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Note: We have
found the fantastic copy of the Book of Jubilees below. It has the same external links as the
original, connecting it to its original website. Clicking these links will take you away
from this website, so either open the file in a new window, or use the back
button on your browser to come here.
The beauty of this text is that cross references are
found right in the text, as well as links to other apocryphal books you may
find of interest. Please remember that
these other books may have some really heretical doctrines,
so be careful. The further away you
get from the Bible, the crazier things can become.
The Book of Jubilees
From "The Apocrypha and
Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament"
R.H. Charles
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913
See
an article about the history of the book.
See the
Introduction to understand the view of an "already working kingdom prior to
Messiah." This kingdom would gradually come into existence, and
consistent with the New Wineskin scheme continues to evolve as we write.
The History of Heredotus,
Chapter Three reads:
About the time when Cambyses arrived at Memphis, Apis appeared to the Egyptians. Now Apis is the god whom the Greeks call
Epaphus. As soon as he
appeared, straightway all the Egyptians arrayed themselves in their gayest garments, and fell to feasting and jollity: which when Cambyses saw, making sure that these rejoicings were on account of his
own ill success, he called before him the officers who had
charge of Memphis, and demanded of them-
"Why, when he was in Memphis before, the Egyptians
had done nothing of this kind, but waited until now, when he had returned
with the loss of so many of his troops?" The officers made answer,
"That one of
their gods had appeared to them, a god who at long intervals of time
had been accustomed to show himself in Egypt-
and that always
on his appearance the whole of
Egypt feasted and kept jubilee."
THIS is the history of the division of the days of the
law and of the testimony, of the events of the years, of their (year) weeks,
of their Jubilees throughout all the years of the world, as the Lord spake to
Moses on Mount Sinai when he went up to receive the tables of the law and of
the commandment, according to the voice of God as he said unto him, 'Go up to
the top of the Mount.'
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 1]
1 And it came to pass in the first year of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt,
in the third month, on the sixteenth day of the month, [2450 Anno Mundi] that
God spake to Moses, saying:
'Come up to Me on the Mount, and I will give thee two tables of stone of the law and of the
commandment, which
2 I have written,
that thou mayst teach them.'
And Moses went up into the mount of
God, and the
3 glory of the Lord abode on Mount
Sinai, and a cloud overshadowed it six days.
And He called to Moses on the seventh day out of the midst of the cloud, and
the appearance of the glory of the
4 Lord was like
a flaming fire on the top of
the mount. And Moses was on the Mount forty days and forty nights,
and God taught him the earlier and the later
history of the division of all the days
5 of the law
and of the testimony.
The word day
(h3117) can mean a chronicle. A Book of Days
And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might,
and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are
they not written in the book of the
chronicles of the kings of Judah? 2 Kings 20:20
Some days are accounts of instantaneous creation. Other
days speak of God planting, the plants grow and begin reproducing after their
kind. This would agree with Isaiah 48 where we see that God created all
things probably in ZERO time. Then, He brought them forth in their own good
time. The word "day" is the Hebrew:
Yowm (h3117) yome;
from an unused root mean. to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or
from one sunset to the next), or figurative
(a space of time defined by an associated term), chronicles, continually , (for) ever (-lasting, -more),
perpetually, presently, required,
season, process of time...
We know that creation out of nothing is instantaneous.
However, God then makes, forms, brings forth and then chronicles or heralds
what He has done in parable-like stories which can be easily learned and
repeated. These day journals were to contradict the absurd creation accounts
of the Babylonian triads and
modern evolution which discounts the Divine.
Day can also mean everlasting
or evermore. Literally, evermore
means for the necessary duration
of time and not always eternity.
And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in
thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore (h3117), and no man shall
save thee. Deuteronomy 28:29
The "groping at noonday" was symbolic of groping forever or for whatever time
it took:
And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and
the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore (yowm); and ye shall not
fear other gods (elohim). 2 Kings 17:37
And He said:
'Incline thine heart to every word which I shall speak to
thee on this mount,
and write them in a book in order that their generations may
see how I have not forsaken them for all the evil which
they have wrought in transgressing
the covenant
6 which I establish between Me and thee for their generations this day on Mount Sinai.
And thus it will come to pass when all these things come
upon them, that they will recognise that I am more righteous than they in all
their judgments and in all their actions, and they will recognise that
7 I have been
truly with them. And do thou write for thyself all these words which I
declare unto, thee this day,
for I know their rebellion
and their stiff neck, before I bring them into the land of which I
sware to their fathers, to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, saying: ' Unto
your seed
The Musical Idolatry at
Mount Sinai was an oft-repeated pattern of God offering grace and
evil men turning back to musical idolatry.
When God gave the Book of the Covenant, Exodus reads:
And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the
smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked
greatly. Exodus 19:18
However, as a result
of the musical idolatry--rising up to play--God
gave them the Book of the Law
to protect them against the lawless. Later, they were given a king and the
temple rituals quarantined the people from the LIKE THE NATIONS rituals.
After punishment, God ordained the Levites to stand between the people and the
Tabernacle as the symbol of His presence. All but the Levites and Priests
were now strangers and the
clergy must bear the burden for the people. Therefore, in Deuteronomy, the
second law or that "in addition to the Covenant":
And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended
upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole
mount quaked greatly. Deut.33:1
And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose
up from Seir unto them; he shined
forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints:
from his right hand went a fiery law for them. Deut 33:2
Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand:
and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words. Deut
33:3
Moses commanded
us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. Deut 33:4
This theme
of Covenant, sin, and the Law is repeated in The Book of Enoch
Quoted by Jude, vss. 14, 15.
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of
these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, Jude 14
To execute
judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of
all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their
hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Jude 15
These documents all attribute musical worship of Yahweh
to a Satanic attack with mixed-sex choirs and intrumental music in the hands
of the women and youth.
8 will I give a
land flowing with milk and honey. And they will eat and be satisfied,
and they will turn
to strange gods, to (gods) which cannot deliver them from aught of
their tribulation:
and this witness
shall be heard for a witness
against them.
For they will forget all My commandments, (even) all that
I command them, and they will
walk after the
Gentiles, and after their uncleanness, and after their shame, and will
serve their gods, and these will
10 prove unto them an offence and a tribulation and an affliction and a snare.
And many will
perish and they will be taken
captive, and will fall into the hands of the enemy,
because they have forsaken My ordinances and My commandments, and the festivals of My covenant, and My sabbaths,
and My holy place which I have hallowed for Myself in their midst, and My tabernacle, and My sanctuary,
which I have hallowed for Myself in the midst of the land, that I should set
my name
11 upon it, and that it should dwell (there).
And they will make to themselves high places and groves
and graven images, and they will worship, each his own (graven image), so as to go astray,
and they
12 will sacrifice
their children to demons, and to all the works of the error of their
hearts.
While the women were lamenting
for Tammuz in the Jerusalem temple, the men were bowing to the sun
in the east. The "tree" or stone pillar representing various
"gods" was very important to show superiority.
This woodcut shows the Israelites worshiping a four-fold
image two of which are crowned with the sun. The non-functional columns were
"trees" or stumps like the original cross. In Judaism and lots of
modern christianity the Sun is worshiped rather than the Son. This is a symbolic grove.
In the Septuagint
"God" describes how this took place by showing how He
will musically bring judgment
upon Assyria. This describes the worship of Molech at
Topheth and defines how God will carry out His judgment upon all who are
unfaithful:
Must ye always rejoice, and go into
my holy places continually, as they that keep a ieast? and must ye go with a pipe, as those that rejoice into the
mountain of the Lord, to the God of Israel Isaiah 30:29
LXX
and the Lord shall make his glorious voice to be heard
and the wrath of his arm, to make a display with wrath and anger and devouring flame: he shall lighten
terribly, and his wrath shall be as
water and violent hail. Isaiah
14:30 LXX
For by the voice of the Lord the Assyrians shall be overcome, even by the stroke where with he
shall smite them. Isaiah 14:31 LXX
And it shall happen to him from every side, that they from
whom their hope of assistance was, in which he trusted, themselves shall war against him in turn with drums and with harp. Isaiah 14:32 LXX
And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass,
which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps:and
in battles of shaking will he fight with it. Isaiah 14:32KJV
This is an illustration how
they got an oracle from Molech by buring babies in his red-hot arms while the
loud music drowned out the evil sounds for the mothers. The screams of the
children was "music" in the ears of Molech representing Satan.
And I will send witnesses unto them, that I may witness
against them, but they will not hear,
and will slay the witnesses also,
and they will persecute
those who seek the law,
and they will abrogate
and change
13 everything
so as to work evil before My eyes. And I will hide My face from them, and I
will deliver them into the hand of the Gentiles for captivity, and for a prey, and for devouring,
and I will remove them from the midst of the land, and I will scatter them amongst the Gentiles.
God said that Abraham was justified by faith:
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes,
and my laws. Genesis 26:5
At Mount Sinai, God restated
the covenant made with Abraham which was a patriarchal covenant without
clergy and without sacrifice. When Israel fell back into
Osiris (Apis the bull) worship, He gave them the Book of the Law. After they
"fired" God as their King so that they could worship like the
nations, He allowed them to walk in their own ways. Their religion,
therefore, was not a spiritual religion of Grace but a religion quite identical
to those of the surrounding nations. In time, this religion would lead to
their captivity and almost destruction. The book of Jubilees describes this:
Jubilee
picks up this eternal theme:
14 And they will forget all My law and all My
commandments and all My
judgments,
and will go
15 astray as to new moons, and sabbaths, and festivals, and jubilees, and ordinances.
And after this they will turn to Me from amongst the Gentiles with all their heart and
with all their soul and with all their strength, and I will gather them from
amongst all the Gentiles, and they will seek me, so
16 that I shall be found of them, when they seek me with
all their heart and with all their soul. And I will disclose to them abounding
peace with righteousness, and I will remove them the plant of
uprightness, with all My heart and with all My soul, and they shall be for a
blessing and not for
17 a curse, and they shall be the head and not the tail.
And I will build My sanctuary in their midst,
and I will dwell with
them, and I will be their God
and they shall be My people in truth and
18, 19 righteousness.
And I will not forsake them nor fail them; for I am the
Lord their God.'
And Moses fell on his face and prayed and said, 'O Lord
my God, do not forsake Thy
people and Thy inheritance, so that they should wander in the error of their
hearts, and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies, the
Gentiles, lest they should rule over them and cause them to sin against
20 Thee. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be lifted up upon Thy
people, and create in them an upright
spirit, and let not the spirit
of Beliar rule over them to accuse
them before Thee, and to ensnare them
21 from all the paths of righteousness, so that they may perish
from before Thy face. But they are Thy people and Thy inheritance, which thou
hast delivered with thy great power from the hands of the Egyptians: create
in them a clean heart and a holy spirit, and let them not be ensnared in
22 their sins from henceforth until eternity.'
And the Lord said unto Moses: 'I know their contrariness
and their thoughts and their stiffneckedness, and they will not be obedient till they confess
23 their own
sin and the sin of their fathers. And after this they will turn to Me in all uprightness and
with all (their) heart and with all (their) soul, and
I will circumcise the foreskin of their heart and the foreskin of the heart
of their seed,
and I will create
in them a holy spirit, [See notes on A holy
spirit]
and I will cleanse
them so that they shall not turn away from Me from that day unto
eternity.
24 And their souls will cleave to Me and to all My commandments, and they will
fulfil My
25 commandments, and I will be their Father and they
shall be My children. And they all shall be called children of the living
God, and every angel and every spirit shall know, yea, they
shall know that these are My children,
and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness,
and that
26 I love them. And do thou write down for thyself all
these words which I declare unto thee on this mountain, the first and
the last, which shall come to pass in
all the divisions of the days in the law and in the testimony and in
the weeks and the jubilees unto eternity, until I descend and dwell
27 with them throughout eternity.'
And He said to the angel of the presence: Write
for Moses from
28 the beginning
of creation till My sanctuary has been built among them for all eternity. And the Lord will
appear to the eyes of all, and all shall know that I am the God of Israel and the Father
of all the children of Jacob, and King on Mount Zion for all
eternity. And Zion and Jerusalem shall
29 be holy.' And the angel of the presence who went
before the camp of Israel
took the tables
of the divisions of the years -from the time of the creation- of the law and of the testimony
of the weeks of the jubilees,
according to the individual years, according to all the
number of the jubilees
[according, to the individual years],
from the day of the [new] creation when the heavens and
the earth shall be renewed and
all their creation according to the powers of the heaven, and according to
all the creation of the earth, until the sanctuary of the Lord shall be made
in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and all the luminaries be renewed for healing and for peace and for blessing
for all the elect of Israel, and that thus it may be from that day and unto
all the days of the earth.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 2]
1 And the angel of the presence spake to Moses according to the word of the Lord,
saying:
Write the complete
history of the creation, how in six days the Lord God finished all His
works and all that He created, and kept Sabbath on the seventh day and hallowed it for all ages, and
2 appointed
it as a sign for all His works.
Notice that the first day was devoted to the "spirits" of all things
On the first
day He created the heavens
which are above and the earth and the waters and all the spirits which serve before him in internal silence. Jesus prescribed
the "spirit" as the place where He looks for worshipers and not the
body or His works. Whatever exists, there is a divine law which is invisible
but makes things what they are.
the angels of the presence,
and the angels of sanctification,
and the
angels [of the spirit of fire and
the angels] of the spirit of the winds,
and the angels of the spirit of the clouds,
and of darkness,
and of snow and of hail and of hoar frost,
and the angels of the voices and of the thunder and of the lightning,
and the angels
of the spirits of cold and of heat,
and of winter and of spring and of autumn and of summer
and of all the spirits
of his creatures which are in
the heavens and on the earth,
(He created) the abysses and the darkness, eventide (and
night),
and the light, dawn and day, which He hath
3 prepared in the knowledge of his heart. And thereupon
we saw His works, and praised Him, and lauded before Him on account of all His works;
for seven great
works did He create on the first day.
4 And on the second
day He created the firmament in the midst of the waters, and the
waters were divided on that day -half of them went up above and half of them
went down below the firmament (that was) in the midst over the face of the
whole earth. And this was the only work (God) created
5 on the second day. And on the third day He commanded the waters to pass from off the face of
6 the whole earth
into one place, and the dry land to appear. And the waters did so as
He commanded them, and they retired from off the face of the earth into one
place outside of this firmament,
7 and the dry land appeared. And on that day He created
for them all the seas according to their separate gathering-places, and all
the rivers, and the gatherings of the waters in the mountains and on all the
earth, and all the lakes, and all the dew of the earth, and the seed which is
sown, and all sprouting things, and fruit-bearing
trees, and trees of the wood, and the garden of Eden, in Eden
8 and all plants after their kind. These four great works
God created on the third day.
And on the fourth day He
created the sun and the moon and the stars, and set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon all
the earth, and to rule over the day and the night, and divide the
9 light from the darkness. And God appointed the sun to
be a great sign on the earth for days and
10 for sabbaths
and for months and for feasts and for years and for sabbaths of years and for jubilees and for all seasons of the
years. And it divideth the light from the darkness [and] for prosperity, that
all things may prosper which shoot and grow on the earth. These three kinds He
made on the fourth day. And on the fifth
day He created great sea monsters in the depths of the waters, for
these were the first things of flesh that were created by his hands, the fish
and everything that moves in the
12 waters, and everything that flies, the birds and all
their kind. And the sun rose above them to prosper (them), and above
everything that was on the earth, everything that shoots out of the earth,
and all
13 fruit-bearing trees, and all flesh. These three kinds
He created on the fifth day. And on the sixth day
14 He created
all the animals of the earth, and all cattle, and everything that moves on
the earth. And after all this He created man, a man and a woman created He
them, and gave him dominion over all that is upon the earth, and in the seas,
and over everything that flies, and over beasts and over cattle, and over
everything that moves on the earth, and over the whole earth, and over all
this He gave
15 him dominion. And these four kinds He created on the sixth day. And there were altogether
16 two and twenty kinds. And He finished all his work on the sixth day -all that is in the
heavens and on the earth, and in the seas and in the abysses, and in the
light and in the darkness, and in
17 everything. And
He gave us a great sign, the Sabbath day, that we should work six
days,
The Sabbath was not created for a day of "external
worship" which is usually the most stressful part of the week. Rather,
the Sabbath was created for all of the animal and human life to rest. In
order to keep this day holy God took "Saturday rituals" out of the
hands of mankind by defining what could not be done on that day.
but
18 keep Sabbath on the seventh day from all work. And all the angels of the presence, and all
the angels of sanctification, these two
great classes -He hath bidden us to keep the Sabbath with Him
19 in heaven and on earth. And He said unto us:
'Behold, I will separate unto Myself a people from among
all the peoples, and these shall keep
the Sabbath day, and I will sanctify them unto Myself as My people,
and will bless them; as I have sanctified the Sabbath day and do sanctify
(it) unto
20 Myself, even so will I bless them, and they shall be
My people and I will be their God. And I have chosen the seed of Jacob from amongst all that
I have seen, and have written him down as My first-born son, and have
sanctified him unto Myself for ever and ever; and I will teach them the
21 Sabbath day, that they may keep Sabbath thereon from
all work.' And thus He created therein a sign in accordance with which
they should keep Sabbath with us on the seventh day,
to eat and to drink, and to bless Him
who has created all things as He has blessed and sanctified unto Himself
22 a peculiar people above all peoples, and that they
should keep Sabbath together with us.
And He caused His commands to ascend as a sweet savour acceptable before Him
all the days . . .
23 There (were) two and twenty heads of mankind from Adam
to Jacob, and two and twenty kinds of work were made until the seventh day;
this is blessed and holy; and the former also is blessed and
24 holy; and this one serves with that one for
sanctification and blessing. And to this (Jacob and his seed) it was granted
that they should always be the blessed and holy ones of the first testimony
25 and law, even as He had sanctified and blessed the
Sabbath day on the seventh day. He created heaven and earth and everything
that He created in six days, and God made the seventh day holy, for all His
works; therefore He commanded on its behalf that,
whoever does any work thereon
26 shall die,
and that he who defiles it shall surely die. Wherefore do thou command the children of Israel to observe
this day that they may keep it holy and not do thereon any work, and not to
27 defile it, as it is holier than all other days. And
whoever profanes it shall surely die, and whoever does thereon any work shall surely die eternally,
that the children of Israel may observe this day throughout their
generations, and not be rooted out of the land; for it is a holy day and a
blessed
28 day. And every one who observes it and keeps Sabbath thereon from all his work, will be holy and
29 blessed throughout all days like unto us. Declare and
say to the children of Israel the law of this day both that they should keep
Sabbath thereon, and that they should not forsake it in the error of their hearts; (and)
that it is not
lawful to do any work thereon which
is unseemly,
to do thereon their own pleasure, and that they should not prepare thereon anything
to be eaten or drunk,
and (that it is not lawful) to draw water, or bring in
or take out thereon through their gates any burden,
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing
thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the
Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding
thine own pleasure, nor speaking
thine own words: Isa 58:13
30 which they had not prepared for themselves on the sixth day in their dwellings.
And they shall not bring in nor take out
from house to house on that day;
for that day is more holy and blessed than any jubilee day of the jubilees; on this we kept
Sabbath in the heavens before it was made
31 known to any flesh to keep Sabbath thereon on the
earth. And the Creator of all things blessed it,
but he did not
sanctify all peoples and nations to keep Sabbath thereon, but
Israel alone: them
32 alone
he permitted to eat and drink and to keep
Sabbath thereon on the earth. And the Creator of all things blessed
this day which He had created for blessing and holiness and glory above all
33 days. This law and testimony was given to the children of Israel as a law for ever unto their generations.
See
more about the limits of the Sabbath Day.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 3]
1 And on the six days of the second week we brought,
according to the word of God, unto Adam all the beasts, and all the cattle,
and all the birds, and everything that moves on the earth, and everything
that moves in the water, according to their kinds, and according to their
types: the beasts on the first day; the cattle on the second day; the birds
on the third day; and all that which moves on the earth on the fourth day;
and that which moves in the water on the fifth day.
2 And Adam named them all by their respective names, and
as he called them, so was their name.
3 And on these five days Adam saw all these, male and
female, according to every kind that was on
4 the earth, but he was alone and found no helpmeet for
him. And the Lord said unto us:
'It is not
5 good that the man should be alone: let us make a
helpmeet for him.' And the Lord our God caused a deep sleep to fall upon him,
and he slept, and He took for the woman one rib from amongst
6 his ribs, and this rib was the origin of the woman from
amongst his ribs, and He built up the flesh in its stead, and built the
woman. And He awaked Adam out of his sleep and on awaking he rose on the
sixth day, and He brought her to him, and he knew her, and said unto her:
'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called
7 [my] wife; because she was taken from her husband.'
Therefore shall man and wife be one and therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be
8 one flesh. In the first week was Adam created, and the
rib -his wife: in the second week He showed her unto him: and for this reason
the commandment was given to keep in their defilement,
9 for a male seven days, and for a female twice seven
days. And after Adam had completed forty days in the land where he had been
created, we brought him into the garden of Eden to till and keep it, but his
wife they brought in on the eightieth day, and after this she entered into
the garden
10 of Eden. And for this
reason the commandment is written on the heavenly tablets in regard to her
that gives birth: 'if she bears a male, she shall remain in her uncleanness
seven days according to the first week of days, and thirty and three days
shall she remain in the blood of her purifying, and she shall not touch any
hallowed thing, nor enter into the sanctuary, until she accomplishes these
11 days which (are enjoined) in the case of a male child.
But in the case of a female child she shall remain in her uncleanness two
weeks of days, according to the first two weeks, and sixty-six days
12 in the blood of her purification, and they will be in
all eighty days.' And when she had completed these eighty days we brought her
into the garden of Eden, for it is holier than all the earth besides and
13 every tree that is planted in it is holy. Therefore,
there was ordained regarding her who bears a male or a female child the
statute of those days that she should touch no hallowed thing, nor
14 enter into the sanctuary until these days for the male
or female child are accomplished. This is the law and testimony which was
written down for Israel, in order that
they should observe (it) all the
15 days. And in the first week of the first jubilee, [1-7 A.M.] Adam and his wife were in the garden of
Eden for seven years tilling and
keeping it, and we gave him work and we instructed him to do everything
Genesis 3:1 NOW the serpent was more subtil than any
beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman,
Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Genesis 3:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
Genesis 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the
midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye
touch it, lest ye die.
Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall
not surely die:
Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil.
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to
make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband with her; and he did eat.
Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and
they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made
themselves aprons.
Genesis 3:8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
Genesis 3:9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said
unto him, Where art thou?
Genesis 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the
garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Genesis 3:11 And he said,
Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I
commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Genesis 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest
to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Genesis 3:13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What
is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and
I did eat.
Genesis 3:14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above
every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou
eat all the days of thy life:
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over
thee.
Genesis 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for
thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Genesis 3:18 Thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the
field;
Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Genesis 3:20 And Adam called
his wifes name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
Genesis 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord
God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
Genesis 3:22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is
become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his
hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Genesis 3:23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from
the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
Genesis 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at
the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned
every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
16 that is suitable for tillage. And he tilled (the
garden), and was naked and
knew it not, and was not ashamed, and he protected the garden from the birds
and beasts and cattle, and gathered its fruit, and eat, and put aside the
residue for himself and for his wife [and put aside that which was
17 being kept]. And after the completion of the seven
years, which he had completed there, seven years exactly, [8 A.M.] and in the
second month, on the seventeenth day (of the month), the serpent came and approached the
woman, and the serpent said to the woman, 'Hath God commanded you,
18 saying, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' And she said to
it, 'Of all the fruit of the trees of the garden God hath said unto us, Eat;
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath
said unto us, Ye shall not eat thereof, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye
die.'
And the serpent
said unto the woman, 'Ye shall not
surely die: for God doth know that on the day ye shall eat thereof, your eyes
will be opened, and ye will be as
gods, and ye will know good and
20 evil. And the woman saw the tree that it was agreeable and pleasant to the eye, and that its
fruit
21 was good for food, and she took thereof and eat. And
when she had first covered her shame with figleaves, she gave thereof to Adam
and he eat, and his eyes were opened, and he saw that he was
22 naked. And he took figleaves and sewed (them)
together, and made an apron for himself, and
23, 24 covered his shame. And God cursed the serpent, and was wroth with it for ever . . . And He
was wroth with the woman, because she harkened to the voice of the serpent,
and did eat; and He said unto her: 'I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and
thy pains: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth
25 children, and thy return shall be unto thy husband,
and he will rule over thee.' And to Adam also he said, ' Because thou hast
harkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee that thou shouldst
not eat thereof, cursed be the ground for thy sake: thorns and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy
face, till thou returnest to the earth from whence thou wast taken; for earth
thou art, and unto earth shalt
26 thou return.' And He made for them coats of skin, and
clothed them, and sent them forth from
27 the Garden of Eden. And on that day on which Adam went
forth from the Garden, he offered as a sweet savour an offering,
frankincense, galbanum, and stacte, and spices in the morning with the
28 rising of the sun from the day when he covered his
shame. And on that day was closed the mouth of all beasts, and of cattle, and
of birds, and of whatever walks, and of whatever moves, so that they could no
longer speak: for they had all spoken one with another with one lip and with
one tongue.
29 And 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 types unto the places which had been
created
30 for them. And to Adam alone did He give (the wherewithal)
to cover his shame, of all the beasts and
31 cattle. On this account, it is prescribed on the heavenly tablets as touching all
those who know the judgment of the law, that they should cover their shame,
and should not uncover themselves as the
32 Gentiles
uncover themselves. And on the new moon of the fourth month, Adam and
his wife went
33 forth from the Garden of Eden, and they dwelt in the land of Elda in the land of
their creation. And
34 Adam called the name of his wife Eve. And they had no
son till the first jubilee, [8 A.M.] and after this he
35 knew her. Now he tilled the land as he had been
instructed in the Garden of Eden.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 4]
1 And in the third week in the second jubilee she gave
birth to Cain, and in the
fourth she gave birth to Abel, and in the fifth she gave birth to her
daughter Awan. And in the
first (year) of the third jubilee,
Cain slew Abel because (God) accepted the sacrifice of Abel, and did not
accept
3 the offering of Cain. And he slew him in the field: and
his blood cried from the ground to heaven,
4 complaining because he had slain him. And the Lord
reproved Cain because of Abel, because he had slain him, and he made him a
fugitive on the earth because of the blood of his brother, and he
5 cursed him upon
the earth. And on this account it is written on the heavenly tables,
'Cursed is, he who smites his neighbour treacherously, and let all who have
seen and heard say, So be it; and
6 the man who has seen and not declared (it), let him be
accursed as the other.' And for this reason we announce when we come before
the Lord our God all the sin which is committed in heaven and
7 on earth, and in light and in darkness, and everywhere.
And Adam and his wife mourned for Abel four weeks of years, [99-127 A.M] and
in the fourth year of the fifth week [130 A.M.] they became joyful, and Adam
knew his wife again, and she bare him a son, and he called his name Seth; for
he said 'GOD has
8 raised up a second seed unto us on the earth instead of
Abel; for Cain slew him.' And in the sixth
9 week
[134-40 A.M.] he begat his daughter Azura.
And Cain took Awan his sister to be his wife and she bare him Enoch at the close of the fourth jubilee. [190-196 A.M.] And
in the first year of the first week of the fifth jubilee, [197 A.M.] houses
were built on the earth, and Cain built a city, and called its name after the
name of
10, 11 his son Enoch. And Adam knew Eve his wife and she
bare yet nine sons. And in the fifth week of the fifth jubilee [225-31 A.M.] Seth took Azura his sister to be his
wife, and in the fourth (year of the sixth
12,13 week) [235 A.M.] she bare him Enos. He began to call on the name of the Lord on
the earth. And in the seventh jubilee in the third week [309-15 A.M.]
Enos took Noam his sister to be his wife, and she bare him a son
14 in the third year of the fifth week, and he called his
name Kenan. And at the close
of the eighth jubilee [325, 386-3992 A.M.] Kenan took Mualeleth his sister to
be his wife, and she bare him a son in the ninth jubilee,
15 in the first week in the third year of this week, [395
A.M] and he called his name Mahalalel.
And in the second week of the tenth jubilee [449-55 A.M.] Mahalalel took unto
him to wife Dinah, the daughter of Barakiel the daughter of his father's
brother, and she bare him a son in the third week in the sixth year, [461
A.M.] and he called his name Jared,
for in his days the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those who are named
the Watchers, that they should
instruct the children of men,
and that they should do
See More Details
And The
Watchers from Enoch
16 judgment and uprightness on the earth. And in the
eleventh jubilee [512-18 A.M.]
