Chapter IX

¹So listen, for I will tell you everything that happened to me and what was taken from me. ²For I had a hundred and thirty ³thousand sheep; and I set apart seven thousand of them to be shorn for the clothing of orphans, widows, the poor, and the helpless. ⁴I ⁵had a pack of eight hundred dogs that guarded my flocks; and I had another two hundred dogs that guarded ¹ So SV Slav.: P om. ‘my flocks … that guarded’. my house. I had nine thousand camels; and from them I selected three thousand and set them to work in various cities; ² Lit. ‘three thousand to work in every city’. and I loaded them with goods, and I sent them off into the cities and villages with instructions to go and distribute to the helpless and to those in want and to all the widows. ⁶I had a hundred and forty ³ So SV Slav.: P ‘thirty’. thousand asses in the pastures; and I set apart five hundred of them and gave orders that their foals ⁴ Lit. ‘offspring’. should be sold and the proceeds given to the poor and needy. ⁷And the poor ⁵ So V Slav.: PS ‘And all’. from all countries used to come and seek me out; ⁶ Lit. ‘come to meet me’. and the four doors of my house were ever open. ⁸And I would give my servants orders that these should be kept open: my aim was to ensure that no one should come asking for charity and see me sitting at the door, and turn away out of nervousness, and get nothing. My aim was rather that whenever people saw me sitting at one door, they should go in by another and get as much as they needed.