Noah (and Felix) arrived at 8.30 to tidy up the garden, something he does twice a year.
A spot of trimming and pruning, hedge cutting and washing the paving. All things I could do myself but prefer not to. Noah’s grandson is Nimrod, like Noah himself, a figure of uncertain historical veracity. Jacob’s dream in Genesis possibly explains the construction of the Tower of Babel, supervised by Nimrod.
“Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” “ (Genesis 28: 11 – 16)
There is much to ponder in this passage and it is easy to see how it has shaped a mindset, I mean the Lord promising to bring the Jews back to “this land’. There are loads of attempts to associate Nimrod with ancient kings but all I remember is he was a great hunter. Charles Apperley, a writer mainly on hunting and racing, adopted the name ‘Nimrod’ and more famously the ninth of Elgar’s Variation is ‘Nimrod’.
Gosh, Noah and Felix have finished and I can take Bertie out.