Jared took to himself a wife,
and her name was Baraka, the daughter of Rasujal, a daughter of his father's
brother, in the fourth week of this jubilee, [522 A.M.] and she bare him a
son in the fifth week, in the fourth year of the jubilee, and
17 he called his name Enoch. And he was the first among men that are born on earth who
learnt writing and knowledge and wisdom and who wrote down the signs of heaven according to the order of their
months in a book, that men might know the seasons of the years according to
the order of
18 their separate months. And he was the first to write a
testimony and he testified to the sons of men among the generations of the
earth, and recounted the weeks of the jubilees, and made known to them the
days of the years, and set in order the months and recounted the Sabbaths of
the years
19 as we made (them), known to him. And what was and what
will be he saw in a vision of his sleep, as it will happen to the children of
men throughout their generations until the day of judgment; he saw and
understood everything, and wrote his testimony, and placed the testimony on
earth for all
20 the children of men and for their generations. And in
the twelfth jubilee, [582-88] in the seventh week thereof, he took to himself
a wife, and her name was Edna, the daughter of Danel, the daughter of his
father's brother, and in the sixth year in this week [587 A.M.] she bare him
a son and he called his name
21 Methuselah. And he was moreover with the angels of God
these six jubilees of years, and they showed him everything which is on earth
and in the heavens, the rule of the
sun, and he wrote down
22 everything. And he testified to the Watchers, who had sinned with the daughters of men; for these had
begun to unite themselves, so as to be defiled, with the daughters of men, and Enoch
23 testified against
(them) all. And he was taken from amongst the children of men, and we
conducted him into the Garden of Eden in majesty and honour, and behold there
he writes down the con-
24 demnation
and judgment of the world, and
all the wickedness of the children of men. And on account of it (God) brought
the waters of the flood upon all the
land of Eden; for there he was set as a sign and that he should
testify against all the children of men, that he should recount all the
25 deeds of the generations until the day of
condemnation. And he burnt the incense of the sanctuary,
26 (even) sweet spices acceptable before the Lord on the Mount. For the Lord has four places on the earth, the Garden of Eden, and the Mount of the East, and this mountain
on which thou art this day, Mount
Sinai, and Mount Zion
(which) will be sanctified in the new creation for a sanctification of the
earth; through it will the earth be sanctified from all (its) guilt and its
uncleanness through-
27 out the generations of the world. And in the
fourteenth jubilee [652 A.M.] Methuselah
took unto himself a wife, Edna the daughter of Azrial, the daughter of his father's brother, in the third week,
in the
Methuselah Genesis 5:21-27
was the 8th generation
28 first year of this week, [701-7 A.M.] and he begat a
son and called his name Lamech. And in the fifteenth jubilee in the third
week Lamech took to himself a wife, and her name was Betenos the daughter of Baraki'il, the daughter of his
father's brother, and in this week she bare him a son and he called his name Noah, saying, 'This one will comfort
me for my trouble and all my work, and for the ground
29 which the Lord hath cursed.' And at the close of the nineteenth
jubilee, in the seventh week in the sixth year [930 A.M.] thereof, Adam died,
and all his sons buried him in the land of his creation, and he
30 was the first to be buried in the earth. And he lacked
seventy years of one thousand years; for one thousand years are as one day in
the testimony of the heavens and therefore was it written concerning the tree
of knowledge: 'On the day that ye eat thereof ye shall die.' For this reason
he
31 did not complete the years of this day; for he died
during it. At the close of this jubilee Cain was killed after him in the same
year; for his house fell upon him and he died in the midst of his house, and
he was killed by its stones; for with a stone he had killed Abel, and by a
stone was he killed in
32 righteous judgment. For this reason it was ordained on
the heavenly tablets: With the instrument with which a man kills his
neighbour with the same shall he be killed; after the manner that
33 he wounded him, in like manner shall they deal with
him.' And in the twenty-fifth [1205 A.M.] jubilee Noah took to himself a
wife, and her name was Emzara, the daughter of Rake'el, the daughter of his
father's brother, in the first year in the fifth week [1207 A.M.]: and in the
third year thereof she bare him Shem, in the fifth year thereof [1209 A.M.]
she bare him Ham, and in the first year in the sixth week [1212 A.M.] she
bare him Japheth.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 5]
Jared's Children Begin to Sin The Book of
Second Adam and Eve
The Book of
Enoch and Chapter
7
1 And it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on
the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them,
that the angels
of God saw them on a certain year of this
jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took
themselves wives of all whom they
2 chose, and they bare unto them sons and they were giants.
And lawlessness
increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle
and beasts and birds and everything that walks on the earth -all of them
corrupted their ways and their orders, and they began to devour each other, and lawlessness increased on the earth and every
imagination of the thoughts of all men
Second
Adam and Eve 20:1 AFTER Cain
had gone down to the land of dark
soil, and his children had multiplied therein, there was one of them,
whose name was Genun
(Jubal), son of Lamech
the blind who slew Cain.
Second Adam and Eve 20: 2 But as to this Genun, Satan came into him in his childhood;
and he made sundry trumpets and horns,
and string instruments, cymbals
and psalteries, and lyres and harps, and flutes;
and he played on them at all times and at every
hour.
[The horns
in Hebrew were the yobels or Jubals from which Jubilee gets its meaning.
Genun plays the part of Jubal. The trumpet and the idea of "triumphing
over" people with panic noise go together.]
See the Horns of
Nimord Parallel.
See the Babylonian
Music of Nimrod and the Horn-Harp connection.
3 (was) thus evil continually. And God looked upon the
earth, and behold it was corrupt, and all flesh had corrupted its orders, and
all that were upon the earth
had wrought all manner of evil
4 before His eyes. And He said that He would destroy man
and all flesh upon the face of the earth
5,6 which He had created. But Noah found grace before the
eyes of the Lord.
And against the
angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and
He gave commandment to root them out
of all their dominion, and He bade us to bind them in the depths of
the earth, and
7 behold they are bound in the midst of them, and are
(kept) separate. And against their sons went forth a command from before His
face that they should be smitten with the sword, and be removed
8 from under heaven. And He said 'My spirit shall not
always abide on man; for they also are flesh
9 and their days shall be one hundred and twenty years'.
And He sent His sword into their midst that each should slay his neighbour,
and they began to slay each other till they all fell by the sword
10 and were destroyed from the earth. And their fathers
were witnesses (of their destruction),
and after this they were bound in the depths of the earth for ever,
until the day of the great condemnation, when judgment is
executed on all those who have corrupted
their ways and their works before
11 the Lord. And He destroyed all from their places, and
there was not left one of them whom
12 He judged not according to all their wickedness. And
he made for all his works a new and righteous nature, so that they should not
sin in their whole nature for ever, but should be all
13 righteous each in his kind alway. And the judgment of
all is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets in righteousness -even
(the judgment of) all who depart from the path which is ordained for them to
walk in; and if they walk not therein, judgment is written down for every
creature and
14 for every kind. And there is nothing in heaven or on
earth, or in light or in darkness, or in Sheol or in the depth, or in the
place of darkness (which is not judged); and all their judgments are
15 ordained and written and engraved. In regard to all He
will judge,the great according to his
16 greatness, and the small according to his smallness,
and each according to his way. And He is not one who will regard the person
(of any), nor is He one who will receive gifts, if He says that He will
execute judgment on each: if one gave everything
that is on the earth, He will not
regard the
17 gifts
or the person (of any), nor accept anything at his hands, for He is a
righteous judge. [And of the children of Israel it has been
written and ordained: If they turn to him in righteousness He will forgive
all their transgressions and pardon all their sins. It is written and
ordained that
19 He will show mercy to all who turn from all their
guilt once each year.] And as for all those who corrupted their ways and
their thoughts before the flood, no man's person was accepted save that of
Noah alone;
for his person
was accepted in behalf of his sons,
whom (God) saved from the waters of the flood on his account; for his heart was righteous
in all his ways, according as it was com-
20 manded regarding him, and he had not departed from
aught that was ordained for him. And the Lord said that he would destroy
everything which was upon the earth, both men and cattle, and
21 beasts, and fowls of the air, and that which moveth on
the earth. And He commanded Noah to
22 make him an ark, that he might save himself from the
waters of the flood. And Noah made the ark in all respects as He commanded
him, in the twenty-seventh jubilee of years, in the fifth week
23 in the fifth year (on the new moon of the first
month). [1307 A.M.] And he entered in the sixth (year) thereof, [1308 A.M.]
in the second month, on the new moon of the second month, till the sixteenth;
and he entered, and all that we brought to him, into the ark, and the Lord
closed it from without on the seventeenth evening.
24 And the Lord opened seven flood-gates of heaven,
And the mouths of the fountains of the great deep, seven mouths in number.
25 And the flood-gates began to pour down water from the
heaven forty days and forty nights,
And the fountains of the deep also sent up waters, until the whole world was
full of water.
26 And the waters increased upon the earth: Fifteen
cubits did the waters rise above all the high mountains, And the ark was lift
up above the earth,
And it moved upon the face of the waters.
27 And the water prevailed on the face of the earth five
months -one hundred and fifty days.
28, 29 And the ark went and rested on the top of Lubar,
one of the mountains of Ararat. And (on the new moon) in the fourth month the
fountains of the great deep were closed and the flood-gates of heaven were
restrained; and on the new moon of the seventh month all the mouths of the
abysses
30 of the earth were opened, and the water began to
descend into the deep below. And on the new moon of the tenth month the tops
of the mountains were seen, and on the new moon of the first 31 month the
earth became visible. And the waters disappeared from above the earth in the
fifth week in the seventh year [1309 A.M.] thereof, and on the seventeenth
day in the second month the earth was dry.
32 And on the twenty-seventh thereof he opened the ark,
and sent forth from it beasts, and cattle, and birds, and every moving thing.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 6]
1 And on the new moon of the third month he went forth
from the ark, and built an altar on
2 that mountain. And he made atonement for the earth, and
took a kid and made atonement by its blood for all the guilt of the earth;
for everything that had been on it had been destroyed, save
3 those that were in the ark with Noah. And he placed the
fat thereof on the altar, and he took an ox, and a goat, and a sheep and
kids, and salt, and a turtle-dove, and the young of a dove, and placed a
burnt sacrifice on the altar, and poured thereon an offering mingled with
oil, and sprinkled wine and strewed frankincense over everything, and caused
a goodly savour to arise, acceptable before
4 the Lord. And the Lord smelt the goodly savour, and He
made a covenant with him that there should not be any more a flood to destroy
the earth; that all the days of the earth seed-time and harvest should never
cease; cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night should not
5 change their order, nor cease for ever. 'And you,
increase ye and multiply upon the earth, and become many upon it, and be a
blessing upon it. The fear of you and the dread of you I will
6 inspire in everything that is on earth and in the sea.
And behold I have given unto you all beasts, and all winged things, and
everything that moves on the earth, and the fish in the waters, and all
7 things for food; as the green herbs, I have given you
all things to eat. But flesh, with the life thereof, with the blood, ye shall
not eat; for the life of all flesh is in the blood, lest your blood of your
lives be required. At the hand of every man, at the hand of every (beast)
will I require the
8 blood of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall
his blood be shed, for in the image of
9,10 God made He man. And you, increase ye, and multiply
on the earth.' And Noah and his sons swore that they would not eat any blood
that was in any flesh, and he made a covenant before the
11 Lord God for ever throughout all the generations of
the earth in this month. On this account He spake to thee that thou shouldst
make a covenant with the children of Israel in this month
upon the mountain with an oath, and that thou shouldst sprinkle blood upon
them because of all the words
12 of the covenant, which the Lord made with them for
ever. And this testimony is written concerning you that you should observe it
continually, so that you should not eat on any day any blood of beasts or
birds or cattle during all the days of the earth, and the man who eats the
blood of beast or of cattle or of birds during all the days of the earth, he
and his seed shall be rooted out of the land.
13 And do thou command the children of Israel to eat no
blood, so that their names and their seed
14 may be before the Lord our God continually. And for
this law there is no limit of days, for it is for ever. They shall observe it
throughout their generations, so that they may continue supplicating on your
behalf with blood before the altar; every day and at the time of morning and
evening they shall seek forgiveness on your behalf perpetually before the
Lord that they may keep
15 it and not be rooted out. And He gave to Noah and his
sons a sign that there should not again
16 be a flood on the earth. He set His bow in the cloud
for a sign of the eternal covenant that there
17 should not again be a flood on the earth to destroy it
all the days of the earth. For this reason it is ordained and written on the
heavenly tablets, that they should celebrate the feast of weeks in this
18 month once a year, to renew the covenant every year.
And this whole festival was celebrated in heaven from the day of creation
till the days of Noah -twenty-six jubilees and five weeks of years [1309-1659
A.M.]: and Noah and his sons observed it for seven jubilees and one week of
years, till the day of Noah's death, and from the day of Noah's death his
sons did away with (it) until the days of Abraham, and
19 they eat blood. But Abraham observed it, and Isaac and
Jacob and his children observed it up to thy days, and in thy days the
children of Israel forgot it
until ye celebrated it anew on this mountain.
20 And do thou command the children of Israel to observe
this festival in all their generations for a
21 commandment unto them: one day in the year in this
month they shall celebrate the festival. For it is the feast of weeks and the
feast of first fruits: this feast is twofold and of a double nature:
22 according to what is written and engraven concerning
it, celebrate it. For I have written in the book of the first law, in that
which I have written for thee, that thou shouldst celebrate it in its season,
one day in the year, and I explained to thee its sacrifices that the children
of Israel should remember and should celebrate it throughout their
generations in this month, one day in every year.
23 And on the new moon of the first month, and on the new
moon of the fourth month, and on the new moon of the seventh month, and on
the new moon of the tenth month are the days of remembrance, and the days of
the seasons in the four divisions of the year. These are written and ordained
24 as a testimony for ever. And Noah ordained them for
himself as feasts for the generations for ever,
25 so that they have become thereby a memorial unto him.
And on the new moon of the first month he was bidden to make for himself an
ark, and on that (day) the earth became dry and he opened
26 (the ark) and saw the earth. And on the new moon of
the fourth month the mouths of the depths of the abyss beneath were closed.
And on the new moon of the seventh month all the mouths of27 the abysses of
the earth were opened, and the waters began to descend into them. And on the
new
28 moon of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were
seen, and Noah was glad. And on this account he ordained them for himself as
feasts for a memorial for ever, and thus are they ordained.
29 And they placed them on the heavenly tablets, each had
thirteen weeks; from one to another (passed) their memorial, from the first
to the second, and from the second to the third, and from the
30 third to the fourth. And all the days of the
commandment will be two and fifty weeks of days, and (these will make) the
entire year complete. Thus it is engraven and ordained on the heavenly
31 tablets. And there is no neglecting (this commandment)
for a single year or from year to year.
32 And command thou the children of Israel that they
observe the years according to this reckoning- three hundred and sixty-four
days, and (these) will constitute a complete year, and they will not disturb
its time from its days and from its feasts; for everything will fall out in
them according to
33 their testimony, and they will not leave out any day
nor disturb any feasts. But if they do neglect and do not observe them
according to His commandment, then they will disturb all their seasons and
the years will be dislodged from this (order), [and they will disturb the
seasons and the years
34 will be dislodged] and they will neglect their
ordinances. And all the children of Israel will forget
and will not find the path of the years, and will forget the new moons, and
seasons, and sabbaths
35 and they will go wrong as to all the order of the
years. For I know and from henceforth will I declare it unto thee, and it is
not of my own devising; for the book (lies) written before me, and on the
heavenly tablets the division of days is ordained, lest they forget the
feasts of the covenant
36 and walk according to the feasts of the Gentiles after
their error and after their ignorance. For there will be those who will
assuredly make observations of the moon -how (it) disturbs the
37 seasons and comes in from year to year ten days too
soon. For this reason the years will come upon them when they will disturb
(the order), and make an abominable (day) the day of testimony, and an
unclean day a feast day, and they will confound all the days, the holy with
the unclean, and the unclean day with the holy; for they will go wrong as to
the months and sabbaths and feasts and
38 jubilees. For this reason I command and testify to
thee that thou mayst testify to them; for after thy death thy children will
disturb (them), so that they will not make the year three hundred and
sixty-four days only, and for this reason they will go wrong as to the new
moons and seasons and sabbaths and festivals, and they will eat all kinds of
blood with all kinds of flesh.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 7]
1 And in the seventh week in the first year [1317 A.M.]
thereof, in this jubilee, Noah planted vines on the mountain on which the ark
had rested, named Lubar, one
of the Ararat Mountains, and they produced
fruit in the fourth year, [1320 A.M.] and he guarded their fruit, and
gathered it in this year in the
2 seventh month. And he made wine therefrom and put it into a vessel, and kept it until
the fifth
3 year,
[1321 A.M.] until the first day, on the new moon of the first month. And he
celebrated with joy the day of this feast, and he made a burnt sacrifice unto
the Lord, one young ox and one ram, and seven sheep, each a year old, and a
kid of the goats, that he might make atonement thereby for himself
4 and his sons. And he prepared the kid first, and placed
some of its blood on the flesh that was on the altar which he had made, and
all the fat he laid on the altar where he made the burnt sacrifice,
5 and the ox and the ram and the sheep, and he laid all
their flesh upon the altar. And he placed all their offerings mingled with
oil upon it,
and afterwards he
sprinkled wine on the fire which he had previously made on the altar,
and he placed incense on the altar and caused a sweet savour to
6 ascend acceptable before the Lord his God. And he
rejoiced and drank of this wine,
he and his
7 children with joy. And it was evening, and he went into
his tent, and being drunken he
lay down
8 and slept, and was uncovered in his tent as he slept.
And Ham saw Noah his father naked, and
9 went forth and told his two brethren without. And Shem
took his garment and arose, he and Japheth, and they placed the garment on
their shoulders and went backward and covered the shame
10 of their father, and their faces were backward. And
Noah awoke from his sleep and knew all that his younger son had done unto
him, and he cursed his son and said: 'Cursed be Canaan; an
11 enslaved servant shall he be unto his brethren.' And
he blessed Shem, and said: 'Blessed be the
12 Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his
servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and God shall
13 dwell in the dwelling of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.'
And Ham knew that his father had cursed his younger son, and he was
displeased that he had cursed his son. and he parted from
14 his father, he and his sons with him, Cush and Mizraim
and Put and Canaan. And he built for
15 himself a city and called its name after the name of
his wife Ne'elatama'uk. And Japheth
saw it, and became envious of his brother, and he too built for himself a
city, and he called its name after
16 the name of his wife 'Adataneses. And Shem dwelt with
his father Noah, and he built a city close to his father on the mountain, and
he too called its name after the name of his wife Sedeqetelebab.
17 And behold these three cities are near Mount Lubar; Sedeqetelebab
fronting the mountain on its
18 east; and Na'eltama'uk on the south;
'Adatan'eses towards the west. And these are the sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur,
and Arpachshad -this (son) was born two years after the flood- and
19 Lud, and Aram. The sons of
Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan, Tubal and
20 Meshech and Tiras: these are the sons of Noah. And in the
twenty-eighth jubilee [1324-1372 A.M.]
Noah began to enjoin upon his sons' sons the ordinances
and commandments, and all the judgments that he knew, and he exhorted his
sons to observe righteousness, and to cover the shame of their flesh, and to
bless their Creator, and honour father and mother, and love their neighbour,
and guard their souls
21 from fornication and uncleanness and
all iniquity. For owing to these three things came the flood upon the earth,
namely,
owing to the fornication wherein the Watchers against the law of their ordinances went a whoring after the daughters of men,
and took themselves wives of
all which they
22 chose: and they made the beginning of uncleanness. And they begat sons the Naphidim, and they were all unlike,
and they devoured one another: and the Giants slew the Naphil (Naphelim), and
the
23 Naphil slew the Eljo (Elioud), and the Eljo mankind,
and one man another. And every one sold himself
24 to work iniquity and to shed much blood, and the earth
was filled with iniquity. And after this they sinned against the beasts and
birds, and all that moves and walks on the earth: and much blood was shed on
the earth, and every imagination and desire of men imagined vanity and evil
25 continually. And the Lord destroyed everything from
off the face of the earth; because of the wickedness of their deeds, and
because of the blood which they had shed in the midst of the earth
26 He destroyed everything. 'And we were left, I and you,
my sons, and everything that entered with us into the ark, and behold I see
your works before me that ye do not walk in righteousness: for in the path of
destruction ye have begun to walk, and ye are parting one from another, and
are envious one of another, and (so it comes) that ye are not in harmony, my
sons, each with his brother.
27 For I see, and behold the demons have begun (their) seductions against you and against your children and now I fear
on your behalf, that after my death ye will shed the blood of men upon the
earth,
28 and that ye, too, will be destroyed from the face of
the earth. For whoso sheddeth man's blood, and whoso eateth the blood of any
flesh, shall all be destroyed from the earth.
29 And there shall not be left any man that eateth blood,
or that sheddeth the blood of man on the earth,
Nor shall there be left to him any seed or descendants living under heaven;
For into Sheol shall they go, And into the place of condemnation shall they
descend,
And into the darkness of the deep shall they all be removed by a violent
death.
30 There shall be no blood seen upon you of all the blood
there shall be all the days in which ye have killed any beasts or cattle or
whatever flies upon the earth, and work ye a good work to your
31 souls by covering that which has been shed on the face
of the earth. And ye shall not be like him who eats with blood, but guard
yourselves that none may eat blood before you: cover the blood,
32 for thus have I been commanded to testify to you and
your children, together with all flesh. And suffer not the soul to be eaten with the flesh,
that your blood, which is your life, may not be required
33 at the hand of any flesh that sheds (it) on the earth.
For the earth will not be clean from the blood which has been shed upon it;
for (only) through the blood of him that shed it will the earth be
34 purified throughout all its generations. And now, my
children, harken: work judgment and righteousness that ye maybe planted in
righteousness over the face of the whole earth, and your
35 glory lifted up before my God, who saved me from the
waters of the flood. And behold, ye will go and build for yourselves cities,
and plant in them all the plants that are upon the earth, and moreover
36 all fruit-bearing trees. For three years the fruit of
everything that is eaten will not be gathered: and in the fourth year its
fruit will be accounted holy [and they will offer the first-fruits],
acceptable before the Most High God, who created heaven and earth and all
things. Let them offer in abundance the first of the wine and oil (as)
first-fruits on the altar of the Lord, who receives it, and
37 what is left let the servants of the house of the Lord
eat before the altar which receives (it). And in the fifth year
make ye the release so that ye release it in righteousness
and uprightness, and ye shall bc righteous,
38 and all that you plant shall prosper. For thus did
Enoch, the father of your father command Methuselah, his son, and Methuselah
his son Lamech, and Lamech commanded me all the things
39 which his fathers commanded him. And I also will give
you commandment, my sons, as Enoch
commanded his son in the first jubilees: whilst still living, the
seventh in his generation, he commanded and testified to his son and to his
son's sons until the day of his death.'
Chapter
XIII.-Origin of Idolatry.
See The Sons of
God.
Recognitions
of Clement, Book IV
Chapter XII.-Translation of
Enoch.
"But that He might show that these things were done
on account of the ungrateful, He translated to immortality a certain one of
the first race of men, because He saw that he was not unmindful of His grace,
and because he hoped to call on the name of God; while the rest, who were so
ungrateful that they could not be amended and corrected even by labours and
tribulations, were condemned to a terrible
death. Yet amongst them also He found a certain one, who was righteous with
his house, whom He preserved, having enjoined him to build an ark, in which
he and those who were commanded to go with him might escape, when all things
should be destroyed by a deluge:
in order that, the wicked being cut off by the overflow of waters, the world
might receive a purification; and he who had been preserved for the
continuance of the race, being purified by water, might anew repair the
world.
"But when all these things were done, men turned again to impiety; and on
this account a law was given by God to instruct them in the manner of living.
But in process of time, the worship of God and
righteousness were corrupted by the unbelieving
and the wicked, as we shall show more fully by and by.
Moreover, perverse
and erratic religions were
introduced, to which the greater part of men gave themselves up,
by occasion of holidays and solemnities, instituting drinkings and banquets,
following pipes,
and flutes, and harps, and diverse kinds of musical instruments, and indulging
themselves in all kinds of drunkenness
and luxury.
Hence every kind of error took rise; hence they invented
groves and altars, fillets and victims, and after drunkenness they were
agitated as if with mad emotions.
By this means power was given to the demons to enter into minds of this sort, so that
they seemed to lead insane dances
and to rave like Bacchanalians;
hence were invented the gnashing of
teeth, and bellowing from the depth of their bowels; hence a terrible
countenance and a fierce aspect in men, so that he whom drunkenness had
subverted and a demon had instigated, was believed by the deceived and the
erring to be filled with the Deity.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 8]
1 In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, [1373
A.M.] in the beginning thereof Arpachshad
took to himself a wife and her name was Rasu'eja, the daughter of Susan, the daughter of Elam, and she
2 bare him a son in the third year in this week, [1375
A.M.] and he called his name Kainam.
And the son grew, and his father taught him writing, and he went to seek for himself a place where
he might seize for
3 himself a city. And he found a writing which former
(generations) had carved on the rock, and he read what was thereon,
and he transcribed it and sinned owing to it; for it contained the teaching of the
Watchers
in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and
4 stars in
all the signs of heaven. And he wrote it down and said nothing regarding it;
for he was
5 afraid to speak to Noah about it lest he should be
angry with him on account of it. And in the thirtieth jubilee, [1429 A.M.] in
the second week, in the first year thereof, he took to himself a wife, and
her name was Melka, the
daughter of Madai, the son of Japheth, and in the fourth year [1432 A.M.] he
begat a son, and
6 called his name Shelah;
for he said: 'Truly I have been sent.' [And in the fourth year he was born],
and Shelah grew up and took to himself a wife, and her name was Mu'ak, the
daughter of Kesed, his father's brother, in the one and thirtieth jubilee, in
the fifth week, in the first year [1499 A.M.]
7 thereof. And she bare him a son in the fifth year [1503
A.M.] thereof, and he called his name Eber: and he took unto himself a wife,
and her name was 'Azurad, the daughter of Nebrod, in the thirty-second
8 jubilee, in the seventh week, in the third year
thereof. [1564 A.M.] And in the sixth year [1567 A.M.] thereof, she bare him
son, and he called his name Peleg; for in the days when he was born the
children of Noah began
9 to divide the
earth amongst themselves: for this reason he called his name Peleg.
And they
10 divided (it) secretly amongst themselves, and told it
to Noah. And it came to pass in the beginning of the thirty-third jubilee
[1569 A.M.] that they divided the earth into three parts, for Shem and Ham and Japheth,
according to the inheritance of each, in the first year in the first week,
when one of us
11 who had been sent, was with them. And he called his
sons, and they drew nigh to him, they and their children, and he divided the
earth into the lots, which his three sons were to take in possession, and
they reached forth their hands, and took the writing out of the bosom of
Noah, their father.
12 And there came forth on the writing as Shem's lot the
middle of the earth which he should take as an inheritance for himself and
for his sons for the generations of eternity, from the middle of the mountain
range of Rafa, from the mouth of the water from the river Tina, and his
portion goes towards the west through the midst of this river, and it extends
till it reaches the water of the abysses, out of which this river goes forth
and pours its waters into the sea Me'at, and this river flows into the great
sea. And all that is towards the north is Japheth's, and all that is towards
the
13 south belongs to Shem. And it extends till it reaches
Karaso: this is in the bosom of the tongue
14 which looks towards the south. And his portion extends
along the great sea, and it extends in a straight line till it reaches the
west of the tongue which looks towards the south: for this sea is
15 named the tongue of the Egyptian Sea. And it turns
from here towards the south towards the mouth of the great sea on the shore
of (its) waters, and it extends to the west to 'Afra, and it extends till it
reaches the waters of the river Gihon, and to the south of the waters of
Gihon, to the
16 banks of this river. And it extends towards the east,
till it reaches the Garden of Eden, to the south thereof, [to the south] and
from the east of the whole land of Eden and of the whole east, it turns to
the east and proceeds till it reaches the east of the mountain named Rafa,
and it descends
17 to the bank of the mouth of the river Tina. This portion came forth by lot
for Shem and his sons,
18 that they should possess it for ever unto his
generations for evermore. And Noah rejoiced that this portion came forth for
Shem and for his sons, and he remembered all that he had spoken with his
mouth in prophecy; for he had said:
'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem
And may the Lord dwell in the dwelling of Shem.'
