11And the LORD opened the womb of Leah and she conceived and she bore a son to Jacob, and he called him Reuben, on the fourteenth of the ninth month, in the first year of the third week. 12But the womb of Rachel was closed because the LORD saw that Leah was hated, but Rachel was loved. 13And Jacob again went into Leah, and she conceived and she bore another son to Jacob, and he called him Simeon, on the twenty-first of the tenth month and in the third year of this week. 14And Jacob again went into Leah and she conceived and she bore the third son to him and he called him Levi, on the first day of the first month, in the sixth year of this week. 15And again Jacob went into her and she conceived and she bore the fourth son to him and he called him Judah, on the fifteenth of the third month, in the first year of the fourth week. 16And in all of this Rachel was jealous of Leah since she was not giving birth, and she said to Jacob, \u201cGive me sons.\u201d And Jacob said, \u201cHave I withheld from you the fruit of your womb? Have I forsaken you?\u201d
\n17And when Rachel saw that Leah had borne four sons to Jacob, Reuben and Simeon and Levi and Judah, she said to him, \u201cGo into Bilhah, my maid, and she will conceive and bear a son for me.\u201d 18And she gave Bilhah, her maid, to him so that she might be his wife. And he went into her and she conceived and she bore a son to him, and he called him Dan, on the ninth day of the sixth month in the sixth year of the third week. 19And Jacob went into Bilhah again a second time, and she conceived and bore another son to Jacob, and Rachel called him Naphtali, on the fifth of the seventh month, in the second year of the forth week. 20And when Leah saw that she was sterile and was not bearing children, she took and she also gave Zilpah, her attendant, to Jacob as a wife. And she conceived and bore a son to him and Leah called him Gad, on the twelfth of the eighth month in the third year of the fourth week. 21And he went into her again and she conceived and bore another son to him, and Leah called him Asher, on the second of the eleventh month in the fifth year of the fourth week. 22And Jacob went into Leah and she conceived and she bore a son and she called him Issachar, on the fourth day of the fifth month in the fourth year of the fourth week. And she gave him to a nurse. 23And Jacob went into her again and she conceived and she bore twins, a boy and a girl, and she called the boy Zebulun and the girl\u2019s name was Dinah, in the seventh day of the seventh month in the sixth year of the fourth week. 24And the LORD had mercy upon Rachel and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son and called him Joseph, on the first of the fourth month in the sixth year of that fourth week.<\/p>\n
Laban Persuades Jacob to Continue Working for Wages<\/p>\n
25And at the time when Joseph was born, Jacob said to Laban, \u201cGive me my wives and my children. And let me go to my father, Isaac. And let me make a house for myself because I have completed the years which I served you for your two daughters. And I will travel to my father\u2019s house.\u201d 26And Laban said to Jacob, \u201cRemain with me for your wages and pasture my flock for me again and accept your wages.\u201d 27And they agreed with one another that he would give to him as his wages each of the lambs and kids which were born (and) on which there were black or spots or white. It would be his wages. 28And all of the sheep bore spotted (lambs) and ones which had variegated markings and ones which had various shades of black. And the sheep bore again lambs which looked like themselves and all which had markings belonged to Jacob and those which had no marking belonged to Laban. 29And the possessions of Jacob multiplied greatly. And he acquired oxen and sheep and asses and camels and male and female servants. And Laban and his sons were jealous of Jacob. 30And Laban collected his sheep from him, and kept watch on him with evil intent.<\/p>\n
Jacob Flees Secretly to Gilead<\/p>\n
29:1And it came to pass after Rachel bore Joseph that Laban went to shear his sheep because they were the distance of a three days\u2019 journey away from him. 2And Jacob saw that Laban was going to shear his sheep and Jacob called Leah and Rachel and spoke intimately with them so that they might go with him to the land of Canaan. 3For he told them everything, as he had seen it in the dream, and everything which He told him, that he would return to the house of his father. And they said, \u201cWe will go with you anywhere you go.\u201d 4And Jacob blessed the God of Isaac, his father, and the God of Abraham, his father\u2019s father. And he arose and loaded up his wives and children and took all of his possessions and crossed over the river and arrived at the land of Gilead. But Jacob concealed his intention from Laban and did not tell him.<\/p>\n
The Oath between Jacob and Laban and Their Separation<\/p>\n
5And in the seventh year of the fourth week, Jacob returned to Gilead, in the first month on the twenty-first day of the month. And Laban pursued him. And he found Jacob in the mountain of Gilead in the third month on the thirteenth day. 6But the LORD did not permit him to deal cruelly with Jacob because He appeared to him in a dream at night. And Laban spoke to Jacob. 7And on the fifteenth of those days Jacob prepared a banquet for Laban and for all who came with him. And Jacob swore to Laban on that day. And Laban also swore to Jacob that one would not cross over on the mountain of Gilead against the other with evil intent. 8And they made there a heap for a witness. Therefore that place is called \u201cthe Heap of Witness\u201d after this heap.
