thee the Egyptian tribute.' Thereupon I sat down and calculated in my heart how I should do it. And I went out from the king's palace and bored five holes in the eastern wall of the palace. And when the sun entered the holes I scattered sand in them, and the sun's path began to appear as if (the sand) were twined in the holes. Then I said to the king; 'My lord, bid them take up these, and I will weave you others in their stead.' And when the king and his nobles saw it, they were amazed.

And again the king commanded to bring me an upper millstone that was broken: and he said to me, 'Ahikar, sew up for us this broken millstone.' Then I went and brought a nether millstone, and cast it down before the king and said to him, 'My lord the king, since I am a stranger here, and have not the tools of my craft with me, bid the cobblers cut me strips from this lower millstone which is the fellow of the upper millstone; and forthwith I will sew it together.' And when the king heard it, he laughed and said, 'The day in which Ahikar was born shall be blessed before [GOD]; and since I have seen thee alive, I will make it a great day and a feast.' Then he gave me the revenue of Egypt for three years, and straightway I returned and came to my lord the king Sennacherib: and he came forth to meet me and received me. And he made it a great day and set me at the head of his household: and he said to me, 'Ask what thou wilt, Ahikar'; and I bowed [before] the king and said, 'Whatever thou willest to give me, bestow it upon Nabusemakh; because he gave me my life; and for myself, my lord, bid them give me my son Nadan, that I may teach him a further lesson. For he has forgotten my former teaching.' And the king commanded and gave me my son Nadan; and the king said to me, 'Go thy way, Ahikar, and work thy will on thy son Nadan; for no man shall rescue his body from thy hands.' Thereupon I took Nadan my son, and brought him to my house; and I bound him with iron chains whose weight was twenty talents, and I fastened the chains in rings, and I fastened collars on his neck; and I struck him one thousand blows on the shoulders and a thousand and one on his loins; and I put him in the porch of the door of my palace, and gave him bread by weight and water by measure. And I delivered him to my boy Nabuel to guard, and told my boy, 'Write down in a tablet whatever I say to my son Nadan, when I go in or come out.' And I answered and said to my son Nadan as follows:

My son, he who does not hear with his ears, they make him hear with the nape of his neck.

My son Nadan answered and said to me, Wherefore art thou so angry against thy son?

I answered and said to him, My son, I set thee on the throne of honour; and thou hast cast me down from my throne. And as for me, my righteousness has saved me.

Thou hast been to me, my son, like a scorpion, which strikes at a rock. And the rock said to it, 'Thou hast struck at an unconcerned heart.' And it struck at a needle, and they say to it, 'Thou hast struck at a sting worse than thy own.'

My son, thou hast been to me like a gazelle that was standing over a sumach-tree and eating it. And the sumach-tree said to it, 'Why eatest thou me, seeing that they tan thy skin with me?' And the gazelle said, 'I eat thee in my life, and when I am dead they will pluck thee up by thy roots.'

My son, thou hast been to me like the man that threw a stone at the heaven, and it did not reach the heaven; but he incurred sin against GOD.

My son, thou hast been like the man who saw his companion shivering from cold, and took a pitcher of water and threw it over him.

My son, not when thou hadst killed me, wouldst thou have been able to stand in my place; for be well aware, my son, that even if the tail of the swine should grow to seven ells, he would never take the place of the horse: and even if his hair should become soft and woolly, he would never ride on the back of a free man.

My son, I said that thou shouldst be in my place; and thou shouldst acquire my house and my wealth, and inherit them. But GOD was not pleased therewith and has not heard thy voice.

My son, thou hast been to me as the lion that came upon an ass in the morning of the day and said to him, 'Welcome, my lord.' But the ass said to him, 'May the same welcome that thou givest me be the portion of him that tied me up last night; and did not make my halter fast, so that I had not seen thy face.'

My son, a snare was set upon a dunghill, and there came a sparrow and looked at it and said, 'What doest thou here?' And the snare said, 'I am praying to GOD.' The sparrow said, 'And what is that in thy mouth?' The snare said, 'Bread for guests.' Then the sparrow drew near and took it, and the snare caught him by the neck. And the sparrow said, as he was being shaken, 'If this is thy bread for guests, may the GOD to whom thou prayest never listen to thy voice.'

My son, thou hast been to me as an ox that was bound with a lion; and the lion turned and crushed him.

My son, thou hast been to me like the weevil that is in the corn, which destroys kings' granaries, and is itself of no account.

My son, thou hast been to me like the pot, to which they made golden handles, but its bottom was not cleansed from blackness.

My son, thou hast been to me like a husbandman that sowed a field with twenty measures of barley; and when he reaped it, it made him twenty measures. And he said to it: 'What I scattered, I have gathered, but thou art shamed with thine evil name, in that thou hast made a bushel into a bushel: and I, (how) am I to live?'