19 And he knew that the Garden of Eden is the holy of holies, and the dwelling of the Lord, and
Mount Sinai the centre
of the desert, and
Mount Zion -the centre of
the navel of the earth: these
three
20 were created as holy places facing each other. And he blessed the God of gods,
who had put the
21 word of the Lord into his mouth, and the Lord for
evermore. And he knew that a blessed portion and a blessing had come to Shem
and his sons unto the generations for ever -the whole land of Eden and the
whole land of the Red Sea, and the whole land of the east and India, and on
the Red Sea and the mountains thereof, and all the land of Bashan, and all
the land of Lebanon and the islands of Kaftur, and all the mountains of Sanir
and 'Amana, and the mountains of Asshur in the north, and all the land of
Elam, Asshur, and Babel, and Susan and Ma'edai, and all the mountains of
Ararat, and all the region beyond the sea, which is beyond the mountains of
Asshur towards the
22 north, a blessed and spacious land, and all that is in
it is very good. And for Ham came forth the second portion, beyond the Gihon
towards the south to the right of the Garden, and it extends towards the
south and it extends to all the mountains
of fire, and it extends towards the west to the sea of 'Atel and it
extends towards the west till it reaches the sea of Ma'uk -that (sea) into
which
23 everything which is not destroyed descends. And it
goes forth towards the north to the limits of Gadir, and it goes forth to the
coast of the waters of the sea to the waters of the great sea till it draws
near to the river Gihon, and goes along the river Gihon till it reaches the
right of the Garden
24 of Eden. And this is
the land which came forth for Ham as the portion which he was to occupy
25 for ever for himself and his sons unto their
generations for ever. And for Japheth came forth the third portion beyond the
river Tina to the north of the outflow of its waters, and it extends north-
26 easterly to the whole region of Gog, and to all the
country east thereof. And it extends northerly to the north, and it extends
to the mountains of Qelt towards the north, and towards the sea of
27 Ma'uk, and it goes forth to the east of Gadir as far
as the region of the waters of the sea. And it extends until it approaches
the west of Fara and it returns towards 'Aferag, and it extends easterly
28 to the waters of the sea of Me'at. And it
extends to the region of the river Tina in a north-easterly direction until
it approaches the boundary of its waters towards the mountain Rafa, and it
turns
29 round towards the north. This is the land which came
forth for Japheth and his sons as the portion of his inheritance which he
should possess for himself and his sons, for their generations for ever;
30 five great islands, and a great land in the north. But
it is cold, and the land of Ham is hot, and
the land of Shem is neither hot
nor cold, but it is of blended cold and heat.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 9]
1 And Ham divided amongst his sons, and the first portion
came forth for Cush towards the
east, and to the west of him for Mizraim, and to the west of him for Put, and
to the west of him
2 [and to the west thereof] on the sea for Canaan. And Shem also
divided amongst his sons, and the first portion came forth for Ham and his
sons, to the east of the river Tigris till it approachcs the east, the whole
land of India, and on the Red Sea on its coast, and the waters of Dedan, and
all the mountains of Mebri and Ela, and all the land of Susan and all that is
on the side of Pharnak
3 to the Red Sea and the river
Tina. And for Asshur came forth the second Portion, all the land of
4 Asshur and Nineveh and Shinar and to the
border of India, and it
ascends and skirts the river. And for Arpachshad came forth the third
portion, all the land of the region of the Chaldees to the east of the
Euphrates, bordering on the Red Sea, and all the waters of the desert close
to the tongue of the sea which looks towards Egypt, all the land of Lebanon
and Sanir and 'Amana to the border of the
5 Euphrates. And for Aram there came
forth the fourth portion, all the land of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates to the north
of the Chaldees to the border of the mountains
6 of Asshur and the land of 'Arara. And there came forth
for Lud the fifth portion, the mountains of Asshur and all appertaining to
them till it reaches the Great Sea, and till it
reaches the east of
7, 8 Asshur his brother. And Japheth also divided the
land of his inheritance amongst his sons. And the first portion came forth
for Gomer to the east from the north side to the river Tina; and in the north
there came forth for Magog all the inner portions of the north until it
reaches to the sea of
9 Me'at. And for Madai came forth as his portion that he
should posses from the west of his two
10 brothers to the islands, and to the coasts of the
islands. And for Javan came forth the fourth
11 portion every island and the islands which are towards
the border of Lud. And for Tubal there came forth the fifth portion in the
midst of the tongue which approaches towards the border of the portion of Lud
to the second tongue, to the region beyond the second tongue unto the third
tongue.
12 And for Meshech came forth the sixth portion, all the
region beyond the third tongue till it
13 approaches the east of Gadir. And for Tiras there came
forth the seventh portion, four great islands in the midst of the sea, which
reach to the portion of Ham [and the islands of Kamaturi
14 came out by lot for the sons of Arpachshad as his
inheritance]. And thus the sons of Noah divided unto their sons in the
presence of Noah their father, and he bound them all by an oath, imprecating
15 a curse on every one that sought to seize the portion
which had not fallen (to him) by his lot. And they all said, 'So be it; so be
it ' for themselves and their sons for ever throughout their generations till
the day of judgment, on which the Lord God shall judge them with a sword and
with fire for all the unclean wickedness of their errors, wherewith they have
filled the earth with transgression and uncleanness and fornication and sin.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 10]
1 And in the third week of this jubilee the unclean
demons began to lead astray the children of
2 the sons of Noah, and to make to err and destroy them.
And the sons of Noah came to Noah their father, and they told him concerning
the demons which were leading astray and blinding and
3 slaying his sons' sons. And he prayed before the Lord
his God, and said:
'God of the spirits of all flesh, who hast shown mercy
unto me
And hast saved me and my sons from the waters of the flood,
And hast not caused me to perish as Thou didst the sons of perdition;
For Thy grace has been great towards me,
And great has been Thy mercy to my soul;
Let Thy grace be lift up upon my sons,
And let not wicked spirits rule over them
Lest they should destroy them from the earth.
4 But do Thou bless me and my sons, that we may increase
and Multiply and replenish the earth.
5 And Thou knowest how Thy Watchers, the fathers of these spirits, acted in my day: and as
for these spirits which are living, imprison them and hold them fast in the
place of condemnation, and let them not bring destruction on the sons of thy
servant, my God; for these are malignant, and
6 created in
order to destroy. And let them not rule over the spirits of the
living; for Thou alone canst exercise dominion over them. And let them not
have power over the sons of the righteous
7,8 from henceforth and for evermore.' And the Lord our
God bade us to bind all. And the chief of the spirits, Mastema, came and
said: 'Lord, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them harken
to my voice, and do all that I shall say unto them; for if some of them are
not left to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of my will on the
sons of men; for these are for corruption and leading astray before my judgment,
for great is the wickedness of the sons of men.'
9 And He said: Let the tenth part of them remain before
him, and let nine parts descend into the
10 place of condemnation.' And one of us He commanded
that we should teach Noah all their
11 medicines; for He knew that they would not walk in
uprightness, nor strive in righteousness. And we did according to all His
words: all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemna-
12 tion and a tenth part of them we left that they might
be subject before Satan on the earth. And we explained to Noah all the
medicines of their diseases, together with their seductions, how he
13 might heal them with herbs of the earth. And Noah
wrote down all things in a book as we instructed him concerning every kind of
medicine. Thus the evil spirits were precluded from
14 (hurting) the sons of Noah. And he gave all that he
had written to Shem, his eldest son; for he
15 loved him exceedingly above all his sons. And Noah
slept with his fathers, and was buried on
16 Mount Lubar in the land of Ararat. Nine hundred
and fifty years he completed in his life, nineteen
17 jubilees and two weeks and five years. [1659 A.M.] And
in his life on earth he excelled the children of men save Enoch because of
the righteousness, wherein he was perfect. For Enoch's office was ordained
for a testimony to the generations of the world, so that he should recount
all the deeds of generation
18 unto generation, till the day of judgment. And in the
three and thirtieth jubilee, in the first year in the second week, Peleg took
to himself a wife, whose name was Lomna the daughter of Sina'ar, and she bare
him a son in the fourth year of this week, and he called his name Reu; for he
said: 'Behold the children of men have become evil through the wicked purpose
of building for themselves
19 a city and a
tower in the land of Shinar.' For they departed from the land of Ararat eastward to Shinar; for in his
days they built the city and the tower, saying, 'Go to, let us ascend thereby
into
20 heaven.' And they began to build, and in the fourth
week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the
clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt which
21 comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of
water in the land of Shinar. And they
built it: forty and three years [1645-1688 A.M.] were they building it; its
breadth was 203 bricks, and the height (of a brick) was the third of one; its
height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and (the extent of one wall
22 was) thirteen stades (and of the other thirty stades).
And the Lord our God said unto us: Behold, they are one people, and (this)
they begin to do, and now nothing will be withholden from them. Go to, let us
go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one
another's speech, and they may be dispersed into cities and nations, and one
purpose will no longer abide with
23 them till the day of judgment.' And the Lord
descended, and we descended with him to see the
24 city and the tower which the children of men had
built. And he confounded their language, and they no longer understood one
another's speech, and they ceased then to build the city and the
25 tower. For this reason the whole land of Shinar is called Babel, because the
Lord did there confound all the language of the children of men, and from
thence they were dispersed into their
26 cities, each according to his language and his nation.
And the Lord sent a mighty wind against the tower and overthrew it upon the
earth, and behold it was between Asshur and Babylon in the
27 land of Shinar, and they
called its name 'Overthrow'. In the fourth week in the first year [1688 A.M.]
in the beginning thereof in the four and thirtieth jubilee, were they
dispersed from the land of Shinar.
28 And Ham and his sons went into the land which he was
to occupy, which he acquired as his portion
29 in the land of the south. And Canaan saw the land of
Lebanon to the river of Egypt, that it was very good, and he went not into
the land of his inheritance to the west (that is to) the sea, and he dwelt in
the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward from the border of Jordan and from
the border
30 of the sea. And Ham, his father, and Cush and Mizraim
his brothers said unto him: 'Thou hast settled in a land which is not thine,
and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if thou dost do so,
thou and thy sons will fall in the land and (be) accursed through sedition;
for by sedition
31 ye have settled, and by sedition will thy children
fall, and thou shalt be rooted out for ever. Dwell
32 not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his
sons did it come by their lot. Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be
beyond all the sons of Noah, by the curse by which we bound our-
33 selves by an oath in the presence of the holy judge,
and in the presence of Noah our father.' But he did not harken unto them, and
dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Hamath to
the entering of
34,35 Egypt, he and his
sons until this day. And for this reason that land is named Canaan. And Japheth
and his sons went towards the sea and dwelt in the land of their portion, and
Madai saw the land of the sea and it did not please him, and he begged a
(portion) from Ham and Asshur and Arpachshad, his wife's brother, and he
dwelt in the land of Media, near to his
wife's brother until
36 this day. And he called his dwelling-place, and the
dwelling-place of his sons, Media, after the name of their father Madai.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 11]
1 And in the thirty-fifth jubilee, in the third week, in
the first year [1681 A.M.] thereof, Reu took to himself a wife, and her name
was 'Ora, the daughter of 'Ur, the son of
Kesed, and she bare him a son, and
2 he called his name Seroh, in the seventh year of this
week in this jubilee. [1687 A.M.] And the sons of Noah began to war on each
other, to take captive and to slay each other, and to shed the blood of men
on the earth, and to eat blood, and to build strong cities, and walls, and
towers, and individuals (began) to exalt themselves above the nation, and to
found the beginnings of kingdoms, and to go to war people against people, and
nation against nation, and city against city, and all (began) to do evil, and
to acquire arms, and to teach their sons war, and they began to capture
cities, and to sell
3 male and female slaves. And 'Ur, the son of
Kesed, built the city of 'Ara of the Chaldees, and called its name after his
own name and the name of his father. And they made for themselves molten
images, and they worshipped each the idol, the molten image which they had
made for themselves, and they began to make graven images and unclean
simulacra, and malignant spirits
5 assisted and seduced (them) into committing
transgression and uncleanness. And the prince Mastema exerted himself to do
all this, and he sent forth other spirits, those which were put under his
hand, to do all manner of wrong and sin, and all manner of transgression, to
corrupt and destroy,
6 and to shed blood upon the earth. For this reason he
called the name of Seroh, Serug,
for every one
7 turned to do all manner of sin and transgression. And
he grew up, and dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, near to the father of his wife's mother,
and he worshipped idols, and
he took to himself a wife in the thirty-sixth
jubilee, in the fifth week, in the first year thereof, [1744 A.M.] and
her name was Melka, the daughter
8 of Kaber, the daughter of his father's brother. And she
bare him Nahor, in the first year of this week, and he grew and dwelt in Ur of the
Chaldees, and his father taught him the researches of the
9 Chaldees to
divine and augur, according to the signs of heaven. And in the
thirty-seventh jubilee in the sixth week, in the first year thereof, [1800
A.M.] he took to himself a wife, and her name was 'Ijaska, the
10 daughter of Nestag
of the Chaldees. And she bare him Terah in the seventh year of this
week. [1806 A.M.]
11 And the prince Mastema
sent ravens and birds to devour the seed which was sown in
the land, in order to destroy the
land, and rob the
children of men of their labours. Before they could plough
12 in the seed, the ravens picked (it) from the surface
of the ground. And for this reason he called his name Terah because the
ravens and the birds reduced them to destitution and devoured their
And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying,
Behold, a sower went forth to sow; Matthew 13:3 See Mark 4:3, Luke 8:5
And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and
the fowls came and devoured them up: Matthew 13:4
See 13:19. The
"fowl" is the wicked one or
his agents. Since almost every Christian institution in the WORLD has
one or more "ministers" on the staff without Biblical, historical
or common sensical authority, we must assuredly look to the pulpit as the
primary PLACE where the seed is planted but then taken away.
Remember the parable of the net and the fish. The net
will get filled with abnornal trash fish. The kingdom is the same way: it
will become bloated with trash fish, tares or demons.
Remember also, that God's people have always been a tiny
remnant. Therefore, when we begin to see the "kingdom" expand and
become easy and popular we can understand that we are part of the popular
Babylonian Whore religion and we need to "go outside the camp" to
find Jesus.
In the Apocalypse
of Abraham, Azazel is portrayed as an unclean bird which came down
upon the sacrifice which Abraham prepared. This is in reference to Genesis 15:11 "Birds of prey came down upon the
carcasses, and Abram drove them away."
"And the unclean bird spoke to me and said, 'What
are you doing, Abraham, on the holy heights, where no one eats of drinks, nor
is there upon them food for men. But these all will be consumed by fire and
ascend to the height, they will destroy you.' And it came to pass when I saw
the bird speaking I said this to the angel: 'What is this, my lord?' And he
said, 'This is disgrace, this is Azazel!' And he said to him, 'Shame on you
Azazel! For Abraham's portion is in heaven, and yours is on earth, for you
have selected here, (and) become enamored of the dwelling place of your
blemish. Therefore the Eternal Ruler, the Mighty One, has given you a
dwelling on earth. Through you the all-evil
spirit (is) a liar, and through you (are) wrath and trials on the
generations of men who live impiously." - Apocalypse of Abraham 13:4-9
The Apocalypse of Abraham also associates Azazel with
Hell. Abraham says to him "May you be the firebrand of the furnace of
the earth! Go, Azazel, into the untrodden parts of the earth. For your
heritage is over those who are with you" (14:5-6) There is also the idea
that God's heritage (the created world) is largely under the dominion of
evil. It is "shared with Azazel" (20:5) Azazel is also identified
with the serpent which tempted Eve. His form is described as a dragon with
"hands and feet like a man's, on his back six wings on the right and six
on the left." (23:7)
Finally, the Apocalypse of Abraham says that the wicked
will "putrefy in the belly of the crafty worm Azazel, and be burned by
the fire of Azazel's tongue." (31:5) Here again, there is another
reference to Azazel as being Hell.
13 seed. And the years began to be barren, owing to the birds, and they devoured all
the fruit of the trees from
the trees: it was only with great effort that they could save a little of all
the fruit of the
14 earth in their days. And in this thirty-ninth jubilee,
in the second week in the first year, [1870 A.M.] Terah took to himself a
wife, and her name was 'Edna, the daughter of 'Abram, the daughter of his
father's sister. And in the seventh year of this week [1876 A.M.] she bare
him a son, and he called his name Abram,
15 by the name of the father of his mother; for he had
died before his daughter had conceived a son.
16 And the child began to understand the errors of the earth that all went astray after graven images and after uncleanness,
and his father taught him writing, and he was two weeks of years old, [1890
A.M.] and he
17 separated himself from his father, that he might not worship idols with him.
And he began to pray to the Creator of all things that He might save him from
the errors of the children of men, and that
18 his portion should not fall into error after
uncleanness and vileness. And the seed time came for the sowing of seed upon
the land, and they all went forth together to protect their seed against the
19 ravens, and Abram went forth with those that went, and
the child was a lad of fourteen years. And a cloud of ravens came to devour
the seed, and Abram ran to meet them before they settled on the ground, and
cried to them before they settled on the ground to devour the seed, and said,
' Descend
20 not: return to the place whence ye came,' and they
proceeded to turn back. And he caused the clouds of ravens to turn back that
day seventy times, and of all the ravens throughout all the
land
21 where Abram was there settled there not so much as
one. And all who were with him throughout all the land saw him cry out, and
all the ravens turn back, and his name became great in all the
22 land of the Chaldees. And there came to him this year
all those that wished to sow, and he went with them until the time of sowing
ceased: and they sowed their land, and that year they brought
23 enough grain home and eat and were satisfied. And in
the first year of the fifth week [1891 A.M.] Abram taught those who made
implements for oxen, the artificers in wood, and they made a vessel above the
ground, facing the frame of the plough, in order to put the seed thereon, and
the seed fell down therefrom upon the share of the plough, and was hidden in
the earth, and they no longer feared
the
24 ravens.
And after this manner they made (vessels) above the ground on all the frames
of the ploughs, and they sowed and tilled all the land, according as Abram
commanded them, and they no longer
feared the birds.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 12]
1 And it came to pass in the sixth week, in the seventh
year thereof, [1904 A.M.] that Abram said to Terah his
2 father, saying, 'Father!' And he said, 'Behold, here am
I, my son.' And he said,
'What help and profit have we from those idols which thou
dost worship,
And before which thou dost bow thyself?
3 For there is no
spirit in them,
For they are dumb forms, and a misleading of the heart.
Worship them not:
4 Worship the God of heaven,
Who causes the rain and the dew to descend on the earth
And does everything upon the earth,
And has created everything by His word,
And all life is from before His face.
5 Why do ye worship things that have no spirit in them?
For they are the work of (men's) hands,
And on your shoulders do ye bear them,
And ye have no help from them,
But they are a great cause of shame to those who make them,
And a misleading of the heart to those who worship them:
Worship them not.'
6 And his father said unto him, I also know it, my son,
but what shall I do with a people who have
7 made me to serve before them? And if I tell them the
truth, they will slay me; for their soul cleaves to them to worship them and
honour them. Keep silent, my son, lest they slay thee.' And
9 these words he spake to his two brothers, and they were
angry with him and he kept silent. And in the fortieth jubilee, in the second
week, in the seventh year thereof, [1925 A.M.] Abram took to himself a wife,
10 and her name was Sarai, the daughter of his father,
and she became his wife. And Haran, his brother,
took to himself a wife in the third year of the third week, [1928 A.M.] and
she bare him a son in the
11 seventh year of this week, [1932 A.M.] and he called
his name Lot. And Nahor, his brother, took to himself
12 a wife. And in the sixtieth year of the life of Abram,
that is, in the fourth week, in the fourth year thereof, [1936 A.M.] Abram
arose by night, and burned the house of the idols, and he burned all that was
in the
13 house and no man knew it. And they arose in the night
and sought to save their gods from the
14 midst of the fire. And Haran hasted to save
them, but the fire flamed over him, and he was burnt in the fire, and he died
in Ur of the
Chaldees before Terah his father, and they buried him in Ur of
15 the Chaldees. And Terah went forth from Ur of the
Chaldees, he and his sons, to go into the land of Lebanon and into the land of Canaan, and he dwelt
in the land of Haran, and Abram
dwelt with
16 Terah his father in Haran two weeks of
years. And in the sixth week, in the fifth year thereof, [1951 A.M.] Abram
sat up throughout the night on the new moon of the seventh month to observe
the stars from the evening to the morning, in order to see what would be the
character of the year with regard
17 to the rains, and he was alone as he sat and observed.
And a word came into his heart and he said: All the signs of the stars, and
the signs of the moon and of the sun are all in the hand of the Lord. Why do
I search (them) out?
18 If He desires, He causes it to rain, morning and evening;
And if He desires, He withholds it,
And all things are in his hand.'
19 And he prayed that night and said,
'My God, God Most High, Thou alone art my God,
And Thee and Thy dominion have I chosen.
And Thou hast created all things,
And all things that are the work of thy hands.
20 Deliver me from the hands of evil spirits who have
dominion over the thoughts of men's hearts,
And let them not lead me astray from Thee, my God.
And stablish Thou me and my seed for ever
That we go not astray from henceforth and for evermore.'
21 And he said, 'Shall I return unto Ur of the
Chaldees who seek my face that I may return to them, am I to remain here in
this place? The right path before Thee prosper it in the hands of Thy servant
that he may fulfil (it) and that I may not walk in the deceitfulness of my
heart, O my God.'
22 And he made an end of speaking and praying, and behold
the word of the Lord was sent to him through me, saying: 'Get thee up from
thy country, and from thy kindred and from the house of thy father unto a
land which I will show thee, and I shall make thee a great and numerous
nation.
23 And I will bless thee
And I will make thy name great,
And thou shalt be blessed in the earth,
And in Thee shall all families of the earth be blessed,
And I will bless them that bless thee,
And curse them that curse thee.
24 And I will be a God to thee and thy son, and to thy
son's son, and to all thy seed: fear not, from
25 henceforth and unto all generations of the earth I am
thy God.' And the Lord God said: 'Open his mouth and his ears, that he may
hear and speak with his mouth, with the language which has been revealed';
for it had ceased from the mouths of all the children of men from the day of
the
26 overthrow (of Babel). And I opened
his mouth, and his ears and his lips, and I began to speak
27 with him in Hebrew in the tongue of the creation. And
he took the books of his fathers, and these were written in Hebrew, and he
transcribed them, and he began from henceforth to study them, and I made
known to him that which he could not (understand), and he studied them during
the six
28 rainy months. And it came to pass in the seventh year
of the sixth week [1953 A.M.] that he spoke to his father and informed him, that
he would leave Haran to go into the land of Canaan to see it and
29 return to him. And Terah his father said unto him; Go
in peace:
May the eternal God make thy path straight.
And the Lord [(be) with thee, and] protect thee from all evil,
And grant unto thee grace, mercy and favour before those who see thee,
And may none of the children of men have power over thee to harm thee;
Go in peace.
30 And if thou seest a land pleasant to thy eyes to dwell in, then arise and
take me to thee and take
31 Lot with thee, the
son of Haran thy brother as
thine own son: the Lord be with thee. And Nahor thy brother leave with me
till thou returnest in peace, and we go with thee all together.'
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 13]
1 And Abram journeyed from Haran, and he took
Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother Haran's son, to the land of Canaan, and he came
into Asshur, and proceeded to Shechem, and dwelt near
2 a lofty oak. And he saw, and, behold, the land was very
pleasant from the entering of Hamath to
3 the lofty oak. And the Lord said to him: 'To thee and
to thy seed will I give this land.' And
4 he built an altar there, and he offered thereon a burnt
sacrifice to the Lord, who had appeared to
5 him. And he removed from thence unto the mountain . . .
Bethel on the west
and Ai on the
6 east, and pitched his tent there. And he saw and
behold, the land was very wide and good, and everything grew thereon -vines
and figs and pomegranates, oaks and ilexes, and terebinths and oil trees, and
cedars and cypresses and date trees, and all trees of the field, and there
was water on the
7 mountains. And he blessed the Lord who had led him out
of Ur of the
Chaldees, and had brought
8 him to this land. And it came to pass in the first
year, in the seventh week, on the new moon of the first month, 1954 A.M.]
that he built an altar on this mountain, and called on the name of the Lord:
'Thou,
9 the eternal God, art my God.' And he offered on the
altar a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord that He
10 should be with him and not forsake him all the days of
his life. And he removed from thence and went towards the south, and he came
to Hebron and Hebron was built at
that time, and he dwelt there two years, and he went (thence) into the land
of the south, to Bealoth, and there was a famine
11 in the land. And Abram went into Egypt in the third
year of the week, and he dwelt in Egypt
12 five years before his wife was torn away from him. Now
Tanais in Egypt was at that
time built-
13 seven years after Hebron. And it came
to pass when Pharaoh seized Sarai, the wife of Abram that the Lord plagued
Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.
14 And Abram was very glorious by reason of possessions
in sheep, and cattle, and asses, and horses, and camels, and menservants, and
maidservants, and in silver and gold exceedingly. And Lot also
15 his brother's son, was wealthy. And Pharaoh gave back
Sarai, the wife of Abram, and he sent him out of the land of Egypt, and he
journeyed to the place where he had pitched his tent at the beginning, to the
place of the altar, with Ai on the east, and Bethel on the west, and he
blessed the
16 Lord his God who had brought him back in peace. And it
came to pass in the forty-first jubilee in the third year of the first week,
[1963 A.M.] that he returned to this place and offered thereon a burnt
sacrifice, and called on the name of the Lord, and said: 'Thou, the most high
God, art my God for ever
17 and ever.' And in the fourth year of this week [1964
A.M.] Lot parted from him, and Lot dwelt in Sodom, and
18 the men of Sodom were sinners
exceedingly. And it grieved him in his heart that his brother's
19 son had parted from him; for he had no children. In that year when Lot was
taken captive, the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot had parted from him,
in the fourth year of this week: 'Lift up thine eyes from the place where
thou art dwelling, northward and southward, and westward and
20 eastward. For all the land which thou seest I will
give to thee and to thy seed for ever, and I will make thy seed as the sand
of the sea: though a man may number the dust of the earth, yet
21 thy seed shall not be numbered. Arise, walk (through
the land) in the length of it and the breadth of it, and see it all; for to
thy seed will I give it.' And Abram went to Hebron, and dwelt
there.
22 And in this year came Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and
Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Sellasar, and Tergal, king of
nations, and slew the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Sodom
23 fled, and many fell through wounds in the vale of
Siddim, by the Salt Sea. And they took
captive Sodom and Adam and
Zeboim, and they took captive Lot also, the son
of Abram's brother, and
24 all his possessions, and they went to Dan. And one who
had escaped came and told Abram that
25 his brother's son had been taken captive and (Abram)
armed his household servants . . .
. . . . for Abram, and for his seed, a tenth of the first fruits to the Lord,
and the Lord ordained it as an ordinance for ever that they should give it to
the priests
26 who served before Him, that they should possess it for
ever. And to this law there is no limit of days; for He hath ordained it for
the generations for ever that they should give to the Lord the tenth of
everything, of the seed and of the wine and of the oil and of the cattle and
of the sheep.
27,28 And He gave (it) unto His priests to eat and to
drink with joy before Him. And the king of Sodom came to him
and bowed himself before him, and said: 'Our Lord Abram, give unto us the
29 souls which thou hast rescued, but let the booty be
thine.' And Abram said unto him: 'I lift up my hands to the Most High God,
that from a thread to a shoe-latchet I shall not take aught that is thine
lest thou shouldst say, I have made Abram rich; save only what the young men
have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me -Aner, Eschol, and
Mamre. These shall take their portion.'
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 14]
1 After these things, in the fourth year of this week, on
the new moon of the third month, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a
dream, saying: 'Fear not, Abram; I am thy defender, and
2 thy reward will be exceeding great.' And he said:
'Lord, Lord, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go hence childless, and the son
of Maseq, the son of my handmaid, is the Dammasek Eliezer: he
3 will be my heir, and to me thou hast given no seed.'
And he said unto him: 'This (man) will not
4 be thy heir, but one that will come out of thine own
bowels; he will be thine heir.' And He brought him forth abroad, and said
unto him: 'Look toward heaven and number the stars if thou
5 art able to number them.' And he looked toward heaven,
and beheld the stars. And He said
6 unto him: 'So shall thy seed be.' And he believed in
the Lord, and it was counted to him for
7 righteousness. And He said unto him: 'I am the Lord
that brought thee out of Ur of the
Chaldees, to give thee the land of the Canaanites to possess it for ever; and
I will be God unto thee and to
8 thy seed after thee.' And he said: 'Lord, Lord, whereby
shall I know that I shall inherit (it)?'
9 And He said unto him: 'Take Me an heifer of three
years, and a goat of three years, and a sheep
10 of three years, and a turtle-dove, and a pigeon.' And
he took all these in the middle of the month
11 and he dwelt at the oak of Mamre, which is near Hebron. And he built
there an altar, and sacrificed all these; and he poured their blood upon the
altar, and divided them in the midst, and
12 laid them over against each other; but the birds
divided he not. And birds came down upon the
13 pieces, and Abram drove them away, and did not suffer
the birds to touch them. And it came to pass, when the sun had set, that an
ecstasy fell upon Abram, and lo ! an horror of great darkness fell upon him,
and it was said unto Abram: 'Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a
stranger in a land (that is) not theirs, and they shall bring them into
bondage, and afflict them four hundred
14 years. And the nation also to whom they will be in bondage
will I judge, and after that they shall
15 come forth thence with much substance. And thou shalt
go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried
16 in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they
shall return hither; for the iniquity of the
17 Amorites is not yet full.' And he awoke from his
sleep, and he arose, and the sun had set; and there was a flame, and behold !
a furnace was smoking, and a flame of fire passed between the
18 pieces. And on that day the Lord made a covenant with
Abram, saying: 'To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt
unto the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the
Kadmonites, the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, the Phakorites, and the Hivites,
and the
19 Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and
the Jebusites. And the day passed, and Abram offered the pieces, and the
birds, and their fruit offerings, and their drink offerings, and
20 the fire devoured them. And on that day we made a
covenant with Abram, according as we had covenanted with Noah in this month;
and Abram renewed the festival and ordinance for himself
21 for ever. And Abram rejoiced, and made all these
things known to Sarai his wife; and he believed
22 that he would have seed, but she did not bear. And Sarai
advised her husband Abram, and said unto him: 'Go in unto Hagar, my Egyptian
maid: it may be that I shall build up seed unto thee
23 by her.' And Abram harkened unto the voice of Sarai
his wife, and said unto her, 'Do (so).' And Sarai took Hagar, her maid, the
Egyptian, and gave her to Abram, her husband, to be his
24 wife. And he went in unto her, and she conceived and
bare him a son, and he called his name Ishmael, in the fifth year of this
week [1965 A.M.]; and this was the eighty-sixth year in the life of Abram.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 15]
1 And in the fifth year of the fourth week of this
jubilee, [1979 A.M.] in the third month, in the middle of the
2 month, Abram celebrated the feast of the first-fruits
of the grain harvest. And he offered new offerings on the altar, the
first-fruits of the produce, unto the Lord, an heifer and a goat and a sheep
on the altar as a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord; their fruit offerings and
their drink offerings he
3 offered upon the altar with frankincense. And the Lord
appeared to Abram, and said unto him:
4 'I am God Almighty; approve thyself before me and be
thou perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and I will
multiply thee exceedingly.' And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with
him, and said:
6 'Behold my ordinance is with thee,
And thou shalt be the father of many nations.
7 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram,
But thy name from henceforth, even for ever, shall be Abraham.
For the father of many nations have I made thee.