\n9But formerly the land of Gilead was called \u201cthe land of Raphaim\u201d because it was the land of the Raphaim. And the Raphaim were born as giants whose height was ten cubits, nine cubits, eight cubits, or down to seven cubits. 10And their dwelling was from the land of the Ammonites to Mount Hermon and their royal palaces were in Qarnaim, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, and Misur, and Beon. 11But the LORD destroyed them because of the evil of their deeds since they were very cruel. And the Amorites dwelt there instead of them, evil and sinful, and there is no people today who have fully equalled all of their sins. And therefore they had no length of life in the land.
\n12And Jacob dismissed Laban, and he traveled to Mesopotamia, the land of the East. 13And Jacob returned to the land of Gilead. And he crossed over the Jabbok in the ninth month on the eleventh day of the month. And on that day Esau, his brother, came to him and was reconciled to him. And he went away from him to the land of Seir; but Jacob dwelled in tents.<\/p>\n
Jacob\u2019s Respect for His Parents Contrasted with Esau\u2019s Disrespect<\/p>\n
14And in the first year of the fifth week in that jubilee, he crossed over the Jordan and he dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. And he was pasturing his sheep from the Sea of the Heap as far as Bethshan and Dothan and the forest of Akrabbim. 15And he sent to his father, Isaac, some of all his possessions: clothing, and food, and meat, and drink, and milk, and butter, and cheese, and some dates of the valley. 16And (he also sent) to his mother, Rebecca, four times per year\u2014between the appointed times of the months and between plowing and reaping, and between fall and the rainy season and between winter and spring\u2014to the tower of Abraham. 17For Isaac had returned from the Well of the Oath and had gone up to the tower of his father, Abraham. And he dwelt there away from his son Esau 18because in the days when Jacob journeyed to Mesopotamia, Esau took for himself as a wife Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, and gathered together all of his father\u2019s flocks and his own wives and went up and dwelt in Mount Seir. And he left his father, Isaac, alone at the Well of the Oath. 19And Isaac went up from the Well of the Oath and dwelt in the tower of Abraham, his father, in the mountain of Hebron. 20And Jacob sent there everything which he sent to his father and mother from time to time, all of their needs. And they blessed Jacob with all their heart and all their soul.<\/p>\n
Levi and Simeon Avenge the Shame of Dinah<\/p>\n
30:1And in the first year of the sixth week he went up to Salem, which is east of Shechem, in peace in the fourth month. 2And there Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, was snatched away to the house of Shechem, son of Hamor, the Hivite, the ruler of the land. And he lay with her and defiled her, but she was little, only twelve years old. 3And he begged his father and her brothers that she be given to him as a wife, but Jacob and his sons were angry at the men of Shechem because they defiled Dinah, their sister. And so they spoke treacherously with them and defrauded them and seduced them. 4And Simeon and Levi entered Shechem suddenly. And they executed judgment upon all of the men of Shechem and killed every man they found therein and did not leave in it even one. They killed everyone painfully because they had polluted Dinah, their sister. 5And therefore let nothing like this be done henceforth to defile a daughter of Israel because the judgment was ordered in heaven against them that they might annihilate with a sword all of the men of Shechem because they caused a shame in Israel. 6And the LORD handed them over into the hand of the sons of Jacob so that they might destroy them with the sword and execute judgment against them, and so that nothing like this might therefore happen in Israel to defile an Israelite virgin.<\/p>\n
The Law Prohibiting Marriage with Foreigners<\/p>\n
7And if there is any man in Israel who wishes to give his daughter or his sister to any man who is from the seed of the Gentiles, let him surely die, and let him be stoned because he has caused shame in Israel. And also the woman will be burned with fire because she has defiled the name of her father\u2019s house and so she will be uprooted from Israel. 8And do not let an adultress or defilement be found in Israel all the days of the generations of the earth because Israel is holy to the LORD. And let any man who causes defilement surely die, let him be stoned, 9because thus it is decreed and written in the heavenly tablets concerning all the seed of Israel: \u201cLet anyone who causes defilement surely die. And let him be stoned.\u201d
