INTRODUZIONE
“A New World” è il primo libro di Mosè, più noto come la Genesi, raccontato in modo unico. Versi scorrevoli in rima baciata ed un incalzante ritmo trasportano il lettore dalle delizie verdeggianti del Giardino dell’Eden, oltre Noè e l’alluvione e le avventure di Abramo e Isacco, fino all’arrivo di Giuseppe in Egitto e la sua ascesa al potere come braccio destro del Faraone. Uno stile scanzonato ma mai irriverente, porta in vita i personaggi di questa storia biblica e fa di ‘A New World’ una lettura molto piacevole sia per bambini che per adulti.
Per trarre il massimo beneficio dalla traccia audio, si consiglia di fare l’ascolto almeno una volta prima di passare alla lettura del testo.
Laban’s
trick
[Genesis 29:1]
Jacob got to Haran soon, he’d set a cracking pace,
And stopped beside a water well to drink and wash his face.
But as he moved in closer his hopes and spirits fell,
A heavy-looking boulder was blocking up the well.
Then Jacob saw two shepherds and said, “I really think
You ought to roll that stone aside and let these poor sheep drink.”
They told him to be patient and wait a little while,
“Till all the sheep are gathered in,” they added with a smile.
Just then Jacob saw a girl approach the wells for water,
“That’s Rachel,” said the shepherds, “Laban’s youngest daughter.”
So Jacob rolled the stone away and watered Rachel’s sheep,
He kissed her, and in his joy, he couldn’t help but weep.
Laban was delighted to take his nephew in,
Jacob paid his way of course, by doing jobs for him.
When about a month had passed, Laban said one day,
“A relative who works for me deserves a proper pay.
How much do you want a month? What’s your time worth, sonny?”
Jacob pondered for a while, he hadn’t come for money.
He’d talked to Laban’s daughters and put them to the test,
The eldest, Leah, was tender-eyed, but Rachel was the best.
He said he’d work for seven more years on Laban’s farm and land,
If Laban promised, afterwards, to give him Rachel’s hand.
Jacob waited patiently till seven years had passed,
Then knocked on Laban’s door and said, “My time has come at last.”
Now Laban seemed an honest man, the kind to keep an oath,
In fact, he organised at once a party for them both.
But in the middle of the night, when all had drunk and fed,
He sent his eldest daughter in to warm young Jacob’s bed.
When Jacob cottoned on at last, alas, it was too late,
The damage could not be undone, the trick had sealed his fate.
Jacob knew he’d been deceived, he grumbled and he cursed,
But Laban said his eldest daughter had to marry first.
“However,” Laban quickly added, “here’s what you can do:
Work another seven years and marry Rachel too.
To make things even fairer,” he added as a perk,
“I’ll even let you marry first and then get down to work.”
And so, instead of one wife, he ended up with two,
There wasn’t really anything that he could say or do.
Though Rachel was his favourite and Leah he often cursed,
Leah was chosen by the Lord to start a family first.
But as the years went passing by, Rachel had kids too,
And Jacob’s little family grew and grew and grew.
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