Salah

SALAH, or Sale, Son of Cainan, and Grandson of Arphaxad; or rather, by leaving out Cainan, who is not to be found in the Hebrew Copies; Salah was born in the thirty-fifth Year of his Father Arphaxad, and in the Year of the World 1693. He begat Eber at thirty Years old, in the Year of the World 1723. He died at the Age of 433 Years, in the Year of the World 2126, Gen. xi. 12, 14, 15.before Christ 1874, before the vulgar Era 1878.

The Orientals¹ have preserved to us several Traditions concerning the Person of Salah, which it will not be amiss to insert here, though we do not esteem them as indubitable. They pretend, that the Patriarch Salah was fill’d with the Spirit of Prophecy, and that God sent him to the People of the Tribe of Themud, who dwelt in that Part of Arabia call’d Hagr, or Arabia petræa; but he was very ill treated in this Country. He proved his Mission by a surprizing Miracle, when he open’d a Rock with a Word of his Mouth, and caus’d a female Camel to come out, which was immediately deliver’d of her Young. Instead of being converted at this Prodigy, the Themudists put the Camel to Death, which by her Presence reproached them with Incredulity.

After this they began to insult the Prophet Salah, and to deride all his Menaces. But Salah addres’d himself to God, who sent the Arch-angel Gabriel against them. He had no sooner appear’d among them, but he put them all to Death, excepting a small Number who had believed the Prophet, and who follow’d him into the Territory of Mecca, whither he retired and ended his Days. Some say, God was so provoked with the Hardness and Incredulity of the Themudists, that he sent such a violent Earthquake among them, that they were all thrown down dead in their Houses, with their Faces to the Ground.

We read in some Arabian Authors, that the Prophet Salah, the Apostle of the Themudists, was more modern than Salah the Son of Arphaxad; and thus they reckon his Genealogy. Salah was Son of Asaph, Son of Casrehh, Son of Hauver, Son of Chaber or Heber, Son of Themud, Son of Aram, Son of Shem, Son of Noah.

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