\n10And there is no limit of days for this law. And there is no remission or forgiveness except that the man who caused defilement of his daughter will be rooted out from the midst of all Israel because he has given some of his seed to Moloch and sinned so as to defile it. 11And you, Moses, command the children of Israel and exhort them not to give any of their daughters to the Gentiles and not to take for their sons any of the daughters of the Gentiles because that is contemptible before the LORD. 12Therefore I have written for you in the words of the law all of the deeds of the Shechemites which they did against Dinah and how the sons of Jacob spoke, saying, \u201cWe will not give our daughter to a man who is uncircumcised because that is a reproach to us.\u201d
\n13And it is a reproach to Israel, to those who give and those who take any of the daughters of the Gentile nations because it is a defilement and it is contemptible to Israel. 14And Israel will not be cleansed from this defilement if there is in it a woman from the daughters of Gentiles or one who has given any of his daughters to a man who is from any of the Gentiles. 15For there will be plague upon plague and curse upon curse, and every judgment, and plague, and curse will come. And if he does this thing, or if he blinds his eyes from those who cause defilement and from those who defile the sanctuary of the LORD and from those who profane His holy name, (then) all of the people will be judged together on account of all of the defilement and the profaning of this one. 16And there is no accepting of person or regarding appearance or taking from his hand either fruit or sacrifice or holocaust or fat or the aroma of sweet-smelling sacrifice so that He might accept it. And let any man or woman in Israel who defiled His sanctuary be (dealt with likewise). 17Therefore I command you, saying, \u201cProclaim this testimony to Israel: \u2018See how it was for the Shechemites and their sons, how they were given into the hand of the two children of Jacob and they killed them painfully. And it was a righteousness for them and it was written down for them for righteousness.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Levi Is Chosen for Priesthood in Recognition of His Zeal<\/p>\n
18And the seed of Levi was chosen for the priesthood and levitical (orders) to minister before the LORD always just as we do. And Levi and his sons will be blessed forever because he was zealous to do righteousness and judgment and vengeance against all who rose up against Israel. 19And thus a blessing and righteousness will be written (on high) as a testimony for him in the heavenly tablets before the God of all. 20And we will remember for a thousand generations the righteousness which a man did during his life in all of the (appointed) times of the year. And (it) will be written (on high) and it will come to him and his descendants after him. And he will be written down as a friend and a righteous one in the heavenly tablets.<\/p>\n
A Warning against Breach of Covenant<\/p>\n
21All of these words I have written for you, and I have commanded you to speak to the children of Israel that they might not commit sin or transgress the ordinances or break the covenant which was ordained for them so that they might do it and be written down as friends. 22But if they transgress and act in all the ways of defilement, they will be recorded in the heavenly tablets as enemies. And they will be blotted out of the book of life and written in the book of those who will be destroyed and with those who will be rooted out from the land. 23And on the day that the children of Jacob killed Shechem he wrote (on high) for them a book in heaven that they did righteousness and uprightness and vengeance against the sinners and it was written down for a blessing.<\/p>\n
The Conclusion of the Shechem Incident<\/p>\n
24And they brought forth Dinah, their sister, from the house of Shechem and they took captive everything which was in Shechem: their sheep and their oxen and their asses and all their herds and all their goods. And they brought forth everything to Jacob, their father. 25And he spoke with them because they slaughtered the citizens, for he was afraid of those who inhabited the land: the Canaanites and the Perizzites. But the terror of the LORD was in all of the cities which surrounded Shechem and they did not rise up to pursue the sons of Jacob because a dread had fallen upon them.<\/p>\n
The Preparation for Pilgrimage to Bethel<\/p>\n