My son, thou hast been to me like the bird that could not save himself from death, and by his voice slaughtered his companions.

My son, thou hast been to me like the buck that led his companions into the slaughter house; and yet he did not save his own life.

My son, thou hast been to me like the dog that came to the potters' oven to warm himself, and after he was warm rose up to bark at them.

My son, thou hast been to me like the swine that had been to the baths, and when it saw a muddy ditch, went down and washed in it, and cried to his companions, 'Come and wash.'

My son, my finger is upon thy mouth, and thy finger is upon my eyes. Why have I brought thee up, thou jackal, that thy eyes look thus upon apples?

My son, the dog that eats of his hunting will become the portion of wolves: and the hand that is not industrious shall be cut off from its shoulder: and the eye in which there is no vision the raven shall pluck it out.

What good hast thou done me, my son, that I remembered thee and that my soul had comfort in thee?

My son, if the gods [of the idolaters] steal, by whom shall they make them swear? And a lion that steals a piece of land, how will he sit down and eat it?

My son, I caused thee to behold the face of the king, and brought thee to great honour: and thou hast chosen to do me evil.

My son, thou hast been to me like the tree that said to its woodcutters, 'If there had not been somewhat from me in your hands, ye had not fallen upon me.'

My son, thou hast been to me like the young swallows which fell out of their nest; and a cat caught them and said to them, 'If it had not been for me, great evil would have befallen you.' They answered and said to her, 'Is that why thou hast put us in thy mouth?'

My son, thou hast been to me like the cat, to which they say, 'Leave off thy thievish ways, and thou shalt go out from and come in to the king's palace, according to thy heart's wish.' And she answered and said, 'If I should have eyes of silver and ears of gold, I will not leave off my thieving.'

My son, thou hast been to me like a serpent that was mounted on a thornbush and thrown into a river; and a wolf saw them and said to them: 'Bad rides on bad, and worse than either carries them off.' The serpent said to him, 'If thou hadst been here, thou shouldst have paid the reckoning for the she-goats and their young ones.'

My son, I have seen a she-goat brought into the slaughter house, and because its time was not yet come, it returned to its place and saw its children and its children's children.

My son, I have seen colts that have become slayers of their mothers.

My son, I fed thee with every pleasant meat: and thou, my son, hast fed me with bread of ashes, and I was not satisfied therewith.

My son, I salved thee with sweet salves, and thou, my son, hast fouled my body with dust.

My son, I trained up thy stature like a cedar, but thou hast humbled me in my life, and hast made me drunken with thy wickedness.

My son, I raised thee like a tower and said, 'If the enemy should come upon me, I will go up and dwell in thee': and thou, when thou sawest my enemy, didst bow before him.

My son, thou hast been to me like the mole that came up out of the earth that it might get possession of the sun, because he had no eyes; and an eagle saw him and struck him and carried him off.

My son Nadan answered and said to me, 'My father Ahikar, such things be far from thee: do to me according to thy mercy: for GOD also forgives the fault of man: and thou also, forgive me this my folly: and I will tend thy horses and feed thy pigs which are in thy house, and I shall be called evil: but thou, devise not evil against me.'

I answered and said to him, My son, thou hast been to me like that palm tree that stood by a river, and cast all its fruit into the river, and when its lord came to cut it down, it said to him, 'Let me alone this year, and I will bring thee forth carobs.' And its lord said unto it, 'Thou hast not been industrious in what is thine own, and how wilt thou be industrious in what is not thine own?'

My son, they say to the wolf, 'Why dost thou follow after the sheep?' He said to them, 'Their dust is exceeding good for my eyes.' Again they brought him into the school house: the master said to him, 'Aleph, Beth'; the wolf said, 'Kid, Lamb.'

My son, I taught thee that there is a GOD: and thou risest up against good servants, and beatest those that have not sinned; and like as GOD has kept me alive on account of my righteousness so hath He destroyed thee for thy works.

My son, they set the head of the ass over a dish at the table, and he rolled off and fell in the dust. And they say, 'He spites himself; he does not receive honour.'

My son, thou hast verified the proverb, which is current: 'Call him whom thou hast begotten, thy son, and him whom thou hast purchased, thy slave.'

My son, the proverb is true that is current: 'Take thy sister's son under thy arm and dash him against a stone.'

But GOD is He that hath kept me alive, and He will judge between us.

Thereat Nadan swelled up like a bag and died. And to him that doeth good, what is good shall be recompensed: and to him that doeth evil, what is evil shall be rewarded. And he that diggeth a pit for his neighbour, filleth it with his own stature. And to GOD be glory, and His mercy be upon us. Amen.

The proverbs of Ahikar the sage and secretary of Sennacherib king of Assyria and Nineveh are ended.