And I will make thee very great,
And I will make thee into nations,
And kings shall come forth from thee.
9 And I shall establish My covenant between Me and thee,
and thy seed after thee, throughout their generations, for an eternal
covenant, so that I may be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
10 And I will give to thee and to they seed after them
the land where thou hast been a sojourner,
11 the land of Canaan, that thou
mayst possess it for ever, and I will be their God.' And the Lord said unto
Abraham: 'And as for thee, do thou keep my covenant, thou and thy seed after
thee: and circumcise ye every male among you, and circumcise your foreskins,
and it shall be a token of
12 an eternal covenant between Me and you. And the child
on the eighth day ye shall circumcise, every male throughout your
generations, him that is born in the house, or whom ye have bought
13 with money from any stranger, whom ye have acquired
who is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house shall surely be
circumcised, and those whom thou hast bought with money shall be circum-
14 cised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an
eternal ordinance. And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the
flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul shall be cut off from
15 his people, for he has broken My covenant.' And God
said unto Abraham: 'As for Sarai thy wife,
16 her name shall no more be called Sarai, but Sarah
shall be her name. And I will bless her, and give thee a son by her, and I
will bless him, and he shall become a nation, and kings of nations shall
17 proceed from him.' And Abraham fell on his face, and
rejoiced, and said in his heart: 'Shall a son be born to him that is a
hundred years old, and shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bring forth?'
18,19 And Abraham said unto God: 'O that Ishmael might
live before thee!' And God said: 'Yea, and Sarah also shall bear thee a son,
and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish My
20 covenant with him, an everlasting covenant, and for
his seed after him. And as for Ishmael also have I heard thee, and behold I
will bless him, and make him great, and multiply him exceedingly,
21 and he shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him
a great nation. But My covenant will
22 I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to thee,
in these days, in the next year.' And He left
23 off speaking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
And Abraham did according as God had said unto him, and he took Ishmael his
son, and all that were born in his house, and whom he had
24 bought with his money, every male in his house, and
circumcised the flesh of their foreskin. And on the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised,
and all the men of his house, and those in the house, and all those, whom he
had bought with money from the children of the stranger, were
25 circumcised with him. This law is for all the
generations for ever, and there is no circumcision of the days, and no
omission of one day out of the eight days; for it is an eternal ordinance,
ordained
26 and written on the heavenly tablets. And every one
that is born, the flesh of whose foreskin is not circumcised on the eighth
day, belongs not to the children of the covenant which the Lord made with
Abraham, but to the children of destruction; nor is there, moreover, any sign
on him that he is the Lord's, but (he is destined) to be destroyed and slain
from the earth, and to be rooted out of
27 the earth, for he has broken the covenant of the Lord
our God. For all the angels of the presence and all the angels of
sanctification have been so created from the day of their creation, and
before the angels of the presence and the angels of sanctification He hath sanctified
Israel, that they should
28 be with Him and with His holy angels. And do thou
command the children of Israel and let them
observe the sign of this covenant for their generations as an eternal
ordinance, and they will not be
29 rooted out of the land. For the command is ordained
for a covenant, that they should observe it
30 for ever among all the children of Israel. For Ishmael
and his sons and his brothers and Esau, the Lord did not cause to approach
Him, and he chose them not because they are the children of
31 Abraham, because He knew them, but He chose Israel to be His
people. And He sanctified it, and gathered it from amongst all the children
of men; for there are many nations and many peoples, and all are His, and
over all hath He placed spirits in authority to lead them astray from Him.
32 But over Israel He did not appoint any angel or
spirit, for He alone is their ruler, and He will preserve them and require
them at the hand of His angels and His spirits, and at the hand of all His
powers in order that He may preserve them and bless them, and that they may
be His and He
33 may be theirs from henceforth for ever. And now I
announce unto thee that the children of Israel will not keep true to this
ordinance, and they will not circumcise their sons according to all this law;
for in the flesh of their circumcision they will omit this circumcision of
their sons, and all of them,
34 sons of Beliar, will leave their sons uncircumcised as
they were born. And there will be great wrath from the Lord against the
children of Israel. because they
have forsaken His covenant and turned aside from His word, and provoked and
blasphemed, inasmuch as they do not observe the ordinance of this law; for
they have treated their members like the Gentiles, so that they may be
removed and rooted out of the land. And there will no more be pardon or
forgiveness unto them [so that there should be forgiveness and pardon] for
all the sin of this eternal error.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 16]
1 And on the new moon of the fourth month we appeared
unto Abraham, at the oak of Mamre, and we talked with him, and we announced
to him that a son would be given to him by Sarah his wife.
2 And Sarah laughed, for she heard that we had spoken
these words with Abraham, and we admonished
3 her, and she became afraid, and denied that she had
laughed on account of the words. And we told her the name of her son, as his
name is ordained and written in the heavenly tablets (i.e.) Isaac,
4,5 And (that) when we returned to her at a set time, she
would have conceived a son. And in this month the Lord executed his judgments
on Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Zeboim, and all the region of the Jordan, and He
burned them with fire and brimstone, and destroyed them until this day, even
as [lo] I have declared unto thee all their works, that they are wicked and
sinners exceedingly, and that they defile themselves and commit fornication
in their flesh, and work uncleanness on the earth.
6 And, in like manner, God will execute judgment on the
places where they have done according to
7 the uncleanness of the Sodomites, like unto the
judgment of Sodom. But Lot we
saved; for God
8 remembered Abraham, and sent him out from the midst of
the overthrow. And he and his daughters committed sin upon the earth, such as
had not been on the earth since the days of Adam till his
9 time; for the man lay with his daughters. And, behold,
it was commanded and engraven concerning all his seed, on the heavenly
tablets, to remove them and root them out, and to execute judgment upon them
like the judgment of Sodom, and to leave no seed of the man on earth on the
day
10 of condemnation. And in this month Abraham moved from Hebron, and departed
and dwelt between
11 Kadesh and Shur in the mountains of Gerar. And in the
middle of the fifth month he moved from
12 thence, and dwelt at the Well of the Oath. And in the
middle of the sixth month the Lord visited
13 Sarah and did unto her as He had spoken and she
conceived. And she bare a son in the third month, and in the middle of the
month, at the time of which the Lord had spoken to Abraham, on
14 the festival of the first fruits of the harvest, Isaac
was born. And Abraham circumcised his son on the eighth day: he was the first
that was circumcised according to the covenant which is ordained
15 for ever. And in the sixth year of the fourth week we
came to Abraham, to the Well of the Oath, and we appeared unto him [as we had
told Sarah that we should return to her, and she would have
16 conceived a son. And we returned in the seventh month,
and found Sarah with child before us] and we blessed him, and we announced to
him all the things which had been decreed concerning him, that he should not
die till he should beget six sons more, and should see (them) before he died;
but
17 (that) in Isaac should his name and seed be called:
And (that) all the seed of his sons should be Gentiles, and be reckoned with
the Gentiles; but from the sons of Isaac one should become a holy
18 seed, and should not be reckoned among the Gentiles.
For he should become the portion of the Most High, and all his seed had
fallen into the possession of God, that it should be unto the Lord a people
for (His) possession above all nations and that it should become a kingdom
and priests and
19 a holy nation. And we went our way, and we announced
to Sarah all that we had told him, and
20 they both rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And he
built there an altar to the Lord who had delivered him, and who was making
him rejoice in the land of his sojourning, and he celebrated a festival of
joy in this month seven days, near the altar which he had built at the Well
of the Oath.
21 And he built booths for himself and for his servants
on this festival, and he was the first to celebrate
22 the feast of tabernacles on the earth. And during
these seven days he brought each day to the altar a burnt offering to the
Lord, two oxen, two rams, seven sheep, one he-goat, for a sin offering,
23 that he might atone thereby for himself and for his
seed. And, as a thank-offering, seven rams, seven kids, seven sheep, and
seven he-goats, and their fruit offerings and their drink offerings; and he
burnt all the fat thereof on the altar, a chosen offering unto the Lord for a
sweet smelling savour.
24 And morning and evening he burnt fragrant substances,
frankincense and galbanum, and stackte, and nard, and myrrh, and spice, and
costum; all these seven he offered, crushed, mixed together in
25 equal parts (and) pure. And he celebrated this feast
during seven days, rejoicing with all his heart and with all his soul, he and
all those who were in his house, and there was no stranger with him,
26 nor any that was uncircumcised. And he blessed his
Creator who had created him in his generation, for He had created him
according to His good pleasure; for He knew and perceived that from him would
arise the plant of righteousness for the eternal generations, and from him a
holy seed, so that it
27 should become like Him who had made all things. And he
blessed and rejoiced, and he called the
28 name of this festival the festival of the Lord, a joy
acceptable to the Most High God. And we blessed him for ever, and all his
seed after him throughout all the generations of the earth, because
29 he celebrated this festival in its season, according
to the testimony of the heavenly tablets. For this reason it is ordained on
the heavenly tablets concerning Israel, that they
shall celebrate the feast of tabernacles seven days with joy, in the seventh
month, acceptable before the Lord -a statute for
30 ever throughout their generations every year. And to
this there is no limit of days; for it is ordained for ever regarding Israel that they
should celebrate it and dwell in booths, and set wreaths upon
31 their heads, and take leafy boughs, and willows from
the brook. And Abraham took branches of palm trees, and the fruit of goodly
trees, and every day going round the altar with the branches seven times [a day] in the
morning, he praised and gave thanks to his God for all things in joy.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 17]
1 And in the first year of the fifth week Isaac was
weaned in this jubilee, [1982 A.M.] and Abraham made
2 a great banquet in the third month, on the day his son
Isaac was weaned. And Ishmael, the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, was before the
face of Abraham, his father, in his place, and Abraham rejoiced
3 and blessed God because he had seen his sons and had
not died childless. And he remembered the words which He had spoken to him on
the day on which Lot had parted from him, and he rejoiced because the Lord
had given him seed upon the earth to inherit the earth, and he blessed with
all his
4 mouth the Creator of all things. And Sarah saw Ishmael
playing and dancing, and Abraham rejoicing with great joy, and she became
jealous of Ishmael and said to Abraham, 'Cast out this
5 bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman
will not be heir with my son, Isaac.' And the thing was grievous in Abraham's
sight, because of his maidservant and because of his son,
6 that he should drive them from him. And God said to
Abraham 'Let it not be grievous in thy sight, because of the child and
because of the bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee,
7 harken to her words and do (them); for in Isaac shall
thy name and seed be called. But as for
8 the son of this bondwoman I will make him a great
nation, because he is of thy seed.' And Abraham rose up early in the morning,
and took bread and a bottle of water, and placed them on the shoulders
9 of Hagar and the child, and sent her away. And she
departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba, and the water
in the bottle was spent, and the child thirsted, and was not able to go on,
10 and fell down. And his mother took him and cast him
under an olive tree, and went and sat her down over against him, at the
distance of a bow-shot; for she said, 'Let me not see the death of my
11 child,' and as she sat she wept. And an angel of God,
one of the holy ones, said unto her, 'Why weepest thou, Hagar? Arise take the
child, and hold him in thine hand; for God hath heard thy
12 voice, and hath seen the child.' And she opened her
eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled her bottle with
water, and she gave her child to drink, and she arose and went towards
13 the wilderness of Paran. And the child grew and became
an archer, and God was with him, and his
14 mother took him a wife from among the daughters of Egypt. And she bare
him a son, and he called
15 his name Nebaioth; for she said, 'The Lord was nigh to
me when I called upon him.' And it came to pass in the seventh week, in the
first year thereof, [2003 A.M.] in the first month in this jubilee, on the
twelfth of this month, there were voices in heaven regarding Abraham, that he
was faithful in all that He
16 told him, and that he loved the Lord, and that in
every affliction he was faithful. And the prince Mastema came and said before
God, 'Behold, Abraham loves Isaac his son, and he delights in him above all
things else; bid him offer him as a burnt-offering on the altar, and Thou
wilt see if he will do this command, and Thou wilt know if he is faithful in
everything wherein Thou dost try him.
17 And the Lord knew that Abraham was faithful in all his
afflictions; for He had tried him through his country and with famine, and
had tried him with the wealth of kings, and had tried him again through his
wife, when she was torn (from him), and with circumcision; and had tried him
through
18 Ishmael and Hagar, his maid-servant, when he sent them
away. And in everything wherein He had tried him, he was found faithful, and
his soul was not impatient, and he was not slow to act; for he was faithful
and a lover of the Lord.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 18]
1,2 And God said to him, 'Abraham, Abraham'; and he said,
Behold, (here) am I.' And he said, Take thy beloved son whom
thou lovest, (even) Isaac, and go unto the high country, and offer him
3 on one of the mountains which I will point out unto
thee.' And he rose early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took his two
young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood of the
4 burnt offering, and he went to the place on the third
day, and he saw the place afar off. And he came to a well of water, and he
said to his young men, 'Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the
5 lad shall go (yonder), and when we have worshipped we
shall come again to you.' And he took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid
it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the
6 knife, and they went both of them together to that
place. And Isaac said to his father, 'Father;' and he said, 'Here am I, my
son.' And he said unto him, 'Behold the fire, and the knife, and the
7 wood; but where is the sheep for the burnt-offering,
father?' And he said, 'God will provide for himself a sheep for a
burnt-offering, my son.' And he drew near to the place of the mount of
8 God. And he built an altar, and he placed the wood on
the altar, and bound Isaac his son, and placed him on the wood which was upon
the altar, and stretched forth his hand to take the knife
9 to slay Isaac his son. And I stood before him, and
before the prince Mastema, and the Lord said, 'Bid him not to lay his hand on
the lad, nor to do anything to him, for I have shown that he fears
10 the Lord.' And I called to him from heaven, and said
unto him: 'Abraham, Abraham;' and he
11 was terrified and said: 'Behold, (here) am I.' And I said
unto him: 'Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything to him;
for now I have shown that thou fearest the Lord, and hast
12 not withheld thy son, thy first-born son, from me.'
And the prince Mastema was put to shame; and Abraham lifted up his eyes and
looked, and, behold a ram caught . . . by his horns, and Abraham
13 went and took the ram and offered it for a
burnt-offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called that place 'The
Lord hath seen', so that it is said in the mount the Lord hath seen: that is
14 Mount Sion. And the Lord called Abraham by his name a
second time from heaven, as he caused
15 us to appear to speak to him in the name of the Lord.
And he said: 'By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord,
Because thou hast done this thing,
And hast not withheld thy son, thy beloved son, from Me,
That in blessing I will bless thee,
And in multiplying I will multiply thy seed
As the stars of heaven, And as the sand which is on the seashore.
And thy seed shall inherit the cities of its enemies,
16 And in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be
blessed;
Because thou hast obeyed My voice,
And I have shown to all that thou art faithful unto Me in all that I have
said unto thee:
Go in peace.'
17 And Abraham went to his young men, and they arose and
went together to Beersheba, and Abraham
[2010 A.M.]
18 dwelt by the Well of the Oath. And he celebrated this
festival every year, seven days with joy, and he called it the festival of
the Lord according to the seven days during which he went and
19 returned in peace. And accordingly has it been
ordained and written on the heavenly tablets regarding Israel and its seed
that they should observe this festival seven days with the joy of festival.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 19]
1 And in the first year of the first week in the
forty-second jubilee, Abraham returned and dwelt
2 opposite Hebron, that is
Kirjath Arba, two weeks of years. And in the first year of the third week
3 of this jubilee the days of the life of Sarah were
accomplished, and she died in Hebron. And Abraham
went to mourn over her and bury her, and we tried him [to see] if his spirit
were patient and he were not indignant in the words of his mouth; and he was
found patient in this, and was not
4 disturbed. For in patience of spirit he conversed with
the children of Heth, to the intent that they
5 should give him a place in which to bury his dead. And
the Lord gave him grace before all who saw him, and he besought in gentleness
the sons of Heth, and they gave him the land of the double
6 cave over against Mamre, that is Hebron, for four
hundred pieces of silver. And they besought him saying, We shall give it to
thee for nothing; but he would not take it from their hands for nothing, for
he gave the price of the place, the money in full, and he bowed down before
them twice, and after
7 this he buried his dead in the double cave. And all the
days of the life of Sarah were one hundred and twenty-seven years, that is,
two jubilees and four weeks and one year: these are the days of the
8 years of the life of Sarah. This is the tenth trial
wherewith Abraham was tried, and he was found
9 faithful, patient in spirit. And he said not a single
word regarding the rumour in the land how that God had said that He would
give it to him and to his seed after him, and he begged a place there to bury
his dead; for he was found faithful, and was recorded on the heavenly tablets
as the friend of
10 God. And in the fourth year thereof he took a wife for
his son Isaac and her name was Rebecca [2020 A.M.] [the daughter of Bethuel,
the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham] the sister of Laban and daughter of
Bethuel; and Bethuel was the son of Melca, who was the wife of Nahor, the
brother of Abraham.
11 And Abraham took to himself a third wife, and her name
was Keturah, from among the daughters of his household servants, for Hagar
had died before Sarah. And she bare him six sons, Zimram,
12 and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian,
and Ishbak, and Shuah, in the two weeks of years. And in
13 the sixth week, in the second year thereof, Rebecca
bare to Isaac two sons, Jacob and Esau, and [2046 A.M.] Jacob was a smooth
and upright man, and Esau was fierce, a man of the field, and hairy, and
Jacob
14 dwelt in tents. And the youths grew, and Jacob learned
to write; but Esau did not learn, for he
15 was a man of the field and a hunter, and he learnt
war, and all his deeds were fierce. And Abraham
16 loved Jacob, but Isaac loved Esau. And Abraham saw the
deeds of Esau, and he knew that in Jacob should his name and seed be called;
and he called Rebecca and gave commandment regarding
17 Jacob, for he knew that she (too) loved Jacob much
more than Esau. And he said unto her:
My daughter, watch over my son Jacob,
For he shall be in my stead on the earth,
And for a blessing in the midst of the children of men,
And for the glory of the whole seed of Shem.
18 For I know that the Lord will choose him to be a people
for possession unto Himself, above all
19 peoples that are upon the face of the earth. And
behold, Isaac my son loves Esau more than Jacob, but I see that thou truly
lovest Jacob.
20 Add still further to thy kindness to him,
And let thine eyes be upon him in love;
For he shall be a blessing unto us on the earth from henceforth unto all
generations of the earth.
21 Let thy hands be strong
And let thy heart rejoice in thy son Jacob;
For I have loved him far beyond all my sons.
He shall be blessed for ever,
And his seed shall fill the whole earth.
22 If a man can number the sand of the earth,
His seed also shall be numbered.
23 And all the blessings wherewith the Lord hath blessed me and my seed shall
belong to Jacob and
24 his seed alway. And in his seed shall my name be
blessed, and the name of my fathers, Shem, and
25 Noab, and Enoch, and Mahalalel, and Enos, and Seth,
and Adam. And these shall serve
To lay the foundations of the heaven,
And to strengthen the earth,
And to renew all the luminaries which are in the firmament.
26 And he called Jacob before the eyes of Rebecca his
mother, and kissed him, and blessed him, and
27 said: 'Jacob, my beloved son, whom my soul loveth, may
God bless thee from above the firmament, and may He give thee all the blessings
wherewith He blessed Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, and Shem; and all the things
of which He told me, and all the things which He promised to give me, may he
cause to cleave to thee and to thy seed for ever, according to the days of
heaven above the
28 earth. And the Spirits of Mastema shall not rule over
thee or over thy seed to turn thee from the
29 Lord, who is thy God from henceforth for ever. And may
the Lord God be a father to thee and
30 thou the first-born son, and to the people alway. Go
in peace, my son.' And they both went forth
31 together from Abraham. And Rebecca loved Jacob, with
all her heart and with all her soul, very much more than Esau; but Isaac
loved Esau much more than Jacob.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 20]
1 And in the forty-second jubilee, in the first year of
the seventh week, Abraham called Ishmael, [2052 (2045?) A.M.]
2 and his twelve sons, and Isaac and his two sons, and
the six sons of Keturah, and their sons. And he commanded them that they
should observe the way of the Lord; that they should work righteousness, and
love each his neighbour, and act on this manner amongst all men; that they
should each
3 so walk with regard to them as to do judgment and
righteousness on the earth. That they should circumcise their sons, according
to the covenant which He had made with them, and not deviate to the right
hand or the left of all the paths which the Lord had commanded us; and that
we should keep ourselves from all fornication and uncleanness, [and renounce
from amongst us all fornication and
4 uncleanness]. And if any woman or maid commit
fornication amongst you, burn her with fire and let them not commit
fornication with her after their eyes and their heart; and let them not take
to themselves wives from the daughters of Canaan; for the seed of Canaan will
be rooted out of
5 the land. And he told them of the judgment of the giants, and the judgment of the Sodomites, how they had been judged
on account of their wickedness, and had died on account of their fornication,
and uncleanness, and mutual corruption through fornication.
6 'And guard yourselves from all fornication and
uncleanness,
And from all pollution of sin,
Lest ye make our name a curse,
And your whole life a hissing,
And all your sons to be destroyed by the sword,
And ye become accursed like Sodom,
And all your remnant as the sons of Gomorrah.
7 I implore you, my sons, love the God of heaven
And cleave ye to all His commandments.
And walk not after their idols, and after their uncleannesses,
8 And make not for yourselves molten or graven gods;
For they are vanity,
And there is no spirit in them;
For they are work of (men's) hands,
And all who trust in them, trust in nothing.
9 Serve them not, nor worship them,
But serve ye the most high God, and worship Him
continually:
And hope for His countenance always,
And work uprightness and righteousness before Him,
That He may have pleasure in you and grant you His mercy,
And send rain upon you morning and evening,
And bless all your works which ye have wrought upon the earth,
And bless thy bread and thy water,
And bless the fruit of thy womb and the fruit of thy land,
And the herds of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep.
10 And ye will be for a blessing on the earth,
And all nations of the earth will desire you,
And bless your sons in my name,
That they may be blessed as I am.
11 And he gave to Ishmael and to his sons, and to the
sons of Keturah, gifts, and sent them away
12 from Isaac his son, and he gave everything to Isaac
his son. And Ishmael and his sons, and the sons of Keturah and their sons,
went together and dwelt from Paran to the entering in of Babylon in
13 all the land which is towards the East facing the
desert. And these mingled with each other, and their name was called Arabs, and
Ishmaelites.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 21]
1 And in the sixth year of the seventh week of this
jubilee Abraham called Isaac his son, and [2057 (2050?) A.M.] commanded him:
saying, 'I am become old, and know not the day of my death, and am full of my
2 days. And behold, I am one hundred and seventy-five
years old, and throughout all the days of my life I have remembered the Lord,
and sought with all my heart to do His will, and to walk uprightly
3 in all His ways. My soul has hated idols, and I have
despised those that served them and I have,
4 given my heart and spirit> that I might observe to
do the will of Him who created me. For He is the living God, and He is holy
and faithful, and He is righteous beyond all, and there is with Him no
accepting of (men's) persons and no accepting of gifts; for God is righteous,
and executeth judg-
5 ment on all those who transgress His commandments and
despise His covenant. And do thou, my son, observe His commandments and His ordinances
and His judgments, and walk not after the
6 abominations and after the graven images and after the
molten images. And eat no blood at all of
7 animals or cattle, or of any bird which flies in the
heaven. And if thou dost slay a victim as an acceptable peace offering, slay
ye it, and pour out its blood upon the altar, and all the fat of the offering
offer on the altar with fine flour and the meat offering mingled with oil,
with its drink offering -offer them all together on the altar of burnt offering;
it is a sweet savour before the Lord.
8 And thou wilt offer the fat of the sacrifice of thank
offerings on the fire which is upon the altar, and the fat which is on the
belly, and all the fat on the inwards and the two kidneys, and all the fat
that
9 is upon them, and upon the loins and liver thou shalt
remove, together with the kidneys. And offer all these for a sweet savour
acceptable before the Lord, with its meat-offering and with its drink-
10 offering, for a sweet savour, the bread of the offering
unto the Lord. And eat its meat on that day and on the second day, and let
not the sun on the second day go down upon it till it is eaten, and let
nothing be left over for the third day; for it is not acceptable [for it is
not approved] and let it no longer be eaten, and all who eat thereof will
bring sin upon themselves; for thus I have found it written in the books of
my forefathers, and in the words of Enoch, and in the words of Noah.
11 And on all thy oblations thou shalt strew salt, and
let not the salt of the covenant be lacking in all
12 thy oblations before the Lord. And as regards the wood
of the sacrifices, beware lest thou bring (other) wood for the altar in
addition to these: cypress, bay, almond, fir, pine, cedar, savin, fig, olive,
13 myrrh, laurel, aspalathus. And of these kinds of wood
lay upon the altar under the sacrifice, such as have been tested as to their
appearance, and do not lay (thereon) any split or dark wood, (but) hard and
clean, without fault, a sound and new growth; and do not lay (thereon) old
wood, [for its
14 fragrance is gone] for there is no longer fragrance in
it as before. Besides these kinds of wood there is none other that thou shalt
place (on the altar), for the fragrance is dispersed, and the smell of its
15 fragrance goes not up to heaven. Observe this
commandment and do it, my son, that thou mayst
16 be upright in all thy deeds. And at all times be clean in
thy body, and wash thyself with water before thou approachest to offer on the
altar, and wash thy hands and thy feet before thou drawest
17 near to the altar; and when thou art done sacrificing,
wash again thy hands and thy feet. And let no blood appear upon you nor upon
your clothes; be on thy guard, my son, against blood, be on thy
18 guard exceedingly; cover it with dust. And do not eat
any blood for it is the soul; eat no blood whatever. And take no gifts for
the blood of man, lest it be shed with impunity, without judgment; for it is
the blood that is shed that causes the earth to sin, and the earth cannot be
cleansed from the
20 blood of man save by the blood of him who shed it. And
take no present or gift for the blood of man: blood for blood, that thou
mayest be accepted before the Lord, the Most High God; for He is the defence
of the good: and that thou mayest be preserved from all evil, and that He may
save thee from every kind of death.
21 I see, my son,
That all the works of the children of men are sin and
wickedness,
And all their deeds are uncleanness and an abomination and a pollution,
And there is no righteousness with them.
22 Beware, lest thou shouldest walk in their ways
And tread in their paths,
And sin a sin unto death before the Most High God.
Else He will [hide His face from thee
And] give thee back into the hands of thy transgression,
And root thee out of the land, and thy seed likewise from under heaven,
And thy name and thy seed shall perish from the whole earth.
23 Turn away from all their deeds and all their
uncleanness,
And observe the ordinance of the Most High God,
And do His will and be upright in all things.
24 And He will bless thee in all thy deeds,
And will raise up from thee a plant of righteousness
through all the earth, throughout all generations of the earth,
And my name and thy name shall not be forgotten under heaven for ever.
25 Go, 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 residue of thy seed for the generations
for ever, with all righteous blessings,
That thou mayest be a blessing on all the earth.'
26 And he went out from him rejoicing.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 22]
1 And it came to pass in the first week in the
forty-fourth jubilee, in the second year, that is, the year in which Abraham
died, that Isaac and Ishmael came from the Well of the Oath to celebrate the
feast of weeks -that is, the feast of the first fruits of the harvest-to
Abraham, their
2 father, and Abraham rejoiced because his two sons had
come. For Isaac had many possessions in
3 Beersheba, and Isaac was
wont to go and see his possessions and to return to his father. And in those
days Ishmael came to see his father, and they both came together, and Isaac
offered a sacrifice
4 for a burnt offering, and presented it on the altar of
his father which he had made in Hebron. And he
offered a thank offering and made a feast of joy before Ishmael, his brother:
and Rebecca made new cakes from the new grain, and gave them to Jacob, her
son, to take them to Abraham, his father, from the first fruits of the land,
that he might eat and bless the Creator of all things before he died.
5 And Isaac, too, sent by the hand of Jacob to Abraham a
best thank offering, that he might eat and
6 drink. And he eat and drank, and blessed the Most High
God,
Who hath created heaven and earth,
Who hath made all the fat things of the earth,
And given them to the children of men
That they might eat and drink and bless their Creator.
7 'And now I give thanks unto Thee, my God, because thou
hast caused me to see this day: behold, I am one hundred three score and
fifteen years, an old man and full of days, and all my days have
8 been unto me peace. The sword of the adversary has not
overcome me in all that Thou hast given
9 me and my children all the days of my life until this
day. My God, may Thy mercy and Thy peace be upon Thy servant, and upon the
seed of his sons, that they may be to Thee a chosen nation and an inheritance
from amongst all the nations of the earth from henceforth unto all the days
of the
10 generations of the earth, unto all the ages.' And he
called Jacob and said: 'My son Jacob, may the God 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 become a people for His inheritance
according to His will
11 alway. And do thou, my son, Jacob, draw near and kiss
me.' And he drew near and kissed him, and he said:
'Blessed be my son Jacob
And all the sons of God Most High, unto all the ages:
May God give unto thee a seed of righteousness;
And some of thy sons may He sanctify in the midst of the whole earth;
May nations serve thee,
And all the nations bow themselves before thy seed.
12 Be strong in the presence of men,
And exercise authority over all the seed of Seth.
Then thy ways and the ways of thy sons will be justified,
So that they shall become a holy nation.
13 May the Most High God give thee all the blessings
Wherewith He has blessed me
And wherewith He blessed Noah and Adam;
May they rest on the sacred head of thy seed from generation to generation
for ever.
14 And may He cleanse thee from all unrighteousness and
impurity,
That thou mayest be forgiven all the transgressions; which thou hast
committed ignorantly.
And may He strengthen thee,
And bless thee.