31:1And on the first of the month, Jacob spoke to all of the men of his house, saying, \u201cPurify and change your clothes, and having arisen, let us go up to Bethel, where on the day when I fled from the face of Esau, my brother, I made a vow to Him who has been with me and has returned me unto this land in peace. Remove the strange gods that are among you.\u201d 2And they handed over the strange gods and what was on their ears and what was on their necks and the idols which Rachel stole from Laban, her father, and she gave everything to Jacob, and he burned it and crushed it and destroyed it and hid it under an oak which was in the Land of Shechem.<\/p>\n
Jacob Invites His Father to Come to Bethel<\/p>\n
3And he went up on the first of the seventh month into Bethel. And he built an altar in the place where he had slept and had erected a pillar. And he invited his father, Isaac, and his mother, Rebecca, to come to him in the (time of) sacrifice. 4And Isaac said, \u201cLet my son Jacob come and let me see him before I die.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob\u2019s Visit to His Father, Isaac<\/p>\n
5And Jacob went to his father, Isaac, and to his mother, Rebecca, at the house of his father, Abraham, and he took with him two of his sons, Levi and Judah. And he came to his father, Isaac, and his mother, Rebecca. 6And Rebecca went out from the tower at the gates of the tower to kiss Jacob and embrace him because it revived her soul when she heard, \u201cBehold, Jacob, your son, has arrived.\u201d 7And she kissed him, and she saw his two sons and she recognized them and she said to him, \u201cAre these your sons, my son?\u201d And she embraced them, saying, \u201cin you may He bless the seed of Abraham and may you become a blessing upon the earth.\u201d
\n8And Jacob went in to Isaac, his father, in the chamber where he was lying down, and his two children were with him. And he took the hand of his father and, bowing down, he kissed him. And Isaac hung on the neck of Jacob, his son, and he wept on his neck. 9And the darkness passed from the eyes of Isaac and he saw Jacob\u2019s two sons, Levi and Judah, and he said, \u201cAre these your sons, my son, because they resemble you?\u201d 10And he told him that they were truly his sons: \u201cAnd certainly you have seen that they are truly my sons.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blessing of Levi<\/p>\n
11And they drew near to him and he turned and kissed them and embraced the both of them together. 12And a spirit of prophecy came down upon his mouth. And he took Levi in his right hand and Judah in his left hand. 13And he turned to Levi first and he began to bless him first, and he said to him, \u201cMay the God of all, i.e. the LORD of all ages, bless you and your sons in all ages. 14May the LORD give you and your seed very great honor. May He draw you and your seed near to Him from all flesh to serve in His sanctuary as the angels of the presence and the holy ones. May your sons\u2019 seed be like them with respect to honor and greatness and sanctification. And may He make them great in every age. 15And they will become judges and rulers and leaders for all of the seed of the sons of Jacob.<\/p>\n
The word of the LORD they will speak righteously,
\nand all of his judgments they will execute righteously.
\nAnd they will tell My ways to Jacob,
\nand My paths to Israel.
\nThe blessing of the LORD shall be placed in their mouth,
\nso that they might bless all of the seed of the beloved.
\n(As for) you, your mother has named you \u2018Levi,\u2019
\nand truly she has named you.
\n16You will be joined to the LORD
\nand be the companion of all the sons of Jacob.
\nHis table will belong to you,
\nand you and your sons will eat (from) it,
\nand in all generations your table will be full,
\nand your food will not be lacking in any age.
\nAnd all who hate you will fall before you,
\nand all your enemies will be uprooted and perish,
\nand whoever blesses you will be blessed,
\nand any nation which curses you will be cursed.<\/p>\n
The Blessing of Judah<\/p>\n
And to Judah he said:
\n\u201cMay the LORD give you might and strength
\nto tread upon all who hate you.
\nBe a prince, you and one of your sons for the sons of Jacob;
\nmay your name and the name of your son be one which travels and goes about in all the lands and cities.
\nThen may the nations fear before your face,
\nand all of the nations tremble,
\n[and every nation trembles].
\n19And with you will be the help of Jacob
\nand with you will be found the salvation of Israel.
\n20And on the day when you sit on your righteous throne of honor,
\nthere will be great peace for all the seed of the beloved\u2019s sons.
