The Book of Jubilees
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Read: The Book of Enoch
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| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 |
These are the words of the division of days, according to the law and testimony, according to the events of the years, according to their sevens, according to their Jubilees, to all the years of the world, according to the word of the Lord on Mount Sinai to Moses, when he ascended to receive the stone tablets of the law and the commandments by the voice of the Lord when he said to him: "Ascend to the top of the mountain!" |
A Little Apocalypse of Israel 5And he said to him: "Incline thy heart to every word which I shall speak to thee, and write them into a book, in order that their generations may see how I have left them on account of all the evil which they do, in rebelling and in deserting the covenant which I established between me and thee this day on Mount Sinai for their generations. 6And it will be and these words shall declare it thus when all the punishments shall come over them, and they will know that I am more righteous than they in all their judgments and their desires, and they will know that I was with them. 7And thou, write for thyself all these words which I make known to thee this day (for I know their rebellion and their stiff neck) before I shall lead them into the land which I have sworn to their fathers, to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, saying, "To your seed I will give this land, which flows with milk and honey; and they shall eat and be satisfied. 8And they will turn themselves to false gods, who did not deliver them from all their oppression; and this testimony will be heard against them for a testimony. 9For they will forget all my ordinances which I have commanded them, and will walk after the gentiles and after their impurity and after their shame, and will serve their gods, and these will become for them an offence unto oppression and misfortune and for a trap. 10And many will be destroyed and will be taken captive and will fall into the hands of the enemy, because they have deserted my ordinances and my commands and the festivals of my covenant, and my sabbaths and that which I have sanctified to myself in their midst, and my tabernacle and my sanctuary which I have sanctified to myself in the midst of the land that I should set my name over it and it should dwell there. 11And they will make to themselves altars on heights and groves and sculptured idols, and each one will worship his own idol for sin, and they will offer their children to the demons and to all the deeds of the error of their hearts. 12And I will send witnesses to them that I may testify over them, but they will not hear and will slay my witnesses, and they will cast out those who seek the law, and will abolish the whole [law], and will begin to do evil before my eyes. 13And I will hide my face from them and I will deliver them over to the gentiles for captivity and for binding and for devouring and for expelling them from the midst of the land, and I shall scatter them in the midst of the gentiles. 14And they will forget all my law and all my commandments and all my judgment, and they will err in reference to new moons and sabbaths and festivals and jubilees and ordinances. 15And then they will turn themselves to me from the midst of the gentiles with all their hearts and all their soul and all their power, and I shall gather them from amongst all the gentiles, and they will seek me that I may be found for them when they seek me with all their heart and with all their soul, and I will open to them much peace and righteousness. 16And I will transplant them as a plant of righteousness, with all my heart and with all my soul, and they will be to me for a blessing and not for a curse, a head and not, a tail; and I will build up my sanctuary in their midst, and I will dwell with them, and I will be to them their God, and they shall be to me my people, in truth and in righteousness, and I will not desert them and will not deny them, for I am the Lord their God." 17And Moses fell down upon his face, and he prayed and said: "My Lord and my God, do not forsake thy people and thy inheritance to wander in the error of their hearts, and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies, the gentiles, that these may not rule over them, and that they do not make them to sin against thee. 18O Lord, let thy mercy be raised over thy people, and create for them a righteous mind, and let not the spirit of Beliar rule over them to accuse them before thee, to entrap them away from the path of righteousness, that they be destroyed from before thy face. 19But they are thy people and thy inheritance, which thou hast delivered from the hands of the Egyptians with thy great power; and create in them a clean heart and a holy spirit, and let them not be entrapped in their sins from now on and to eternity!" 20And the Lord said to Moses: "I know their contrariness and their thoughts and their stiff neck, and they will not obey until they learn their sins and the sins of their fathers. And after this they will turn to me in all righteousness and with their whole heart and with their whole soul, and I will circumcise the foreskin of their hearts and the foreskin of the hearts of their seed, and I will create for them a holy spirit, and will cleanse them so that they do not turn away from me from this day to eternity. 21And their souls will cling to me and to all my commandments, and my commandments shall return to them, and I will be to them a father, and they shall be to me children. And they shall all be called the children of the living God, and will know all things of the spirit and all things of service, and it will be known that they are my children and that I am their father in righteousness and in truth, and that I love them. 22And thou, write down for thyself all these words which I have this day made known to thee on this mountain, the first and the last and what is future, according to all the division of days in the law and in the testimony, and according to the weeks of the jubilees to eternity, until I descend and dwell with them in all eternity." 23And he said to the angel of the face: "Write for Moses from the beginning of creation until my sanctuary shall have been established in their midst for all eternity, and the Lord will have appeared to the eyes of all, and all will know that I am the God of Israel and the Father of all of the children of Jacob and King on Mount Zion from eternity to eternity. And Zion and Jerusalem will be holy." 24And the angel of the face, who went before the tents of Israel, took the tablets of the division of years from the time of the creation, the law and the testimony for the weeks and the jubilees, each year according to all its numbers and the jubilees according to years from the day of the new creation, when heaven and earth were created new, and also all creation according to the powers of heaven and all the creation of the earth, until then when the sanctuary of the Lord will be made in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and all the luminaries will be renewed for a healing and for peace and for a blessing for all the chosen of Israel, that it may be thus from this day on and to all the days of the world! {Top} |
The Orderliness of Creation 2And at that time we saw his work and praised him and lauded before him on account of all his work, for seven great things did he make on the first day. 3And on the second day he made a firmament between the waters, and the waters divided on this day, and half of it ascended upward, and half of it descended beneath the firmament over the face of the earth. And this work alone was made on the second day. 4And on the third day he did as he said to the waters that they should cross from the face of the whole earth to one place, and that dry land should appear. 5And he made the waters thus as he said to them, and they gathered from over the face of the earth into one place outside of this firmament, and the dry land appeared. 6And on that day he created for it [the water] the abysses of the seas, according to their separate gathering places, and all the rivers and the gathering places of the waters in the hills and in all the earth, and all the lakes, and all the dew of the earth, and the seed which is sown according to its kind, and every thing that is eaten, and the trees which bear fruit, and the wild trees, and the garden of Eden for pleasure; and all these four' great creations he made on the third day. 7And on the fourth day he made the sun and moon and stars and placed them in the firmament of heaven that they should shine over the earth and to rule over day and night and to divide between night and day and between darkness and light. 8And God established the sun as a great sign over the earth and for days and for sabbaths and for months and for festivals and for years and for jubilees and for all seasons of the years. 9And he shall divide between light and darkness and for prosperity that all things that sprout and grow on earth may prosper. 10These three kinds God made on the fourth day. 11And on the fifth day he created the great animals in the abysses of the seas (for these were the first things of flesh created by his hands), and every thing that moves in the waters, and the fishes and every thing that flies, the birds and their whole kind. 12And the sun arose over them to prosper them, and over all that was on the earth, every thing that sprouts out of the earth and all the trees that bear fruit and all flesh: these three kinds he made on the fifth day. 13And on the sixth day he made all the animals of the earth and all the beasts and every thing that moves over the earth.
14And after all this he made mankind, a single one; male and female he created them, and made him ruler over all things upon the earth and in the seas and over that which flies and over all the animals and beasts and over every thing that moves on the earth, and over the whole earth; and over all this he made him ruler.
15And these four kinds he made on the sixth day. And there were altogether twenty-two kinds.
And he caused that before him his commands should ascend like a sweet savor which should be acceptable before him all the days of the twenty-two heads of men from Adam to Jacob. And twenty-two kinds of works were made until this seventh day; this thing is blessed and holy, and the former too is blessed and holy: and this one with that one serves for a sanctification and blessing. 21And to this one was given that they should be for all days the blessed and holy ones of the testimony and the first law, just as he had blessed and sanctified the seventh day on the seventh day. 22He created heaven and earth and every thing that he created in six days, and the Lord established a holy festival day for all his creation; and therefore he commanded on its account that he who does any work on it shall die, and whoever defiles it shall surely die. 23And thou, command the children of Israel, and they shall observe this day, so that they keep it holy and do not work on it any work, and do not defile it; for it is holier than all the days. 24All who profane this day shall surely die, and all who do any work on it shall surely die forever; so that the children of Israel observe this day in their generations and be not rooted out of the land; for it is a holy day and a blessed day. 25And every man who observes it and keeps the sabbath on it away from all his work, will be blessed and holy for all his days like unto me. 26And announce and say to the children of Israel the law of this day, and that they shall observe the sabbath on it, and do not desert it in the error of their hearts, and that they be not engaged in doing any thing on it which should not be done, and that they do not prepare on it any thing that is eaten or drunk, nor draw water, nor on it carry in or bring out of their gates any thing that is carried, which they have not prepared for themselves as a work on the six days in their houses. 27And they shall not carry out or bring in on that day from one house to another, for this is a holy and blessed day over all the days of jubilees; on it we observed the sabbath in heaven, before it was known to any mortal to observe the sabbath on it on the earth. 28And the Creator of all blessed it; but he did not sanctify all nations and peoples to observe the sabbath on it, only Israel alone: to them alone he granted to eat and to drink and to observe sabbath on it on the earth. 29And the Creator of all blessed it, who had created this day for a blessing and a sanctification and for glory above all the days. 30This law and testimony was given to the children of Israel as a law forever to their generations. {Top} |
Adam Gets a Wife And on these five days Adam saw this: a male and a female in each kind that is on the earth, but that he was alone and could not find a companion who could be an aid to such as he; 3And God said to me: "It is not good that man should be alone: let us make for him a helpmeet like unto him." 4And the Lord our God caused a stupor to fall upon him and he slept, and he took for a wife one rib from amongst his ribs, and this rib was made into a woman from amongst his ribs, and he built flesh there in its place, and built a woman. 5And he awakened Adam out of his sleep, and awakening he arose on the sixth day and came to her and knew her and said unto her: "This is now bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh: this one shall be called my wife, for she came and originated from man." 6For this reason man and wife shall be one, and for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and will connect himself with his wife, and they shall be one flesh. 7And in the first seventh was Adam created, and his wife in his side, and in the second seventh he showed her to him, and on that account the command was given to observe in their defilement seven days for a male and twice seven days for a female. 8And when Adam had completed forty days in the land where he had been created, we brought him into the garden of Eden, that he should work it and watch it; but his wife they brought in on the eightieth day, and after this she entered the garden; and on this account the commandment is written on the tablets of heaven in reference to her that gives birth, that "if she brings forth a male, she shall remain in her uncleanness seven days according to the first week of days, and thirty days shall she abide in the blood of purifying, and she shall touch nothing holy and shall not enter into the sanctuary until these days are completed for her who has a male child. 9But she who has a female child shall remain in her uncleanness two weeks, according to the first two weeks, and sixty-six days in the blood of purifying, and all the days for her shall be eighty." 10And she having completed these eighty days we brought her into the garden of Eden, for it is holy above the whole earth, and every tree that is planted in it is holy. And on this account was ordained concerning her that gives birth to a male or female this law for these days, that they shall touch nothing holy nor enter a sanctuary until these days for a male or a female are completed. This law and testimony was given and written for the children of Israel that they should observe it all the days. 12And in the first week of the first jubilee Adam and his wife were in the garden of Eden seven years working and watching it; and we gave them work and taught them to work every thing that offered itself for work.
13And he labored and was naked and did not know it and was not ashamed, and he watched the garden against the birds and the animals and the beasts, and gathered its fruits and ate and laid aside the rest for himself and his wife, and laid aside that which he had guarded for himself.
20And God cursed the serpent and was enraged at it forever; and he was enraged at the woman also, because she had obeyed the voice of the serpent, and he said to her: "I shall surely increase thy pains and thy trouble; in thy pains bear children, and to thy husband be thy refuge, and he shall be thy lord."
21And to Adam he said: "Because thou didst obey the voice of thy wife and didst eat from this tree of which I had commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, let the earth be cursed on account of thy deed; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth for thee; and eat thou thy bread in the sweat of thy brow until thou returnest to the earth from which thou hast been taken; for earth thou art, and to earth thou shalt return."
22And he made for them garments of skin and clothed them, and sent them from the garden.
24And on that day was closed the mouth of all the animals and of the beasts and of the birds and of whatever walks and of whatever moves, so that they could not speak; for they all had spoken with each other one lip and one tongue. 25And he sent out of the garden of Eden all flesh that was in the garden of Eden, and all flesh was scattered according to its kinds and according to its natures to the places which had been created for them. 26And to Adam alone did he give to cover his shame, of all the animals and beasts. 27On this account it is commanded in the tablets of heaven concerning all who know the judgment of the law, that they shall cover their shame and shall not uncover themselves as the gentiles uncover themselves. 28And at the new moon of the fourth month Adam and his wife came out of the garden of Eden and dwelt in the land of Elda, in the land of their creation. 29And Adam called the name of his wife Eve. 30And they did not have a son until the first jubilee year; and after this he knew her. 31But he cultivated the land, as he had been taught in the garden of Eden. {Top} |
Cain Murders Abel 7And Adam and his wife mourned for Abel four weeks of years; and in the fourth year of the fifth week he became joyful and knew his wife again, and she brought forth for him a son, and they called his name Seth; for he said: "The Lord has raised up for us a second seed on the earth in the place of Abel; for Cain slew him."
8In the sixth week he begat his daughter Azura.
9And Cain took Awan his sister to himself as wife, and she brought forth for him Enoch at the end of the fourth jubilee. And in the first year of the first week of the fifth jubilee houses were built on the earth, and Cain built a city, and called it by the name of his son Enoch.
10And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she brought forth yet nine sons.
13And in the seventh jubilee, in the fifth week, Enos took Noem his sister to himself as wife, and she brought forth for him a son in the third year of the fifth week, and called his name Cainan.
14And at the end of the eighth jubilee Cainan took to himself as wife Mualet his sister, and she bore for him a son in the ninth jubilee, in the first week, in the third year of this week, and he called his name Malalel.
15And in the second week of the tenth jubilee Malalel took unto himself as wife Sina, the daughter of Barakhel, the daughter of the sister of his father, and she bore him a son in the third week, in the sixth year, and he called his name Jared; for in his days the angels of the Lord descended upon the earth, those that are called Watchmen, that they should teach the children of men to do judgment and right over the earth.
16And in the eleventh jubilee Jared took to himself a wife, and her name was Baraka, a daughter of Rasujel, a daughter of the sister of his father, in the fourth week of this jubilee; and she bore for him a son in the fifth week, in the fourth year, of this jubilee, and he called his name Enoch.
23And he testified to the Watchmen, those that sinned with the daughters of men; for they had commenced to mix with the daughters of the earth, so that they were defiled; and Enoch testified against them all. 24And he was removed from the midst of the children of men, and we conducted him into the garden of Eden for greatness and for honor, and behold here he was engaged in writing down the judgment and the eternal condemnation and all the wickedness of the sons of the children of men. 25And on his account God brought the deluge over the whole land of Eden; for there he was set as a sign and that he should testify over all the sons of the children of men, that he should declare all the deeds of the generations until the day of judgment. 26And he offered a burnt offering on the west side of the sanctuary which was pleasing before the Lord on the hill of the south; for there are four places to the Lord on earth: the garden of Eden and the hill of the east in it, and this hill on which thou art today, the hill of Sinai, and the hill of Zion, which will be sanctified in the new creation for a sanctification of the earth: through it the earth will be sanctified from all its sin and its uncleanness to the generation of eternity.
30At the end of this jubilee Cain was killed, after him, in the same year; and his house fell upon him, and he died in the midst of the house, and he was killed with his stones, for with a stone he had killed Abel, and with a stone he was killed by a judgment of righteousness. 31On this account it is ordained in the tablets of heaven: "With the instrument with which a man kills his neighbor, he shall be killed; as he wounded him shall thus they do to him." 32And in the fifty-fifth jubilee Noah took to himself a wife, and her name was Emzarah, the daughter of Rakel the daughter of his sister in the first year, in the fifth week; and in the third year thereof she bore him Shem, in the fifth year thereof she bore him Ham, and in the first year in the sixth week she bore him Japhet. {Top} |
The Sin of the Angels 5And concerning the angels whom he had sent upon the earth, he was greatly enraged, that he would root them out of all their power; and he said to us that we should bind them in the depths of the earth; and behold they are bound in the midst of them and separate.
6And against their children came a word from before the face of the Lord, that they should be slain with a sword and be removed from under heaven.
7And he said: "My spirit shall not abide over men forever, for they are flesh; and let their days be one hundred and twenty years."
8And he sent into their midst his sword that each should slay his neighbor; and they began to slay one the other until they all fell upon the sword and were destroyed from the earth.
9And their fathers witnessed it; and after this these were bound in the depths of the earth, until the day of the great judgment for the coming of punishment unto eternity over all those who have corrupted their ways and their works before the Lord.
10And he destroyed all their places, and there was not left a single one of them who was not judged according to all their wickedness. 22And the Lord opened seven flood-gates of heaven and the mouths of the fountains of the great deep, seven mouths in number. 23And the flood-gates began to pour down water from heaven forty days and forty nights, and the fountains of the deep also sent up waters, until the whole world was full of water. 24And the water increased upon the earth: fifteen ells the waters were raised over all the high mountains, and the ark was lifted above the earth and moved upon the face of the waters. 25And the water remained standing upon the face of the earth five months, one hundred and fifty days. 26And the ark proceeded and rested upon the top of Lubar, one of the mountains of Ararat. 27And in the fourth month the fountains of the great deep were closed, and the flood-gates of heaven were restrained, and in the new moon of the seventh month all the mouths of the deep of the earth were opened, and the water began to descend into the deep below. 28And in the new moon of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible, and in the new moon of the first month the earth became visible. 29And the waters disappeared from above the earth in the fifth week, in the seventh year thereof, and on the seventeenth day in the second month the earth became dry. 30And on the twenty-seventh thereof he opened the ark and sent out of it the animals and the beasts and the birds and whatever moves. {Top} |
The Flood Subsides 3And the Lord smelt the sweet savour, and he made with him a covenant that there should no more be a flood upon the earth which would destroy the earth: all the days of the earth, seed and harvest shall not cease, frost and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not change their order and shall not cease forever.