And mayest thou inherit the whole earth,
15 And may He renew His covenant with thee.
That thou mayest be to Him a nation for His inheritance
for all the ages,
And that He may be to thee and to thy seed a God in truth and righteousness
throughout all the days of the earth.
16 And do thou, my son Jacob, remember my words,
And observe the commandments of Abraham, thy father:
Separate thyself from the nations,
And eat not with them:
And do not according to their works,
And become not their associate;
For their works are unclean,
And all their ways are a Pollution and an abomination and
uncleanness.
17 They offer their sacrifices to the dead
And they worship evil spirits,
And they eat over
the graves,
And all their works are vanity and nothingness.
18 They have no
heart to understand
And their eyes do not see what their works are,
And how they err in saying to a piece of wood: 'Thou art my God,'
And to a stone: 'Thou art my Lord and thou art my deliverer.'
[And they have no heart.]
19 And as for thee, my son Jacob,
May the Most High God help thee
And the God of heaven bless thee
And remove thee from their uncleanness and from all their error.
20 Be thou ware, my son Jacob, of taking a wife from any
seed of the daughters of Canaan;
For all his seed is to be rooted out of the earth.
21 For, owing to the transgression of Ham, Canaan erred,
And all his seed shall be destroyed from off the earth and all the residue
thereof,
And none springing from him shall be saved on the day of judgment.
22 And as for all the worshippers of idols and the profane
(b) There shall be no hope for them in the land of the
living;
(c) And there shall be no remembrance of them on the earth;
(c) For they shall descend into Sheol,
(d) And into the place of condemnation shall they go,
As the children of Sodom were taken
away from the earth
So will all those who worship idols be taken away.
23 Fear not, my son Jacob,
And be not dismayed, O son of Abraham:
May the Most High God preserve thee from destruction,
And from all the paths of error may he deliver thee.
24 This house have I built for myself that I might put my
name upon it in the earth: [it is given to thee and to thy seed for ever],
and it will be named the house of Abraham; it is given to thee and to thy
seed for ever; for thou wilt build my house and establish my name before God
for ever: thy seed and thy name will stand throughout all generations of the
earth.'
25,26 And he ceased commanding him and blessing him. And
the two lay together on one bed, and Jacob slept in the bosom of Abraham, his
father's father and he kissed him seven times, and his
27 affection and his heart rejoiced over him. And he
blessed him with all his heart and said: 'The Most High God, the God of all,
and Creator of all, who brought me forth from Ur of the Chaldees that he
might give me this land to inherit it for ever, and that I might establish a
holy seed-blessed
28 be the Most High for ever.' And he blessed Jacob and
said: 'My son, over whom with all my heart and my affection I rejoice, may
Thy grace and Thy mercy be lift up upon him and upon his seed
29 alway. And do not forsake him, nor set him at nought
from henceforth unto the days of eternity, and may Thine eyes be opened upon
him and upon his seed, that Thou mayst preserve him, and
30 bless him, and mayest sanctify him as a nation for
Thine inheritance; And bless him with all Thy blessings from henceforth unto
all the days of eternity, and renew Thy covenant and Thy grace with him and
with his seed according to all Thy good pleasure unto all the generations of
the earth.'
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 23]
1 And he placed two fingers of Jacob on his eyes, and he
blessed the God of gods, and he covered his face and stretched out his feet
and slept the sleep of eternity, and was gathered to his fathers.
2 And notwithstanding all this Jacob was lying in his
bosom, and knew not that Abraham, his father's
3 father, was dead. And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and
behold Abraham was cold as ice, and he
4 said 'Father, father'; but there was none that spake,
and he knew that he was dead. And he arose from his bosom and ran and told
Rebecca, his mother; and Rebecca went to Isaac in the night, and told him;
and they went together, and Jacob with them, and a lamp was in his hand, and
5 when they had gone in they found Abraham lying dead.
And Isaac fell on the face of his father
6 and wept and kissed him. And the voices were heard in
the house of Abraham, and Ishmael his son arose, and went to Abraham his father,
and wept over Abraham his father, he and all the house
7 of Abraham, and they wept with a great weeping. And his
sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the double cave, near Sarah his wife,
and they wept for him forty days, all the men of his house, and Isaac and
Ishmael, and all their sons, and all the sons of Keturah in their places; and
the days of
8 weeping for Abraham were ended. And he lived three
jubilees and four weeks of years, one hundred
9 and seventy-five years, and completed the days of his
life, being old and full of days. For the days of the forefathers, of their
life, were nineteen jubilees; and after the Flood they began to grow less
than nineteen jubilees, and to decrease in jubilees, and to grow old quickly,
and to be full of their days by reason of manifold tribulation and the
wickedness of their ways, with the exception of
10 Abraham. For Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with
the Lord, and well-pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life; and
behold, he did not complete four jubilees in his life, when he had
11 grown old by reason of the wickedness, and was full of
his days. And all the generations which shall arise from this time until the
day of the great judgment shall grow old quickly, before they complete two
jubilees, and their knowledge shall forsake them by reason of their old age
Land all their know-
12 ledge shall vanish away]. And in those days, if a man
live a jubilee and a-half of years, they shall say regarding him: 'He has
lived long, and the greater part of his days are pain and sorrow and
13 tribulation, and there is no peace: For calamity
follows on calamity, and wound on wound, and tribulation on tribulation, and
evil tidings on evil tidings, and illness on illness, and all evil judgments
such as these, one with another, illness and overthrow, and snow and frost
and ice, and fever, and chills, and torpor, and famine, and death, and sword,
and captivity, and all kinds of calamities and
14 pains.' And all these shall come on an evil
generation, which transgresses on the earth: their works
15 are uncleanness and fornication, and pollution and
abominations. Then they shall say: 'The days of the forefathers were many
(even), unto a thousand years, and were good; but behold, the days of our
life, if a man has lived many, are three score years and ten, and, if he is
strong, four score years,
16 and those evil, and there is no peace in the days of
this evil generation.' And in that generation the sons shall convict their
fathers and their elders of sin and unrighteousness, and of the words of
their mouth and the great wickednesses which they perpetrate, and concerning
their forsaking the covenant which the Lord made between them and Him, that
they should observe and do all His commandments and His ordinances and all His
laws, without departing either to the right hand or the left.
17 For all have done evil, and every mouth speaks
iniquity and all their works are an uncleanness and
18 an abomination, and all their ways are pollution,
uncleanness and destruction. Behold the earth shall be destroyed on account
of all their works, and there shall be no seed of the vine, and no oil; for
their works are altogether faithless, and they shall all perish together,
beasts and cattle and birds, and
19 all the fish of the sea, on account of the children of
men. And they shall strive one with another, the young with the old, and the
old with the young, the poor with the rich, the lowly with the great, and the
beggar with the prince, on account of the law and the covenant; for they have
forgotten commandment, and covenant, and feasts, and months, and Sabbaths,
and jubilees, and all judgments.
20 And they shall stand <with bows and> swords and
war to turn them back into the way; but they shall
21 not return until much blood has been shed on the
earth, one by another. And those who have escaped shall not return from their
wickedness to the way of righteousness, but they shall all exalt themselves
to deceit and wealth, that they may each take all that is his neighbour's,
and they shall name the great name, but not in truth and not in
righteousness, and they shall defile the holy of
22 holies with their uncleanness and the corruption of
their pollution. And a great punishment shall befall the deeds of this generation
from the Lord, and He will give them over to the sword and to
23 judgment and to captivity, and to be plundered and
devoured. And He will wake up against them the sinners of the Gentiles, who
have neither mercy nor compassion, and who shall respect the person of none,
neither old nor young, nor any one, for they are more wicked and strong to do
evil than all the children of men.
And they shall use violence against Israel and
transgression against Jacob,
And much blood shall be shed upon the earth,
And there shall be none to gather and none to bury.
24 In those days they shall cry aloud,
And call and pray that they may be saved from the hand of the sinners, the
Gentiles;
But none shall be saved.
25 And the heads of the children shall be white with grey hair,
And a child of three weeks shall appear old like a man of one hundred years,
And their stature shall be destroyed by tribulation and oppression.
26 And in those days the children shall begin to study the laws,
And to seek the commandments,
And to return to the path of righteousness.
27 And the days shall begin to grow many and increase amongst those children
of men
Till their days draw nigh to one thousand years.
And to a greater number of years than (before) was the number of the days.
28 And there shall be no old man
Nor one who is <not> satisfied with his days,
For all shall be (as) children and youths.
29 And all their days they shall complete and live in peace and in joy,
And there shall be no Satan nor any evil destroyer;
For all their days shall be days of blessing and healing.
30 And at that time the Lord will heal His servants,
And they shall rise up and see great peace,
And drive out their adversaries.
And the righteous shall see and be thankful,
And rejoice with joy for ever and ever,
And shall see all their judgments and all their curses on their enemies.
31 And their bones shall rest in the earth,
And their spirits shall have much joy,
And they shall know that it is the Lord who executes judgment,
And shows mercy to hundreds and thousands and to all that love Him
32 And do thou, Moses, write down these words; for thus are they written, and
they record (them) on the heavenly tablets for a testimony for the
generations for ever.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 24]
1 And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that
the Lord blessed Isaac his son, and he arose from Hebron and went and
dwelt at the Well of the Vision in the first year of the third week [2073
A.M.]
2 of this jubilee, seven years. And in the first year of
the fourth week a famine began in the land, [2080 A.M.]
3 besides the first famine, which had been in the days of
Abraham. And Jacob sod lentil pottage, and Esau came from the field hungry.
And he said to Jacob his brother: 'Give me of this red pottage.' And Jacob said
to him: 'Sell to me thy [primogeniture, this] birthright and I will give
4 thee bread, and also some of this lentil pottage.' And
Esau said in his heart: 'I shall die; of
5 what profit to me is this birthright? 'And he said to
Jacob: 'I give it to thee.' And Jacob said:
6 'Swear to me, this day,' and he sware unto him. And
Jacob gave his brother Esau bread and pottage, and he eat till he was
satisfied, and Esau despised his birthright; for this reason was Esau's name
7 called Edom, on account of
the red pottage which Jacob gave him for his birthright. And Jacob became
8 the elder, and Esau was brought down from his dignity.
And the famine was over the land, and Isaac departed to go down into Egypt in
the second year of this week, and went to the king of the Philis-
9 tines to Gerar, unto Abimelech. And the Lord appeared
unto him and said unto him: 'Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the
land that I shall tell thee of, and sojourn in this land, and I will
10 be with thee and bless thee. For to thee and to thy
seed will I give all this land, and I will establish My oath which I sware
unto Abraham thy father, and I will multiply thy seed as the
11 stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all this
land. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because
thy father obeyed My voice, and kept My charge and My commandments, and My
laws, and My ordinances, and My covenant; and now obey My voice and dwell in
12,13 this land.' And he dwelt in Gelar three weeks of
years. And Abimelech charged concerning him, [2080-2101 A.M.] and concerning
all that was his, saying: 'Any man that shall touch him or aught that is his
shall
14 surely die.' And Isaac waxed strong among the
Philistines, and he got many possessions, oxen
15 and sheep and camels and asses and a great household.
And he sowed in the land of the Philistines and brought in a hundred-fold,
and Isaac became exceedingly great, and the Philistines envied him.
16 Now all the wells which the servants of Abraham had
dug during the life of Abraham, the Philistines
17 had stopped them after the death of Abraham, and
filled them with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac: 'Go from us, for thou
art much mightier than we', and Isaac departed thence in
18 the first year of the seventh week, and sojourned in the
valleys of Gerar. And they digged again the wells of water which the servants
of Abraham, his father, had digged, and which the Philistines had closed
after the death of Abraham his father, and he called their names as Abraham
his father
19 had named them. And the servants of Isaac dug a well
in the valley, and found living water, and the shepherds of Gerar strove with
the shepherds of Isaac, saying: 'The water is ours'; and Isaac
20 called the name of the well 'Perversity', because they
had been perverse with us. And they dug a second well, and they strove for
that also, and he called its name 'Enmity'. And he arose from thence and they
digged another well, and for that they strove not, and he called the name of
it 'Room', and Isaac said: 'Now the Lord hath made room for us, and we have
increased in the
21 land.' And he went up from thence to the Well of the
Oath in the first year of the first week in the [2108 A.M.]
22 forty-fourth jubilee. And the Lord appeared to him
that night, on the new moon of the first month, and said unto him: 'I am the
God of Abraham thy father; fear not, for I am with thee, and shall bless thee
and shall surely multiply thy seed as the sand of the earth, for the sake of
Abraham my
23 servant.' And he built an altar there, which Abraham
his father had first built, and he called upon
24 the name of the Lord, and he offered sacrifice to the
God of Abraham his father. And they digged
25 a well and they found living water. And the servants
of Isaac digged 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
26 this day to the Philistines and this thing has been
announced to us.' And he called the name of that place the Well of the Oath;
for there he had sworn to Abimelech and Ahuzzath his friend and
27 Phicol the prefect Or his host. And Isaac knew that
day that under constraint he had sworn to them
28 to make peace with them. And Isaac on that day cursed
the Philistines and said: 'Cursed be the Philistines unto the day of wrath
and indignation from the midst of all nations; may God make them a derision
and a curse and an object of wrath and indignation in the hands of the
sinners the
29 Gentiles and in the hands of the Kittim. And whoever
escapes the sword of the enemy and the Kittim, may the righteous nation root
out in judgment from under heaven; for they shall be the enemies and foes of
my children throughout their generations upon the earth.
30 And no remnant shall be left to them,
Nor one that shall be saved on the day of the wrath of judgment;
For destruction and rooting out and expulsion from the earth is the whole
seed of the Philistines (reserved),
And there shall no longer be left for these Caphtorim a name or a seed on the
earth.
31 For though he ascend unto heaven,
Thence shall he be brought down,
And though he make himself strong on earth,
Thence shall he be dragged forth,
And though he hide himself amongst the nations,
Even from thence shall he be rooted out;
And though he descend into Sheol,
There also shall his condemnation be great,
And there also he shall have no peace.
32 And if he go into captivity,
By the hands of those that seek his life shall they slay
him on the way,
And neither name nor seed shall be left to him on all the earth;
For into eternal malediction shall he depart.'
33 And thus is it written and engraved concerning him on the heavenly
tablets, to do unto him on the day of judgment, so that he may be rooted out
of the earth.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 25]
1 And in the second year of this week in this jubilee,
Rebecca called Jacob her son, and spake unto [2109 A.M.] him, saying: 'My
son, do not take thee a wife of the daughters of Canaan, as Esau, thy
brother, who took him two wives of the daughters of Canaan, and they have
embittered my soul with all their unclean deeds: for all their deeds are
fornication and lust, and there is no righteousness with them,
2 for (their deeds) are evil. And I, my son, love thee
exceedingly, and my heart and my affection
3 bless thee every hour of the day and watch of the
night. And now, my son, hearken to my voice, and do the will of thy mother,
and do not take thee a wife of the daughters of this land, but only of the
house of my father, and of my father's kindred. Thou shalt take thee a wife
of the house of my father, and the Most High God will bless thee, and thy
children shall be a righteous generation and
4 a holy seed.' And then spake Jacob to Rebecca, his
mother, and said unto her: 'Behold, mother, I am nine weeks of years old, and
I neither know nor have I touched any woman, nor have I betrothed
5 myself to any, nor even think of taking me a wife of
the daughters of Canaan. For I remember, mother, the words of
Abraham, our father, for he commanded me not to take a wife of the daughters
6 of Canaan, but to take
me a wife from the seed of my father's house and from my kindred. I have
heard before that daughters have been born to Laban, thy brother, and I have
set my heart on them
7 to take a wife from amongst them. And for this reason I
have guarded myself in my spirit against sinning or being corrupted in all my
ways throughout all the days of my life; for with regard to lust
8 and fornication, Abraham, my father, gave me many
commands. And, despite all that he has commanded me, these two and twenty
years my brother has striven with me, and spoken frequently to me and said:
'My brother, take to wife a sister of my two wives'; but I refuse to do as he
has done.
9 I swear before thee, mother, that all the days of my
life I will not take me a wife from the daughters
10 of the seed of Canaan, and I will
not act wickedly as my brother has done. Fear not, mother; be
11 assured that I shall do thy will and walk in
uprightness, and not corrupt my ways for ever.' And thereupon she lifted up
her face to heaven and extended the fingers of her hands, and opened her
mouth and blessed the Most High God, who had created the heaven and the
earth, and she gave Him
12 thanks and praise. And she said: 'Blessed be the Lord
God, and may His holy name be blessed for ever and ever, who has given me
Jacob as a pure son and a holy seed; for he is Thine, and Thine
13 shall his seed be continually and throughout all the
generations for evermore. Bless him, O Lord,
14 and place in my mouth the blessing of righteousness,
that I may bless him.' And at that hour, when the spirit of righteousness
descended into her mouth, she placed both her hands on the head of Jacob, and
said:
15 Blessed art thou, Lord of righteousness and God of the ages
And may He bless thee beyond all the generations of men.
May He give thee, my Son, the path of righteousness,
And reveal righteousness to thy seed.
16 And may He make thy sons many during thy life,
And may they arise according to the number of the months of the year.
And may their sons become many and great beyond the stars of heaven,
And their numbers be more than the sand of the sea.
17 And may He give them this goodly land -as He said He would give it to
Abraham and to his seed after him alway-
And may they hold it as a possession for ever.
18 And may I see (born) unto thee, my son, blessed children during my life,
And a blessed and holy seed may all thy seed be.
19 And as thou hast refreshed thy mother's spirit during her life,
The womb of her that bare thee blesses thee thus,
[My affection] and my breasts bless thee
And my mouth and my tongue praise thee greatly.
20 Increase and spread over the earth,
And may thy seed be perfect in the joy of heaven and earth for ever;
And may thy seed rejoice,
And on the great day of peace may it have peace.
21 And may thy name and thy seed endure to all the ages,
And may the Most High God be their God,
And may the God of righteousness dwell with them,
And by them may His sanctuary be built unto all the ages.
22 Blessed be he that blesseth thee,
And all flesh that curseth thee falsely, may it be cursed.'
23 And she kissed him, and said to him;
'May the Lord of the world love thee
As the heart of thy mother and her affection rejoice in thee and bless thee.'
And she ceased from blessing.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 26]
1 And in the seventh year of this week Isaac called Esau,
his elder Son, and said unto him: ' I am [2114 A.M.]
2 old, my son, and behold my eyes are dim in seeing, and
I know not the day of my death. And now take thy hunting weapons thy quiver
and thy bow, and go out to the field, and hunt and catch me (venison), my
son, and make me savoury meat, such as my soul loveth, and bring it to me
that I may
3 eat, and that my soul may bless thee before I die.' But
Rebecca heard Isaac speaking to Esau.
4,5 And Esau went forth early to the field to hunt and
catch and bring home to his father. And Rebecca called Jacob, her son, and
said unto him: 'Behold, I heard Isaac, thy father, speak unto Esau, thy
brother, saying: "Hunt for me, and make me savoury meat, and bring (it)
to me that
6 I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before I
die." And now, my son, obey my voice in that which I command thee: Go to
thy flock and fetch me two good kids of the goats, and I will make them
savoury meat for thy father, such as he loves, and thou shalt bring (it) to
thy father that he
7 may eat and bless thee before the Lord before he die,
and that thou mayst be blessed.' And Jacob said to Rebecca his mother:
'Mother, I shall not withhold anything which my father would eat, and which
would please him: only I fear, my mother, that he will recognise my voice and
wish to touch
8 me. And thou knowest that I am smooth, and Esau, my
brother, is hairy, and I shall appear before his eyes as an evildoer, and
shall do a deed which he had not commanded me, and he will be
9 wroth with me, and I shall bring upon myself a curse,
and not a blessing.' And Rebecca, his
10 mother, said unto him: 'Upon me be thy curse, my son,
only obey my voice.' And Jacob obeyed the voice of Rebecca, his mother, and
went and fetched two good and fat kids of the goats, and
11 brought them to his mother, and his mother made them
~savoury meat~ such as he loved. And Rebecca took the goodly rainment of
Esau, her elder son, which was with her in the house, and she clothed Jacob,
her younger son, (with them), and she put the skins of the kids upon his
hands and on
12 the exposed parts of his neck. And she gave the meat
and the bread which she had prepared into
13 the hand of her son Jacob. And Jacob went in to his
father and said: 'I am thy son: I have done according as thou badest me:
arise and sit and eat of that which I have caught, father, that thy soul
14,15 may bless me.' And Isaac said to his son: 'How hast
thou found so quickly, my son? 'And Jacob
16 said: 'Because (the Lord thy God caused me to find.'
And Isaac said unto him: Come near, that
17 I may feel thee, my son, if thou art my son Esau or
not.' And Jacob went near to Isaac, his father,
18 and he felt him and said: 'The voice is Jacob's voice,
but the hands are the hands of Esau,' and he discerned him not, because it
was a dispensation from heaven to remove his power of perception and
19 Isaac discerned not, for his hands were hairy as his
brother Esau's, so that he blessed him. And he said: 'Art thou my son Esau? '
and he said: 'I am thy son': and he said, 'Bring near to me that
20 I may eat of that which thou hast caught, my son, that
my soul may bless thee.' And he brought
21 near to him, and he did eat, and he brought him wine
and he drank. And Isaac, his father, said unto
22 him: 'Come near and kiss me, my son. And he came near
and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his raiment, and he blessed him
and said: 'Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a (full) field
which the Lord hath blessed.
23 And may the Lord give thee of the dew of heaven
And of the dew of the earth, and plenty of corn and oil:
Let nations serve thee,
And peoples bow down to thee.
24 Be lord over thy brethren,
And let thy mother's sons bow down to thee;
And may all the blessings wherewith the Lord hath blessed me and blessed
Abraham, my father;
Be imparted to thee and to thy seed for ever:
Cursed be he that curseth thee,
And blessed be he that blesseth thee.'
25 And it came to pass as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing his son
Jacob, and Jacob had gone
26 forth from Isaac his father he hid himself and Esau,
his brother, came in from his hunting. And he also made savoury meat, and
brought (it) to his father, and said unto his father: 'Let my father
27 arise, and eat of my venison that thy soul may bless
me.' And Isaac, his father, said unto him: 'Who art thou? 'And he said unto
him: 'I am thy first born, thy son Esau: I have done as thou hast
28 commanded me.' And Isaac was very greatly astonished,
and said: 'Who is he that hath hunted and caught and brought (it) to me, and
I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him:
29 (and) he shall be blessed, and all his seed for ever.'
And it came to pass when Esau heard the words of his father Isaac that he
cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said unto his father:
30 'Bless me, (even) me also, father.' And he said unto
him: 'Thy brother came with guile, and hath taken away thy blessing.' And he
said: 'Now I know why his name is named Jacob: behold, he hath supplanted me
these two times: he took away my birth-right, and now he
hath taken away
31 my blessing.' And he said: 'Hast thou not reserved a
blessing for me, father?' and Isaac answered and said unto Esau:
31 'Behold, I have made him thy lord,
And all his brethren have I given to him for servants,
And with plenty of corn and wine and oil have I strengthened him:
And what now shall I do for thee, my son?'
32 And Esau said to Isaac, his father:
'Hast thou but one blessing, O father?
Bless me, (even) me also, father: '
33 And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
And Isaac answered and said unto him:
'Behold, far from the dew of the earth shall be thy dwelling,
And far from the dew of heaven from above.
34 And by thy sword wilt thou live,
And thou wilt serve thy brother.
And it shall come to pass when thou becomest great,
And dost shake his yoke from off thy neck,
Thou shalt sin a complete sin unto death,
And thy seed shall be rooted out from under heaven.'
35 And Esau kept threatening Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his
father blessed him, and he: said in his heart: 'May the days of mourning for
my father now come, so that I may slay my brother Jacob.'
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 27]
1 And the words of Esau, her elder son, were told to
Rebecca in a dream, and Rebecca sent and
2 called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him:
'Behold Esau thy brother will take vengeance on
3 thee so as to kill thee. Now, therefore, my son, obey
my voice, and arise and flee thou to Laban, my brother, to Haran, and tarry
with him a few days until thy brother's anger turns away, and he remove his
anger from thee, and forget all that thou hast done; then I will send and
fetch thee from
4,5 thence.' And Jacob said: 'I am not afraid; if he
wishes to kill me, I will kill him.' But she said
6 unto him: 'Let me not be bereft of both my sons on one
day.' And Jacob said to Rebecca his mother: 'Behold, thou knowest that my
father has become old, and does not see because his eyes are dull, and if I
leave him it will be evil in his eyes, because I leave him and go away from
you, and my father will be angry, and will curse me. I will not go; when he
sends me, then only will I go.'
7,8 And Rebecca said to Jacob: 'I will go in and speak to
him, and he will send thee away.' And Rebecca went in and said to Isaac: 'I
loathe my life because of the two daughters of Heth, whom Esau has taken him
as wives; and if Jacob take a wife from among the daughters of the land such
9 as these, for what purpose do I further live, for the
daughters of Canaan are evil.' And Isaac called
10 Jacob and blessed him, and admonished him and said unto
him: 'Do not take thee a wife of any of the daughters of Canaan; arise and go
to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's
father,
11 and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of
Laban, thy mother's brother. And God Almighty bless thee and increase and
multiply thee that thou mayest become a company of nations, and give thee the
blessings of my father Abraham, to thee and to thy seed after thee, that thou
mayest inherit the land of thy sojournings and all the land which God gave to
Abraham: go, my
12 son, in peace.' And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went
to Mesopotamia, to Laban the son of
13 Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebecca, Jacob's
mother. And it came to pass after Jacob had
14 arisen to go to Mesopotamia that the
spirit of Rebecca was grieved after her son, and she wept. And Isaac said to
Rebecca: 'My sister, weep not on account of Jacob, my son; for he goeth in
peace, and
15 in peace will he return. The Most High God will
preserve him from all evil, and will be with him;
16 for He will not forsake him all his days; For I know
that his ways will be prospered in all things
17 wherever he goes, until he return in peace to us, and
we see him in peace. Fear not on his account, my sister, for he is on the
upright path and he is a perfect man: and he is faithful and will not perish.
18,19 Weep not.' And Isaac comforted Rebecca on account
of her son Jacob, and blessed him. And Jacob went from the Well of the Oath
to go to Haran on the first year of the second week in the forty-fourth
jubilee, and he came to Luz on the mountains, that is, Bethel, on the new
moon of the first month of this week, [2115 A.M.] and he came to the place at
even and turned from the way to the west of the
20 road that night: and he slept there; for the sun had
set. And he took one of the stones of that
21 place and laid it at his head under the tree, and he
was journeying alone, and he slept. And he dreamt that night, and behold a
ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold,
the angels of the Lord ascended and descended on it: and behold, the Lord
stood upon it.
22 And he spake to Jacob and said: 'I am the Lord God of
Abraham, thy father, and the God of
23 Isaac; the land whereon thou art sleeping, to thee
will I give it, and to thy seed after thee. And thy seed shall be as the dust
of the earth, and thou shalt increase to the west and to the east, to the
24 north and the south, and in thee and in thy seed shall
all the families of the nations be blessed. And behold, I will be with thee,
and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest, and I will bring thee again into
this land in peace; for I will not leave thee until I do everything that I
told thee of.'
25 And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said, 'Truly this
place is the house of the Lord, and I knew it not.' And he was afraid and
said: 'Dreadful is this place which is none other than the house of
26 God, and this is the gate of heaven.' And Jacob arose
early in the morning, and took the stone which he had put under his head and
set it up as a pillar for a sign, and he poured oil upon the top of it. And
he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name
of the place was Luz at the first.
27 And Jacob vowed a vow unto the Lord, saying: 'If the
Lord will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and give me
bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house
in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set up
as a pillar for a sign in this place, shall be the Lord's house, and of all
that thou givest me, I shall give the tenth to thee, my God.'
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 28]
1 And he went on his journey, and came to the land of the
east, to Laban, the brother of Rebecca,
2 and he was with him, and served him for Rachel his
daughter one week. And in the first year of the third week [2122 A.M.] he
said unto him: 'Give me my wife, for whom I have served thee seven years ';
and
3 Laban said unto Jacob: 'I will give thee thy wife.' And
Laban made a feast, and took
Leah his elder daughter, and gave (her) to Jacob as a wife, and gave her
Zilpah his handmaid for an hand-
4 maid; and Jacob did not know, for he thought that she
was Rachel. And he went in unto her, and behold, she was Leah; and Jacob was
angry with Laban, and said unto him: 'Why hast thou dealt thus with me? Did
not I serve thee for Rachel and not for Leah? Why hast thou wronged me?
