On the first of the fourth month we appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre. We spoke with him and told him that a child would be given to him from his wife Sarah.

Sarah laughed when she heard that we had conveyed this message to Abraham, but when we chided her, she became frightened and denied that she had laughed about the message.

We told her the name of her son as it is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets — Isaac —

and (that) when we returned to her at a specific time she would have become pregnant with a son.

During this month the Lord executed the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, Zeboim and all the environs of the Jordan. He burned them with fire and brimstone and annihilated them until the present in accord with what I have now told you (about) all their actions — that they were savage and very sinful, (that) they would defile themselves, commit sexual sins in their flesh, and do what was impure on the earth.

The Lord will execute judgment in the same way in the places where people commit the same sort of impure actions as Sodom — just like the judgment on Sodom.

But we went about rescuing Lot because the Lord remembered Abraham. So he brought him out from the overthrow (of Sodom).

He and his daughters committed a sin on the earth which had not occurred on the earth from the time of Adam until his time because the man lay with his daughter.

It has now been commanded and engraved on the heavenly tablets regarding all his descendants that he is to remove them, uproot them, execute judgment on them like the judgment of Sodom, and not to leave him any human descendants on the earth on the day of judgment.

During this month Abraham migrated from Hebron. He went and settled between Ḳadesh and Sur in the mountains of Gerar.

In the middle of the fifth month he migrated from there and settled at the well of the oath.

In the middle of the sixth month the Lord visited Sarah and did for her as he had said.

She became pregnant and gave birth to a son in the third month; in the middle of the month, on the day that the Lord had told Abraham — on the festival of the firstfruits of the harvest — Isaac was born.

Abraham circumcised him when he was eight days old. He was the first to be circumcised according to the covenant which was ordained forever.

In the sixth year of the fourth week [1987] we came to Abraham at the well of the oath. We appeared to him just as we had said to Sarah that we would return to her and she would have become pregnant with a son.

We returned during the seventh month, and in front of us we found Sarah pregnant. We blessed him and told him everything that had been commanded for him: that he would not yet die until he became the father of six sons and (that) he would see (them) before he died; but (that) through Isaac he would have a reputation and descendants.

All the descendants of his sons would become nations and be numbered with the nations. But one of Isaac’s sons would become a holy progeny and would not be numbered among the nations,

for he would become the share of the Most High. All his descendants had fallen into that (share) which God owns so that they would become a people whom the Lord possesses out of all the nations; and that they would become a kingdom, a priesthood, and a holy people.

Then we went on our way and told Sarah all that we had reported to him. The two of them were extremely happy.

There he built an altar for the Lord who had recued him and who was making him so happy in the country where he resided as an alien. He celebrated a joyful festival in this month — for seven days — near the altar which he had built at the well of the oath.

He constructed tents for himself and his servants during this festival. He was the first to celebrate the festival of tabernacles on the earth.

During these seven days he was making — throughout all the days, each and every day — an offering to the Lord on the altar: two bulls, two rams, seven sheep, one goat for sins in order to atone 10 through it for himself and his descendants.

And as a peace offering: seven rams, seven kids, seven sheep, seven he-goats as well as their (cereal-)offerings and their libations over all their fat — (all of these) he would burn on the altar as a choice offering for a pleasing fragrance.

In the morning and evening he would burn fragrant substances: frankincense, galbanum, stacte, nard, myrrh, aromatic spices, and costum. All seven of these he would offer beaten, equally mixed, pure.

He celebrated this festival for seven days, being happy with his whole heart and all his being — he and all those who belonged to his household. There was no foreigner with him, nor anyone who was uncircumcised.

He blessed his creator who had created him in his generation because he had created him for his pleasure, for he knew and ascertained that from him there would come a righteous plant for the history of eternity and (that) from him there would be holy descendants so that they should be like the one who had made everything.

He gave a blessing and was very happy. He named this festival the festival of the Lord — a joy acceptable to the most high God.

We blessed him eternally and all the descendants who would follow him throughout all the history of the earth because he had celebrated this festival at its time in accord with the testimony of the heavenly tablets.

For this reason it has been ordained on the heavenly tablets regarding Israel that they should celebrate the festival of tabernacles joyfully for seven days during the seventh month which is acceptable in the Lord’s presence — a law which is eternal throughout their history in each and every year.

This has no temporal limit because it is ordained forever regarding Israel that they should celebrate it, live in tents, place wreaths on their heads, and take leafy branches and willow branches from the stream.

So Abraham took palm branches and the fruit of good trees, and each and every day he would go around the altar with the branches — seven times per day. In the morning he would give praise and joyfully offer humble thanks to his God for everything.