4"And ye, grow and increase on the earth and increase over it, and be for a blessing in its midst: your fear and your terror I will put upon every thing that is on the earth and in the sea.
5And, behold, I have given you all the animals and all the beasts and every thing that flies and every thing that moves on the earth and the fish in the waters and all things for food; like the herbs of grass, I have given them all to you to eat.
6Only flesh in which is its life with blood ye shall not eat: for the blood is the soul of all flesh, so that your blood in your souls be not demanded of you.
7From the hands of each one I will demand the blood of a man; every one that sheddeth the blood of a man, by the hand of a man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God did he create Adam.
8But ye, grow and increase upon the earth."
22And Noah ordained them for himself as festivals for future generations, for on them there was to him a remembrance.
23At the new moon of the first month it was said to him that he should make for himself an ark, and on it the earth became dry, and he opened the ark and saw the earth. And at the new moon of the fourth month the mouth of the flood-gates of the lowest deep was closed.
24And at the new moon of the seventh month all the mouths of the flood-gates of the earth were opened and the waters began to descend into the depth beneath.
25And at the new moon of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared, and Noah became glad.
26And on this account he ordained them as festivals of remembrance unto himself unto eternity, and thus they are ordained.
27And they were raised into the tablets of heaven: thirteen sabbaths to each, from one to another their remembrance, from the first to the second, from the second to the third, from the third to the fourth.
28And all the days of this commandment are fifty-two sabbaths of days, and the whole year is completed.
29Thus it is engraved and ordained in the tablets of heaven, and there is no transgression from one year to another. |
Noah's Vineyard 20"And we were left, I and you, my sons, and everything that entered with us into the ark, and behold I am the first to see your works that ye do not walk in righteousness, for in the path of destruction have you commenced to walk, and are separating yourselves each from his neighbor, and are envious the one of the other, and are not in harmony each with his neighbor and his brother. 21And yet, my sons, for I see and behold the satans have commenced to lead astray you and your children; and now I fear on your behalf that after my death ye will spill the blood of men over the face of the earth, and that ye too will be destroyed from its face. 22For every one that sheds the blood of any man, and every one that eats the blood in any flesh, shall all be destroyed from the earth. 23And there shall not be left any man who eats blood and who sheds blood upon the earth, and there shall not be left alone for him any seed or children under heaven; for they will go into Sheol, and into the place of judgment they will descend, in the darkness of the deep they will all be cast by a terrible death. 24With regard to all blood over you which is in all the days that ye sacrifice an animal or a beast or whatever flies over the earth, and do a good deed concerning your souls in your covering of that which has been spilt over the face of the earth. 25And ye shall not be like him that eats with blood; be strong that no one eat blood in your presence. Bury the blood in the earth; for as I have been commanded, I testify to you and your children together with all flesh. 26And ye shall not eat the soul with the meat, that ye be not those of whom your blood, that is, your soul, be demanded from the hands of every one that sheddeth blood on the earth. 27For the earth will, not be clean of the blood which has been spilt upon it, but only by the blood of him that shed it will the earth be cleansed in all the generations of the earth. 28"And now, my children, obey and practise righteousness and justice so that ye be planted in righteousness upon the whole face of the earth, and that your renown be elevated before my God who has saved me from the water of the deluge. 29And behold, ye will proceed and build for yourselves cities and will plant in them all the plants that are upon the earth and every tree that bears fruit; for three years its fruit shall not be gathered to eat it, and in the fourth year the fruit shall be sanctified, and the first fruits which they gather shall be brought before the Lord our God the Most High, who created heaven and earth and all things, so that they bring in fatness the first of the wine and oil as first fruits upon the altar of the Lord who receives it; and what is left the servants of the house of the Lord shall eat before the altar which he has accepted. 30And in the fifth year make the release, so that ye release them in righteousness and justice, and you shall be just and all your plants shall be right. 31For thus did Enoch, the father of your father Methusaleh, command his sons, and Methusaleh his son Lamech, and Lamech commanded me all the things which his father commanded him; but I command it to you, my children, just as Enoch commanded his son in his first jubilee; while he was alive, in his generation the seventh, he commanded and testified to his son and to the sons of his sons until the day of his death." {Top} |
The Science of the Watchmen Rediscovered 4And in the thirtieth jubilee, in the second week, in the first year thereof, he took to himself a wife, and her name was Milka, the daughter of Abadai, the son of Japhet, and in the fourth year she bore him a son, and he called his name Sala, for he said, "Verily, I have been sent away."
5And in the fourth year Sala was born, and he grew up and took to himself a wife, and her name was Muak, the daughter of Kesed, the brother of his father, in the thirty-first jubilee, in the fifth week, in the first year thereof. And she bore him a son in the fifth year, and he called his name Ebor; and he took to himself a wife, and her name was Azurad, the daughter of Nebrod, in the thirty-second jubilee, in the seventh week, in the third year thereof.
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The Further Dividing of Ham |
Noah's Prayer of Deliverance Noah the Scribe 11And Noah wrote all these down in a book as we instructed him, concerning every kind of medicines, and the evil spirits were held away from the sons of Noah. Shem, Keeper of the Oracles of God 11And he gave all the writings which he had written to Shem, his oldest son, for him he loved exceedingly above all his children. The Repose of Noah 11And Noah slept with his fathers and was buried on Mount Lubar, in the land of Ararat.
14Nine hundred and fifty years he completed in his life; nineteen jubilees and two weeks and five years; he excelled in his life on the earth the children of men on account of his righteousness, in which he was perfect, with the exception of Enoch.
15For the history of Enoch is made a testimony to the generations of eternity to announce all the deeds of the generation on the day of judgment.
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11 In the thirty-fifth jubilee, in the third week, in the first year thereof, Ragev took unto himself a wife, and her name was Ora, the daughter of Or, the daughter of the son of Kesed, and she bore him a son, and he called his name Serug, in the seventh year of this week of this jubilee.
21And there came to him in this year all those that had sowed seed, and he would go with them until the time of sowing in the land ceased, and they sowed in their land, and in this year they brought home grain, and ate it and were satisfied. 22And in the fifth year of the fifth week Abram taught those who make the instruments for oxen, the workmen in wood, and they made utensils over the earth, opposite the crook timber of the plows in order to put the seed thereon, and to let the seed fall out of it into the seed furrows. 23And it was hidden in the earth, and they no longer feared the ravens; and thus they did on all the crook-timber of the plows over the earth, and they sowed and worked the land each one as Abram had commanded them, and no longer feared the ravens. {Top} |
Abram Opposes False Religion And he said, "Behold, here I am, my son!" 2And he said: "What assistance and what pleasure have we from all the idols which thou dost worship and before which thou dost prostrate thyself? 3For there is no spirit in them, but they are dumb statues and a deception of the heart: do not worship them. 4Worship the God of heaven, who sends down dew and rain upon the earth and does everything upon the earth and has created everything through his word and all living things are from before his face. 5Why do ye worship those who have no heart and spirit in them; for they are the works of hands, and upon your shoulders do ye carry them, and ye have from them no help, but a great disgrace to those who make them and a deception of the heart to those who worship them: do not worship them!" 6And Tarah said: "I also know it, my son; but what shall I do with this people who command me that I should serve them? 7If I tell them the truth, they will slay me; for their soul clings to them to worship and to glorify them. 8Keep silent, my son, lest they slay thee!" 9And these words he spoke to his two brothers, and they became angry at him, and he kept silent.
10And in the fortieth jubilee, in the second week, in the seventh year thereof, Abram took to himself a wife, and her name was Sara, the daughter of his father, and she became to him a wife.
11And Aran, his brother, took to himself a wife in the third year of this week, and his wife bare him a son in the seventh year of this week, and he called his name Lot.
12And Nachor also, his brother, took to himself a wife.
16And Tarah went away from Ur of the Chaldees, he and his sons, in order to come into the land of the Lebanon and into the land of Canaan; and he dwelt in Haran, and Abram dwelt with his father Tarah in Haran two weeks of years.
18And a word came into his heart, and he said: "All the signs of the stars and the signs of the sun and of the moon are all in the hand of the Lord; why do I search them out? 19If he desires, he causes it to rain, morning and evening; and if he desires, he causes it to descend, and all things are in his hands." 20And he prayed in that night, and said: "My God, God Most High, thou alone art a God to me, and thou hast created all things, and all things that are are the works of thy hand, and thee and thy godship have I chosen. 21Deliver me from the hands of the evil spirits who reign over the thoughts of the hearts of men, and let them not lead me astray from thee, my God, and cause thou me and my seed in eternity not to go astray from now on and to eternity! 22And I say, shall I return to Ur of the Chaldees, who seek my face, that I should return to them; or shall I remain here in this place; the right path before thee prosper in the hands of thy servant, that he may follow it and not walk in the error of my heart, O my God!" 23He completed his words and prayer, and, behold, the Lord sent a word to him through me, saying: "Up, go thou out of thy country, and out of thy kindred, and out of the house of thy father, into a land which I will show to thee, and I will make thee in the land which is great into a great and numerous people.
24And I will bless thee and will make thy name great, and thou shalt be blessed in the land, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in thee; those that bless thee I will bless, and those that curse thee I will curse.
25And I will be a God to thee and to thy children and to thy children's children and to all thy seed, and behind thee will be thy God.
26Fear not, from now on to all the generations of the earth I am thy God."
29And it happened in the seventh year of the sixth week, and he spoke with his father, and informed him that he would go from Haran to go to the land of Canaan to see it and to return to him. 30And Tarah, his father, said to him: "Go in peace! the God of the worlds make straight thy path, and the Lord be with thee and protect thee from all evil, and give to thee good will and mercy and grace before those who see thee; and may none of the sons of men come over thee to do thee evil; go in peace! 31And if thou seest a land pleasant to thy eyes to dwell in it, then up, and take me with thee; and take Lot with thee, the son of Aran thy brother, as thy son, and God be with thee. 32But Nachor thy brother leave with me until thou returnest in peace and we go with thee together." {Top} |
Abram Enters the Land of Promise 2And the Lord said to him: "To thee and to thy seed I will give this land." 3And he built an altar there, and brought upon it a sacrifice to the Lord who had appeared to him. 4And he arose from there, with the hill Bethel toward the sea, and Ai to the east, and fixed his tent there. 5And he saw, and, behold, the land was pleasant and extended and very wide, and every thing grew on it, vines and figs and pomegranates and terebinths and oil trees and cedars and Lebanon trees and cypresses and all the trees of the field; and water was upon the hills. 6And he blessed the Lord who had led him out of Ur of the Chaldees and brought him to this hill. 7And it happened in the first year, in the seventh week, at the new moon of the first month, that he built an altar on this hill, and called upon the name of the Lord: "Thou art my God, the God unto eternity."
8And he placed upon the altar a sacrifice unto the Lord, that he should be with him and should not desert him all the days of his life.
12And Pharaoh brought back Sara, the wife of Abram, and sent him out of the land of Egypt; and he came to a place where he had first fixed his tent, at the place of the altar at Age to the east of Bethel, and he went and blessed the Lord his God who had brought him back in peace. 13And it happened in the forty-first jubilee, in the third year of the first week, he returned to this place, and placed upon it a burnt sacrifice, and called upon the name of the Lord, and said: "Thou, O Lord, Most High God, art my God to all eternity."
18And Abram went to Hebron and dwelt there. 19And in that year came Kolodogomor, the king of Elam, and Emalphel, the king of Sinar, and Ariok, the king of Selasar, and Tirgal, the king of the gentiles, and slew the king of Gomorrha, and the king of Sodom fled, and many fell by wounds in Sedemav and in the salt-district, and they took captive Sodom and Adam and Sheboem, and Lot also, the son of the brother of Abram, and all his possessions, and went to Dan. 20And one who had escaped came and told Abram, that the son of the brother of Abram had been taken captive. 21And the house-servant brought for Abram and his seed the first tenth to the Lord, and the Lord ordained it as an ordinance to eternity, that they should give this to the priests who served before him, that they should possess it forever. 22And to this law is not a limit of days, but it is ordained to the generation of eternity, that they should give the tenth to the Lord, of their seed and of their wine and of their oil and of their oxen and of their sheep. 23And he gave it to his priests to eat and to drink in joy before him. 24And the king of Sodom came to him and bowed down before him, and said: "Our lord Abram, give us the souls thou hast saved, but let the booty be thine." 25And Abram said to him: "I lift up my hands to God on high, from a thread to a shoe-latchet I will take nothing from all that is thine, so that thou sayest not, 'I have made Abram rich,' only except what the youths have eaten and the portion for the men who came with me, Avnan, Eskol, and Mamre, these shall take their share." {Top} |
Abram's Promise of an Heir 2And he said: "O Lord, Lord, what wilt thou give me, and I have no son; and the son of Masek, the son of my maid-servant, this Eleazer of Damascus, he will be my heir; but to me thou hast not given any seed." 3And he said to him: "This one will not be thy heir, but he that comes from thy body, he will be thy heir." 4And he took him without and said to him: "Look upon the heavens and see the stars of heaven, if thou art able to count them." 5And he looked at the heavens and saw the stars; and he said to him: "Thus shall be thy seed." 6And he believed the Lord, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 7And he said to him: "I am the Lord thy God, who have brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, that I might give thee the land of Canaan for an eternal possession, and I will be to thee and thy children after thee a God." 8And he said: "O Lord, Lord, by what am I to know that I shall inherit it?" 9And he said to him: "Take to thyself a heifer of three years, and a goat of three years, and a sheep of three years, and a turtledove and a pigeon." 10And he took all these in the middle of the month, and he dwelt near the oak Mamre, which is near Hebron, and he built there an altar, and sacrificed all these and poured their blood upon the altar, and divided them into halves and laid them opposite each other; but the birds he did not divide.
12And birds descended upon the pieces, and Abram drove them away and would not suffer the birds to touch them.
13And it happened when the sun had set, a stupor fell upon Abram, and, behold, a great horror of darkness fell upon him, and it was spoken to Abram: "Know, in truth that thy seed will be a stranger in a strange land, and they will make them servants and oppress them four hundred years.
14But the nation which, they serve I will judge, and after that they will go out from there with many possessions.
15And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace and shalt be buried in a good age.
16And in the fourth generation they shall return hither, for not yet are the sins of the Amorites completed."
19And Abram went and took up the pieces and the birds and the fruit and the drink offerings, and the fire devoured them. 20And on that day we made a covenant with Abram according to the covenant which he had made in this month with Noah; and Abram renewed the festival and ordinance for himself unto eternity. 21And Abram rejoiced and told all these things to Sara, his wife, and he believed that he would have seed; but she did not bring forth. And Sara advised her husband Abram, and said to him: "Go in to Hagar, my Egyptian maid; it is possible that he will raise up for thee seed from her." 22And Abram obeyed the voice of Sara, his wife, and said to her, "Do it!" and Sara took her Egyptian maid Hagar and gave her to Abram, her husband, that she should become his wife. 23And he went in to her, and she conceived and bore him a son, and he called his name Ishmael, in the fifth year of this week: and this was the eighty-sixth year of the life of Abram. {Top} |
Abram Receives a New Name 2And the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him: "I am the omnipotent God; be pleasing to me and be perfect, and I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and will increase thee exceedingly." 3And Abram fell down on his face.
4And the Lord spoke to him and said: "Behold my ordinance is with thee, and I will make thee the father of many nations, and thy name shall no longer be called Abram, and thy name henceforth and to eternity shall be Abraham, for I will make thee a father of many nations, and I will make thee exceedingly great, and will cause nations and kings to proceed from thee.
5And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and between thy seed after thee in their generations, as an ordinance of eternity, that I will be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee in their generations, and I will give thee the land where thou art a stranger, the land of Canaan, that thou shalt be ruler over it to eternity, and I will be their God."
10And Abraham fell upon his face and rejoiced, and he said in his heart: "Should there be born a son to one of a hundred years, and shall Sarah, who is ninety, yet bring forth!" 11And Abraham said to the Lord: "O that Ishmael might live before thee!" 12And the Lord said: "Yea, and Sarah also shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my eternal covenant with him and with his seed after him. 13And also in reference to Ishmael have I heard thee, and, behold, I will bless him, and I will make him great and will increase him exceedingly, and twelve princes he will beget, and I will make him a great nation; but I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear for thee, in these days, in the second year." 14And having ended speaking with him, the Lord ascended from over above Abraham.
15And Abraham did as the Lord had said to him, and took Ishmael his son, and all the members of his household, and those whom he had bought with gold, all the males that were in his house, and circumcised the flesh of their sexual member.
16And at the time of these days Abraham was circumcised, and all the men of his house and all whom he had bought with gold from among the sons of the strangers were circumcised with him.