5 Take thy daughter, and I will go; for thou hast done
evil to me.' For Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah; for Leah's eyes were
weak, but her form was very handsome; but Rachel had beautiful
6 eyes and a beautiful and very handsome form. And Laban
said to Jacob: 'It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before
the elder.' And it is not right to do this; for thus it is ordained and
written in the heavenly tablets, that no one should give his younger daughter
before the elder; but the elder, one gives first and after her the younger
-and the man who does so, they set down guilt against him in heaven, and none
is righteous that does this thing, for this deed is evil before the
7 Lord. And command thou the children of Israel that they do
not this thing; let them neither take
8 nor give the younger before they have given the elder,
for it is very wicked. And Laban said to Jacob: 'Let the seven days of the
feast of this one pass by, and I shall give thee Rachel, that thou mayst
serve me another seven years, that thou mayst pasture my sheep as thou didst
in the former week.' And on the day when the seven days of the feast of Leah
had passed, Laban gave Rachel to Jacob, that he might serve him another seven
years, and he gave to Rachel Bilhah, the sister of
10 Zilpah, as a handmaid. And he served yet other seven
years for Rachel, for Leah had been given
11 to him for nothing. And the Lord opened the womb of
Leah, and she conceived and bare Jacob a son, and he called his name Reuben,
on the fourteenth day of the ninth month, in the first year of
12 the third week. [2122 A.M.] But the womb of Rachel was
closed, for the Lord saw that Leah was hated and
13 Rachel loved. And again Jacob went in unto Leah, and
she conceived, and bare Jacob a second son, and he called his name Simeon, on
the twenty-first of the tenth month, and in the third year of this
14 week. [2124 A.M.] And again Jacob went in unto Leah,
and she conceived, and bare him a third son, and he
15 called his name Levi, in the new moon of the first
month in the sixth year of this week. [2127 A.M.] And again Jacob went in
unto her, and she conceived, and bare him a fourth son, and he called his
name Judah,
16 on the fifteenth of the third month, in the first year
of the fourth week. [2129 A.M.] And on account of all this Rachel envied
Leah, for she did not bear, and she said to Jacob: 'Give me children'; and
Jacob
17 said: 'Have I withheld from thee the fruits of thy
womb? Have I forsaken thee?' And when Rachel saw that Leah had borne four
sons to Jacob, Reuben and Simeon and Levi and Judah, she said unto
18 him: 'Go in unto Bilhah my handmaid, and she will
conceive, and bear a son unto me.' (And she gave (him) Bilhah her handmaid to
wife). And he went in unto her, and she conceived, and bare him a son, and he
called his name Dan, on the ninth of the sixth month, in the sixth year of
the
19 third week. [2127 A.M.] And Jacob went in again unto
Bilhah a second time, and she conceived, and bare Jacob another son, and
Rachel called his name Napthali, on the fifth of the seventh month, in the
20 second year of the fourth week. [2130 A.M.] And when
Leah saw that she had become sterile and did not bear, she envied Rachel, and
she also gave her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob to wife, and she conceived, and
bare a son, and Leah called his name Gad, on the twelfth of the eighth month,
in the third year of
21 the fourth week. [2131 A.M.] And he went in again unto
her, and she conceived, and bare him a second son, and Leah called his name
Asher, on the second of the eleventh month, in the fifth year of the fourth
22 week. [2133 A.M.] And Jacob went in unto Leah, and she
conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Issachar, on the fourth of
the fifth month, in the fourth year of the fourth week,[2132 A.M.] and she
gave him
23 to a nurse. And Jacob went in again unto her, and she
conceived, and bare two (children), a son and a daughter, and she called the
name of the son Zabulon, and the name of the daughter Dinah,
24 in the seventh of the seventh month, in the sixth year
of the fourth week. [2134 A.M.] And the Lord was gracious to Rachel, and
opened her womb, and she conceived, and bare a son, and she called his
25 name Joseph, on the new moon of the fourth month, in
the sixth year in this fourth week. [2134 A.M.] And in the days when Joseph
was born, Jacob said to Laban: 'Give me my wives and sons, and let me go to
my father Isaac, and let me make me an house; for I have completed the years
in which I
26 have served thee for thy two daughters, and I will go
to the house of my father.' And Laban said to Jacob: 'Tarry with me for thy
wages, and pasture my flock for me again, and take thy wages.'
27 And they agreed with one another that he should give
him as his wages those of the lambs and kids
28 which were born black and spotted and white, (these)
were to be his wages. And all the sheep brought forth spotted and speckled
and black, variously marked, and they brought forth again lambs like
themselves, and all that were spotted were Jacob's and those which were not
were
29 Laban's. And Jacob's possessions multiplied
exceedingly, and he possessed oxen and sheep and
30 asses and camels, and menservants and maid-servants.
And Laban and his sons envied Jacob, and Laban took back his sheep from him,
and he observed him with evil intent.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 29]
1 And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, that
Laban went to shear his sheep; for they
2 were distant from him a three days' journey. And Jacob
saw that Laban was going to shear his sheep, and Jacob called Leah and
Rachel, and spake kindly unto them that they should come with
3 him to the land of Canaan. For he told
them how he had seen everything in a dream, even all that He had spoken unto
him that he should return to his father's house, and they said: 'To every
place
4 whither thou goest we will go with thee.' And Jacob
blessed the God of Isaac his father, and the God of Abraham his father's
father, and he arose and mounted his wives and his children, and took all his
possessions and crossed the river, and came to the land of Gilead, and Jacob
hid his intention
5 from Laban and told him not. And in the seventh year of
the fourth week Jacob turned (his face) toward Gilead in the first
month, on the twenty-first thereof. [2135 A.M.] And Laban pursued after him
and
6 overtook Jacob in the mountain of Gilead in the third
month, on the thirteenth thereof. And the Lord did not suffer him to injure
Jacob; for he appeared to him in a dream by night. And Laban
7 spake to Jacob. And on the fifteenth of those days
Jacob made a feast for Laban, and for all who came with him, and Jacob sware
to Laban that day, and Laban also to Jacob, that neither should
8 cross the mountain of Gilead to the other
with evil purpose. And he made there a heap for
9 a witness; wherefore the name of that place is called:
'The Heap of Witness,' after this heap. But before they used to call the land
of Gilead the land of the Rephaim; for it was the land of the Rephaim, and
the Rephaim were born (there), giants whose height was ten, nine, eight down to
10 seven cubits. And their habitation was from the land
of the children of Ammon to Mount Hermon,
11 and the seats of their kingdom were Karnaim and
Ashtaroth, and Edrei, and Misur, and Beon. And the Lord destroyed them
because of the evil of their deeds; for they were very malignant, and the
Amorites dwelt in their stead, wicked and sinful, and there is no people
to-day which has wrought
12 to the full all their sins, and they have no longer
length of life on the earth. And Jacob sent away Laban, and he departed into Mesopotamia, the land of
the East, and Jacob returned to the land of
13 Gilead. And he passed
over the Jabbok in the ninth month, on the eleventh thereof. And on that day
Esau, his brother, came to him, and he was reconciled to him, and departed
from him unto
14 the land of Seir, but Jacob
dwelt in tents. And in the first year of the fifth week in this jubilee [2136
A.M.] he crossed the Jordan, and dwelt
beyond the Jordan, and he
pastured his sheep from the sea of the
15 heap unto Bethshan, and unto Dothan and unto the forest of Akrabbim. And he sent
to his father Isaac of all his substance, clothing, and food, and meat, and
drink, and milk, and butter, and
16 cheese, and some dates of the valley. And to his
mother Rebecca also four times a year,
between the times of the months, between ploughing and
reaping, and between autumn and the rain (season)
17 and between winter and spring, to the tower of Abraham. For Isaac had
returned from the Well of the Oath and gone up to the tower of his father Abraham,
and he dwelt there apart from his son
18 Esau. For in the days when Jacob went to Mesopotamia, Esau took to
himself a wife Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, and he gathered together
all the flocks of his father and his wives, and went
19 Up and dwelt on Mount 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
20 of Hebron, And thither
Jacob sent all that he did send to his father and his mother from time to
time, all they needed, and they blessed Jacob with all their heart and with
all their soul.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 30]
1 And in the first year of the sixth week [2143 A.M.] he
went up to Salem, to the east
of Shechem, in peace, in
2 the fourth month. And there they carried off Dinah, the
daughter of Jacob, into the house of Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite,
the prince of the land, and he lay with her and defiled her,
3 and she was a little girl, a child of twelve years. And
he besought his father and her brothers that she might be given to him to
wife. And Jacob and his sons were wroth because of the men of Shechem; for
they had defiled Dinah, their sister, and they spake to them with evil intent
and dealt
4 deceitfully with them and beguiled them. And Simeon and
Levi came unexpectedly to Shechem and executed judgment on all the men of
Shechem, and slew all the men whom they found in it, and left not a single
one remaining in it: they slew all in torments because they had dishonoured
5 their sister Dinah. And thus let it not again be done
from henceforth that a daughter of Israel be defiled;
for judgment is ordained in heaven against them that they should destroy with
the sword
6 all the men of the Shechemites because they had wrought
shame in Israel. And the Lord
delivered them into the hands of the sons of Jacob that they might
exterminate them with the sword and execute judgment upon them, and that it
might not thus again be done in Israel that a virgin of
7 Israel should be
defiled. And if there is any man who wishes in Israel 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 stone him with stones; for he hath wrought shame in Israel;
and they shall burn the woman with fire, because
8 she has dishonoured the name of the house of her
father, and she shall be rooted out of Israel. And let not
an adulteress and no uncleanness be found in Israel throughout all
the days of the generations of the earth; for Israel is holy unto
the Lord, and every man who has defiled (it) shall surely die:
9 they shall stone him with stones. For thus has it been
ordained and written in the heavenly tablets regarding all the seed of Israel: he who
defileth (it) shall surely die, and he shall be stoned with
10 stones. And to this law there is no limit of days, and
no remission, nor any atonement: but the man who has defiled his daughter
shall be rooted out in the midst of all Israel, because he
has given
11 of his seed to Moloch, and wrought impiously so as to
defile it. And do thou, Moses, command the children of Israel and exhort
them not to give their daughters to the Gentiles, and not to take for
12 their sons any of the daughters of the Gentiles, for
this is abominable before the Lord. For this reason I have written for thee
in the words of the Law all the deeds of the Shechemites, which they wrought
against Dinah, and how the sons of Jacob spake, saying: 'We will not give our
daughter
13 to a man who is uncircumcised; for that were a
reproach unto us.' And it is a reproach to Israel, to those who
live, and to those that take the daughters of the Gentiles; for this is
unclean and
14 abominable to Israel. And Israel will not be
free from this uncleanness if it has a wife of the daughters of the Gentiles,
or has given any of its daughters to a man who is of any of the Gentiles.
15 For there will be plague upon plague, and curse upon
curse, and every judgment and plague and curse will come upon him: if he do
this thing, or hide his eyes from those who commit uncleanness, or those who
defile the sanctuary of the Lord, or those who profane His holy name, (then)
will the
16 whole nation together be judged for all the
uncleanness and profanation of this man. And there will be no respect of
persons [and no consideration of persons] and no receiving at his hands of
fruits and offerings and burnt-offerings and fat, nor the fragrance of sweet
savour, so as to accept it: and
17 so fare every man or woman in Israel who defiles
the sanctuary. For this reason I have commanded thee, saying: 'Testify this
testimony to Israel: see how the
Shechemites fared and their sons: how they were delivered into the hands of
two sons of Jacob, and they slew them under tortures, and it
18 was (reckoned) unto them for righteousness, and it is
written down to them for righteousness. And the seed of Levi was chosen for
the priesthood, and to be Levites, that they might minister before the Lord,
as we, continually, and that Levi and his sons may be blessed for ever; for
he was zealous
19 to execute righteousness and judgment and vengeance on
all those who arose against Israel. And so they
inscribe as a testimony in his favour on the heavenly tablets blessing and
righteousness before
20 the God of all: And we remember the righteousness
which the man fulfilled during his life, at all periods of the year; until a
thousand generations they will record it, and it will come to him and to his
descendants after him, and he has been recorded on the heavenly tablets as a
friend and a righteous
21 man. All this account I have written for thee, and
have commanded thee to say to the children of Israel, that they should not
commit sin nor transgress the ordinances nor break the covenant which
22 has been ordained for them, (but) that they should
fulfil it and be recorded as friends. But if they transgress and work
uncleanness in every way, they will be recorded on the heavenly tablets as
adversaries, and they will be destroyed out of the book of life, and they
will be recorded in the book of
23 those who will be destroyed and with those who will be
rooted out of the earth. And on the day when the sons of Jacob slew Shechem a
writing was recorded in their favour in heaven that they had executed
righteousness and uprightness and vengeance on the sinners, and it was
written for a blessing.
24 And they brought Dinah, their sister, out of the house
of Shechem, and they took captive everything that was in Shechem, their sheep
and their oxen and their asses, and all their wealth, and all their
25 flocks, and brought them all to Jacob their father.
And he reproached them because they had put the city to the sword for he
feared those who dwelt in the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
26 And the dread of the Lord was upon all the cities
which are around about Shechem, and they did not rise to pursue after the
sons of Jacob; for terror had fallen upon them.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 31]
1 And on the new moon of the month Jacob spake to all the
people of his house. saying: 'Purify yourselves and change your garments, and
let us arise and go up to Bethel, where I vowed a vow to Him on the day when
I fled from the face of Esau my brother, because he has been with me and
2 brought me into this land in peace, and put ye away the
strange gods that arc among you.' And they gave up the strange gods and that
which was in their ears and which was on their necks and the idols which
Rachel stole from Laban her father she gave wholly to Jacob. And he burnt and
brake them to pieces and destroyed them, and hid them under an oak which is
in the land of
3 Shechem. And he went up on the new moon of the seventh
month to Bethel. And he built
an altar at the place where he had slept, and he set up a pillar there, and he
sent word to his father
4 Isaac to come to him to his sacrifice, and to his
mother Rebecca. And Isaac said: 'Let my son
5 Jacob come, and let me see him before I die.' And Jacob
went to his father Isaac 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 he came to
his father Isaac and to his mother Rebecca.
6 And Rebecca came forth from the tower to the front of
it to kiss Jacob and embrace him; for her spirit had revived when she heard:
'Behold Jacob thy son has come'; and she kissed
7 him. And she saw his two sons, and she recognised them,
and said unto him: 'Are these thy sons, my son?' and she embraced them and
kissed them, and blessed them, saying: 'In you shall the
8 seed of Abraham become illustrious, and ye shall prove
a blessing on the earth.' And Jacob went in to Isaac his father, to the
chamber where he lay, and his two sons were with him, and he took the hand of
his father, and stooping down he kissed him, and Isaac clung to the neck of
Jacob his son,
9 and wept upon his neck. And the darkness left the eyes
of Isaac, and he saw the two sons of Jacob,
10 Levi, and Judah, and he said: 'Are these thy sons, my
son? for they are like thee.' And he said unto him that they were truly his
sons: 'And thou hast truly seen that they are truly my sons'.
11 And they came near to him, and he turned and kissed
them and embraced them both together.
12 And the spirit of prophecy came down into his mouth,
and he took Levi by his right hand and
13 Judah by his left.
And he turned to Levi first, and began to bless him first, and said unto him:
May the God of all, the very Lord of all the ages, bless thee and thy
children throughout all the
14 ages. And may the Lord give to thee and to thy seed
greatness and great glory, and cause thee and thy seed, from among all flesh,
to approach Him to serve in His sanctuary as the angels of the presence and
as the holy ones. (Even) as they, shall the seed of thy sons be for glory and
greatness
15 and holiness, and may He make them great unto all the
ages. And they shall be judges and princes, and chiefs of all the seed of the
sons of Jacob;
They shall speak the word of the Lord in righteousness,
And they shall judge all His judgments in righteousness.
And they shall declare My ways to Jacob
And My paths to Israel.
The blessing of the Lord shall be given in their mouths
To bless all the seed of the beloved.
16 Thy mother has called thy name Levi,
And justly has she called thy name;
Thou shalt be joined to the Lord
And be the companion of all the sons of Jacob;
Let His table be thine,
And do thou and thy sons eat thereof;
And may thy table be full unto all generations,
And thy food fail not unto all the ages.
17 And let all who hate thee fall down before thee,
And let all thy adversaries be rooted out and perish;
And blessed be he that blesses thee,
And cursed be every nation that curses thee.'
18 And to Judah he said:
'May the Lord give thee strength and power
To tread down all that hate thee;
A prince shalt thou be, thou
and one of thy sons, over the sons of Jacob;
May thy name and the name of thy sons go forth and
traverse every land and region.
Then shall the Gentiles fear before thy face,
And all the nations shall quake
[And all the peoples shall quake].
In thee shall be the help of Jacob,
And in thee be found the salvation of Israel.
20 And when thou sittest
on the throne of honour of thy righteousness
There shall be great peace for all the seed of the sons of the beloved;
Blessed be he that blesseth thee,
And all that hate thee and afflict thee and curse thee
Shall be rooted out and destroyed from the earth and be accursed.'
21 And turning he kissed him again and embraced him, and rejoiced greatly;
for he had seen the
22 sons of Jacob his son in very truth. And he went forth
from between his feet and fell down and bowed down to him, and he blessed
them and rested there with Isaac his father that night, and they
23 eat and drank with joy. And he made the two sons of
Jacob sleep, the one on his right hand and the
24 other on his left, and it was counted to him for
righteousness. And Jacob told his father everything during the night, how the
Lord had shown him great mercy, and how he had prospered (him in) all
25 his ways, and protected him from all evil. And Isaac
blessed the God of his father Abraham, who
26 had not withdrawn his mercy and his righteousness from
the sons of his servant Isaac. And in the morning Jacob told his father Isaac
the vow which he had vowed to the Lord, and the vision which he had seen, and
that he had built an altar, and that everything was ready for the sacrifice
to be
27 made before the Lord as he had vowed, and that he had
come to set him on an ass. And Isaac said unto Jacob his son: 'I am not able
to go with thee; for I am old and not able to bear the way: go, my son, in
peace; for I am one hundred and sixty-five years this day; I am no longer
able to
28 journey; set thy mother (on an ass) and let her go
with thee. And I know, my son, that thou hast come on my account, and may
this day be blessed on which thou hast seen me alive, and I also have
29 seen thee, my son. Mayest thou prosper and fulfil the
vow which thou hast vowed; and put not off thy vow; for thou shalt be called
to account as touching the vow; now therefore make haste to perform it, and
may He be pleased who has made all things, to whom thou hast vowed the vow.'
30 And he said to Rebecca: 'Go with Jacob thy son'; and
Rebecca went with Jacob her son, and
31 Deborah with her, and they came to Bethel. And 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
32 fathers, Abraham and Isaac. And he said: 'Now I know
that I have an eternal hope, and my sons also, before the God of all'; and
thus is it ordained concerning the two; and they record it as an eternal
testimony unto them on the heavenly tablets how Isaac blessed them.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 32]
1 And he abode that night at Bethel, and Levi
dreamed that they had ordained and made him the priest of the Most High God,
him and his sons for ever; and he awoke from his sleep and blessed
2 the Lord. And Jacob rose early in the morning, on the
fourteenth of this month, and he gave
a tithe of all that came with him, both of men and cattle, both of
gold and every vessel and garment,
3 yea, he gave tithes of all. And in those days Rachel
became pregnant with her son Benjamin. And Jacob counted his sons from him
upwards and Levi fell to the portion of the Lord, and his
4 father clothed him in the garments of the priesthood
and filled his hands. And on the fifteenth of this month, he brought to the
altar fourteen oxen from amongst the cattle, and twenty-eight rams, and
forty-nine sheep, and seven lambs, and twenty-one kids of the goats as a
burnt-offering on the
5 altar of sacrifice, well pleasing for a sweet savour
before God. This was his offering, in consequence of the vow which he had
vowed that he would give a tenth, with their fruit-offerings and their drink-
6 offerings. And when the fire had consumed it, he burnt
incense on the fire over the fire, and for a thank-offering two oxen and four
rams and four sheep, four he-goats, and two sheep of a year old,
7 and two kids of the goats; and thus he did daily for
seven days. And he and all his sons and his men were eating (this) with joy
there during seven days and blessing and thanking the Lord, who
8 had delivered him out of all his tribulation and had
given him his vow. And he tithed all the clean animals, and made a burnt sacrifice, but the unclean
animals he gave (not) to Levi his son, and he
9 gave him all the souls of the men And Levi discharged
the priestly office at Bethel before Jacob his father in preference to his
ten brothers, and he was a priest there, and Jacob gave his vow: thus
10 he tithed again the tithe to the Lord and sanctified
it, and it became holy unto Him. And for this reason it is ordained on the
heavenly tablets as a law for the tithing again the tithe to eat before the
Lord from year to year, in the place where it is chosen that His name should
dwell, and to this law
11 there is no limit of days for ever. This ordinance is
written that it may be fulfilled from year to year in eating the second tithe
before the Lord in the place where it has been chosen, and nothing
12 shall remain over from it from this year to the year
following. For in its year shall the seed be eaten till the days of the
gathering of the seed of the year, and the wine till the days of the wine,
13 and the oil till the days of its season. And all that
is left thereof and becomes old, let it be regarded
14 as polluted: let it be burnt with fire, for it is
unclean. And thus let them eat it together in the
15 sanctuary, and let them not suffer it to become old.
And all the tithes of the oxen and sheep shall be holy unto the Lord, and
shall belong to his priests, which they will eat before Him from year to
16 year; for thus is it ordained and engraven regarding
the tithe on the heavenly tablets. And on the following night, on the
twenty-second day of this month, Jacob resolved to build that place, and to
surround the court with a wall, and to sanctify it and make it holy for ever,
for himself and his children
17 after him. And the Lord appeared to him by night and
blessed him and said unto him: 'Thy name
18 shall not be called Jacob, but Israel shall they
name thy name.' And He said unto him again: 'I am the Lord who created the
heaven and the earth, and I will increase thee and multiply thee exceedingly,
and kings shall come forth from thee, and they shall judge everywhere
wherever the foot
19 of the sons of men has trodden. And I will give to thy
seed all the earth which is under heaven, and they shall judge all the
nations according to their desires, and after that they shall get possession
20 of the whole earth and inherit it for ever.' And He
finished speaking with him, and He went up
21 from him. and Jacob looked till He had ascended into
heaven. And 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 them and knew all that was written therein which would befall him and
his sons
21 throughout all the ages. And he showed him all that
was written on the tablets, and said unto him: 'Do not build this place, and
do not make it an eternal sanctuary, and do not dwell here; for this is not
the place. Go to the house of Abraham thy father and dwell with Isaac thy
father until the day
23 of the death of thy father. For in Egypt thou shalt die
in peace, and in this land thou shalt be buried
24 with honour in the sepulchre of thy fathers, with
Abraham and Isaac. Fear not, for as thou hast seen and read it, thus shall it
all be; and do thou write down everything as thou hast seen and read.'
25 And Jacob said: 'Lord, how can I remember all that I
have read and seen? 'And he said unto
26 him: 'I will bring all things to thy remembrance.' And
he went up from him, and he awoke from his sleep, and he remembered
everything which he had read and seen, and he wrote down all the
27 words which he had read and seen. And he celebrated
there yet another day, and he sacrificed thereon according to all that he
sacrificed on the former days, and called its name 'Addition,' for
28 this day was added and the former days he called 'The
Feast '. And thus it was manifested that it should be, and it is written on
the heavenly tablets: wherefore it was revealed to him that he should
29 celebrate it, and add it to the seven days of the
feast. And its name was called 'Addition,' because that it was recorded
amongst the days of the feast days, according to the number of
30 the days of the year. And in the night, on the
twenty-third of this month, Deborah Rebecca's nurse died, and they buried her
beneath the city under the oak of the river, and he called the name of this
31 place, 'The river of Deborah,' and the oak,
'The oak of the mourning of Deborah.' And Rebecca went and returned to her
house to his father Isaac, and Jacob sent by her hand rams and sheep and
32 he-goats that she should prepare a meal for his father
such as he desired. And he went after his
33 mother till he came to the land of Kabratan, and he dwelt there.
And Rachel bare a son in the night, and called his name 'Son of my sorrow ';
for she suffered in giving him birth: but his father called his name
Benjamin, on the eleventh of the eighth month in the first of the sixth week
of this
34 jubilee. [2143 A.M.] And Rachel died there and she was
buried in the land of Ephrath, the same is Bethlehem, and Jacob
built a pillar on the grave of Rachel, on the road above her grave.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 33]
1 And Jacob went and dwelt to the south of Magdaladra'ef.
And he went to his father Isaac, he
2 and Leah his wife, on the new moon of the tenth month.
And Reuben saw Bilhah, Rachel's maid,
3 the concubine of his father, bathing in water in a
secret place, and he loved her. And he hid himself at night, and he entered
the house of Bilhah [at night], and he found her sleeping alone on a bed in
4 her house. And he lay with her, and she awoke and saw,
and behold Reuben was lying with her in the bed, and she uncovered the border
of her covering and seized him, and cried out, and discovered
5 that it was Reuben. And she was ashamed because of him,
and released her hand from him, and he
6,7 fled. And she lamented because of this thing
exceedingly, and did not tell it to any one. And when Jacob returned and
sought her, she said unto him: 'I am not clean for thee, for I have been
defiled as regards thee; for Reuben has defiled me, and has lain with me in
the night, and I was
8 asleep, and did not discover until he uncovered my
skirt and slept with me.' And Jacob was exceedingly wroth with Reuben because
he had lain with Bilhah, because he had uncovered his
9 father's skirt. And Jacob did not approach her again
because Reuben had defiled her. And as for any man who uncovers his father's
skirt his deed is wicked exceedingly, for he is abominable before
10 the Lord. For this reason it is written and ordained
on the heavenly tablets that a man should not lie with his father's wife, and
should not uncover his father's skirt, for this is unclean: they shall surely
die together, the man who lies with his father's wife and the woman also, for
they have
11 wrought uncleanness on the earth. And there shall be
nothing unclean before our God in the nation
12 which He has chosen for Himself as a possession. And
again, it is written a second time: 'Cursed be he who lieth with the wife of
his father, for he hath uncovered his father's shame'; and all the
13 holy ones of the Lord said 'So be it; so be it.' And
do thou, Moses, command the children of Israel that they observe this word;
for it (entails) a punishment of death; and it is unclean, and there is no
atonement for ever to atone for the man who has committed this, but he is to
be put to death and slain, and stoned with stones, and rooted out from the
midst of the people of our God.
14 For to no man who does so in Israel is it permitted to
remain alive a single day on the earth, for he
15 is abominable and unclean. And let them not say: to
Reuben was granted life and forgiveness after he had lain with his father's
concubine, and to her also though she had a husband, and her husband
16 Jacob, his father, was still alive. For until that
time there had not been revealed the ordinance and judgment and law in its
completeness for all, but in thy days (it has been revealed) as a law of
17 seasons and of days, and an everlasting law for the
everlasting generations. And for this law there is no consummation of days,
and no atonement for it, but they must both be rooted out in the midst
18 of the nation: on the day whereon they committed it
they shall slay them. And do thou, Moses, write (it) down for Israel that they may
observe it, and do according to these words, and not commit a sin unto death;
for the Lord our God is judge, who respects not persons and accepts not
gifts. And tell them these words of the covenant, that they may hear and
observe, and be on their guard with respect to them, and not be destroyed and
rooted out of the land; for an uncleanness, and an abomination, and a
contamination, and a pollution are all they who commit it on the earth before
20 our God. And there is no greater sin than the
fornication which they commit on earth; for Israel is a holy nation unto the
Lord its God, and a nation of inheritance, and a priestly and royal nation
and for (His own) possession; and there shall no such uncleanness appear in
the midst of the holy
21 nation. And in the third year of this sixth week [2145 A.M.] Jacob and all
his sons went and dwelt in the house
22 of Abraham, near Isaac his father and Rebecca his mother. And these were
the names of the sons of Jacob: the first-born Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,
Issachar, Zebulon, the sons of Leah; and the sons of Rachel, Joseph and
Benjamin; and the sons of Bilhah, Dan and Naphtali; and the sons of Zilpah,
Gad and Asher; and Dinah, the daughter of Leah, the only daughter of Jacob.
And they
23 came and bowed themselves to Isaac and Rebecca, and
when they saw them they blessed Jacob and all his sons, and Isaac rejoiced
exceedingly, for he saw the sons of Jacob, his younger son and he blessed
them.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 34]
1 And in the sixth year of this week of this forty-fourth
jubilee [2148 A.M.] Jacob sent his sons to pasture their
2 sheep, and his servants with them to the pastures of
Shechem. And the seven kings of the Amorites assembled themselves together
against them, to slay them, hiding themselves under the trees, and
3 to take their cattle as a prey. And Jacob and Levi and
Judah and Joseph were in the house with Isaac their father; for his spirit
was sorrowful, and they could not leave him: and Benjamin was
4 the youngest, and for this reason remained with his
father. And there came the king[s] of Taphu and the king[s] of 'Aresa, and
the king[s] of Seragan, and the king[s] of Selo, and the king[s] of Ga'as,
and the king of Bethoron, and the king of Ma'anisakir, and all those who
dwell in these
5 mountains (and) who dwell in the woods in the land of Canaan. And they
announced this to Jacob saying: 'Behold, the kings of the Amorites have
surrounded thy sons, and plundered their herds.'
6 And he arose from his house, he and his three sons and
all the servants of his father, and his own
7 servants, and he went against them with six thousand
men, who carried swords. And he slew them in the pastures of Shechem, and
pursued those who fled, and he slew them with the edge of the sword, and he
slew 'Aresa and Taphu and Saregan and Selo and 'Amani-
8 sakir and Ga[ga]'as, and he recovered his herds. And he
prevailed over them, and imposed tribute on them that they should pay him
tribute, five fruit products of their land, and he built Robel
9 and Tamnatares. And he returned in peace, and made
peace with them, and they became his
10 servants, until the day that he and his sons went down
into Egypt. And in the
seventh year of this week [2149 A.M.] he sent Joseph to learn about the
welfare of his brothers from his house to the land of Shechem,
11 and he found them in the land of Dothan. And they
dealt treacherously with him, and formed a plot against him to slay him, but
changing their minds, they sold him to Ishmaelite merchants, and they brought
him down into Egypt, and they sold him to Potiphar, the eunuch of Pharaoh,
the
12 chief of the cooks, priest of the city of 'Elew. And
the sons of Jacob slaughtered a kid, and dipped the coat of Joseph in the
blood, and sent (it) to Jacob their father on the tenth of the seventh month.