22For Ishmael and his sons and his brothers and Esau the Lord did not permit to approach him and did not choose them, for the sons of Abraham are those he acknowledged, and he chose Israel to be his people. 23And he sanctified it and collected it from among all the children of men, for there are many nations and many peoples, and all are his, and over all has he appointed spirits to rule, that they should lead them astray from him, but over Israel, he did not appoint any ruler, neither an angel nor a spirit, but he alone is their ruler, and he preserves them, and he contends for them against the hands of his angels and his spirits and all; and they shall keep all his commandments, and he will bless them, and they shall be his, and he will be theirs, from now on and to eternity. 24And from now on I will announce to you that the children of Israel will break faith with this ordinance, and will not circumcise their sons according to this whole law, for they will omit this circumcision of the children on the flesh of their circumcision, and they all, the sons of Belial, will leave their children without circumcision as they were born. 25And the wrath upon the children of Israel will be great from the Lord, for they have deserted his covenant, and have departed from his word, and enrage him and blaspheme him, as they do not observe this ordinance according to this sign, for they make their members like the gentiles for being torn and rooted out of the land. And no longer is there forgiveness or pardon for them that all their sin may be forgiven and pardoned for this error to eternity. {Top} |
The Birth of Isaac Announced 4And when we returned to her in a fixed time then she was pregnant with a son. 5And in this month the Lord carried out the judgments of Sodom and Gomorrah and Sebruem and all the circuit of the Jordan, and burnt them with fire and brimstone, and demolished them unto the present day, according to what we have made known to thee concerning all their actions, that they were terrible and very sinful and they defiled themselves and committed fornication and uncleanness over the earth. 6And accordingly the Lord inflicted judgment upon all the places by the hand of his servants, according to the uncleanness of Sodom, according to the judgment of Sodom. 7But Lot we saved, for the Lord remembered Abraham, and led him out of the destruction. 8And he and his daughters committed sin on the earth, such as had not been from the days of Adam until now, for the man lay with his daughters. 9And, behold, it is commanded and engraven concerning all his seed on the tablets of heaven, that they should tear them out and root them out and judge them according to the judgment of Sodom, and that no seed should be left this man on the earth in the day of judgment. 10And in this month Abraham migrated from Hebron, and dwelt between Kades and Shur in the mountains of Geraron. 11And in the middle of the fifth month he migrated from there and dwelt at the well of the oath. And in the middle of the sixth month the Lord visited Sarah, and did to her as he had said to her, and she conceived and bore a son. And in the third month, in the middle of the month, in the days which the Lord had said to Abraham, on the festival of the first harvest, Isaac was born; and Abraham circumcised his son on the eighth day: he was the first one circumcised in the covenant as it was ordained forever. 12And in the sixth year, in this month, of the fourth week, we came to Abraham to the well of the oath, and we appeared to him as we had told Sarah, that we would come to her, but she became pregnant with a son, and we returned in the seventh month and found Sarah pregnant before us, and we blessed her and told her all things that had been commanded us concerning him that he should not die until six sons had been born to him, and that he would see them before he should die; but that in Isaac his name and seed should be called. 13And all the seed of his other sons will become gentiles and will be numbered with the gentiles; but from the sons of Isaac one shall become a holy seed and shall not be numbered among the gentiles.
14For he shall become the portion of the Most High, and among those of whom God is ruler will be his abode and all his seed, that it become a seed of the Lord, a nation of inheritance among all the nations, and that it may be a kingdom and a priesthood and a holy nation.
17And in these seven days Abraham would bring every single day upon the altar a burnt offering to the Lord, two oxen, seven sheep, one young goat, on account of his sins that thereby these might be forgiven him and his seed, and as an offering of salvation seven rams, seven goats, and their fruit offering and their drink offering; over all the fat thereof he burnt incense upon the altar as a sacrifice chosen to the Lord as a sweet savor. 18At mornings and evenings he burnt frankincense, galbanum, stakte and wood and myrrh and spice and costum; all these seven he brought, united with each other in equal parts and clean. 19And thus he celebrated his festival seven days, rejoicing with his whole heart and his whole soul, he and all those that were in his house; and there was not any stranger with him nor any bastard. 20And he blessed his Creator who had created him in his generation, for according to his pleasure did he create him; for he knew and observed that from him would come the plant of righteousness for the generations of eternity, and that from him should also come the holy seed, like him who had made all things. 21And he blessed his Creator, and he was glad, and he called the name of this festival the festival of the Lord with a joy acceptable to the Most High God. 22And we blessed him forever and all his seed after him in all the generations of the world on this earth, because he celebrated this festival in its house according to the testimony of the tablets of heaven. 23On this account it is ordained in the tablets of heaven concerning Israel that they shall celebrate the festival of the tabernacles seven days in joy, in the seventh month, that it be accepted before the Lord as an eternal law in the generations of all the years. 24And to this there is no limit of days, but it is ordained over Israel as a festival that they shall observe it, and shall dwell in tents, and shall place wreaths upon their heads, and they shall take a willow branch with foliage from the brook. 25And Abraham took the heart of the palm and good fruit of trees, and every day and day he would go around the altar with the branches, seven times a day, and in the morning he praised and thanked his God for all things in joy. {Top} |
The Expulsion of Ishmael 4And when Sarah saw that Ishmael was playing and growing, and that Abraham was rejoicing exceedingly, she became jealous of Ishmael, and she said to Abraham: "Drive away this slave and her son, for the son of this one shall not inherit with my son Isaac." 5And these words were grievous in the eyes of Abraham, on account of his maid, and on account of his son, that he should drive them away from him. 6And the Lord said to Abraham: "Let it not be grievous in thy eyes concerning the child, and concerning the slave; all that Sarah says to thee, hear her words and do them, for in Isaac shall thy name and thy seed be called for thee. 7But the son of this slave I will make into a great nation, for he is of thy seed. 8And Abraham arose early in the morning and took bread and a bag of water and put them upon the shoulders of Hagar and of the boy and sent them away. 9And she went wandering about in the desert Beer-Sheba; and the water was finished from the bag, and the boy was thirsty, and was not able to walk, and he fell down. 10And his mother took him, and going, threw him under an olive tree, and she went and sat down opposite him, the distance of an arrow shot, saying: "I cannot see the death of my child"; and she sat weeping. 11And an angel of God, one of the holy ones, said to her: "Why dost thou weep, Hagar? arising, take the boy, and lead him by the hand, for the Lord has heard thy voice." 12And she looked at the bag and opened her eyes and saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bag with water and gave her boy to drink, and she arose and went toward the desert of Paran. 13And the boy grew and became a horseman, and the Lord was with him.
14And his mother took for him a wife from among the daughters of Egypt, and she bore him a son, and he called his name Nabemoth, for she said: "The Lord was near to me when I cried out to him."
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Abraham is to Sacrifice Isaac And he said to him, "Behold, O Lord, here I am." 2And he said to him: "Take thy son Isaac whom thou lovest, and go into the high land, and take him upon one of the hills which I will show thee." 3And he arose in the morning from there and saddled his ass, and took two young men with him, and Isaac his son, and split the wood for a sacrifice, and he came to the place on the third day, and saw the place from afar. 4And he came to a well of water, and he said to the young men: "Remain here with the ass, and I and the boy will go on and will worship, and after worshipping will return to you." 5And he took the wood for the sacrifice and put it upon the shoulders of his son Isaac and he took in his hands the fire and the knife, and the two went together to that place. 6And Isaac said to his father: "My father." 7And he said to him: "Behold, here I am, my son." 8And he said "Behold here is the fire, and the knife, and the wood; but where, my father, is the sheep for the sacrifice?" 9And he said: "The Lord will show me the sheep for the sacrifice, my son." 10And he came to the place of the hill of the Lord, and he built an altar and laid the wood upon the altar, and tied Isaac his son and placed him upon the wood over the altar, and he stretched out his hands to take the knife to sacrifice Isaac, 11And I stood before him God and before the prince Mastema, and the Lord said: "Tell him not to lay his hand upon the boy and to do him no harm; for I know that he fears the Lord." 12And the Lord called to him from heaven and said to him: "Abraham! Abraham!" and he was frightened and said: "Behold, here I am." 13And he said to him: "Do not lay thy hands upon the boy, and do him no harm, for now I know that thou fearest the Lord, and hast not spared from me thy first-born son." 14And the prince Mastema was confounded; and Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold a ram held fast with his horns. 15And Abraham went and took the ram and brought him as a sacrifice in the place of his son Isaac. 16And Abraham called this place "The Lord seeth", so that it is said "The Lord saw it" for Mount Zion. 17And the Lord called Abraham by name a second time from heaven as he had appeared to us that we should speak to him in the name of the Lord. 18And he said: "By my head, I swear, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing and hast not spared from me thy firstborn son whom thou lovest, therefore I will surely bless thee and will surely increase thy head like the stars of heaven and like the sand of the shore of the sea. 19And thy seed shall inherit the cities of their enemy, and in thy seed shall be blessed all the nations of the earth, for this that thou hast listened to my voice and hast shown unto all that thou art faithful unto me in all that I say to thee; go in peace." 20And Abraham went to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-Sheba, and Abraham dwelt near the well of the oath; and he celebrated this festival in all the years, seven days in joy, and called it "the festival of the Lord", according to the seven days in which he had gone and returned in peace. 21And thus it is, and it is engraven and written in the tablets of heaven concerning Israel and its seed to keep this festival seven days in joy. {Top} |
The Repose of Sarah 5But they begged him, saying: "We will give it to thee"; and he did not take anything from them for nothing, for he gave the price for the place, perfect, silver; and he bowed down before them twice, and then he buried the body in the double cave.
6And all the days of the life of Sarah were one hundred and twenty-seven years, and this is two jubilees and four weeks and one year; those are the days of the years of the life of Sarah. 9And in the fourth year thereof he took a wife for Isaac his son, and her name was Rebecca, the daughter of Betuel, the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. 10And Abraham took to himself a third wife, and her name was Keturah, from among the sons of his household, for Hagar had died before Sarah. 11And she bore him six sons, Zambari, and Joksan, and Madai, and Ejazbok, and Sachai in the second week of years. 12And in the sixth week, in the second year, Rebecca bore to Isaac two sons, Jacob and Esau: but Jacob was pious and righteous and Esau was a rough man, a tiller of the field and hairy, but Jacob dwelt within tents.
13And the youths grew, and Jacob learned writing; but Esau did not learn it, for he was a man of the field and a hunter, and learned war and all rough deeds.
14But Abraham loved Jacob, but Isaac loved Esau.
15And Abraham saw the deeds of Esau, and he knew that his name and seed should be called for him in Jacob, and he called Rebecca, and commanded her concerning Jacob, for he saw that she too loved Jacob much more than Esau.
20And he called Jacob before the eyes of his mother Rebecca, and he kissed him, and blessed him, and said to him; "My beloved son Jacob, whom my soul loveth, may God bless thee from the firmament above and give thee all the blessings with which he blessed Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, and Shem, and all that he has conversed with me and all that he has said that he would give me, may he fasten these to thee and to thy seed to eternity, according to the days of heaven over the earth. 21And the spirits of Mastema shall not become masters over thee and over thy seed to remove thee from the Lord who is thy God, from now on and to eternity. 22And may the Lord God be thy father, and thou his first-born son, and his people for all days: go, my son, in peace!" 23And the two went together from Abraham. 24And Rebecca loved Jacob with all her heart, and with all her soul, exceedingly more than Esau; and Isaac loved Esau exceedingly more than Jacob. {Top} |
The Testament of Abraham to His Sons 3And if any woman or maid commit fornication amongst you, burn her with fire, and do not commit fornication after their eyes and hearts; and that they should not take unto themselves wives from among the daughters of Canaan, for the seed of Canaan shall be rooted out of the land. 4And he spoke to them concerning the judgment of the giants and the judgment of Sodom, that these had been judged on account of their wickedness, and on account of fornication and uncleanness and destruction among each other. 5"But be on your guard against all fornication and uncleanness and contamination of sin, so that ye do not make our name a curse and bring your lives and your sons to destruction by the sword and ye become accursed like Sodom, and all your remnant like the sons of Gomorrah. 6And I call upon you as witnesses, my sons, love the God of heaven and submit to all his commandments, and do not walk after their idols and after their uncleanness, and do not make molten gods for yourselves nor wooden ones. 7For they are vanity, and have no spirit, but they are the work of hands, and all who depend upon them ..... Do not worship them nor bow down to them. 8But worship ye the Most High God and bow down to him ever, and hope upon his face at all times, and do rectitude and righteousness before him, that he may find pleasure in you and give you his mercy, and send down rain to you morning and evening, and bless all your work which ye do on the earth, and bless thy grain and thy water, and bless the seed of thy body, and the seed of thy land, and the herds of thy oxen, and the herds of thy sheep. 9And thou shalt be for a blessing over the earth, and all the nations of the earth shall desire for you and will bless thy sons in my name that they be blessed as I am." 10And he gave to Ishmael his son and to the sons of Keturah a gift and sent them away from Isaac his son. 11And Ishmael and his sons and the sons of Keturah and their sons went together and dwelt from Pharmon (Pharan) to the entrance of Babylon, in all the land which faces toward the east opposite the desert. 12And these mingled with each other, and their name was called Arabs and Ishmaelites. {Top} |
The Testament of Abraham to Isaac 4"And thou, my son, observe his commandments and his ordinance and his judgment, and walk not after the unclean and after the wooden images and after the molten ones. 5And do not eat any blood of an animal, or of a beast, or of any bird that flies in the heavens. 6And if thou slaughterest, slaughter as a pure sacrifice that is acceptable; slaughter it and pour out its blood upon the altar and all the fat of the sacrifice place upon the altar with flour and fruit offering, mixed with oil together with drink offering; place all this together upon the altar as a sacrifice of sweet savor before the Lord. 7Like the fat of the thank offering lay them upon the fire, like the fat of the belly, and all the fat upon the entrails, and the two kidneys and all the fat that is upon them, and upon the thigh pieces, and the liver, together with the kidneys wrapped up in them; bring this all as a sweet savor which will be acceptable before the Lord together with fruit and drink offerings, thou shalt bring them all together for a sweet savor as the bread of the burnt offering for the Lord. And the meat eat on that day and on the second day, and do not let the sun go down on it on the second day until it is eaten and nothing shall be left over for the third day, for it is not acceptable nor chosen, and it shall no longer be eaten, and all who eat bring sin upon themselves. The Books of Enoch and Noah 8For thus have I found it written in the books of my forefathers, in the words of Enoch and in the words of Noah. 9"And upon all thy sacrifices thou shalt put salt, and thou shalt not violate the covenant of salt in all thy sacrifices before the Lord. 10And watch all the wood of the sacrifices, that thou dost not bring sacrificing wood besides the following: cypress, fir, and almond, and pine, and fir, and cedar, and savin, and citron, and olive, and myrrh, and balsam. 11Of these kinds of wood lay upon the altar, under the sacrifice, having examined its appearance, and do not place any broken or dark wood; hard wood and unbroken, perfect, and nearly grown, and not old, for its savor is gone and there is no more savor in it, as at first. 12Besides these kinds of wood thou shalt place no other kinds, for its savor has departed, and thou shalt send up the smell of its savor to heaven. 13"Observe this commandment and do it, my son, that thou mayest be right in all thy actions. 14And at all times be clean in thy body and wash thyself with water, before thou goest to sacrifice upon the altar, and wash thy hands and thy feet before thou approachest the altar; and when thou art done sacrificing, return and wash thy hands and thy feet. 16And let there not appear upon any one of you any blood, nor upon your clothes: be on thy guard, my son, guard thyself exceedingly against blood; bury it in the ground. And do not eat any blood for it is the soul, eat no blood whatever. 17And do not receive any present for any blood of man that it should be spilt in vain without judgment, for this blood which is spilt causes sin upon the earth, and it cannot be cleansed of the blood except by blood being shed; and do not receive a present or any gift for the blood of man; blood for blood; and ye shall become acceptable before the Lord God Most High, and he will be the protector of good, and that thou mayest be preserved from all evil and be saved from all death. 18"I see, my son, all the deeds of the sons of men, that they are sin and evil, and all their deeds are uncleanness, and rebellious and defiling, and there is no righteousness with them. 19Guard thyself, do not go on their paths to step into their footprints and do not commit the error of death before the Most High God, lest he hide his face from thee, and return thee into the hands of thy transgression and root thee out of the land, and thy seed from under heaven, and thy name be destroyed and thy seed from all the earth. 20Preserve thyself from all their deeds and from all their uncleanness, and observe the observance of the Lord Most High and do his will and do right in all things. 21"And he will bless thee in all thy deeds, and will bring forth from thee a plant of righteousness in all the earth, in all the generations of the earth. And my name shall be known, and thy name, under heaven, in all the days. 22Go, my son, in peace. May the Most High God, my God and thy God, strengthen thee to do his will, and may he bless all thy seed and the descendants of thy seeds to the generations of eternity, with all the blessings of righteousness, that thou mayest be a blessing on all the earth." |
The Death of Abraham Approaches 4And he offered a thank offering and made a feast of joy before his brother Ishmael, and Rebecca made new cakes out of new grain, and she gave thereof to Jacob, her best son, that he should bring to Abraham, his father, from the first-fruits of the land, that he might eat and bless the Creator of all before he died.
5And Isaac, too, sent by the hand of Jacob, who excelled, a thank offering to Abraham, that he should drink and eat.
6And he ate and drank and blessed the Most High God, who had created the heavens and the earth, and had made all the fat of the earth and had given it to the children of men to eat and to drink and that they should bless their Creator.
10And he called Jacob and said to him: "My son Jacob, the Lord of all bless thee and strengthen thee to do righteousness and his will before him, and may he choose thee and thy seed that ye may be a people for his inheritance, according to his will in all the days. 11And thou, my son Jacob, come hither and kiss me." 12And he approached and kissed him, and he said: "Blessed be Jacob, my son, and all his children to the Lord Most High in all eternities; may the Lord give thee a seed of righteousness from among thy sons, to sanctify him in the midst of all the earth; and may all the nations serve thee and bow down to thy seed. 13Become powerful before men, as thou rulest over all the seed of the earth and among the seed of Seth, when thy path and the path of thy sons is just for being his holy nation. 14May the Most High God give thee all the blessings with which he blessed me and with which he blessed Noah and Adam; may they rest upon the sacred head of thy seed to all the generations and to eternity. 15And may the Lord preserve thee clean from all unclean defilement, that thou mayest be forgiven of all the sins which without knowledge thou hast committed, and may he strengthen thee and bless thee, and mayest thou inherit the whole earth. 16And may he renew his covenant with thee, that thou mayest be to him a nation for his inheritance to all eternities, and he may be to thee and to thy seed a God in reality and in truth in all the days of the earth. 17"And thou, my son Jacob, remember my words and observe the commandments of Abraham, thy father; withdraw from among the gentiles and do not eat with them, and do not according to their actions, and be not their companion; for their actions are unclean and all their ways are defiled and their sacrifices an abomination. 18They sacrifice to the dead, and the evil spirits they worship, and in the graves they eat, and all their doings are in vain and for naught. 19They have no heart to think and no eyes to see any of their actions and when they err, saying to a piece of wood, 'Thou art my God', and to a stone, 'Thou art my Lord and my saviour', and these have no heart. 20And thou, my son Jacob, may the Most High Lord aid thee, and the God of heaven bless thee and preserve thee from all their uncleanness and from all their error. 21Be thou on thy guard, my son Jacob, that thou takest not a wife from among all the seed of the daughters of Canaan, for all its seed is to be rooted out of the land; for on account of the sin of Ham and the transgression of Canaan also all his seed will be destroyed from the earth, and none will be left and escape of them on the day of judgment. 22And all those that worship idols and all haters will have no hope in the land of the living, for they will descend into Sheol and will go unto the place of judgment, and there will not be any remembrance of them on the earth; just as the children of Sodom were taken away from the earth, there will be taken away all those that worship idols. 23"Fear not, my son Jacob, and do not tremble, son of Abraham; the Most High God will protect thee from all destruction, and from all the paths of error he will deliver thee.
24This house I have built for myself, that I might place my name above it upon the land which is given to thee and to thy seed forever, and that it should be called the house of Abraham; it is given to thee and to thy seed forever, since thou wilt build up my house and wilt establish my name before God unto eternity, and thy seed and thy name will stand in all the generations of the earth."
27And he blessed him with his whole heart and said: "The Most High God, the God of all, the Creator of all, who has led me out of Ur of the Chaldees, that he might give me this land as an inheritance to eternity and that I should establish a holy seed, may the Most High be blessed to eternity." 28And he blessed Jacob and said: "My son, who is in all my heart and in all my thoughts, may I rejoice in him, and may thy grace and thy mercy be extensive over him and over his seed all the days. 29And do not desert him and do not neglect him from now on and to the eternity of days, and may thy eyes be open over him and over his seed, that thou protectest him and blessest him and sanctifiest him, to be a nation for thy inheritance. 30And bless him with all thy blessings from now on and to all days to eternity, and renew thy covenant, and be merciful with him and with his seed, in all thy will to all the generations of the earth." {Top} |
The Repose of Abraham 7And he lived three jubilees and four weeks of years, one hundred and seventy-five years, and the days of his life were completed, and he was old, perfect in days.
17Behold, the earth will be destroyed on account of all their deeds, and there will be no seed of wine and no oil, because all their deeds are unbelief, and they all will be destroyed together, the beasts and the animals and the birds and all the fish of the sea, on account of the sons of men. 18And they will contend with each other, the young with the old and the old with the young; the poor with the rich, and the lowly with the great, and the beggar with the prince, on account of the law and on account of the covenant, for they have forgotten his commandments and his covenant and the festivals and the months and the sabbaths and the jubilees and all law. 19And they will arise with swords and murder to bring them back to the path, but they will not return until the blood of many has been spilt upon the earth, one over the other. 20And those who escape will not return on the path of righteousness from their wickedness, for they all will arise for a robbery for wealth, that each one may take that which is his neighbors' and be called by a great name, but not in reality and in truth, and the most holy will be denied in the uncleanness of the destruction of their defilement. 21And a great punishment will be over the deeds of this generation from the Lord, and he will give them over to the sword and to judgment and to captivity and to robbery and to devouring.
22And he will awaken over them the sinners of the gentiles, who will have no mercy or grace for them, and who regard the face of none, neither old nor young nor any one; for they are wicked and powerful that they act more wickedly than all the children of men; and in Israel they practise violence and sin in Jacob, and the blood of many will be spilt on the land; and there will be none to gather and to bury.
23And in those days they will cry aloud and call and pray that they be saved from the hands of the sinful gentiles, and there will be none to save them.
29And at that time the Lord will heal his servants, and they will arise and will see great peace and will cast out their enemies; and the just shall see it and be thankful and rejoice in joy to all eternity, and shall see judgment and curses upon all their enemies. 30And their bones shall rest in the earth, but their spirits shall increase in joy, and they shall know that the Lord is the doer of judgment, and gives mercy to the hundreds and thousands and to all that love him. 31And thou, Moses, write down all these words, for thus are they written, and they have raised them upon the tablets of heaven to the generation of eternity. {Top} |
24 And it happened after the death of Abraham that the Lord blessed Isaac, his son, and he arose from Hebron and went and dwelt at the fountain of the vision, in the first year of the third week of this jubilee, seven years.
2And in the first year of the fourth week a famine began in the land, in addition to the first famine which was in the days of Abraham.
5And Esau said in his heart, "I shall die; what is it to me to be born first?" 6And he said to Jacob, "I will give it to you." 7And Jacob said, "Swear to me this day", and he swore to him. 8And Jacob gave to his brother Esau bread and the mess, and he ate and was satisfied, and Esau despised his right of first birth; and from this was Esau called Edom, on account of the mess of grain which Jacob gave him for his right of first birth.
9And Jacob became the older, but Esau diminished from his greatness.
18And Abimelech said to Isaac: "Go from me, for thou art exceedingly greater than I"; and Isaac went in the first year of this seventh week from there, and migrated to valleys of Geranon.
21And they dug another well, and quarrelled on its account, and Isaac called its name Narrowness.
22And he arose from there, and they dug another well, and did not quarrel on its account, and he called its name Extension, and Isaac said, "Now the Lord has extended us"; and he increased in the land.
25And he built an altar there where Abraham, his father, had first built one, and he called upon the name of the Lord, and offered sacrifices to the God of Abraham, his father. And they dug a well and found living water.
26And the young men of Isaac dug another well, and did not find water, and they went and told Isaac that they had not found water, and Isaac said: "I have sworn this day to the Philistines, and this is to us the affair."
27And Isaac called the name of this place The Well of the Oath, for there had he sworn to Abimelech and Akosat, his friend, and Phikol his companion.
28And Isaac knew on that day that in injustice they had sworn to them to keep the peace with them.
33And thus is it written and engraved concerning him on the tablets of heaven, to do to him on the day of judgment, that he may be rooted out of the earth. {Top} |
Rebecca's Charge to Jacob 2"And I, my son, love thee exceedingly, and my mercy, my son, blesses thee at every hour and watch of the night; and now, my son, hear my voice, and do the will of thy mother, and do not take to thyself a wife from among the daughters of this land, except from the house of thy father and except from the family of thy father: take to thyself a wife from the house of my father, and the Most High God will bless thee, and thy children will be a generation of righteousness and thy seed holy."
8I swear before thee, my mother, that all the days of my life I will not take to myself a wife from the seed of all the daughters of Canaan, and will not act wickedly as my brother has done.
9And do not fear, mother; trust me that I will do thy will, and will walk in rectitude, and my paths will not be destroyed in eternity."
13And at that hour the Holy Spirit descended into her mouth, and she placed her two hands upon the head of Jacob, and she said: "Blessed art thou, Lord of righteousness and God of the worlds, and thee do all the generations of men praise: may he give thee, my son, the path of righteousness, and reveal to thy seed righteousness. 14And may thy sons increase in thy life, and stand to the number of the months of the year, and may thy sons increase and grow more than the stars of the heavens, and more than the sand of the sea increase their numbers. 15And may he give them this fruitful land, as he said he would give it to Abraham and his seed after him in all the days, and may they possess it to eternity. 16And may I see for thee, my son, blessed children in this life, and may holy seed be all thy seed. 17And as the spirit of thy mother in her life caused thee to rest in her womb to give thee birth, thus my affection blesses thee, and my breasts bless thee and my mouth and my tongue praise thee. 18Increase and be poured over the earth, and thy seed be perfect in all the earth in the joy of heaven and earth, and may thy seed rejoice, and on the great day of peace may the peace of thy name be theirs. 19And may thy seed abide to all the worlds, and may the Most High God be their God, and may the Most High God dwell with them and his sanctuary be built to all the eternities. 20He that blesses thee be blessed, and all flesh that curses thee in lies, may it be cursed." 21And she kissed him and said to him, "May the Lord of the world love thee as the heart of thy mother, and may her affection rejoice in thee and bless thee." 22And she ceased from blessing him. {Top} |
Jacob Steals Esau's Blessing 3But Rebecca heard Isaac speaking to Esau. 4And Esau went early to the field to hunt and catch something and bring it to his father. 5And Rebecca called Jacob, her son, and said to him: "Behold, I have heard thy father Isaac speaking with thy brother Esau, saying, 'Hunt me something and prepare a meal and bring it in to me, and I will bless thee before the Lord before I die.' 6But now hear, my son, my words which I command thee:. Go to thy flocks and bring me two good young kids, and I will make a meal out of them such as he loves, and thou shalt bring it in to thy father and he shall eat, that he may bless thee before the Lord before he dies, and thou become blessed." 7And Jacob said to his mother Rebecca: "O mother, I will not hold back any thing that my father may eat and is pleasing to him; only I fear, my mother, that he will know my voice and will desire to touch me; and thou knowest that I am smooth, but my brother Esau is rough, and I may be before his eyes like an evil-doer, and I should do a deed which he has not commanded me, and he might become angry with me and I should bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing." 8And Rebecca, his mother, said to him: "Upon me, my son, be thy curse; and again listen to my voice."
9And Jacob obeyed the words of his mother Rebecca, and he went and took two good and fat young kids and brought them in to his mother, and his mother made a meal out of them as he liked it.
10And Rebecca took the clothing of her elder son Esau, the most precious with her in the house, and clothed Jacob with them, and the skins of the kids she placed over his hands and upon the exposed parts of his body; and she gave the meat and the bread which she had made into the hands of her son Jacob.
12And Isaac said to his son, "What is this, that thou hast so suddenly found it, my son?" 13And Jacob said to him: "He who has caused me to find it, thy God, is before me." 14And Isaac said: "Come hither to me, that I may touch thee, my son, if thou art my son Esau, or if not." 15And Jacob came near to Isaac his father, and he touched him. 16And he said: "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hand is the hand of Esau"; and he did not know him, for it was a fate from heaven to remove his spirit; and Isaac did not know him, for his hands were like his hands, and hairy like the hands of Esau, so that he should bless him. 17And he said, "Art thou my son Esau?" And he said, "I am thy son." And he said: "Bring hither to me, and I will eat of what thou hast hunted, my son, that my soul may bless thee."
24And Isaac, his father, said to him, "Who art thou?" 25And he said to him, "I am thy first-born son Esau; I have done as thou hast commanded me." 26And Isaac was very much astounded, and said: "Who was he that hunted and caught something for me, and brought it in, and I ate of all before thou earnest in, and I blessed him? 27Blessed shall he be and his seed to eternity." 28And when Esau heard the words of his father Isaac he cried with a loud and very bitter voice, and said to his father: "Bless me too, father!" 29And he said to him, "Thy brother came and took thy blessing." 30"And now I know why his name is called Jacob; behold he has ensnared me twice; the first time he took my birth-right, and now he takes my blessing. 31And he said, "Hast thou not a blessing left for me, my father?" 32And Isaac answered and said to Esau: "Behold, I have set him as lord over thee and all his brothers, and have given them to be his servants, and with much grain and oil and wine I have strengthened him, and what shall I do to thee, my son?" 33And Esau said to his father Isaac: "Hast thou but one blessing, father? Bless also me, father." 34And Esau raised his voice and wept. And Isaac answered and said to him: "Behold, from the fatness of the earth shall be thy substance and from the dew of heaven above; and thou shalt live by thy sword and thou shalt serve thy brother.
35And it will happen when thou art great and shalt break his yoke off thy neck, thou shalt commit a sin unto death, and all thy seed shall be rooted out from under heaven."
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Rebecca Warned in a Dream 3And Jacob said: "I have no fear: if he desires to kill me, I will kill him." 4And she said to him, "Then should I be deprived of both my sons in one day." 5And Jacob said to his mother Rebecca: "Behold, thou knowest that my father is old, and I see that his eyes have become dull, and if I leave him it will be evil in his eyes that I leave him and go away from thee, and my father will be angry and will curse me. I will not go; only if he sends me will I go from here." 6And Rebecca said to Jacob: "I will go in and will speak to him, and he will send thee." 7And Rebecca went in and spake to Isaac: "I am aggrieved in my life on account of the two daughters of Heth which Esau has taken to himself as wives from among the daughters of Canaan: why should I yet live? for the daughters of the land of Canaan are evil."
9And Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Mesopotamia to Laban, the son of Bethuel, the Syrian, the brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob.
13Do not fear on his account, my sister, for right is his path and he is a perfect and faithful man and will not be destroyed: do not weep!" 14And Isaac comforted Rebecca on account of Jacob her son, and blessed him.
18And the Lord spake unto Jacob and said: "I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land upon which thou art sleeping I will give to thee and to thy seed after thee, and thy seed shall be like the sand of the sea, and thou shalt increase to the west and east and south and north; and all the countries of the nations shall be blessed in thee and in thy seed. 19And behold, I will be with thee and still watch over thee in all things wherever thou goest, and will bring thee back into this land in peace; for I will not leave thee until I do all that I have said to thee." 20And Jacob finished his sleep, and said: "Truly this place is the house of the Lord, and I did not know it." 21And he was afraid, and said: "Dreadful is this place, which is nothing but the house of the Lord, and this is the portal of heaven." 22And Jacob awoke early in the morning and took the stone from under his head and placed it up as a pillar, as a sign of this place; and he poured oil upon its head, and called the name of this place Bethel; but its first name was Loza, like the land.