13 And he mourned all that night, for they had brought it
to him in the evening, and he became feverish with mourning for his death,
and he said: 'An evil beast hath devoured Joseph'; and all the members of his
house [mourned with him that day, and they] were grieving and mourning with
14 him all that day. And his sons and his daughter rose
up to comfort him, but he refused to be
15 comforted for his son. And on that day Bilhah heard
that Joseph had perished, and she died mourning him, and she was living in
Qafratef, and Dinah also, his daughter, died after Joseph had
16 perished. And there came these three mournings upon Israel in one month.
And they buried
17 Bilhah over against the tomb of Rachel, and Dinah
also. his daughter, they buried there. And he mourned for Joseph one year,
and did not cease, for he said 'Let me go down to the grave mourning
18 for my son'. For this reason it is ordained for the
children of Israel that they should afflict themselves on the tenth of the
seventh month -on the day that the news which made him weep for Joseph came
to Jacob his father- that they should make atonement for themselves thereon
with a young goat on the tenth of the seventh month, once a year, for their
sins; for they had grieved the
19 affection of their father regarding Joseph his son.
And this day has been ordained that they should grieve thereon for their
sins, and for all their transgressions and for all their errors, so that they
20 might cleanse themselves on that day once a year. And
after Joseph perished, the sons of Jacob took unto themselves wives. The name
of Reuben's wife is 'Ada; and the name of Simeon's wife is 'Adlba'a, a
Canaanite; and the name of Levi's wife is Melka, of the daughters of Aram, of
the seed of the sons of Terah; and the name of Judah's wife, Betasu'el, a
Canaanite; and the name of Issachar's wife, Hezaqa: and the name of Zabulon's
wife, Ni'iman; and the name of Dan's wife, 'Egla; and the name of Naphtali's
wife, Rasu'u, of Mesopotamia; and the name of Gad's wife, Maka; and the name
of Asher's wife, 'Ijona; and the name of Joseph's wife, Asenath, the
Egyptian; and the name
21 of Benjamin's wife, 'Ijasaka. And Simeon repented, and
took a second wife from Mesopotamia as his
brothers.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 35]
1 And in the first year of the first week of the
forty-fifth jubilee [2157 A.M.] Rebecca called Jacob, her son, and commanded
him regarding his father and regarding his brother, that he should honour
them all the
2 days of his life. And Jacob said: 'I will do everything
as thou hast commanded me; for this thing will be honour and greatness to me,
and righteousness before the Lord, that I should honour them.
3 And thou too, mother, knowest from the time I was born
until this day, all my deeds and all that is in
4 my heart, that I always think good concerning all. And
how should I not do this thing which thou
5 hast commanded me, that I should honour my father and
my brother! Tell me, mother, what
6 perversity hast thou seen in me and I shall turn away
from it, and mercy will be upon me.' And she said unto him: 'My son, I have
not seen in thee all my days any perverse but (only) upright deeds. And yet I
will tell thee the truth, my son: I shall die this year, and I shall not
survive this year in my life; for I have seen in a dream the day of my death,
that I should not live beyond a hundred and fifty-five years: and behold I
have completed all the days of my life which I am to
7 live.' And Jacob laughed at the words of his mother.
because his mother had said unto him that she should die; and she was sitting
opposite to him in possession of her strength, and she was not infirm in her
strength; for she went in and out and saw, and her teeth were strong, and no
ailment
8 had touched her all the days of her life. And Jacob
said unto her: 'Blessed am I, mother, if my days approach the days of thy
life, and my strength remain with me thus as thy strength: and thou
9 wilt not die, for thou art jesting idly with me
regarding thy death.' And she went in to Isaac and said unto him: 'One
petition I make unto thee: make Esau swear that he will not injure Jacob, nor
pursue him with enmity; for thou knowest Esau's thoughts that they are
perverse from his youth,
10 and there is no goodness in him; for he desires after
thy death to kill him. And thou knowest all that he has done since the day
Jacob his brother went to Haran until this
day: how he has forsaken us with his whole heart, and has done evil to us;
thy flocks he has taken to himself, and carried off
11 all thy possessions from before thy face. And when we
implored and besought him for what was
12 our own, he did as a man who was taking pity on us.
And he is bitter against thee because thou didst bless Jacob thy perfect and
upright son; for there is no evil but only goodness in him, and since he came
from Haran unto this day he has not robbed us of aught, for he brings us
everything in its season always, and rejoices with all his heart when we take
at his hands and he blesses us, and has not parted from us since he came from
Haran until this day, and he remains with us continually
13 at home honouring us.' And Isaac said unto her: 'I,
too, know and see the deeds of Jacob who is with us, how that with all his
heart he honours us; but I loved Esau formerly more than Jacob, because he
was the firstborn; but now I love Jacob more than Esau, for he has done
manifold evil deeds, and there is no righteousness in him, for all his ways
are unrighteousness and violence, [and
14 there is no righteousness around him.] And now my
heart is troubled because of all his deeds, and neither he nor his seed is to
be saved, for they are those who will be destroyed from the earth and who
will be rooted out from under heaven, for he has forsaken the God of Abraham
and gone
15 after his wives and after their uncleanness and after
their error, he and his children. And thou dost bid me make him swear that he
will not slay Jacob his brother; even if he swear he will not abide
16 by his oath, and he will not do good but evil only.
But if he desires to slay Jacob, his brother, into Jacob's hands will he be
given, and he will not escape from his hands, [for he will descend into his
17 hands.] And fear thou not on account of Jacob; for the
guardian of Jacob is great and powerful
18 and honoured, and praised more than the guardian of Esau.'
And Rebecca sent and called Esau and he came to her, and she said unto him:
'I have a petition, my son, to make unto thee, and do
19 thou promise to do it, my son.' And he said: 'I will
do everything that thou sayest unto me, and
20 I will not refuse thy petition.' And she said unto
him: 'I ask you that the day I die, thou wilt take me in and bury me near
Sarah, thy father's mother, and that thou and Jacob will love each other and
that neither will desire evil against the other, but mutual love only, and
(so) ye will prosper, my sons, and be honoured in the midst of the land, and
no enemy will rejoice over you, and ye will be
21 a blessing and a mercy in the eyes of all those that
love you.' And he said: 'I will do all that thou hast told me, and I shall
bury thee on the day thou diest near Sarah, my father's mother, as
22 thou hast desired that her bones may be near thy
bones. And Jacob, my brother, also, I shall love above all flesh; for I have
not a brother in all the earth but him only: and this is no great merit for
me if I love him; for he is my brother, and we were sown together in thy
body, and together came
23 we forth from thy womb, and if I do not love my
brother, whom shall I love? And I, myself, beg thee to exhort Jacob
concerning me and concerning my sons, for I know that he will assuredly be
king over me and my sons, for on the day my father blessed him he made him
the higher and me
24 the lower. And I swear unto thee that I shall love
him, and not desire evil against him all the
25 days of my life but good only.' And he sware unto her
regarding all this matter. And she called Jacob before the eyes of Esau, and
gave him commandment according to the words which
26 she had spoken to Esau. And he said: 'I shall do thy
pleasure; believe me that no evil will proceed from me or from my sons
against Esau, and I shall be first in naught save in love only.'
27 And they eat and drank, she and her sons that night,
and she died, three jubilees and one week and one year old, on that night,
and her two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried her in the double cave near Sarah,
their father's mother.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 36]
1 And in the sixth year of this week [2162 A.M.] Isaac
called his two sons Esau and Jacob, and they came to him, and he said unto
them: 'My sons, I am going the way of my fathers, to the eternal house
2 where my fathers are. Wherefore bury me near Abraham my
father, in the double cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, where Abraham
purchased a sepulchre to bury in; in the sepulchre which
3 I digged for myself, there bury me. And this I command
you, my sons, that ye practise righteousness and uprightness on the earth, so
that the Lord may bring upon you all that the Lord said that
4 he would do to Abraham and to his seed. And love one
another, my sons, your brothers as a man who loves his own soul, and let each
seek in what he may benefit his brother, and act together on the earth; and
let them love each other as their own souls. And concerning the question of
idols, I command and admonish you to reject them and hate them, and love them
not, for they are full
6 of deception for those that worship them and for those
that bow down to them. Remember ye, my sons, the Lord God of Abraham your
father, and how I too worshipped Him and served Him in righteousness and in
joy, that He might multiply you and increase your seed as the stars of heaven
in multitude, and establish you on the earth as the plant of righteousness
which will not be rooted
7 out unto all the generations for ever. And now I shall
make you swear a great oath -for there is no oath which is greater than it by
the name glorious and honoured and great and splendid and wonderful and
mighty, which created the heavens and the earth and all things together- that
ye will
8 fear Him and worship Him. And that each will love his
brother with affection and righteousness, and that neither will desire evil
against his brother from henceforth for ever all the days of your life
9 so that ye may prosper in all your deeds and not be
destroyed. And if either of you devises evil against his brother, know that
from henceforth everyone that devises evil against his brother shall fall
into his hand, and shall be rooted out of the land of the living, and his
seed shall be destroyed from
10 under heaven. But on the day of turbulence and
execration and indignation and anger, with flaming devouring fire as He burnt
Sodom, so likewise will He burn his land and his city and all that is his,
and he shall be blotted out of the book of the discipline of the children of
men, and not be recorded in the book of life, but in that which is appointed
to destruction, and he shall depart into eternal execration; so that their
condemnation may be always renewed in hate and in execration and in wrath and
in torment and in indignation and in plagues and in disease for ever. I say
and testify to you, my sons, according to the judgment which shall come upon
the man who wishes to
12 injure his brother. And he divided all his possessions
between the two on that day and he gave the larger portion to him that was
the first-born, and the tower and all that was about it, and all that
13 Abraham possessed at the Well of the Oath. And he
said: 'This larger portion I will give to the
14 firstborn.' And Esau said, 'I have sold to Jacob and given
my birthright to Jacob; to him let it be
15 given, and I have not a single word to say regarding
it, for it is his.' And Isaac said, May a blessing rest upon you, my sons,
and upon your seed this day, for ye have given me rest, and my heart is not
16 pained concerning the birthright, lest thou shouldest
work wickedness on account of it. May the
17 Most High God bless the man that worketh
righteousness, him and his seed for ever.' And he ended commanding them and
blessing them, and they eat and drank together before him, and he rejoiced
because there was one mind between them, and they went forth from him and
rested that day and
18 slept. And Isaac slept on his bed that day rejoicing;
and he slept the eternal sleep, and died one hundred and eighty years old. He
completed twenty-five weeks and five years; and his two sons
19 Esau and Jacob buried him. And Esau went to the land of Edom, to the
mountains of Seir, and
20 dwelt there. And Jacob dwelt in the mountains of Hebron, in the tower
of the land of the sojournings of his father Abraham, and he worshipped the
Lord with all his heart and according to the visible
21 commands according as He had divided the days of his
generations. And Leah his wife died in the fourth year of the second week of
the forty-fifth jubilee, [2167 A.M.] and he buried her in the double cave
23 near Rebecca his mother to the left of the grave of
Sarah, his father's mother and all her sons and his sons came to mourn over
Leah his wife with him and to comfort him regarding her, for he
24 was lamenting her for he loved her exceedingly after
Rachel her sister died; for she was perfect and upright in all her ways and
honoured Jacob,and all the days that she lived with him he did not hear from
her mouth a harsh word, for she was gentle and peaceable and upright and
honourable
24 And he remembered all her deeds which she had done
during her life and he lamented her exceedingly; for he loved her with all
his heart and with all his soul.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 37]
1 And on the day that Isaac the father of Jacob and Esau
died, [2162 A.M.] the sons of Esau heard that Isaac
2 had given the portion of the elder to his younger son
Jacob and they were very angry. And they strove with their father, saying
'Why has thy father given Jacob the portion of the elder and passed
3 over thee, although thou art the elder and Jacob the
younger?' And he said unto them 'Because I sold my birthright to Jacob for a
small mess of lentils, and on the day my father sent me to hunt and catch and
bring him something that he should eat and bless me, he came with guile and
brought
4 my father food and drink, and my father blessed him and
put me under his hand. And now our father has caused us to swear, me and him,
that we shall not mutually devise evil, either against his brother, and that
we shall continue in love and in peace each with his brother and not make our
ways
5 corrupt.' And they said unto him, 'We shall not hearken
unto thee to make peace with him; for our strength is greater than his
strength, and we are more powerful than he; we shall go against him and slay
him, and destroy him and his sons. And if thou wilt not go with us, we shall
do hurt
6 to thee also. And now hearken unto us: Let us send to
Aram and Philistia and Moab and Ammon, and let us choose for ourselves chosen
men who are ardent for battle, and let us go against him and do battle with
him, and let us exterminate him from the earth before he grows strong.'
7 And their father said unto them, 'Do not go and do not
make war with him lest ye fall before him.'
8 And they said unto him, 'This too, is exactly thy mode
of action from thy youth until this day, and
9 thou art putting thy neck under his yoke. We shall not
hearken to these words.' And they sent to Aram, and to
'Aduram to the friend of their father, and they hired along with them one
thousand
10 fighting men, chosen men of war. And there came to
them from Moab and from the children of Ammon, those who were hired, one
thousand chosen men, and from Philistia, one thousand chosen men of war, and
from Edom and from the Horites one thousand chosen fighting men, and from the
11 Kittim mighty men of war. And they said unto their
father: Go forth with them and lead them,
12 else we shall slay thee.' And he was filled with wrath
and indignation on seeing that his sons were forcing him to go before (them)
to lead them against Jacob his brother. But afterward he remem-
13 bered all the evil which lay hidden in his heart
against Jacob his brother; and he remembered not the oath which he had sworn
to his father and to his mother that he would devise no evil all his days
14 against Jacob his brother. And notwithstanding all
this, Jacob knew not that they were coming against him to battle, and he was
mourning for Leah, his wife, until they approached very near to the
15 tower with four thousand warriors and chosen men of
war And the men of Hebron sent to him saying, 'Behold thy brother has come
against thee, to fight thee, with four thousand girt with the sword, and they
carry shields and weapons'; for they loved Jacob more than Esau. So they told
him; for
16 Jacob was a more al and merciful man than Esau. But
Jacob would not believe until they came
17 very near to the tower. And he closed the gates of the
tower; and he stood on the battlements and spake to his brother Esau and
said, 'Noble is the comfort wherewith thou hast come to comfort me for my
wife who has died. Is this the oath that thou didst swear to thy father and
again to thy mother before they died? Thou hast broken the oath, and on the
moment that thou didst swear to
18 thy father wast thou condemned.' And then Esau
answered and said unto him, 'Neither the children of men nor the beasts of
the earth have any oath of righteousness which in swearing they have sworn
(an oath valid) for ever; but every day they devise evil one against another,
and how each
19 may slay his adversary and foe. And thou dost hate me
and my children for ever. And there is
20 no observing the tie of brotherhood with thee. Hear
these words which I declare unto thee,
If the boar can change its skin and make its bristles as soft as wool,
Or if it can cause horns to sprout forth on its head like the horns of a stag
or of a sheep,
Then will I observe the tie of brotherhood with thee
And if the breasts separated themselves from their mother, for thou hast not
been a brother to me.
21 And if the wolves make peace with the lambs so as not
to devour or do them violence,
And if their hearts are towards them for good,
Then there shall be peace in my heart towards thee
22 And if the lion becomes the friend of the ox and makes peace with him
And if he is bound under one yoke with him and ploughs with him,
Then will I make peace with thee.
23 And when the raven becomes white as the raza,
Then know that I have loved thee
And shall make peace with thee
Thou shalt be rooted out,
And thy sons shall be rooted out,
And there shall be no peace for thee'
24 And when Jacob saw that he was (so) evilly disposed towards
him with his heart, and with all his soul as to slay him, and that he had
come springing like the wild boar which comes upon
25 the spear that pierces and kills it, and recoils not
from it; then he spake to his own and to his servants that they should attack
him and all his companions.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 38]
1 And after that Judah spake to Jacob, his father, and
said unto him: 'Bend thy bow, father, and send forth thy arrows and cast down
the adversary and slay the enemy; and mayst thou have the power, for we shall
not slay thy brother, for he is such as thou, and he is like thee let us give
him
2 (this) honour.' Then Jacob bent his bow and sent forth
the arrow and struck Esau, his brother (on
3 his right breast) and slew him. And again he sent forth
an arrow and struck 'Adoran the Aramaean,
4 on the left breast, and drove him backward and slew him
And then went forth the sons of Jacob,
5 they and their servants, dividing themselves into
companies on the four sides of the tower. And Judah went forth in
front, and Naphtali and Gad with him and fifty servants with him on the south
side of the tower, and they slew all they found before them, and not one
individual of them escaped.
6 And Levi and Dan and Asher went forth on the east side
of the tower, and fifty (men) with them,
7 and they slew the fighting men of Moab and Ammon. And
Reuben and Issachar and Zebulon went forth on the north side of the tower,
and fifty men with them, and they slew the fighting men of the
8 Philistines. And Simeon and Benjamin and Enoch,
Reuben's son, went forth on the west side of the tower, and fifty (men) with
them, and they slew of Edom and of the Horites four hundred men, stout
warriors; and six hundred fled, and four of the sons of Esau fled with them,
and left their father
9 lying slain, as he had fallen on the hill which is in
'Aduram. And the sons of Jacob pursued after them to the mountains of Seir.
And Jacob buried his brother on the hill which is in 'Aduram, and
10 he returned to his house. And the sons of Jacob
pressed hard upon the sons of Esau in the moun-
11 tains of Seir, and bowed their necks so that they
became servants of the sons of Jacob. And they
12 sent to their father (to inquire) whether they should
make peace with them or slay them. And Jacob sent word to his sons that they
should make peace, and they made peace with them, and placed the
13 yoke of servitude upon them, so that they paid tribute
to Jacob and to his sons always. And they
14 continued to pay tribute to Jacob until the day that he
went down into Egypt. And the sons
of Edom have not got
quit of the yoke of servitude which the twelve sons of Jacob had imposed on
15 them until this day. And these are the kings that
reigned in Edom before there
reigned any king
16 over the children of Israel [until this
day] in the land of Edom. And Balaq,
the son of Beor, reigned
17 in Edom, and the name
of his city was Danaba. And Balaq died, and Jobab, the son of Zara of
18 Boser, reigned in his stead. And Jobab died, and
'Asam, of the land of Teman, reigned in
his stead.
19 And 'Asam died, and 'Adath, the son of Barad, who slew
Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in
his
20 stead, and the name of his city was Avith. And 'Adath
died, and Salman, from 'Amaseqa, reigned
21,22 in his stead. And Salman died,and Saul of Ra'aboth
(by the) river, reigned in his stead. And Saul
23 died, and Ba'elunan, the son of Achbor, reigned in his
stead. And Ba'elunan, the son of Achbor died, and 'Adath reigned in his
stead, and the name of his wife was Maitabith, the daughter of
25 Matarat, the daughter of Metabedza'ab. These are the
kings who reigned in the land of Edom.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 39]
1,2 And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's
sojournings in the land of Canaan. These are the
generations of Jacob. And Joseph was seventeen years old when they took him
down into
3 the land of Egypt, and Potiphar,
an eunuch of Pharaoh, the chief cook bought him. And he set Joseph over all
his house and the blessing of the Lord came upon the house of the Egyptian on
4 account of Joseph, and the Lord prospered him in all
that he did. And the Egyptian committed everything into the hands of Joseph;
for he saw that the Lord was with him, and that the
5 Lord prospered him in all that he did. And Joseph's
appearance was comely [and very beautiful was his appearance], and his
master's wife lifted up her eyes and saw Joseph, and she loved him
6 and besought him to lie with her. But he did not
surrender his soul, and he remembered the Lord and the words which Jacob, his
father, used to read from amongst the words of Abraham, that no man should
commit fornication with a woman who has a husband; that for him the
punishment of death has been ordained in the heavens before the Most High
God, and the sin
7 will be recorded against him in the eternal books
continually before the Lord. And Joseph
8 remembered these words and refused to lie with her. And
she besought him for a year, but he
9 refused and would not listen. But she embraced him and
held him fast in the house in order to force him to lie with her, and closed
the doors of the house and held him fast; but he left
10 his garment in her hands and broke through the door
and fled without from her presence. And the woman saw that he would not lie
with her, and she calumniated him in the presence of his lord, saying 'Thy
Hebrew servant, whom thou lovest, sought to force me so that he might lie
with me; and it came to pass when I lifted up my voice that he fled and left
his garment in
11 my hands when I held him, and he brake through the
door.' And the Egyptian saw the garment of Joseph and the broken door, and
heard the words of his wife, and cast Joseph into
12 prison into the place where the prisoners were kept whom
the king imprisoned. And he was there in the prison; and the Lord gave Joseph
favour in the sight of the chief of the prison guards and compassion before
him, for he saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord
13 made all that he did to prosper. And he committed all
things into his hands, and the chief of the prison guards knew of nothing
that was with him, for Joseph did every thing, and the
14 Lord perfected it. And he remained there two years.
And in those days Pharaoh, king of Egypt was wroth against
his two eunuchs, against the chief butler, and against the chief baker, and
he put
15 them in ward in the house of the chief cook, in the
prison where Joseph was kept. And the chief of
16 the prison guards appointed Joseph to serve them; and
he served before them. And they both
17 dreamed a dream, the chief butler and the chief baker,
and they told it to Joseph. And as he interpreted to them so it befell them,
and Pharaoh restored the chief butler to his office and the
18 (chief) baker he slew, as Joseph had interpreted to
them. But the chief butler forgot Joseph in the prison, although he had
informed him what would befall him, and did not remember to inform Pharaoh
how Joseph had told him, for he forgot.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 40]
1 And in those days Pharaoh dreamed two dreams in one
night concerning a famine which was to be in all the land, and he awoke from
his sleep and called all the interpreters of dreams that were in Egypt, and
magicians, and told them his two dreams, and they were not able to declare
(them).
2 And then the chief butler remembered Joseph and spake
of him to the king, and he brought him
3 forth from the prison, and he to]d his two dreams
before him. And he said before Pharaoh that his two dreams were one, and he
said unto him: 'Seven years shall come (in which there shall be) plenty over
all the land of Egypt, and after that seven years of famine, such a famine as
has not been in all
4 the land. And now let Pharaoh appoint overseers in all
the land of Egypt, and let them
store up food in every city throughout the days of the years of plenty, and
there will be food for the seven
5 years of famine, and the land will not perish through
the famine, for it will be very severe.' And the Lord gave Joseph favour and
mercy in the eyes of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said unto his servants. We shall
not find such a wise and discreet man as this man, for the spirit of the Lord
is with
6 him.' And he appointed him the second in all his
kingdom and gave him authority over all
7 Egypt, and caused
him to ride in the second chariot of Pharaoh. And he clothed him with byssus
garments, and he put a gold chain upon his neck, and (a herald) proclaimed
before him ' 'El 'El wa 'Abirer,' and placed a ring on his hand and made him
ruler over all his house, and magnified him, and
8 said unto him. 'Only on the throne shall I be greater
than thou.' And Joseph ruled over all the land of Egypt, and all the princes
of Pharaoh, and all his servants, and all who did the king's business loved
him, for he walked in uprightness, for he was without pride and arrogance,
and he had no respect of persons, and did not accept gifts, but he judged in
uprightness all the people of the land.
9 And the land of Egypt was at peace before Pharaoh
because of Joseph, for the Lord was with him, and gave him favour and mercy
for all his generations before all those who knew him and those who heard
concerning him, and Pharaoh's kingdom was well ordered, and there was no
Satan and no evil
10 person (therein). And the king called Joseph's name
Sephantiphans, and gave Joseph to wife the
11 daughter of Potiphar, the daughter of the priest of Heliopolis, the chief
cook. And on the day that
12 Joseph stood before Pharaoh he was thirty years old
[when he stood before Pharaoh]. And in that year Isaac died. And it came to
pass as Joseph had said in the interpretation of his two dreams, according as
he had said it, there were seven years of plenty over all the land of Egypt,
and the
3 land of Egypt abundantly
produced, one measure (producing) eighteen hundred measures. And Joseph
gathered food into every city until they were full of corn until they could
no longer count and measure it for its multitude.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 41]
1 And in the forty-fifth jubilee, in the second week,
(and) in the second year, [2165 A.M.] Judah took for his
2 first-born Er, a wife from the daughters of Aram, named Tamar.
But he hated, and did not lie with her, because his mother was of the
daughters of Canaan, and he wished to take him a wife of the
3 kinsfolk of his mother, but Judah, his father, would
not permit him. And this Er, the first-born of Judah,
4 was wicked, and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto
Onan, his brother 'Go in unto thy brother's wife and perform the duty of a
husband's brother unto her, and raise up seed unto thy brother.' And
5 Onan knew that the seed would not be his, (but) his
brother's only, and he went into the house of his brother's wife, and spilt
the seed on the ground, and he was wicked in the eyes of the Lord, and He
slew
6 him. And Judah said unto
Tamar, his daughter-in-law: 'Remain in thy father's house as a widow till
7 Shelah my son be grown up, and I shall give thee to him
to wife.' And he grew up; but Bedsu'el, the wife of Judah, did not
permit her son Shelah to marry. And Bedsu'el, the wife of Judah, died [2168
A.M.]
8 in the fifth year of this week. And in the sixth year Judah went up to
shear his sheep at Timnah. [2169 A.M.]
9 And they told Tamar: 'Behold thy father-in-law goeth up
to Timnah to shear his sheep.' And she put off her widow's clothes, and put
on a veil, and adorned herself, and sat in the gate adjoining the
10 way to Timnah. And as Judah was going
along he found her, and thought her to be an harlot, and he said unto her:
'Let me come in unto thee'; and she said unto him Come in,' and he went
11 in. And she said unto him: 'Give me my hire'; and he
said unto her: 'I have nothing in my
12 hand save my ring that is on my finger, and my
necklace, and my staff which is in my hand.' And she said unto him 'Give them
to me until thou dost send me my hire', and he said unto her: 'I will send
unto thee a kid of the goats'; and he gave them to her, and he went in unto
her, and
13,14 she conceived by him. And Judah went unto his
sheep, and she went to her father's house. And Judah sent a kid of
the goats by the hand of his shepherd, an Adullamite, and he found her not;
and he asked the people of the place, saying: 'Where is the harlot who was
here?' And they said
15 unto him; 'There is no harlot here with us.' And he
returned and informed him, and said unto him that he had not found her: 'I
asked the people of the place, and they said unto me: "There
16 is no harlot here." ' And he said: 'Let her keep
(them) lest we become a cause of derision.' And when she had completed three
months, it was manifest that she was with child, and they told Judah,
17 saying: 'Behold Tamar, thy daughter-in-law, is with
child by whoredom.' And Judah went to the
house of her father, and said unto her father and her brothers: 'Bring her
forth, and let them burn
18 her, for she hath wrought uncleanness in Israel.' And it came
to pass when they brought her forth to burn her that she sent to her
father-in-law the ring and the necklace, and the staff, saying:
19 'Discern whose are these, for by him am I with child.'
And Judah acknowledged,
and said: 'Tamar
20 is more righteous than I am. And therefore let them
burn her not' And for that reason she was
21 not given to Shelah, and he did not again approach her
And after that she bare two sons, Perez [2170 A.M.]
22 and Zerah, in the seventh year of this second week.
And thereupon the seven years of fruitfulness
23 were accomplished, of which Joseph spake to Pharaoh.
And Judah acknowledged that the deed which he had done was evil, for he had lain
with his daughter-in-law, and he esteemed it hateful in his eyes, and he
acknowledged that he had transgressed and gone astray, for he had uncovered
the skirt of his son, and he began to lament and to supplicate before the
Lord because of his transgression.
24 And we told him in a dream that it was forgiven him
because he supplicated earnestly, and lamented,
25 and did not again commit it. And he received
forgiveness because he turned from his sin and from his ignorance, for he
transgressed greatly before our God; and every one that acts thus, every one
who lies with his mother-in-law, let them burn him with fire that he may burn
therein, for there is
26 uncleanness and pollution upon them, with fire let
them burn them. And do thou command the children of Israel that there be no
uncleanness amongst them, for every one who lies with his daughter-in-law or
with his mother-in-law hath wrought uncleanness; with fire let them burn the
man who has lain with her, and likewise the woman, and He will turn away wrath
and punishment
27 from Israel. And unto Judah we said that
his two sons had not lain with her, and for this reason
28 his seed was stablished for a second generation, and
would not be rooted out. For in singleness of eye he had gone and sought for
punishment, namely, according to the judgment of Abraham, which he had
commanded his sons, Judah had sought to
burn her with fire.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 42]
1 And in the first year of the third week of the
forty-fifth jubilee the famine began to come into the [2171 A.M.]