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Jacob's Journey to the East 2And Laban said to Jacob, "I will give thee thy wife." And Laban made a feast, and took Leah, his older daughter, and gave her to Jacob as a wife, and gave her Zalapha as a maid to serve her; and Jacob did not know it, for he thought she was Rachel. 3And he went in to her, and behold, it was Leah; and Jacob was angry at Laban and said to him: "Why hast thou done thus? 4Have I not served thee for Rachel and not for Leah? Why hast thou injured me? Take thy daughter and I will go; for thou hast done evil to me." 5For Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, for the eyes of Leah were dull, but her form was very beautiful; but Rachel had beautiful eyes and a beautiful and very attractive form. 6And Laban said to Jacob: "It is not the custom in our land to give the younger before the elder." 7And it is not right to do this, for thus is it ordained and written on the tablets of heaven, that no one shall give his younger daughter before the older, but shall give the younger after her. 8And the man that does this loads sin upon himself on this account in heaven, and no one who does this is just, for it is an evil deed before the Lord. 9And thou command the children of Israel that they do not this thing, and neither take nor give the younger before the older has been established, for it is very wicked. 10And Laban said to Jacob: "Let the seven days of this feast pass by, and I will give thee Rachel that thou mayest serve me another seven years, that thou mayest herd my sheep, as thou hast done in the first week." 11And on the day when the seven days of the feast of Leah were passed, Laban gave Rachel to Jacob, that he might serve him a second seven years, and he gave Rachel Balla, the sister of Zalapha, as a maid to serve her. 12And he served seven years again for Rachel, for Leah had been given to him. The Births of Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah by Leah 13And the Lord opened the womb of Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a son, and he called his name Reuben, on the fourteenth of the ninth month of the first year of the third week. 14But the womb of Rachel was closed, for the Lord saw that Leah was hated but Rachel was beloved. 15And again Jacob went in to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a second son, and he called his name Simeon, on the twenty-first of the tenth month and the third year of this week. 16And again Jacob went in to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore him a third son, and he called his name Levi, in the beginning of the third month, in the sixth year of this week. 17And again Jacob went in to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore him a fourth son, and he called his name Judah, on the fifteenth of the third month in the first year of the fourth week. The Births of Dan and Naphtalim by Balla 18And in all this Rachel was jealous of Leah, for she did not bear; and she said to Jacob, "Give me a son!" 19And Jacob said to her, "Am I preventing fruit of the womb from thee: have I left thee?" 20And when Rachel saw that Leah had borne Jacob four sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, then she said to him, "Go in to Balla, my maid, and she will conceive and bear a son for me." 21And he went in to her, and she became pregnant and bore him a son, and she called his name Dan, on the ninth of the sixth month, in the sixth year of the third week. 22And again a second time he went in to Balla, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob another son, and Rachel called his name Naphtalim, in the fifth of the seventh month of the second year of the fourth week. The Births of Gad and Asher by Zalapha 23And when Leah saw that she had become sterile and did not bear, she became jealous of Rachel, and she gave Zalapha, her maid, to Jacob as a wife, and she became pregnant and bore him a son, and she called his name Gad, on the twelfth of the eighth month in the third year of the fourth week. 24And again he went in to her, and she became pregnant and bore him another son, and Leah called his name Asher, on the second of the eleventh month in the fifth year of the fourth week. The Births of Issachar, Zebulon and Dinah by Leah 25And Jacob went in to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a son, and she called his name Issachar, on the fourth of the fifth month in the fourth year of the fourth week, and she gave him to a nurse. 26And Jacob again went in to her, and she became pregnant and she bore him two children, a son and a daughter, and she called his name Zebulon and the name of the daughter Dinah, on the seventh of the seventh month in the sixth year of the fourth week. The Birth of Joseph by Rachel 27And the Lord was gracious to Rachel and opened her womb, and she became pregnant and bore a son, and she called his name Joseph, in the beginning of the fourth month of the sixth year of this fourth week. 28And in the days when Joseph was born Jacob said to Laban: "Give me my wives and my children, and I will go to my father Isaac, and I will make for myself a house, for I have completed the years which I have served thee for thy two daughters, and I will go to the house of my father." 29And Laban said to Jacob: "Remain with me for wages, and herd my folds again and receive thy wages." 30And they agreed with each other, that he would give him as wages all the young sheep and goats should be his wages. And the possessions of Jacob increased very much, and he possessed oxen and sheep and asses and camels and sons and daughters. 31And Laban and his sons were jealous of Jacob, and Laban gathered his sheep away from him, and thought out evil. {Top} |
Jacob Departs from Laban 3And Jacob blessed the God of his father Isaac, and the God of Abraham, the father of his father, and he arose and prepared his wives and children, and took all his possessions and crossed the river and came to the land of Gilead, and Jacob hid his heart from Laban and did not tell him. 4And in the seventh year of the fourth week Jacob returned to Gilead in the first month, on the twenty-first; and Laban followed after him, and found Jacob in the mountains of Gilead, in the third month, on the twelfth thereof. 5And the Lord did not permit him to injure Jacob, for he appeared to him in a dream by night; and Laban spake to Jacob. 6And on the fifteenth thereof, on that day, Jacob made a feast to Laban and all who had come with him, and Jacob swore to Laban on this day and Laban to Jacob, that they would not cross for evil to one another the mountains of Gilead. 7And he made there a large stone heap as a testimony; on this account the name of this place is called "The Stone Heap of Testimony"; such is the heap. Discourse Concerning the Giants 8But before they had called the land of Gilead the land of Raphaim, for it was the land of the Raphaim, and the Raphaim, or giants, were born there, whose length is ten, nine, eight, and seven ells, and their dwellings were from the land of the sons of Ammon to Mount Hermon, and the seats of their kingdom were Koronaem and Adra and Misur and Beon. 9And the Lord slew them on account of the wickedness of their deeds, for they were most terrible, and the Ammorites inhabit it in their place, evil and sinful, and there is no nation today that has completed all their sin, and therefore they have no length of life upon the earth. 10And Jacob sent Laban away, and he came into the land of Mesopotamia, the land of the east, but Jacob returned to the land of Gilead and crossed over the Jabbok in the ninth month on the eleventh thereof. Two Different Paths: Jacob and Esau 11And on that day Esau, his brother, came to him, and they settled their troubles; and they went from here into the land of Seir, but Jacob dwelt in tents. 12And in the first year of the fifth week of this jubilee he crossed the Jordan and lived opposite the Jordan, that he might pasture his sheep from the land of Stone Heap to Beta-Zon and to Dotaem and to Akrabil. 13And he sent to his father Isaac of all his possessions clothing and food and meat and drink and milk and oil and bread of milk and of the palms of the valley; and to his mother Rebecca he also sent four times a year, between the times of the months, between the plowing and the harvest, between the spring and the rain, and between winter and summer, to the tower of Abraham, for Isaac had returned from The Well of the Oath and had gone up to the tower of his father Abraham, and he dwelt there apart from his son Esau. 14For in the days when Jacob went to Mesopotamia, Esau took to himself as wife Malit, the daughter of Ishmael, and collected all the herds of his father and his wives and went up and dwelt in the mountains of Seir, and left Isaac, his father, at The Well of the Oath alone; and Isaac went up from The Well of the Oath, and dwelt in the tower of Abraham, his father, on the mountains of Hebron. 15And from here Jacob sent all things which he sent to his father Isaac and to his mother from time to time. [missing text] ...all their sorrows; and they blessed Jacob with all their heart and all their souls. {Top} |
Dinah is Violated Simeon and Levi Exact Revenge 3And Simeon and Levi secretly came to Shechem and inflicted punishment upon all the men of Shechem, and slew all the men they found in it, and did not leave a single one in it. 4They killed all in torments, because they had dishonored their sister Dinah. Discourse Against Fornication 5And thus ye shall not do from now on and to eternity to defile a daughter of Israel, for in heaven it was ordained over them as a punishment that they should root out all the men of Shechem, because they committed a shame on a daughter of Israel, and the Lord turned them over into the hands of the sons of Jacob, that they should root them out with the sword, and that they should inflict punishment upon them; and never again shall it be thus in Israel, that a daughter of Israel be defiled. 6And if there is any man in Israel who desires to give his daughter or his sister to any man who is of the seed of the gentiles, he shall surely die, and they shall slay him with stones, for he has committed a sin and a shame in Israel; and his wife they shall burn with fire, for she has defiled the name of the house of her father, and she shall be rooted out of Israel. 7And no fornication or defilement shall be found in Israel all the generations of the earth; for Israel is holy to the Lord, and every man that defiles must surely die, and they shall slay him with stones. 8For thus is it ordained and written on the tablets of heaven concerning all the seed of Israel, that he who defiles must surely die, and they shall slay him with stones. 9And to this law there is no limit of days and no ceasing and no forgiveness, but he shall be rooted out who defiles his daughter, among all Israel, because he has given of his seed to Moloch and has sinned by defiling. Discourse Against Intermarriage with Gentiles 10And thou, Moses, command the children of Israel and testify over them that they shall not give any of their daughters to the gentiles and that they shall not take any of the daughters of the gentiles; for this is accursed before the Lord. 11And on this account I have written for thee in the words of the law all the deeds of Shechem which they did against Dinah, and how the children of Jacob conversed saying: "We will not give our daughter to an uncircumcised man, for this is disgraceful to us." 12And it is disgraceful to Israel to those that give and to those that receive from the gentiles any daughters, for it is unclean and accursed to Israel; and Israel will not be clean of this uncleanness of him who has of the daughters of the gentiles for a wife, or who has given of his daughters to a man who is of any of the seed of the gentiles; for there will be plagues upon plagues, curse upon curse, and all punishment and plauges and curses will come. 13And if they do this thing, and if they blind their eyes to those that commit un-cleanness and to those that defile the sanctuary of the Lord and those that profane his holy name, then shall the whole people together be punished, on account of all this uncleanness and this profaneness, and there will be no respect for persons, and no consideration for persons, and no taking of fruits from his hands and fruit offering and burnt offering and fat and incense offering as a sweet savour, that it may be acceptable. 14And every man and woman in Israel who defiles the sanctuary shall be thus. The Actions of Simeon and Levi Justified 15And on account of this I have commanded thee, saying: "Testify this testimony over Israel: see how it happened to the Shechemites and their sons, how they were given into the hands of the two sons of Jacob and they slew them in torments, and it was justice to them, and it is written down for justice concerning them." {Top} |
Jacob Prepares to Fulfill His Vow 4And he burned and broke and destroyed and hid them under an oak, which was in the land of Shechem. 5And he ascended at the new moon of the seventh month to Bethel. 6And he built an altar at the place where he had slept, and he erected there a monument, and he sent for his father Isaac to come to him to the sacrifice, and to his mother Rebecca. Jacob Journeys to Isaac and Rebecca 7And Isaac said: "Let my son Jacob come and let me see him before I die." 8And Jacob went to Isaac his father, and to his mother Rebecca, to the house of his father Abraham, and he took two of his sons with him, Levi and Judah, and came to his father Isaac and his mother Rebecca. 9And Rebecca came out of the tower to the front of the tower, that she might kiss Jacob and to embrace him, for her spirit was alive when she heard, "Behold thy son Jacob has come!", and she kissed him. 10And she saw the two sons and she knew them, and said to him: 11"Are these thy sons, my son?" and she embraced them and kissed them and blessed them, saying: "In you may the seed of Abraham be honored, and may ye be a blessing over the earth!" 12And Jacob went in to his father Isaac to his chamber where he slept, and his two sons with him, and he took the hand of his father, and bending down kissed him, and Isaac clung to the neck of Jacob his son, and wept on his neck. 13And the darkness left the eyes of Isaac, and he saw the two sons of Jacob, Levi and Judah, and he said, "Are these thy sons, my son? for they are like thee." 14And he said that in truth they were his sons, and "in truth thou seest that they are my sons." The Prophecy of Isaac Concerning Levi 15And they approached him, and they turned, and he kissed them and embraced them all together. 16And the spirit of prophecy fell into his mouth, and he took Levi by the right hand, and Judah by the left hand. 17And he turned to Levi and began to bless him first, saying, "May the Lord God of all, the Lord of all the worlds, bless thee and thy children in all the worlds. 18And may the Lord give thee and thy seed greatness and great honor, and cause thee and thy seed to approach to him from among all flesh, that they shall serve him in his sanctuary like the angels of the face, and like the holy ones that shall be the seed of thy sons for honor and greatness and holiness: and may he make them great in all the worlds. 19And they shall be princes and lords and leaders for all the seed of the sons of Jacob: they shall speak the words of the Lord in truth, and shall judge all his judgments in truth, and speak my ways to Jacob, and they shall appear to Israel: may the blessing of the Lord be given into their mouths, that they may bless all the seed of the beloved. 20And thy mother has called thy name Levi, and in truth has she thus called thee: thou shalt be very near to the Lord, and shalt have a part with all the sons of Jacob: his table shall be thine, and thou and thy sons shall eat thereof, and to all the generations may thy table be full, and may thy food not decrease to all eternity. 21And all those that hate thee shall fall before thee, and all thy enemies shall be rooted out and be destroyed, but they that bless thee shall be blessed, and all the nations that curse thee shall be cursed." The Prophecy of Isaac Concerning Judah 22And to Judah he spoke: "May the Lord give thee strength and power that thou mayest tread down all that hate thee: be thou a prince, thou and one of thy sons over the sons of Jacob. 23May thy name and the name of thy sons be one that goes and encompasses the whole earth and the cities; then shall the gentiles fear thy face, and all the nations shall tremble and all the people shake. 24In thee let there be help to Jacob, and in thee may deliverance be found for Israel. 25And if thou sittest on the throne of the honor of thy righteousness, there shall be great peace to all the seed of the sons of the beloved. 26He that blesseth thee shall be blessed, and all that hate and trouble thee, and those that curse thee, shall be rooted out and be destroyed from the earth, and shall be accursed. The Faith of Jacob is Accounted for Righteousness 27And turning around he kissed him again and embraced him and rejoiced greatly; for he had seen sons of Jacob, who was his son in truth. 28And he came from between his feet, and fell down and prostrated himself, and he blessed them, and he remained with Isaac, his father, on that night, and they ate and drank with joy. 29And he caused the two sons of Jacob to sleep, the one at his right, the other at his left, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 30And Jacob told his father everything during the night, how the Lord had been merciful to him, and how he had prospered him in all his ways and had protected him from all evil. 31And Isaac blessed the God of his father Abraham, who had not ceased his mercy and righteousness from the sons of his servant Isaac. Jacob Returns to Bethel 32And in the morning Jacob told his father Isaac of the vow he had made to the Lord, and of the vision he had seen, and how he had built an altar, and that everything was ready for the sacrifice before the Lord, as he had vowed, and that he had come to place him upon an ass. 33And Isaac said to his son Jacob: I am not able to go with thee, for I am old and not able to endure the way: go, my son, in peace, for I am one hundred and sixty-five years old today; I am not able to travel. 34Take thy mother and let her go with thee. 35And I know, my son, that thou hast come on my account; and may this day be blessed upon which thou hast seen me alive and I have seen thee, my son. 36Prosper, and fulfil the vow which thou hast vowed, and do not delay thy vow, for thou must seek the vow. 37And now hasten to fulfil thy vow; and may he be pleased who has made all things, to whom thou hast made thy vow. 38And he said to Rebecca: "Go with Jacob, thy son. 39And Rebecca went with Jacob, and Deborah with her, and they came to Bethel. 40And Jacob remembered the prayer with which his father had blessed him and his two sons, Levi and Judah, and he rejoiced and blessed the God of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac. 41And he said: "Now I know that I have an eternal hope, and my sons also before the God of all". And thus it is ordained concerning the two, and they have placed it as a testimony for them to eternity, upon the tablets of heaven as Isaac blessed them. {Top} |
Levi Dreams at Bethel 2And Jacob started early in the morning, on the fourteenth of this month, and the tenth of all that came with him of men and beasts, and gold, and all possessions and clothing. Levi Ordained Priest and Jacob Performs His Vow 3And in those days Rachel became pregnant with her son Benjamin. And Jacob counted his sons from him on and upwards; and the portion of the Lord fell upon Levi, and his father clothed him with the garments of the priesthood, and filled his hands. 4And on the fifteenth of this month he brought to the altar fifteen oxen from among the cattle, twenty-eight rams, and forty-nine sheep, and sixty lambs, and twenty-nine young goats, as a burnt sacrifice on the altar, and as an acceptable gift for a sweet savor to the Lord God. 5This was the fulfilment of the vow he had made to give the tenth; together with their fruit and their drink offerings. 6And when the fire had consumed them, he scattered frankincense over them on the fire; and for thank offering two oxen, and four rams, and four sheep, and a sheep of two years, and two young goats; thus he did distributing over seven days. 7And he remained there eating, and all his sons and his men in joy seven days, and he blessed and thanked the Lord, who had delivered him from all his trouble, and to whom he had fulfilled his vow. 8And he took the tenth of all the clean animals and made a burnt offering; and the unclean animals he gave to his son, and the men he gave him, and Levi exercised his priestly office in Bethel before Jacob, his father, in preference to his ten brothers, and he was there a priest, and Jacob fulfilled to him his vows: and thus he gave the tenth again to the Lord, and sanctified it, and it was holy for him. Discourse Concerning Tithes 9And on this account it is ordained on the tablets of heaven as a law concerning the giving of a second tenth to eat before the Lord at the place upon which he has chosen his name to dwell year after year, and to this law there is no limit of day to eternity. 10And this ordinance is written to do it year after year for eating a second tenth before the Lord in the place which he has chosen, and nothing shall be left over from it to the following year. 11For in its year shall the seed be eaten until the seed of the year and the wine change their days to the days of wine and oil, and to the days of oil in its season. 12And all that is left thereof and which becomes old, let it be considered contaminated; burn it with fire, for it is unclean. 13And thus they shall eat together in the sanctuary, and shall not let it become old. 14And all the tenth of oxen and sheep shall be holy to the Lord, and shall belong to his priests, who will eat it before him from year to year; for thus is it ordained and engraven concerning the tenth on the tablets of heaven. Jacob's Name Changed, The Covenant Confirmed 15And in the following night, on the twenty-second day of this month, Jacob planned that he would build this place and erect a wall around it, and that he would sanctify it and make it holy to eternity, for himself and his children after him. 16And the Lord appeared to him in the night, and blessed him, and said to him: "Thou shalt not call thy name Jacob only, but Israel also shall thy name be called." 17And he said to him again: "I am the Lord thy God, who has created heaven and earth; and I will increase and multiply thee exceedingly, and kings shall come from thee, and they shall rule over all, wherever the foot of the sons of man has trod. 18And I will give to thy seed all the land under heaven, and they shall rule over all the nations as they desire, and after that they will gather to themselves the whole earth, and shall inherit the world." 19And he completed conversing with him, and ascended from there, and Jacob looked until he ascended to heaven. Jacob's Vision of Seven Tablets 20And he saw in a vision of the night, and behold an angel descended from heaven with seven tablets in his hands, and he gave them to Jacob, and he read all that was written on them, what would happen to himself and his sons in all the years. 21And he showed him all things that were written on the tablets, and said to him: "Do not build up this place, and do not make it an eternal sanctuary, and do not dwell here, for this is not the place. 22Go to the house of Abraham, thy father, and dwell there with Isaac, thy father, until the day of the death of thy father. 23For in Egypt thou shalt die in peace, and in this land thou shalt be buried in honor, in the grave of thy fathers, with Abraham and Isaac. 24Fear not; for as thou hast seen and read it, thus shall it all be. 25But write thou down all as thou hast seen and read." 26And Jacob said: "How can I remember all as I have seen and read it?" 27And he said to him: "I will recall it all for thee." 28And he went up from there: and he awoke from his sleep and remembered all that he had seen and read, and he wrote down all the words that he had read and that he had seen. 29And he stayed there yet another day, and sacrificed there according to all that had been ordained on former days, and called its name "Addition," for this day was added; and the first day he called "the festival." 30And thus it appeared that it would be, and it is written on the tablets of heaven; and on this account it was revealed to him, that he should celebrate it, and that he should add it to the seven days of the festival, and its name was called "Addition", because it comes to the seven days; and thus is the festival by number of days of the year. The Repose of Deborah 31And in the night of the twenty-third of this month, Deborah, the nurse of Rebecca, died, and he buried her below the city under the oak of the river, and called the name of this river the "River of Deborah", and of the oak, "Lamentation Oak of Deborah." 32And Rebecca went and returned to her house, to Isaac, his father; and Jacob sent by her rams and calves and sheep, that she should prepare for his father a meal, as he loved it. 33And he too went after his mother until he came to the land of Kebratan, and he dwelt there. The Birth of Benjamin by Rachel 34And Rachel in that night gave birth to a son, and called his name "Son of my sorrow", for she suffered in giving birth; but his father called him Benjamin, on the eleventh of the eighth month, in the first year of the sixth week of this jubilee. The Repose of Rachel 35And Rachel died there, and was buried in the land of Ephrathah, that is, Bethlehem; and Jacob erected upon the grave of Rachel a column, on the road above her grave. {Top} |
The Sin of Reuben 7And when Jacob returned and sought her, she said to him: "I am not clean for thee, for I have been defiled for thee, for Reuben has defiled me and lay with me in the night, and I was asleep and did not discover it until he uncovered the edge, and he lay with me." 8And Jacob was very angry at Reuben that he had lain with Balla, for he had uncovered the covering of his father; and Jacob did not approach her any more, because Reuben had defiled her, for his deed was very wicked, for it is accursed before the Lord. Discourse on Fornication 9On this account it is written and ordained on the tablets of heaven, that a man shall not sleep with the wife of his father, and that he shall not uncover the covering of his father, for this is unclean; they must surely die together, the man that lies with the wife of his father, and the woman, for they do an unclean thing in the land. 10And there shall be nothing unclean before our God in the nation he has chosen for himself as a kingdom. 11And again it is written: "Cursed be the one that lieth with the wife of his father, for he hath uncovered the shame of his father, and all the holy ones of the Lord shall say: "Thus be it! Thus be it!" 12And thou, Moses, command the children of Israel that they observe this word, for the punishment is death, and it is unclean, and there is no forgiveness to atone for a man that does this wicked deed, except slaying and stoning him to death, or rooting him out from amongst the people of our God. 13For there shall not remain alive on earth a single day any man that does this in Israel, for it is accursed and unclean. 14And let them not say that Reuben lived and was forgiven that he had slept with the concubine of his father, and she too, although her husband, Jacob, his father, was yet alive. 15For he had not yet revealed the ordinance and the punishment and the law in its entire completeness; for in thy days it is as a law since his days and as a law to eternity, to the generation of eternity; and there is not any passing of days to this law, nor any forgiveness to him, except that they both be rooted out together from the midst of the people: on the day on which they do it they shall slay them. 16And thou, Moses, write it down for Israel that they observe it according to these words, and let them not commit a mortal sin, for the Lord our God is a judge who has no regard for persons and receives no presents. 17And tell them these words of the ordinance, that they obey and preserve them, and watch themselves, and be not destroyed and rooted out of the land; for unclean and an abomination and contamination and profanation are all they that do this on the earth before our God. 18And there is no sin on earth greater than fornication, which they commit on the earth, for Israel is a nation holy Unto God, and a nation of inheritance for its God, and a nation of priesthood and royalty and a possession, and no one shall appear thus unclean in the midst of the holy people. Jacob's Family Dwells with Abraham 19And in the third year of this sixth week Jacob and all his sons went and dwelt in the house of Abraham, near Isaac, his father, and Rebecca, his mother. 20And these are the names of the sons of Jacob: the first bore Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, the sons of Leah; and the sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin; and the sons of Balla, Dan and Naphtali; and the sons of Zalapha, Gad and Asur; and Dinah, the daughter of Leah, the only daughter of Jacob. 21And going, they bowed down before Isaac and Rebecca; and when they saw them, they blessed Jacob and all his sons. 22And Isaac rejoiced exceedingly that he saw the sons of Jacob, his youngest son, and he blessed them. {Top} |
The Amorites Plot to Kill the Sons of Jacob Joseph Betrayed by His Brothers 10And in the seventh year of this week he sent Joseph to learn about the safety of his brothers, from his house to Shechem, and he found them in the land of Dothan. 11And they waylaid him and made a plot against him to slay him; and changing, they sold him to Ishmaelite merchants, and they brought him to Egypt, and sold him to Potiphar, the eunuch of Pharaoh, the head cook, the one that sacrificed in the city of Elew. Jacob is Deceived by His Sons 12And the sons of Jacob killed a young goat, and dipped the clothes of Joseph in its blood, and sent it to their father Jacob. 13And it was on the tenth of the seventh month, and they stayed all this day until the evening, and they brought it to him; and he became fevered in his grief unto death, and said: "A wild beast has devoured Joseph"; and on that day all the men of his house were with him, and mourned and lamented with him all the day. 14And his sons and his daughter arose to comfort him, but he could not be comforted on account of his son. The Day of Jacob's Sorrow 15And on that day Balla heard that Joseph had been killed, and she died in her grief, and she was living at Kertaretef; and Dinah, his daughter, died also after Joseph had been slain. 16This threefold sorrow came over Israel in one month. 17And he buried Balla opposite the grave of Rachel, and Dinah, his daughter, he also buried there. 18And he continued mourning for Joseph one year, and did not cease, saying: "I will descend into the grave grieving for my son." The Precedent for Yom Kippur 19And on this account it is ordained for the children of Israel, that they shall mourn on the tenth of the seventh month, on the day when they brought the sad news concerning Joseph to his father Jacob, that on it pardon should be sought by the death of a young goat, on the tenth of the seventh month, once a year, for their sins; for they had grieved the heart of their father on account of his son Joseph. 20And this day has been ordained that they shall lament on it over their sins, and on account of all their transgressions, and on account of their error, that they shall cleanse themselves on this day once a year. The Wives of Jacob's Sons 21And after the death of Joseph the sons of Jacob took wives to themselves: first, the name of the wife of Reuben is Ada; secondly, the name of the wife of Simeon is Adiba, a Canaanite woman; third, the name of the wife of Levi is Melka, from among the daughters of Aram, from the seed of the sons of Taram; fourth, the name of the wife of Judah is Betasuel, a Canaanite woman; fifth, the name of the wife of Issachar is Jesakor Hezka; sixth, the name of the wife of Zebulun is Niiman; seventh, the name of the wife of Dan, Egla; eighth, the name of the wife of Naphtali is Rasua, of Mesopotamia; ninth, the name of the wife of Gad is Mak; and tenth, name of the wife of Asur is Ijon; eleventh, the name of the wife of Joseph is Asneth, an Egyptian woman; twelfth, the name of the wife of Benjamin is Ijoska. 22And Simeon repented and took a second wife from Mesopotamia, like his brothers. {Top} |
Jacob's Pledge to Honor Isaac and Esau Rebecca's Impending Death 7And she said to him: "My son, all my days I have not seen in thee any perversity, and no depraved actions, but righteousness. 8But in truth I tell thee, my son, I will die in this year, and will not get beyond this year in my life, for I saw in a dream the day of my death, that I should not live beyond one hundred and fifty-five years. 9And behold, I have completed all the days of my life which I was to live." 10And Jacob laughed at the words of his mother, because she said that she would die, and she was sitting opposite him with her strength upon her, without any decrease of strength, for she went in and out, and saw, and her teeth were strong, and no ailment had touched her all the days of her life. 11And Jacob said to her: "Happy am I, my mother, if my days approach the days of thy life, and my strength abide in me as thy strength; and thou wilt not die, for in vain dost thou speak with me concerning thy death." "The Watchman of Jacob is Great!" 12And she went in to Isaac, and said to him: "One petition I ask of thee: let Esau swear that he will not harm Jacob, and will not persecute him in enmity, for thou knowest the thoughts of Esau, that he was terrible from his youth on, and there is not gentleness in him; for he desires after thy death to kill him. 13And thou knowest how he has done all the days from the day when Jacob, his brother, went to Haran to this day, that he has left us with his whole heart, and does evil with us. 14He has collected thy flocks, and all thy possessions he robs from before thy face, and when we entreated and asked for what was ours, he did as a man that practises usury on us. 15And he is bitter at thee because thou didst bless that perfect and righteous son Jacob; for in him there is no evil, but goodness. 16And since he came from Haran to this day, he has not deprived us of the least; but he brings us everything in its time and always, and he rejoices in his whole heart when we take anything from his hands, and he blesses us and does not separate from us since he came from Haran to the present day, and he lives with us ever in our house, honoring us." 17And Isaac said to her: "I know and I see the deeds of Jacob with us, that with all his heart he honors us; but I loved Esau formerly more than Jacob, on account of his birth; but now I love Jacob more than Esau, because he has increased in evil doings, and there is no righteousness in him, for all his ways are injustice and violence, and there is no righteousness in him at all. 18And now my heart trembles concerning all his deeds, and neither he nor his seed shall abide, for they shall be destroyed from the earth, and they shall be rooted out from under heaven; for he has deserted the God of Abraham, and goes after his women after uncleanness and after error, he and his children. 19And thou dost tell me that I shall make him swear not to kill Jacob: even if he swears he will not keep to his oath, and will not do good but evil. 20And if he desires to kill his brother Jacob, he shall be given into the hands of Jacob and shall not escape from his hands, but fall into his hands. 21And thou fear not concerning Jacob, for the watchman of Jacob is great and powerful, and honored and worshipped above the watchman of Esau." Rebecca Seeks to Reconcile Jacob and Esau 22And Rebecca sent for and called Esau, and he came to her, and she said to him, "One prayer I have, my son, which I ask of thee, and grant it, that thou mayest do what I ask of thee, my son." 23And he said to her: "I will do all that thou tellest me, and will not refuse anything that thou askest." 24And she said to him: "I ask of thee that the day I die thou wilt take me and bury me near the grave of Sarah, the mother of thy father, and that thou and thy brother Jacob will love each other, and that neither will undertake evil against his brother, but love him, so that ye may be prosperous, my son, and be honored in the midst of the land and that an enemy may not rejoice over you, and that ye may be a blessing and mercy before the eyes of all that love you." 25And he said: "I will do all that thou sayest to me, and I will bury thee on the day of thy death near Sarah, the mother of thy father, as thou lovest her bones, that they shall be near to thy bones. 26But Jacob, my brother, I will love above all flesh, and I have no other brother in all the world except him alone, and this is not a great thing for me that I shall love him, for he is my brother, and together we were sown in thy womb, and together we came forth from thee, and if I do not love my brother, whom shall I love? 27And I then beg of thee that thou wilt exhort Jacob concerning me and concerning my children, for I know that he will rule as king over me and over my children, for on the day when my father blessed him, he made him the higher and me the lower. 28And I swear to thee that I will love him and will not seek out evil against him all the days of my life, but only good." 29And he swore to her concerning this whole matter. 30And she called Jacob before the eyes of Esau, and commanded him according to the words she had spoken with Esau. 31And he said, "I will do thy pleasure, promising that no evil shall proceed from me and from my sons against Esau, my brother, and nothing shall be shown him except love." The Repose of Rebecca 32And they ate, and drank, she and her sons, on this day, and she died, three jubilees and one week and one year old, in this night, and her two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried her in the cave near Sarah, the mother of their father. {Top} |
The Testament of Isaac to Jacob and Esau 3"And this I command you, my sons, that ye practise righteousness and rectitude on the earth, so that the Lord may bring upon you all that the Lord said that he would do to Abraham and to his seed. 4And be ye to each other as loving brothers as a man that loves himself, and each seeking for his brother that which is good for him, and acting together from the heart upon earth, and loving each other as yourselves. 5"And concerning the matter of idols, I command ye, that ye cast them away and hold them in abomination, and hate them, and that ye do not love them, for they are full of deception for those that worship them, and for those that bow down to them. 6"And remember, O my sons, the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and how I too worshipped him and served him in truth, that he may increase you in joy and may enlarge your seed like the stars of the heaven in multitude, and plant you upon the earth as a plant of righteousness, which is not rooted out to all the generations of eternity. 7"And now I will make you swear a great oath, for there is no oath greater than the one by the glorious and honored and great name of him who created the heavens and the earth and all things together, that ye will fear and worship him, and that each will love his brother in tenderness and in truth, and that neither will wish evil against his brother, from now on and to eternity, all the days of your life, that ye may be prosperous in all your deeds, and be not destroyed. 8And if either of you devises evil against his brother, know from now on, that every one that devises evil against his brother shall fall into his hands, and shall be rooted out of the land of the living, and his seed shall be destroyed from under heaven. "He Shall Not Ascend into the Book of Life!" 32"And on that day of cursing and turbulence he God will also burn with devouring fire, as he burned Sodom, thus also will he burn his land and his city and all that is his, and he will be erased out of the book of the discipline of the sons of men, and shall not ascend into the book of life, for he shall be destroyed and shall depart to the eternal curse, so that for all days their punishments may be renewed in hate and in cursing, and in wrath, and in torments, and in fury, and in plagues, and in sickness to eternity. 10And I say and testify to you, my sons, how that my judgment will come upon the man who desires to do evil against, his brother." 11And he divided all the possessions he had between the two on that day, and he gave the preference to him that was born first, both the tower and all around it, and everything that Abraham possessed around the well of the oath. 12And he said: "This preference shall be his who was born first." 13And Esau said: ' 'I have sold and given my age to Jacob, to him it has been given, and I will not say anything moreabout it, not one word, for it is passed." 14And Isaac said: "May blessing rest upon you, my sons, and upon your seed this day, for ye have given me rest, and my heart is not sad on account of the birthright that no strife will take place concerning it. 15The Most High Lord bless the man that does righteousness, him and his seed to eternity." The Repose of Isaac 16And he ended commanding them and blessing them, and they ate and drank before him together; and he rejoiced, for there was a reconciliation between them, and they went out from him and rested on that day and slept. 17And Isaac slept on his bed that day rejoicing, and he slept the sleep of eternity, and died one hundred and eighty years old. 18And he completed twenty-five weeks and five years. 19And his two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried him. 20And Esau went to the land of Edom, to the mountains of Seir and dwelt there. 21And Jacob dwelt in the land of Hebron, in the tower of the land of the pilgrimage of his father Abraham, and worshipped God with his whole heart, and according to the command of him who appeared to him, who had distinguished him on the day of his birth. The Repose of Leah 22And Leah, his wife, died, in the fourth year of the second week of the forty-fifth jubilee, and he buried her in the double cave near to Rebecca, his mother, to the left of the grave of Sarah, the mother of his father. 23And all of her sons and his sons came to weep over Leah, his wife, with him, and that they might comfort each other on her account, for he mourned over her. 24For he loved her exceedingly after Rachel her sister died, for she was perfect and righteous in all her ways and honored Jacob: and in all the days which she lived with him, he did not hear from her mouth a hard word, for she was gentle and upright and peaceful and honorable. 25And he remembered all her deeds which she had done in her life, and mourned exceedingly, for he loved her very much with all his heart and with all his soul. {Top} |
The Dispute of the Ages Begins... 3And he said to them: "Because I sold my right of first birth to Jacob for a small mess of lentils. 4And on the day that my father sent me out to hunt and catch and bring something to him that he should eat it and bless me, he came in deception and brought to my father something to eat and to drink, and my father blessed him and put me under his hand. 5And now our father has made us swear, me and him, that we will not devise any evil one against his brother, and that each will continue in love and in peace with his brother, and will not destroy our ways." The Sons of Esau Rebel 6And they said to him: "We will not listen to thee to keep peace with him, for our strength exceeds his strength, and we are more powerful than he. 7We will go out against him, and will slay him, and destroy his children; and if thou dost not go out with us, we will do thee harm also. 8Listen now to us: We will send to Aram and to Philistia and to Moab and to Ammon, and we will pick out for ourselves chosen men who are prepared for battle, and we will go against him and will battle with him, and we will root him out of the land, before he has taken root and is strong." 9And their father said to them: "Ye shall not go and make war upon him, that ye may not fall before him." 10And they said to him: "This is as thou hast done from thy youth on to the present day, and thou hast brought thy neck under his yoke. 11We will not listen to these words." War in the Land of Promise And they sent to Aram and to Aduram to the associates of their father, and they hired with themselves one thousand fighting men and chosen warriors. 12And there came to them from Moab and from the children of Ammon those that were hired, one thousand chosen men, and from Philistia one thousand chosen warriors, and from Edom and the Horites one thousand chosen fighters, and from the Hittites strong fighting men. 13And they said to their father: "Go out, lead them, and if not, we will kill thee."14And he was filled with anger and wrath at the time when he saw his sons that they were forcing him to go before them to lead them against Jacob, his brother. 15And then he remembered all the evil which had been hidden in his heart against his brother Jacob, and did not remember the oath which he had sworn to his father and his mother, that he would not devise any evil all his days against his brother Jacob. 16And in all this time Jacob did not know that they were coming against him for battle, but he was lamenting over Leah, his wife, until they approached him very near to the tower, four thousand warlike, powerful, and chosen fighters. Jacob is Warned 17And the men of Hebron sent to him saying: "Behold thy brother is coming against thee to fight with thee with four thousand heavily girded men, and they carry shields and weapons". For they loved Jacob more than Esau, and told it to him, for Jacob was a more gracious and mild man than Esau. 18But Jacob did not believe it until he approached very near the tower. Heated Words Between Jacob and Esau 19And he fastened the gates of the tower and stood upon the top of the tower, and spoke with his brother Esau and said: "Hast thou come to me bringing me a good consolation on account of my wife who has died ? 20Is this the oath which thou hast sworn to thy father and thy mother twice before they died? 21Thou hast violated the oath, and on account of what thou hast sworn to thy father, thou shalt be judged." 22And then Esau answered and said to him: "There is not to the sons of men and to the animals of the earth any oath of trust which they swear to them unto eternity; but on that morning yet they devise evil against each other, so that one may kill his hater and his enemy. 23And thou too dost hate me and my children to eternity, and there is no brotherly dealing with thee. 24"Hear these my words which I announce to thee: If one can change the bristles of the swine and change them into wool, and if horns will come out of its head like the horns of the deer and rams, then I will maintain brotherly relations with thee. 25And if the breasts are separated from the mother -for wast not thou to me a brother- and if the wolves make peace with the lambs, so that they do not devour and rob them; and if their hearts incline to doing each other good, then will there be peace in my heart toward thee. 26And when the lion becomes the friend of the ox, and when he is put into one yoke with him and plows with him, then I will make peace with thee. 27And when the raven becomes white like the rice bird, then I will know that I love thee and will make peace with thee. "Thou shalt be rooted out and thy sons shall be rooted out, and there shall be no peace." The Conflict Begins 28And then Jacob saw that his heart was evil against him, and that from his whole soul he would slay him, and he had come springing like a wild animal which comes against the spear that pierces it through and kills it, and it does not depart from it. 29And then he said to his sons and to his servants that they should attack him and all his companions. {Top} |