2 land, and the rain refused to be given to the earth,
for none whatever fell. And the earth grew barren, but in the land of Egypt there was
food, for Joseph had gathered the seed of the land in the
3 seven years of plenty and had preserved it. And the
Egyptians came to Joseph that he might give them food, and he opened the
store-houses where was the grain of the first year, and he sold it to
4 the people of the land for gold. Now the famine was
very sore in the land of Canaan, and Jacob heard that there was food in
Egypt, and he sent his ten sons that they should procure food for him in
Egypt; but Benjamin he did not send, and the ten sons of Jacob arrived in
Egypt among those
5 that went (there). And Joseph recognised them, but they
did not recognise him, and he spake unto them and questioned them, and he
said unto them; 'Are ye not spies and have ye not come to
6 explore the approaches of the land? 'And he put them in
ward. And after that he set them free
7 again, and detained Simeon alone and sent off his nine
brothers. And he filled their sacks with corn,
8 and he put their gold in their sacks, and they did not
know. And he commanded them to bring
9 their younger brother, for they had told him their father
was living and their younger brother. And they went up from the land of Egypt
and they came to the land of Canaan; and they told their father all that had
befallen them, and how the lord of the country had spoken roughly to them,
and
10 had seized Simeon till they should bring Benjamin. And
Jacob said: 'Me have ye bereaved of my children! Joseph is not and Simeon
also is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. On me has your
11 wickedness come. 'And he said: 'My son will not go
down with you lest perchance he fall sick; for their mother gave birth to two
sons, and one has perished, and this one also ye will take from me. If
perchance he took a fever on the road, ye would bring down my old age with
sorrow unto death.'
12 For he saw that their money had been returned to every
man in his sack, and for this reason he
13 feared to send him. And the famine increased and
became sore in the land of Canaan, and in all lands save in the land of
Egypt, for many of the children of the Egyptians had stored up their seed for
food from the time when they saw Joseph gathering seed together and putting
it in storehouses
14 and preserving it for the years of famine. And the
people of Egypt fed themselves
thereon during
15 the first year of their famine But when Israel saw that the
famine was very sore in the land, and that there was no deliverance, he said
unto his sons: 'Go again, and procure food for us that we die
16 not.' And they said: 'We shall not go; unless our
youngest brother go with us, we shall not go.'
17 And Israel saw that if he
did not send him with them, they should all perish by reason of the famine
18 And Reuben said: 'Give him into my hand, and if I do
not bring him back to thee, slay my two
19 sons instead of his soul.' And he said unto him: 'He
shall not go with thee.' And Judah came near and
said: 'Send him with me, and if I do not bring him back to thee, let me bear
the blame before
20 thee all the days of my life.' And he sent him with
them in the second year of this week on the [2172 A.m.] first day of the
month, and they came to the land of Egypt with all those
who went, and (they had)
21 presents in their hands, stacte and almonds and
terebinth nuts and pure honey. And they went and stood before Joseph, and he
saw Benjamin his brother, and he knew him, and said unto them: Is this your
youngest brother?' And they said unto him: 'It is he.' And he said The Lord
be
22 gracious to thee, my son!' And he sent him into his
house and he brought forth Simeon unto them and he made a feast for them, and
they presented to him the gift which they had brought in their
23 hands. And they eat before him and he gave them all a
portion, but the portion of Benjamin was
24 seven times larger than
that of any of theirs. And they eat and drank and arose and remained with
25 their asses. And Joseph devised a plan whereby he
might learn their thoughts as to whether thoughts of peace prevailed amongst
them, and he said to the steward who was over his house: 'Fill all their
sacks with food, and return their money unto them into their vessels, and my
cup, the silver cup out of which I drink, put it in the sack of the youngest,
and send them away.'
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 43]
1 And he did as Joseph had told him, and filled all their
sacks for them with food and put their
2 money in their sacks, and put the cup in Benjamin's
sack. Aud early in the morning they departed, and it came to pass that, when
they had gone from thence, Joseph said unto the steward of his house: 'Pursue
them, run and seize them, saying, "For good ye have requited me with
evil; you have stolen from me the silver cup out of which my lord
drinks." And bring back to me their
3 youngest brother, and fetch (him) quickly before I go
forth to my seat of judgment.' And he ran
4 after them and said unto them according to these words.
And they said unto him: 'God forbid that thy servants should do this thing,
and steal from the house of thy lord any utensil, and the money also which we
found in our sacks the first time, we thy servants brought back from the land
of
5 Canaan. How then
should we steal any utensil? Behold here are we and our sacks search, and
wherever thou findest the cup in the sack of any man amongst us, let him be
slain, and we and our
6 asses will serve thy lord.' And he said unto them: 'Not
so, the man with whom I find, him only
7 shall I take as a servant, and ye shall return in peace
unto your house.' And as he was searching in their vessels, beginning with
the eldest and ending with the youngest, it was found in Benjamin's
8 sack. And they rent their garments, and laded their
asses, and returned to the city and came to the
9 house of Joseph, and they all bowed themselves on their
faces to the ground before him. And Joseph said unto them: 'Ye have done
evil.' And they said: 'What shall we say and how shall we defend ourselves?
Our lord hath discovered the transgression of his servants; behold we are the
10 servants of our lord, and our asses also. 'And Joseph
said unto them: 'I too fear the Lord; as for you, go ye to your homes and let
your brother be my servant, for ye have done evil. Know ye not
11 that a man delights in his cup as I with this cup? And
yet ye have stolen it from me.' And Judah said: 'O my lord, let thy servant,
I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ear two brothers did thy servant's
mother bear to our father: one went away and was lost, and hath not been
found, and he alone is left of his mother, and thy servant our father loves
him, and his life also is bound up with
12 the life of this (lad). And it will come to pass, when
we go to thy servant our father, and the lad is
13 not with us, that he will die, and we shall bring down
our father with sorrow unto death. Now rather let me, thy servant, abide
instead of the boy as a bondsman unto my lord, and let the lad go with his
brethren, for I became surety for him at the hand of thy servant our father,
and if I do not
14 bring him back, thy servant will hear the blame to our
father for ever.' And Joseph saw that they were all accordant in goodness one
with another, and he could not refrain himself, and he told them
15 that he was Joseph. And he conversed with them in the
Hebrew tongue and fell on their neck and
16 wept. But they knew him not and they began to weep.
And he said unto them: 'Weep not over me, but hasten and bring my father to
me; and ye see that it is my mouth that speaketh and the
17 eyes of my brother Benjamin see. For behold this is
the second year of the famine, and there are
18 still five years without harvest or fruit of trees or
ploughing. Come down quickly ye and your households, so that ye perish not
through the famine, and do not be grieved for your possessions, for
19 the Lord sent me before you to set things in order
that many people might live. And tell my father that I am still alive, and
ye, behold, ye see that the Lord has made me as a father to Pharaoh,
20 and ruler over his house and over all the land of Egypt. And tell my
father of all my glory, and
21 all the riches and glory that the Lord hath given me.'
And by the command of the mouth of Pharaoh he gave them chariots and
provisions for the way, and he gave them all many-coloured
21 raiment and silver. And to their father he sent
raiment and silver and ten asses which carried corn,
23 and he sent them away. And they went up and told their
father that Joseph was alive, and was measuring out corn to all the nations
of the earth, and that he was ruler over all the land of Egypt.
24 And their father did not believe it, for he was beside
himself in his mind; but when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent, the
life of his spirit revived, and he said: 'It is enough for me if Joseph
lives; I will go down and see him before I die.'
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 44]
1 And Israel took his
journey from Haran from his house
on the new moon of the third month, and he went on the way of the Well of the
Oath, and he offered a sacrifice to the God of his
2 father Isaac on the seventh of this month. And Jacob
remembered the dream that he had seen
3 at Bethel, and he feared
to go down into Egypt. And while he
was thinking of sending word to Joseph to come to him, and that he would not
go down, he remained there seven days, if
4 perchance he could see a vision as to whether he should
remain or go down. And he celebrated the harvest festival of the first-fruits
with old grain, for in all the land of Canaan there was not
a handful of seed [in the land], for the famine was over all the beasts and
cattle and
5 birds, and also over man. And on the sixteenth the Lord
appeared unto him, and said unto him, 'Jacob, Jacob'; and he said, 'Here am I.' And He said
unto him: 'I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac; fear
not to go down into Egypt, for I will
there make of thee
6 a great nation I will go down with thee, and I will
bring thee up (again), and in this land shalt thou be buried, and Joseph
shall put his hands upon thy eyes. Fear not; go down into Egypt.'
7 And his sons rose up, and his sons' sons, and they
placed their father and their possessions upon
8 wagons. And Israel rose up from
the Well of the Oath on the sixteenth of this third month, and he
9 went to the land of Egypt. And Israel sent Judah before him to
his son Joseph to examine the Land of Goshen, for Joseph
had told his brothers that they should come and dwell there that they
10 might be near him. And this was the goodliest (land)
in the land of Egypt, and near to
him, for all
11 (of them) and also for the cattle. And these are the
names of the sons of Jacob who went into
12 Egypt with Jacob their
father Reuben, the First-born of Israel; and these are
the names of his
13 sons Enoch, and Pallu, and Hezron and Carmi-five.
Simeon and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Jemuel, and Jamin,
and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul, the son
14 of the Zephathite woman-seven. Levi and his sons; and
these are the names of his sons: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari-four. Judah
and his sons; and these are the names of his sons:
15 Shela, and Perez, and Zerah-four. Issachar and his
sons; and these are the names of his sons:
17 Tola, and Phua, and Jasub, and Shimron-five. Zebulon
and his sons; and these are the names of
18 his sons: Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel-four. And these
are the sons of Jacob and their sons whom Leah bore to Jacob in Mesopotamia,
six, and their one sister, Dinah and all the souls of the sons of Leah, and
their sons, who went with Jacob their father into Egypt, were twenty-nine,
and Jacob their
19 father being with them, they were thirty. And the sons
of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, the wife of
20 Jacob, who bore unto Jacob Gad and Ashur. And there
are the names of their sons who went with him into Egypt. The sons of
Gad: Ziphion, and Haggi, and Shuni, and Ezbon, (and Eri, and Areli,
21 and Arodi-eight. And the sons of Asher: Imnah, and
Ishvah, (and Ishvi), and Beriah, and Serah,
22,23 their one sister-six. All the souls were fourteen,
and all those of Leah were forty-four. And the
24 sons of Rachel, the wife of Jacob: Joseph and
Benjamin. And there were born to Joseph in Egypt before his father came into
Egypt, those whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphar priest of Heliopolis
25 bare unto him, Manasseh, and Ephraim-three. And the
sons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman,
and Ehi, and Rosh, and Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard-eleven.
26,27 And all the souls of Rachel were fourteen. And the
sons of Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel, the
28 wife of Jacob, whom she bare to Jacob, were Dan and
Naphtali. And these are the names of their sons who went with them into Egypt. And the sons
of Dan were Hushim, and Samon, and Asudi.
29 and 'Ijaka, and Salomon-six. And they died the year in
which they entered into Egypt, and there
30 was left to Dan Hushim alone. And these are the names
of the sons of Naphtali Jahziel, and Guni
31 and Jezer, and Shallum, and 'Iv. And 'Iv, who was born
after the years of famine, died in Egypt.
32,33 And all the souls of Rachel were twenty-six. And
all the souls of Jacob which went into Egypt were seventy
souls. These are his children and his children's children, in all seventy,
but five died
34 in Egypt before Joseph,
and had no children. And in the land of Canaan two sons of Judah died, Er and
Onan, and they had no children, and the children of Israel buried those
who perished, and they were reckoned among the seventy Gentile nations.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 45]
1 And Israel went into the
country of Egypt, into the land of Goshen, on the new
moon of the fourth [2172 A.M].
2 month, in the second year of the third week of the
forty-fifth jubilee. And Joseph went to meet his
3 father Jacob, to the land of Goshen, and he fell
on his father's neck and wept. And Israel said unto Joseph: 'Now let me die
since I have seen thee, and now may the Lord God of Israel be blessed the God
of Abraham and the God of Isaac who hath not withheld His mercy and His grace
from
4 His servant Jacob. It is enough for me that I have seen
thy face whilst I am yet alive; yea, true is the vision which I saw at Bethel. Blessed be
the Lord my God for ever and ever, and blessed be
5 His name.' And Joseph and his brothers eat bread before
their father and drank wine, and Jacob rejoiced with exceeding great joy
because he saw Joseph eating with his brothers and drinking before him, and
he blessed the Creator of all things who had preserved him, and had preserved
for him his
6 twelve sons. And Joseph had given to his father and to
his brothers as a gift the right of dwelling in the land of Goshen and in Rameses
and all the region round about, which he ruled over before Pharaoh. And
Israel and his sons dwelt in the land of Goshen, the best part of the land of
Egypt
7 and Israel was one
hundred and thirty years old when he came into Egypt. And Joseph
nourished his father and his brethren and also their possessions with bread
as much as sufficed them for the
8 seven years of the famine. And the land of Egypt suffered by
reason of the famine, and Joseph acquired all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh in
return for food, and he got possession of the people
9 and their cattle and everything for Pharaoh. And the
years of the famine were accomplished, and Joseph gave to the people in the
land seed and food that they might sow (the land) in the eighth
10 year, for the river had overflowed all the land of Egypt. For in the
seven years of the famine it had (not) overflowed and had irrigated only a
few places on the banks of the river, but now it overflowed
11 and the Egyptians sowed the land, and it bore much
corn that year. And this was the first year of [2178 A.M.]
12 the fourth week of the forty-fifth jubilee. And Joseph
took of the corn of the harvest the fifth part for the king and left four
parts for them for food and for seed, and Joseph made it an ordinance for
13 the land of Egypt until this
day. And 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, and he
died in the fourth [2188 A.M.]
14 year of the fifth week of the forty-fifth jubilee. And
Israel blessed his
sons before he died and told them everything that would befall them in the land of Egypt; and he made
known to them what would come upon them in the last days, and blessed them
and gave to Joseph two portions in
15 the land. And he slept with his fathers, and he was
buried in the double cave in the land of Canaan, near Abraham
his father in the grave which he dug for himself in the double cave in
16 the land of Hebron. And he gave
all his books and the books of his fathers to Levi his son that he might
preserve them and renew them for his children until this day.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 46]
1 And it came to pass that after Jacob died the children
of Israel multiplied in the land of Egypt, and they became a great nation,
and they were of one accord in heart, so that brother loved brother and every
man helped his brother, and they increased abundantly and multiplied
exceedingly, ten [2242 A.M.]
2 weeks of years, all the days of the life of Joseph And
there was no Satan nor any evil all the days of the life of Joseph which he
lived after his father Jacob, for all the Egyptians honoured the children
3 of Israel all the days
of the life of Joseph. And Joseph died being a hundred and ten years old;
seventeen years he lived in the land of Canaan, and ten years
he was a servant, and three years in
4 prison, and eighty years he was under the king, ruling
all the land of Egypt. And he died
and all
5 his brethren and all that generation. And he commanded
the children of Israel before he died
that
6 they should carry his bones with them when they went
forth from the land of Egypt. And he made
them swear regarding his bones, for he knew that the Egyptians would not
again bring forth and bury him in the land of Canaan, for Makamaron, king of Canaan,
while dwelling in the land of Assyria, fought in the valley with the king of
Egypt and slew him there, and pursued after the
7 Egyptians to the gates of 'Ermon. But he was not able
to enter, for another, a new king, had become king of Egypt, and he was
stronger than he, and he returned to the land of Canaan, and the gates
of
8 Egypt were closed,
and none went out and none came into Egypt. And 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 [2242
A.M.]
9 all his brethren died after him. And the king of Egypt went forth to
war with the king of Canaan [2263 A.M.] in
the forty-seventh jubilee, in the second week in the second year, and the
children of Israel brought forth
all the bones of the children of Jacob save the bones of Joseph, and they
buried them in the
10 field in the double cave in the mountain. And the most
(of them) returned to Egypt, but a few of
11 them remained in the mountains of Hebron, and Amram thy
father remained with them. And the
12 king of Canaan was victorious
over the king of Egypt, and he closed
the gates of Egypt. And he
devised an evil device against the children of Israel of afflicting
them and he said unto the people of
13 Egypt: 'Behold the
people of the children of Israel have increased
and multiplied more than we. Come and let us deal wisely with them before
they become too many, and let us afflict them with slavery before war come
upon us and before they too fight against us; else they will join themselves
unto our enemies and get them up out of our land, for their hearts and faces
are towards the land
14 of Canaan.' And he set
over them taskmasters to afflict them with slavery; and they built strong
cities for Pharaoh, Pithom, and Raamses and they built all the walls and all
the fortifications which
15 had fallen in the cities of Egypt. And they made them
serve with rigour, and the more they dealt evilly with them, the more they
increased and multiplied. And the people of Egypt abominated the children of
Israel
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 47]
1 And in the seventh week, in the seventh year, in the
forty-seventh jubilee, thy father went forth [2303 A.M.] from the land of
Canaan, and thou wast born in the fourth week, in the sixth year thereof, in
the [2330 A.M.]
2 forty-eighth jubilee; this was the time of tribulation
on the children of Israel. And Pharaoh, king of Egypt, issued a command
regarding them that they should cast all their male children which were
3 born into the river. And they cast them in for seven
months until the day that thou wast born
4 And thy mother hid thee for three months, and they told
regarding her. And she made an ark for thee, and covered it with pitch and
asphalt, and placed it in the flags on the bank of the river, and she placed
thee in it seven days, and thy mother came by night and suckled thee, and by
day
5 Miriam, thy sister, guarded thee from the birds. And in
those days Tharmuth, the daughter of Pharaoh, came to bathe in the river, and
she heard thy voice crying, and she told her maidens to
6 bring thee forth, and they brought thee unto her. And
she took thee out of the ark, and she had
7 compassion on thee. And thy sister said unto her:
'Shall I go and call unto thee one of the
8 Hebrew women to nurse and suckle this babe for thee?'
And she said (unto her): 'Go.' And she
9 went and called thy mother Jochebed, and she gave her
wages, and she nursed thee. And afterwards, when thou wast grown up, they brought
thee unto the daughter of Pharaoh, and thou didst become her son, and Amram
thy father taught thee writing, and after thou hadst completed three weeks
10 they brought thee into the royal court. And thou wast
three weeks of years at court until the time [2351-] when thou didst go forth
from the royal court and didst see an Egyptian smiting thy friend who was
[2372 A.M.]
11 of the children of Israel, and thou didst slay him and
hide him in the sand. And on the second day thou didst and two of the children
of Israel striving together, and thou didst say to him who was
12 doing the wrong: 'Why dost thou smite thy brother?'
And he was angry and indignant, and said: 'Who made thee a prince and a judge
over us? Thinkest thou to kill me as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday?'
And thou didst fear and flee on account of these words.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 48]
1 And in the sixth year of the third week of the
forty-ninth jubilee thou didst depart and dwell (in [2372 A.M.] the land of
Midian, five weeks and one year. And thou didst return into Egypt in the
second week
2 in the second year in the fiftieth jubilee. And thou
thyself knowest what He spake unto thee on [2410 A.M.] Mount Sinai, and what
prince Mastema desired to do with thee when thou wast returning into Egypt
3 on the way when thou didst meet him at the
lodging-place. Did he not with all his power seek to slay thee and deliver
the Egyptians out of thy hand when he saw that thou wast sent to execute
4 judgment and vengeance on the Egyptians? And I
delivered thee out of his hand, and thou didst perform the signs and wonders
which thou wast sent to perform in Egypt against Pharaoh, and
5 against all his house, and against his servants and his
people. And the Lord executed a great vengeance on them for Israel's sake,
and smote them through (the plagues of) blood and frogs, lice and dog-flies,
and malignant boils breaking forth in blains; and their cattle by death; and
by hail-stones, thereby He destroyed everything that grew for them; and by
locusts which devoured the residue which had been left by the hail, and by
darkness; and (by the death) of the first-born of
6 men and animals, and on all their idols the Lord took
vengeance and burned them with fire And everything was sent through thy hand,
that thou shouldst declare (these things) before they were done, and thou
didst speak with the king of Egypt before all his
servants and before his people
7 And everything took place according to thy words; ten great and terrible judgments
came on the
8 land of Egypt that thou
mightest execute vengeance on it for Israel. And the Lord
did everything for Israel's sake, and according to His covenant, which he had
ordained with Abraham that He
9 would take vengeance on them as they had brought them
by force into bondage. And the prince Mastema stood up against thee, and
sought to cast thee into the hands of Pharaoh, and he helped
10 the Egyptian sorcerers, and they stood up and wrought
before thee the evils indeed we permitted
11 them to work, but the remedies we did not allow to be
wrought by their hands. And the Lord smote them with malignant ulcers, and
they were not able to stand, for we destroyed them so that
12 they could not perform a single sign. And
notwithstanding all (these) signs and wonders the prince Mastema was not put
to shame because he took courage and cried to the Egyptians to pursue after
thee with all the powers of the Egyptians, with their chariots, and with
their horses, and with all the
13 hosts of the peoples of Egypt. And I stood between the
Egyptians and Israel, and we delivered Israel out of his hand, and out of the
hand of his people, and the Lord brought them through the
14 midst of the sea as if it were dry land. And all the
peoples whom he brought to pursue after Israel, the Lord our God cast them
into the midst of the sea, into the depths of the abyss beneath the children
of Israel, even as the people of Egypt had cast their children into the river
He took vengeance on 1,000,000 of them, and one thousand strong and energetic
men were destroyed on
15 account of one suckling of the children of thy people
which they had thrown into the river. And on the fourteenth day and on the
fifteenth and on the sixteenth and on the seventeenth and on the eighteenth
the prince Mastema was bound and imprisoned behind the children of Israel that he
16 might not accuse them. And on the nineteenth we let
them loose that they might help the
17 Egyptians and pursue the children of Israel. And he
hardened their hearts and made them stubborn, and the device was devised by
the Lord our God that He might smite the Egyptians and
18 cast them into the sea. And on the fourteenth we bound
him that he might not accuse the children of Israel on the day when they
asked the Egyptians for vessels and garments, vessels of silver, and vessels
of gold, and vessels of bronze, in order to despoil the Egyptians in return
for the bondage in
19 which they had forced them to serve. And we did not
lead forth the children of Israel from Egypt empty handed.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 49]
1 Remember the commandment which the Lord commanded thee
concerning the passover, that thou shouldst celebrate it in its season on the
fourteenth of the first month, that thou shouldst kill it before it is
evening, and that they should eat it by night on the evening of the fifteenth
from the
2 time of the setting of the sun. For on this night -the
beginning of the festival and the beginning of the joy- ye were eating the
passover in Egypt, when all the powers of Mastema had been let loose to slay
all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh to
the first-born
3 of the captive maid-servant in the mill, and to the
cattle. And this is the sign which the Lord gave them: Into every house on
the lintels of which they saw the blood of a lamb of the first year, into
(that) house they should not enter to slay, but should pass by (it), that all
those should be saved that
4 were in the house because the sign of the blood was on
its lintels. And the powers of the Lord did everything according as the Lord
commanded them, and they passed by all the children of Israel, and the plague
came not upon them to destroy from amongst them any soul either of cattle, or
5 man, or dog. And the plague was very grievous in Egypt,
and there was no house in Egypt
6 where there was not one dead, and weeping and
lamentation. And all Israel was eating the flesh of the paschal lamb, and
drinking the wine, and was lauding, and blessing, and giving thanks to the
Lord God of their fathers, and was ready to go forth from under the yoke of
Egypt, and from
7 the evil bondage. And remember thou this day all the
days of thy life, and observe it from year to year all the days of thy life,
once a year, on its day, according to all the law thereof, and do not
8 adjourn (it) from day to day, or from month to month.
For it is an eternal ordinance, and engraven on the heavenly tablets
regarding all the children of Israel that they should observe it every year
on its day once a year, throughout all their generations; and there is no
limit of days, for this is ordained
9 for ever. And the man who is free from uncleanness, and
does not come to observe it on occasion of its day, so as to bring an
acceptable offering before the Lord, and to eat and to drink before the Lord
on the day of its festival, that man who is clean and close at hand shall be
cut off: because he offered not the oblation of the Lord in its appointed
season, he shall take the guilt upon himself.
10 Let the children of Israel come and observe the
passover on the day of its fixed time, on the fourteenth day of the first
month, between the evenings, from the third part of the day to the third part
of
11 the night, for two portions of the day are given to
the light, and a third part to the evening. This
12 is that which the Lord commanded thee that thou
shouldst observe it between the evenings. And it is not permissible to slay
it during any period of the light, but during the period bordering on the
evening, and let them eat it at the time of the evening, until the third part
of the night, and whatever is left over of all its flesh from the third part
of the night and onwards, let them burn
13 it with fire. And they shall not cook it with water,
nor shall they eat it raw, but roast on the fire: they shall eat it with
diligence, its head with the inwards thereof and its feet they shall roast
with fire, and not break any bone thereof; for of the children of Israel no
bone shall be crushed.
14 For this reason the Lord commanded the children of
Israel to observe the passover on the day of its fixed time, and they shall
not break a bone thereof; for it is a festival day, and a day commanded, and
there may be no passing over from day to day, and month to month, but on the
day of its
15 festival let it be observed. And do thou command the
children of Israel to observe the passover throughout their days, every year,
once a year on the day of its fixed time, and it shall come for a memorial
well pleasing before the Lord, and no plague shall come upon them to slay or
to smite in that year in which they celebrate the passover in its season in
every respect according to His
16 command. And they shall not eat it outside the
sanctuary of the Lord, but before the sanctuary of the Lord, and all the
people of the congregation of Israel shall celebrate it in its appointed
season.
17 And every man who has come upon its day shall eat it
in the sanctuary of your God before the Lord from twenty years old and
upward; for thus is it written and ordained that they should eat it
18 in the sanctuary of the Lord. And when the children of
Israel come into the land which they are to possess, into the land of Canaan,
and set up the tabernacle of the Lord in the midst of the land in one of
their tribes until the sanctuary of the Lord has been built in the land, let
them come and celebrate the passover in the midst of the tabernacle of the
Lord, and let them slay it
19 before the Lord from year to year. And in the days
when the house has been built in the name of the Lord in the land of their
inheritance, they shall go there and slay the passover in the evening, at
20 sunset, at the third part of the day. And they shall
offer its blood on the threshold of the altar, and shall place its fat on the
fire which is upon the altar, and they shall eat its flesh roasted
21 with fire in the court of the house which has been
sanctified in the name of the Lord. And they may not celebrate the passover
in their cities, nor in any place save before the tabernacle of the Lord, or
before His house where His name hath dwelt; and they shall not go astray from
the Lord.
22 And do thou, Moses, command the children of Israel to
observe the ordinances of the passover, as it was commanded unto thee;
declare thou unto them every year and the day of its days, and the festival
of unleavened bread, that they should eat unleavened bread seven days, (and)
that they should observe its festival, and that they bring an oblation every
day during those seven days of
23 joy before the Lord on the altar of your God. For ye
celebrated this festival with haste when ye went forth from Egypt till ye
entered into the wilderness of Shur; for on the shore of the sea ye completed
it.
[The Book of Jubilees:
Chapter 50]
1 And after this law I made known to thee the days of the
Sabbaths in the desert of Sin[ai], which
2 is between Elim and Sinai. And I told thee of the
Sabbaths of the land on Mount Sinai, and I told thee of the jubilee years in
the sabbaths of years: but the year thereof have I not told thee till ye
3 enter the land which ye are to possess. And the land
also shall keep its sabbaths while they dwell
4 upon it, and they shall know the jubilee year.
Wherefore I have ordained for thee the year-weeks and the years and the
jubilees: there are forty-nine jubilees from the days of Adam until this day,
[2410 A.M.] and one week and two years: and there are yet forty years to come
(lit. 'distant') for learning the [2450 A.M.] commandments of the Lord, until
they pass over into the land of Canaan, crossing the Jordan to the
5 west. And the jubilees shall pass by, until Israel is
cleansed from all guilt of fornication, and uncleanness, and pollution, and
sin, and error, and dwells with confidence in all the land, and there shall
be no more a Satan or any evil one, and the land shall be clean from that
time for evermore.
6 And behold the commandment regarding the Sabbaths -I
have written (them) down for thee-
7 and all the judgments of its laws. Six days shalt thou
labour, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it ye
shall do no manner of work, ye and your sons, and your men-
8 servants and your maid-servants, and all your cattle
and the sojourner also who is with you. And the man that does any work on it
shall die: whoever desecrates that day, whoever lies with (his) wife, or
whoever says he will do something on it, that he will set out on a journey
thereon in regard to any buying or selling: and whoever draws water thereon
which he had not prepared for himself on the sixth day, and whoever takes up
any burden to carry it out of his tent or out of his house
9 shall die. Ye shall do no work whatever on the Sabbath
day save what ye have prepared for yourselves on the sixth day, so as to eat,
and drink, and rest, and keep Sabbath from all work on that day, and to bless
the Lord your God, who has given you a day of festival and a holy day: and
10 a day of the holy kingdom for all Israel is this day
among their days for ever. For great is the honour which the Lord has given
to Israel that they should eat and drink and be satisfied on this festival
day, and rest thereon from all labour which belongs to the labour of the
children of men save burning frankincense and bringing oblations and
sacrifices before the Lord for days and for
11 Sabbaths. This work alone shall be done on the
Sabbath-days in the sanctuary of the Lord your God; that they may atone for
Israel with sacrifice continually from day to day for a memorial
well-pleasing before the Lord, and that He may receive them always from day
to day according as thou
12 hast been commanded. And every man who does any work
thereon, or goes a journey, or tills (his) farm, whether in his house or any
other place, and whoever lights a fire, or rides on any beast, or travels by
ship on the sea, and whoever strikes or kills anything, or slaughters a beast
or a bird, or
13 whoever catches an animal or a bird or a fish, or
whoever fasts or makes war on the Sabbaths: The man who does any of these
things on the Sabbath shall die, so that the children of Israel shall observe
the Sabbaths according to the commandments regarding the Sabbaths of the
land, as it is written in the tablets, which He gave into my hands that I
should write out for thee the laws of the seasons, and the seasons according
to the division of their days.
Herewith is completed the account of the division of the days.
Scanned and Edited by
Joshua Williams
Northwest Nazarene College
Apocalyptic
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