"Bend thy Bow, Father!" Esau Cast Down 2And immediately Jacob bent the bow and sent forth his arrow, and cast down his brother Esau, and slew him. 3And again he sent forth his arrow and hit Adoran, the Aramaean, on the left breast, and drove him back and killed him. Gentile Forces Defeated 4And then the sons of Jacob and their servants came out breaking forth from the four sides of the tower. 5Out came completely Judah, and Naphtali and Gad with him, and fifty young men with him out of the north side of the tower, and killed all that they found before them, and none escaped of those, not one. 6And Levi and Dan and Asher came out from the east side of the tower, and fifty with them, and they slew the warriors of Moab and Ammon. 7And Reuben and Issachar and Zebulun came out of the south side of the tower, and fifty with them, and they killed the fighters of Philistia. 8And Simeon and Benjamin and Enoch, the son of Reuben, came out of the west side of the tower, and fifty with them, and killed of those of Edom and Choran four hundred powerful men, and seven hundred escaped, and four of the sons of Esau fled with them, and left their father behind dead, as he had fallen on the hill which is called Aduram. 9And the sons of Jacob pursued after them to the mountains of Seir. Esau is Buried And Jacob buried his brother on the hill which is called Aduram, and returned to his house. The Sons of Esau Made Servants 10And the sons of Jacob overcame the sons of Esau in the mountains of Seir, and made them bend their necks, so that they became the servants of the sons of Jacob; and they sent word to their father inquiring if they should make peace with them, or if they should kill them. 11And Jacob sent word to his sons that they should make peace; and they made peace with them, and they placed the yoke of servitude upon them that they should pay tribute to Jacob and his sons all the days. 12And they continued to pay tribute to Jacob until the day when Jacob descended to the land of Egypt, and the sons of Esau did not cease from the yoke of servitude which the twelve sons of Jacob had imposed upon them, until the present day. 13And these are the kings which ruled over Edom before a king ruled over the children of Israel, until the present day in the land of Edom; and Balak, the son of Beor, was king, and the name of his city was Dinaba. 14And Balak died, and Jobab, the son of Zara, of Bezor, ruled in his stead. 15And Jobab died, and Adat, the son of Barad, who slew the Mediarites on the field of Moab, was king in his place, and the name of his city was Amot. 16And Adat died and Salman, of Amalek, was king in his stead. 17And Salman died and Saul, of the river Robaet, was king in his stead. 18And Saul died, and Beulunan, the son of Akbur, was king in his stead. 19And Beulunan died, and Adat was king in his stead, and the name of his wife was Matilat, the daughter of Matrit, the daughter of Metbed Zaab. |
The Story of Joseph, Son of Jacob 2These are the generations of Jacob: When Joseph was seventeen years old they took him down into Egypt, and sold him to Potiphar, the eunuch of Pharaoh, the head of the cooks. 3And he set Joseph over his whole house: and the blessing of the Lord was in the house of the Egyptian on account of Joseph, and all that he did the Lord prospered. 4And the Egyptian left in Joseph's hands all that was before him, for he saw that the Lord was with him, and that everything he did the Lord prospered. Joseph and Potiphar's Wife 5But Joseph was beautiful to look at and very attractive in form, and the wife of his master lifted up her eyes and saw Joseph. 6And she loved him and entreated him to lie with her. 7But he did not give over his soul, but remembered the Lord and the words which his father Jacob had read from among the words of Abraham, that no one among men should commit fornication with the wife of another, and with a woman who has a husband, and that as a punishment for this one death has been established in the heavens before the Most High God, and the sin on account of it will be inscribed on the books which are in eternity, all the days, before the Lord. 8And Joseph remembered these words, and was not willing to lie with her. 9And she entreated him one year, and he refused, and would not listen. 10But she embraced him and seized him in the house in order to force him to lie with her, and locked the doors of the house; but he tore himself out of her hands and left his garment in her hand, and broke the lock, and fled without away from her presence. 11And the woman saw that he would not lie with her, and she lied before her lord, saying: "Thy Hebrew servant, whom thou lovest, sought to do me violence that he might lie with me, and it happened that when I raised my voice, he fled and left his garment in my hand, when I had seized him, and broke the lock." Joseph in Prison 12And the Egyptian saw the garment of Joseph and the broken lock, and he obeyed the words of his wife, and cast Joseph into prison, into the place where the prisoners stayed whom the king had caused to be imprisoned. 13And there he was in the prison, and the Lord gave Joseph grace in the eyes of the head of the prison guards, and good will before him, for he saw that the Lord was with him, and all that he did the Lord prospered. 14And he left all things to him, and the head of the prison guards looked to nothing, for all things that Joseph did the Lord perfected. 15And he remained there two years. 16And in those days Pharaoh was angry with two of his eunuchs, the chief of the butlers and chief of the bakers, and he cast them into prison, into the house of the chief of the cooks, the prison where Joseph was held. 17And the chief of the prison guards ordered Joseph to serve them, and he served them before him. 18And both of them dreamed a dream, the chief of the butlers and the chief of the bakers, and they told it to Joseph. 19And as he explained to them, thus it happened to them; and the chief of the butlers Pharaoh put back into his office, and the chief of the bakers he killed, as Joseph had explained to them. 20And the chief of the butlers forgot Joseph in the prison, although he had informed him what would become of him, and did not remember to inform Pharaoh as Joseph had told him, for he forgot. {Top} |
Pharoah Dreams of Famine Joseph Interprets Pharoah's Dreams 2And then the chief of the butlers recalled Joseph to memory, and spoke concerning him to the king; and he brought him out of prison and narrated his two dreams before him. 3And he spoke before Pharaoh that his two dreams were one, and he said: "Seven years will come of plenty over all the land of Egypt, and after that, seven years of famine, such as has not been upon the whole earth. 4And now, O Pharaoh, establish throughout all the land of Egypt storehouses that grain may be gathered into them from city to city, in the days of the years of plenty, so that there may be grain for the seven years of famine, and that the land be not destroyed on account of the famine, for it will be very severe." "The Spirit of the LORD is Upon Him!" 5And the Lord gave Joseph grace and good will before the eyes of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said to his servants: "We shall not be able to find a wise and intelligent man like this man, for the spirit of the Lord is upon him." 6And he appointed him the second over the whole kingdom, and made him prince over all Egypt; and caused him to ride upon the second chariot of Pharaoh, and clothed him with byssus garments, and put a golden chain around his neck, and proclaimed before him, saying: "El el wa abrir". And he put a ring upon his hand, and made him master of his whole house, and made him great, and said to him: "I will not be greater than thee except in regard to the thronedom." 7And Joseph was lord in all the land of Egypt, and all the princes of Pharaoh loved him, and all the servants and all those that did the offices of the king, for he walked in rectitude and without pride and haughtiness of heart, and did not regard persons nor take bribes, but in rectitude he judged over all the peoples of the land. 8And the land of Egypt was governed peacefully before Pharaoh on account of Joseph, for the Lord was with him, and gave him grace and good will over all his race, before all who knew him and heard reports concerning him; and the kingdom of Pharaoh was in a right condition, without any enemy or evil. 9And the king called the name of Joseph, Sephnetiphanz, and gave the daughter of Potiphar as a wife to Joseph, the daughter of the one that sacrifices at Heliopolis, the chief of the cooks. 10And on the day that Joseph stood before Pharaoh he was thirty years old, when he stood before the face of Pharaoh. 11And in that year Isaac died. 12And it happened as Joseph had said concerning the explanation of the two dreams, and there were seven years of plenty, and the land of Egypt was full of fruit, for one measure eighteen measures. 13And Joseph gathered food from city to city, until they were full of grain, until they were not able to count and measure it on account of multitude. {Top} |
The Deaths of Er and Onan 3And this his first-born was wicked, and the Lord slew him. 4And Judah said to his son Onan: "Go in to the wife of thy brother, and make her thy wife and raise up seed for thy brother." 5And Onan knew that the seed would not be his, but rather his brother's, and he went to the house of the wife of his brother, and poured the seed upon the ground, and was wicked before the eyes of the Lord, and he slew him. Judah Does Not Fulfill His Promise 6And Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, "Abide in the house of thy father as a widow until my son Shelah has grown, and I will give thee to him for a wife." 7And he grew up; but Bedsuel, the wife of Judah, would not permit her son Shelah to marry her. 8And Bedsuel, the wife of Judah, died in the fifth year of this week. 9And in the sixth year thereof Judah went up to shear his sheep at Timnath. 10And she laid aside her widow's garments and clothed herself with a vail, and beautified herself, and sat down at the gate on the way to Timnath. 11And when Judah came, he found her, and thought her a harlot, and said to her: "I will go in to thee." 12And she said to him, "Come in", and he came in unto her. 13And she said to him, "Give me my pay." 14And he said to her, "I have nothing in my hand except my ring on my finger and my bracelet and my staff, which is in my hand." 15And she said to him, "Give me these until thou sendest me my pay." 16And he said to her, "I will send thee a young kid", and he gave them to her. 17And she conceived from him; and Judah went to his sheep, but she went to the house of her father. 18And Judah sent a young kid through a shepherd of Adullam, and he did not find her, and asked the people of the place, saying, "Where is the harlot which was here?" 19And they said, "There has been ho harlot here, and there is no harlot among us.'' 20And he returned and told him that he had not found her, and said, "I asked the people of the place and they said to me that there was no harlot there." 21And he said, "Arise, let us go that we do not become a laughing stock." 22And when three months were over she learned that she was pregnant, and they told Judah, saying, "Behold, thy daughter-in-law Tamar has conceived by whoredom." 23And Judah went to the house of her father, and said to her father and mother and brothers: "Bring her out that she be burned, for she has done an unclean thing in Israel." 24And it happened when they brought her out to burn her, she sent to her father-in-law the ring and the bracelets and the staff, saying, "Dost thou recognize whose these are, for from him have I conceived?" 25And Judah recognized them and said, "Tamar is more just than I." 26And they did not burn her. 27And on this account she was not given to Shelah; and he did not again approach her. The Children of Judah and Tamar 28And after that she gave birth to two male children, Pharez and Zarah, in the seventh year of this second week. 29And three more completed the seven years of fruitfulness of which Joseph had said to Pharoah. Judah Forgiven His Sin 30And Judah knew than it was an evil deed which he had done, for he had lain with his daughter-in-law, and regarded it as a sin before his eyes, and he knew that he had sinned and erred, because he had uncovered the skirt of his son. 31And he began to lament it and ask for mercy before the Lord on account of his sin. 32And he told him in a dream, that it would be forgiven him, because he begged exceedingly for mercy and lamented, and did not repeat it. 33And he obtained forgiveness, for he turned from his sin and ignorance, for it was a great transgression before the Lord our God; and every one that does thus, and lies with his daughter-in-law shall be burned with fire, that he may burn therein, for it is uncleaness and defilement upon them: with fire they shall be burnt. 34And thou, Moses, command the children of Israel, that there be no uncleanness among them, for every one that lieth with his mother-in-law or his daughter-in-law does an unclean thing: with fire shall be burnt the man who lies with her, and the woman also, and he God shall remove the anger and punishment from Israel. 35But to Judah he said that because his two sons did not lie with her, on that account his seed stands for a second generation, and should not be rooted out; for in the innocence of his eyes he had gone and sought punishment, namely, according to. the judgment of Abraham which he commanded his children, that Judah should be burned with fire. {Top} |
The Famine Begins 3And the Egyptians came to Joseph that he should give them food, and he opened the storehouses where the grain was in the first year, and he sold it to the people of the land for gold. The Sons of Jacob Enter Egypt 4And Jacob heard that there was food in the land of Egypt, and he sent ten sons, that they should go for him to Egypt, but Benjamin he did not send. 5And they came, together with those that went there. 6And Joseph knew them, but they did not know him; and he spoke with and asked them, and said to them: "Are ye not spies and have come to examine the traces of the land?" 7And he locked them in. 8And then again he released them and incarcerated Simeon alone, and his nine brothers he sent away. 9And he filled their sacks with grain, and he placed their gold in their sacks, and they did not know it. 10And he commanded them that they should bring their youngest brother, for they had told him that their father was yet living and also their youngest brother. 11And they went up from the land of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan, and told their father all that had happened to them, and how the prince of the land had spoken with them and had seized Simeon until they should bring Benjamin. Jacob Refuses to Send Benjamin to Egypt 12And Jacob said, "Ye have robbed me of my children: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and ye will also take Benjamin; your wickedness is upon you." 13And he said: "My son shall not go with you; it is possible that he will become sick; for their mother has given birth to two sons, one is destroyed and this one ye will take. 14He might take a fever on the road, and ye will bring my gray hairs in sorrow into death." 15For he saw that all their gold was returned in their packages, and on this account he feared to send him. 16But the famine increased and became strong in the land of Canaan, and in all the lands, except in the land of Egypt, for many of the sons of Egypt had gathered their seeds for food when they saw that Joseph was collecting the seed and placing it into the storehouses, and preserving it for the years of famine, and the men of Egypt fed themselves in the first year of their famine. 17And when Israel saw that the famine was very powerful in the land, and that there was no deliverance, he said to his sons: "Go, return, and bring us food that we die not." 18And they said: "We will not go: unless our youngest brother goes with us we will not go." 19And Israel saw that if he would not send him with them all would be destroyed on account of the famine. 20And Reuben said: "Give him to me into my hand, and if I do not return him to thee, slay my two sons in place of his soul." 21And he said, "He shall not go with thee." 22And Judah approached and said to him: "Send him with me; and if I do not bring him back to thee, I shall be a transgressor before thee all the days of my life." The Sons of Jacob Return to Egypt 23And he sent him with them in the second year of this week and in the new moon of the month, and they came to the land of Egypt with all those that went, and presents in their hands; and stacte and nuts and pistachio and pure honey. 24And they came and stood before Joseph, and he saw his brother Benjamin, and knew him, and said to them: "Is this your youngest brother?" 25And they said to him: "Yea, it is he." 26And he said, "The Lord be merciful to thee, my son." 27And he sent them into his house, and brought out Simeon to them and made them a feast, and they brought to him what they had brought in their hands. 28And they ate before him, and he gave them all a portion, and increased the portion of Benjamin over the portion of the others seven times, and they ate and drank, and arose and remained with their asses. Joseph Puts His Brothers to the Test 29And Joseph thought out a plan how he could learn their thoughts, whether their thoughts were peace among each other; and he said to the man who was over his house: "Fill all their sacks with food, but their gold return to them in the midst of their receptacle, and my goblet out of which I drink put into the sack of the youngest, the silver goblet, and send them away." {Top} |
43 And he did as Joseph had told him, and filled all their sacks for them with food, but their gold he put into their sacks, and the goblet he put into the sack of Benjamin. 2And early in the morning they departed. 3And it happened when they had gone from there that Joseph said to the man: "Follow them, run and upbraid them, saying: 'For good ye have returned evil, and have stolen the silver cup out of which my master drinks.' And bring back to me their youngest brother, quickly before that I go to my official work." 4And he ran after them and said to them according to these words. 5And they said to him: "Far be it from thy servants to do this thing: we have not stolen out of the house of thy lord any utensil, and the gold which we found the first time in our sacks, we, thy servants, have brought back out of the land of Canaan. 6How then would we steal any utensil: behold, here we are, and our sacks; search, and wherever thou findest the cup in the sack of any man among us, he shall be killed, but we and our asses will serve thy lord." 7And he said to them: "Not thus, the man with whom I find it, him alone will I take as a servant, but ye shall return in peace to your houses." "You Have Done Evil!" 8And when he searched in their vessels, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, it was found in the sack of Benjamin, the youngest. 9And they were terrified and rent their clothes, and loaded their asses and returned to the city and came to the house of Joseph, and all fell down before him upon their faces on the ground. 10And Joseph said to them: "Ye have done evil". And they said to him: "What shall we say, and with what shall we defend ourselves that our Lord has found the guilt of his servants? 11Behold, we are thy servants, O our lord, together with our asses." 12And Joseph said to them: "I, too, fear the Lord, and ye shall go to your houses, but your youngest brother shall be my servant, for ye have done evil: do ye not know that one like me who drinks out of his cup values it? 13And ye have stolen it." 14And Judah said: "For us, my lord, let me speak a word into the ear of my lord: his mother has borne thy servant, our father, two sons; one has left and was lost, and no one found him, and this one alone is left from his mother; and thy servant, our father, loves him and his soul cleaves to his soul, and it will happen when we return to thy servant, our father, and if the young man is not with us, he will die, and our father will sink away through grief unto death. 15But I will become a servant to my lord in the place of the boy; but let the youth go with his brothers, for I have given promise for him to thy servant, our father; and if thou dost not return him, then thy servant will be guilty to our father all the days." Joseph Reveals His Identity 16And Joseph saw the heart of all that they were friendly to each other and well disposed, and he was not able to restrain himself, and he said that he was Joseph, and conversed with them in the Hebrew tongue, and he fell upon their neck and wept; but they had not known him, and began to weep. 17And he said to them: "Do not weep over me; but hasten and bring my father to me, that I may see him before I die, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin while I see. 18For, behold, this is the second year of the famine, and there are yet five years without any harvest or fruit of trees or any plants. 19Hasten ye to come down with your households, so that ye be not destroyed by the famine, and do not grieve yourselves on account of yourselves, and on account of your possessions, for the Lord has sent me before you as a provider, that many people might live. 20And tell my father that I am yet alive. 21"But ye, behold, see me, that the Lord has set me as a father to Pharaoh, and that I should rule in his house and over all the land of Egypt. 22And tell my father of all my honor and all the measure which the Lord has given me of wealth and of honor." Jacob Learns that Joseph Lives! 23And at the command of Pharaoh, he gave them wagons and provisions for the road and gave them all colored garments and silver. 24And to their father, Pharaoh sent garments and silver and ten asses that carried grain and he sent them away. 25And they went up and announced to their father that Joseph was alive, and that he was measuring out grain to all the nations of the earth, and that he was lord of all the land of Egypt. 26And their father did not believe it, for he was terrified in his thoughts, but when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent, his spirit revived and lived, and he said: "It is a great thing for me that Joseph lives: I will go down to see him before I die." {Top} |
Jacob Leaves for Egypt 3And he celebrated the harvest festival of first fruits with old grain, for there was not a handful of seed in all the land of Canaan, for it was unfruitful for all the animals and beasts and birds, and also human beings. "I Will Go Down with Thee!" 4And on the sixteenth thereof the Lord appeared to him and said to him: "Jacob, Jacob!" 5And he said: "Here I am." 6And he said to him: "I am the God of thy fathers Abraham and Isaac: fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will make thee into a great people. 7I will go down with thee and I will bring thee back into this land that thou be buried here, and Joseph shall lay his hands upon thy eyes: fear not to go down to Egypt." 8And he arose, and his sons and his sons' sons, and they placed their father and their vessels upon the wagons. 9And Israel started from the well of the oath on the sixteenth of third month, and went to the land of Egypt. 10And Israel sent before him to Joseph, his son Judah, that he should examine the land of Goshen, for there Joseph had told his brothers that they should come, that they should dwell there, that they might be near him; and this was good in the land of Egypt and near to him, for them all and for their animals. "These Are the Names..." 11And these are the names of the sons of Jacob who went into Egypt with Jacob their father; Reuben, the first-born of Israel: and these are the names of his sons: Enoch and Phalus and Ezerom and Charami, five: Simeon and his sons, and these are the names of his sons: Ijamoel and Ijamen and Amet and Ijakim and Saar and Samel, the son of the Sephanite; seven: Levi and his sons; and these are the names of his sons, Gedson and Kaat and Merari, four: Judah and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Selem and Phalus and Zara, four: Issachar and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Tola and Phua and Ijaseb and Samarom, five: Zebulun and his sons, and these are the names of his sons: Azor and Elon and Ijaluel, four. 12And these are the sons of Jacob and their sons whom Leah had borne to Jacob in Mesopotamia, six, and one sister to them, Dinah; and all the souls whom Leah had borne and their sons, who went with their father Jacob to Egypt, were twenty-nine, and Jacob, their father, with them, it thus was thirty. 13And the sons of Zalapha, the handmaid of Leah, the wife of Jacob, whom she bore to Jacob:. Gad and Asher. 14And these are the names of their sons who went with them to Egypt; the sons of Gad: Zephjon and Agati and Somi and Asohen and Aroli and Arodi; eight. 15And the sons of Asher: Ijamua and Jesua and Barja. and Sara, their sister, seven. 16And all the souls are fourteen, and all of Leah were forty-four. 17And the sons of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, were Joseph and Benjamin. 18And to Joseph were born in Egypt before his father came to Egypt, whom Asnet bore him, the daughter of Potiphar, the sacrificer of Heliopolis, Manasseh and Ephraim, three. 19The sons of Benjamin are Bala and Bachor and Esabel, Zuel and Neman and Abdlji and Rae and Sanaim and Aphem and Gaom, eleven. 20And all the souls of Rachel were fourteen. 21And the sons of Bila, the handmaid of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, were Dan and Naphtali. 22And these are the names of their sons who went with them to Egypt; the sons of Dan are Chusi and Samon and Asudi and Ijak and Salamon, six. 23And they died in Egypt in the year in which they went down, and there was left to Dan only Chusi. 24And these are the names of the sons of Naphtali: Ijasiel and Guhani and Asaar and Suloni and Erne, six; and Erne died in Egypt, who was born after the year of the famine. 25And all the souls of Rachel were twenty-six. 26And all the souls of Jacob, that went with him to Egypt, were seventy souls; but his children and his childrens' children, all together were seventy-five, but five died in Egypt, who were not married and had no children; and in the land of Canaan two sons of Judah died, Er and Onan, and had no children. 27And the sons of Israel buried those that were destroyed, and these were counted among the seventy peoples. {Top} |
Joseph and Jacob Meet 2And Joseph went to meet his father Jacob in the land of Goshen, and he fell upon the neck of his father and wept. 3And Israel said to Joseph: "I would die now after I have seen thee. 4And now may the Lord God of Abraham and Isaac be blessed, who has not withdrawn his mercy and kindness from his servant Jacob: It is a great thing to me that I have seen thy face in my life, for true is the vision which I saw in Bethel, blessed be the Lord God to all eternity, and blessed be his name." 5And Joseph and his brothers ate bread before their father and drank wine; and Jacob rejoiced exceedingly much, for he saw that Joseph ate with his brothers and drank before him; and he blessed the Creator of all, who had preserved for him his twelve sons. Jacob to Live in the Land of Goshen 6And Joseph gave his father and his brothers as a present that they should dwell in the land of Goshen and in Ramasitino, and their whole territory, that they should rule it before Pharaoh. 7And Israel and his sons dwelt in the land of Goshen, the best part of the land of Egypt: but Israel was one hundred and thirty years old when he came into Egypt. 8And Joseph gave provisions to his father and brothers, and their possessions as much as supported them for the seven years of famine. 9And the land of Egypt suffered on account of the famine, and Joseph gathered in all the land of Egypt to Pharaoh for food, both the people and their cattle, and Pharaoh possessed everything. The Famine Comes to an End 10And the years of the famine were completed, and Joseph gave to the people that were in the land of Egypt seed and food to sow in the eighth year, for the river had overflowed into all the land of Egypt. 11For in the seven years of the famine it had watered only a few spots along the bank of the river, but now it overflowed; and the Egyptians sowed upon their land and it produced much grain in that year. 12And this was the first year of the fourth week of the thirty-fifth jubilee. 13And Joseph took of the grain which they sowed the fifth part for the king, and the fourth he left them for food and for sowing: and Joseph made it a law for the land of Egypt unto this day. The Repose of Jacob 14And Israel lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and all the days which he lived were three jubilees, one hundred and forty-seven years. 15And he died in the fourth year of the fifth week of the forty-fifth jubilee. 16And Israel blessed his sons before he died, and told them everything as it would happen to them in the land of Egypt, and what would come upon them in the latter days, and everything he made known to them, and blessed them and gave Joseph two portions in the land. 17And he slept with his fathers and was buried in the double cave in the land of Canaan beside Abraham, his father, in the grave which he had dug for himself, in the double cave, in the land of Hebron. Levi Entrusted with the Oracles of God 18And he gave all his books and the books of his fathers to his son Levi, that he should guard them and renew them for the sons of Israel to this day. {Top} |
The Children of Israel Multiply 3And ten weeks of years were all the days of the life of Joseph which he lived after his father, and he was no enemy or anything wicked in all the days of the life of Joseph which he lived after his father Jacob, for all the Egyptians honored the sons of Jacob during all the days of the life of Joseph. 4And Joseph died when he was one hundred and ten years old: seventeen years he lived in the land of Canaan and ten years he was a servant, and three years he was in prison, and eighty years he was under the king ruling all the land of Egypt. 5And all his brothers died, and all that generation. 6And he commanded the children of Israel, before he died, that they should carry up his bones when they would go out of the land of Egypt. 7And he made them swear concerning his bones, for he knew that the Egyptians would not again bring out his bones and bury them in the land of Canaan, for Memkeron, the king of Canaan, while he was dwelling in the land of Asur, was fighting in the valley with the king of Egypt and killed him there and pursued the Egyptians to the gates of Eromon. 8But he was unable to enter, for a second new king ruled over Egypt, and he was more powerful than he; and he returned to the land of Canaan, and the gates of Egypt were locked and no one entered Egypt. The Repose of Joseph 9And Joseph died in the forty-sixth jubilee, in the sixth week, in the second year; and they buried him in the land of Egypt, and all his brothers died after him. 10And the king of Egypt went out to fight with the king of Canaan in the forty-seventh jubilee, in the second week, in the second year thereof; and the children of Israel brought out the bones of all the sons of Jacob except the bones of Joseph, and buried them in the fields, in the double caves in the mountains, 11And the most returned to Egypt, and a few of them remained behind in the mountains of Hebron, and thy father Anbaram [Amram] remained with them. The Oppression of Israel 12And the king of Canaan overcame the king of Egypt and locked the portals of Egypt. 13And he devised an evil plan against the children of Israel that he would torment them, and he said to the men of Egypt: "Behold, the people of the children have increased and multiplied more than we; behold, we will plot against them before they become too many, and will torment them with slavery, before a murder comes over us and before these become our enemies; if not, these will unite with the enemy and will depart out of our land, for their faces and hearts are toward the land of Canaan." 14And he set over them work-overseers that they should torment them with slave work. 15And they commanded them,and they built strong cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Ramses, and they built all the walls and sides which had fallen in in the cities of Egypt. 16And they oppressed them with service, but as much as they abused them so much they increased and so much they multiplied. 17And the men of Egypt considered the children of Israel unclean. {Top} |
The Massacre of the Innocents 5And in those days Tarmuth, the daughter of Pharaoh, came to bathe in the river, and she heard thy voice crying, and she told her Hebrew maidens that they should bring thee out; and they brought thee to them. 6And they took thee out of the ark, and she pitied thee. Moses Raised in the Courts of the King of Egypt 7And thy sister said: "Shall I go and call for thee one of the Hebrew women, who shall raise and nurse this child for thee?" 8And she said: "Go." 9And she went and called thy mother Jokabed, and she gave her wages, and she raised thee. 10And when thou didst grow, they brought thee to the house of Pharaoh, and thou becamest his son; and Anbaram, thy father, taught thee writing. 11And when thou didst complete three weeks, he brought thee to the royal court. 12And thou wast in the court three weeks of years, until the day when thou didst go out of the royal court, and didst see the Egyptian as he was beating thy friend from among the children of Israel. 13And thou slewest him and hid him in the sand, and on the following day thou foundest two of the children of Israel quarrelling, and didst say to the more powerful: "Why dost thou beat thy brother?" 14And he became angry and wroth, and said: "Who has set thee a ruler and prince over us? 15Dost thou desire to kill me, as thou didst kill the Egyptian yesterday?" 16And thou didst fear and flee on account of these words. {Top} |
Moses Flees Egypt 2And thou knowest what he spoke to thee at Mt. Sinai, and what the prince Mastema desired to do with thee, as thou returnest to Egypt, on the way, at the feast of tabernacles. 3Did he not with all his power seek to kill thee, and to save the Egyptians out of thy hand, when thou sawest that thou wert sent to deliver judgments and vengeance over the Egyptians? 4And I delivered thee out of his hands, and thou didst the signs and wonders for which I had sent thee to do in Egypt over Pharaoh and over all his house and over his servants and over his people. Egypt is Punished 5And the Lord inflicted a great vengeance upon them for Israel's sake, and beat them and killed them through blood and frogs and flies and dog flies and breaking-out skin diseases, and also their animals by death, and through hail, by which he destroyed everything that grew for them; and through grasshoppers, who ate the rest that had been left by the hail, and through darkness; and also the first-born of man and animals; and on all their idols the Lord took vengeance and burned them with fire. 6And everything was sent through thy hand, that thou shouldst do it before it was done, and thou didst tell it to the king of Egypt and before all of his servants and before his people. 7And everything took place according to thy words: ten great and terrible judgments came over the land of Egypt, that they might take vengeance for Israel. And all the deeds of the Lord concerning Israel and according to his ordinance which he covenanted with Abraham, that he would take vengeance upon them, according as they had served the Egyptians in oppression. 8And the prince Mastema placed himself against thee, and endeavored to throw thee into the hand of Pharaoh and aided the sorcerers of the Egyptians, and stood by them, and they performed them before thee: the evils, however, we permitted them to perform, but their remedies we did not suffer them to perform by their hands. 9And the Lord struck them with a dire pox, and they were not able to withstand, for we destroyed them so that they could not do a single sign. 10And amid all the signs and wonders, the prince Mastema was not ashamed, until he became powerful and cried to the Egyptians that they should pursue after thee with all the power of the Egyptians, with their wagons and with their horses and with all the masses of the people of Egypt. Israel Passes Through the Sea 11And I stood between the Egyptians and thee, and between them and Israel, and I saved the Israelites out of their hands and out of the hands of the Egyptians. 12And the Lord led them through the middle of the sea, as if it were dry land. 13And all the people he caused to come out to pursue Israel, the Lord our God cast into the midst of the sea, into the depths of the abysses, instead of the children of Israel, because the people of Egypt had thrown their children by the hundreds into the river: vengeance was taken upon them and one thousand powerful men, and those that were strong, perished on account of one suckling babe which they had cast into the river from amongst thy people. 14And on the fourteenth day, and on the fifteenth day, and on the sixteenth day, and on the seventeenth day, and on the eighteenth day, the prince Mastema was bound and chained behind the children of Israel, so that he could not accuse the children of Israel. 15But on the nineteenth day we let him loose, so that he could help the Egyptians, and that they could pursue the children of Israel; and he made hard their hearts and strengthened them and he became powerful according to the Lord our God, so that he could smite the Egyptians and hurl them into the sea. 16And on the fifteenth day we bound him, so that he could not accuse the children of Israel on the day when they asked for the utensils and clothing from the men of Egypt, utensils of silver and utensils of gold and utensils of iron, in order to despoil the Egyptians for having served him a service in oppression: and we did not cause the children of Israel to go out of Egypt empty handed. {Top} |
Discourse Concerning the Observance of Passover 4And the powers of the Lord did everything as the Lord commanded them, and they passed by all the sons of Israel, and no plague came over them to destroy any soul from their midst, neither of beast nor of man, not even a dog. And the plague was in Egypt exceedingly great, and there was no house in Egypt in which there was no dead body and weeping and lamentation. 5And all Israel was engaged in eating the meat of the Pascah and drinking wine, and they lauded and thanked and blessed the Lord God of their fathers, and were prepared to go out from under the yoke of Egypt and from under its slavery. 6But thou, remember this day all the days of thy life, once in the year, on its day, according to all the law thereof, and thou shalt not change the day for another day, or the month for another month. 7For it is an ordinance of eternity, which is engraven on the tablets of heaven concerning the children of Israel, that they shall observe each year by year the festivals; once a year, in all their generations, and it has no limit of days, for it is ordained for eternity. 8And a man, if he is pure and does not come to observe in its time the day, to bring an offering which is acceptable before the Lord on the day of the festival, and to eat and to drink before the Lord, on the day of his festival, that man shall be rooted out, if he is pure and near, because he has not brought the offering to the Lord in its time, and that man places a sin upon himself. Let the children of Israel, who will yet come, observe the Pascah on the day of its time, on the fourteenth of the first month, between the evenings, in the third part of the day to the third part of the night; for two parts of the day are given to the light and the third to the evening; this it is that the Lord has commanded that thou shalt observe it between the evenings. 9And it shall not take place in the morning, at any time of daylight, but only at the limits of the evenings; and they shall eat it in the time of evening until the third night, and whatever is left of all the meat on the third night, they shall again burn in the fire. 10And they shall not cook it in water and shall not eat it raw, but carefully roasted on the fire and broiled on the fire; its head together with the intestines they shall roast, and its feet, and shall not break any bone within it, for none of the children of Israel shall have any bone broken. 11On this account the Lord has commanded the children of Israel to observe the Pascah on the day of its time, and that no bone in it shall be broken, for it is a festival and a day commanded, and there must be no change from it from one day to another, or from one month to another, but on the day shall its festival be observed. 12But thou, command the children of Israel that they should observe the Pascah on its days in all the years, once each year, on the day of its fixed time, and that it shall become a memorial before the Lord which is acceptable, and that no plague come over them to kill them and to scourge them in that year. 13If they observe the Pascah in its time in everything as they have been commanded, then it is not allowed them to eat it outside of the sanctuary of the Lord, and all the people of the assembly of Israel shall observe it in its time. 14Every man who is twenty years and above who comes on that day shall eat it in the sanctuary of your God before the Lord, for thus it is written and ordained that they shall eat it in the sanctuary of the Lord. 15And when the children of Israel come into the land which they shall possess, into the land of Canaan, and plant the tent of the Lord in the midst of the land, within one of their hosts, until the time when the sanctuary of the Lord shall have been built in the land, then they shall come and observe the Pascah in the midst of the tent of the Lord, and shall sacrifice it before the Lord from year to year. 16And in the days when a house shall have been built in the name of the Lord in the land of their inheritance, they shall go there and slay the Pascah in the evening, as the sun goes down, in the third part of the day. 17And they shall place the blood on the foundation of the altar, and the fat they shall lay upon the fire upon the altar, and shall eat flesh thereof that has been roasted at the fire, in the court of the sanctuary in the name of the Lord. 18And they must not observe the Pascah in their cities and in all their districts, but only before the tent of the Lord or before his house, where his name dwells, so that ye do not trespass against the Lord. 19But thou, Moses, command the children of Israel, that they shall observe the ordinance of the Pascah as it has been commanded to thee, that they shall observe the day year by year, and its day and the festival of the unleavened bread, that they shall eat unleavened bread seven days, so that they observe its festival, that they bring an offering day by day in these seven days of the Pascah before, the Lord on the altar of your God. 20For this festival ye observed with trembling when ye went out of Egypt until ye had gone through the sea into the desert of Sur, for on the shore of the sea ye completed it. {Top} |
Final Discourse Concerning the Days of the Sabbaths 3Concerning this I have ordained for thee the weeks of years and the jubilees, from the days of Adam to this day: forty-nine jubilees and one week and two years; and yet forty years are before for learning the commandments of the Lord, until ye cross the border of the land of Canaan, crossing the Jordan on the western side, and jubilees will pass by until Israel shall be cleansed from all fornication and guilt and uncleanness and contamination and sin and transgression, and shall dwell in all the land in safety, and no Satan and no evil one will injure him, and the land will be cleansed from that time on and to eternity. 4And, behold, the command of the Sabbaths I have written down for thee, and all the judgments of its laws. 5Six days thou shalt do work, and on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God; ye shall not do any work on it, neither ye, nor your children, nor your male servants, nor your maid servants, nor any of your beasts, nor your stranger who is with you. 6The man that does any work on it shall die, and every man who desecrates this day, who lies with a wife, and who says that he will do something on it, that he will make a trip on it, or concerning all buying and selling, and who draws water on it which he did not prepare for himself on the sixth day; and whoever takes up a burden to carry it out of his tent or out of his house, he shall die. 7Ye shall not do any work on the Sabbath which ye have not prepared for yourselves on the sixth day, to eat or to drink or to rest or to keep Sabbath from all your work on that day, and to bless the Lord your God, who has given it to you as a festival day; and a holy day it shall be, and a day of the holy kingdom, for all Israel this day, among your days, in all the days. 8For great is the honor which the Lord has given to Israel to eat and to drink and to be satisfied on this festival day, after resting on this day from all the work of the children of men, except burning frankincense and bringing offerings and sacrifices before the Lord on the days and the Sabbaths. 9This work alone shall be done on the Sabbath days, in the sanctuary of the Lord your God, so that these shall appear over Israel as a constant atonement, day by day, as a memorial, which is acceptable before the Lord and received forever, day by day, as I have commanded thee. 10And every man who does any work on this day, or makes a journey, or works his land, be it in the house or at any other place, and whoever lights a fire or rides upon any beast, or travels by ship upon the sea, and everyone that strikes or kills anything, or kills an animal or a bird, and who catches an animal and bird and fish, and who contends or engages in war on the Sabbath day, the man that does any of these things on the Sabbath day, shall die, so that the children of Israel shall observe the Sabbaths, according to the command of the Sabbath of the land, as it is written on the tablets of heaven, which he gave into my hands, that I should write for thee the laws of the times, and the different times in the division of their days. {Top} |