\nWhoever blesses you will be blessed,
\nand all who hate you and afflict you and curse you
\nwill be uprooted and destroyed from the earth and they shall be cursed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob\u2019s Visit with Isaac<\/p>\n
21And turning, he kissed him again and embraced him and rejoiced greatly because he had seen the sons of Jacob, his own true son. 22And he withdrew from his embrace and fell down and bowed down to him. And he blessed them. And he rested there near Isaac, his father, during that night. And they ate and drank joyfully. 23And he made the two sons of Jacob sleep, one on his right and one on his left, and it was counted to him (as) righteousness. 24And Jacob told his father everything during the night, how the LORD had shown him great mercy, and how He had made all of His affairs prosper and protected him from all evil. 25And Isaac blessed the God of his father, Abraham, who did not withhold His mercy and His righteousness from the son of his servant Isaac.<\/p>\n
Isaac\u2019s Farewell to Jacob<\/p>\n
26And in the morning, Jacob told his father, Isaac, (about) the vow which he had made to the LORD and the vision which he had seen and that he had built an altar and everything was prepared to make a sacrifice before the LORD just as he had vowed and that he had come to set him upon an ass. 27And Isaac said to Jacob, his son, \u201cI am not able to come with you because I have grown old and I am not able to endure on the way. Go, my son, in peace, because I am one hundred and sixty-five years old today. Therefore I am not able to travel. Set your mother (on the ass) and let her go with you. 28I know, my son, that you came for my sake. And let this day be blessed on which you have seen me alive and I have also seen you, my son. 29Prosper and perform the vow which you made and do not delay your vow because the vow will be sought. And now hasten to do it, and may the one who created everything, to whom you vowed the vow, be pleased.\u201d 30And he said to Rebecca, \u201cGo with Jacob, your son.\u201d And Rebecca went with Jacob, her son. And Deborah (was) with her. And they reached Bethel.<\/p>\n
Jacob Reflects on the Blessing of His Sons<\/p>\n
31And Jacob remembered the prayer (with) which his father blessed him and his two sons, Levi and Judah, and he rejoiced and he blessed the God of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac. 32And he said, \u201cNow I know that I and my sons have an eternal hope before the God of all.\u201d And thus it is ordained concerning the two of them, and it has been written (on high) for them as an eternal testimony in the heavenly tablets, just as Isaac blessed them.<\/p>\n
Jacob\u2019s Tithe and Sacrifice at Bethel<\/p>\n
32:1And he stayed that night in Bethel. And Levi dreamed that he had been appointed and ordained priest of the Most High God, he and his sons forever. And he woke from his sleep and blessed the LORD. 2And Jacob rose early in the morning on the fourteenth of that month and he gave a tenth of everything which came with him: man, (and) beast, gold, (and) all (sorts of) vessels and clothes. And he gave a tenth of everything.
\n3And in those days Rachel conceived Benjamin, her son. And Jacob counted his sons from him and upward, and (the lot of) Levi fell with the portion of the LORD. And his father put garments of the priesthood upon him and he filled his hands. 4And on the fifteenth of this month he brought to the altar fourteen bulls from the herd and twenty-eight rams and forty-nine sheep and seven lambs and twenty-one kids of the goats (as) a burnt offering upon the altar of sacrifices, well pleasing for a sweet-smelling aroma before God. 5This was his offering from the vow which he made to tithe together with their (fruit) offerings and their libations. 6And when the fire consumed it he burned incense upon the fire above it. And for a thank offering: two bulls and four rams and four sheep and four he-goats and two lambs, each a year old, and two kids of the goats. Thus he did at dawn for seven days. 7And it happened as he and all his sons and his men ate there joyfully for seven days that he blessed and praised the LORD, the one who delivered him from all his affliction and who granted him his prayers. 8And he gave a tithe of every clean animal and he made a burnt offering, but the unclean animals he did (not) give to Levi, his son, but every human soul he gave to him. 9And Levi served as priest in Bethel before Jacob, his father, (apart) from his ten brothers. And he was a priest there. And Jacob gave his vow. Thus he tithed a second tithe to the LORD and he sanctified it and it was sanctified to him.<\/p>\n
The Law of the Tithe<\/p>\n
10And therefore it is decreed in the heavenly tablets as a law to tithe the tithe again in order to eat it before the LORD from year to year in the place where it is determined that His name shall dwell. And there is no limit of days to this law forever. 11This ordinance is written to observe it year after year to eat the second tithe before the LORD in the place where it is determined. And there is not to be (anything) left over from it from this year to the year which is to come. 12For in its year the grain will be eaten until the days of the harvest of the grain of the year, and the wine (will be drunk) until the days of the wine, and the olive (will be used) until the day of its season. 13And everything which is left over from it and which grows old will be unclean. Let it be burned in the fire because it has become impure. 14And thus they shall eat it together in the sanctuary and they shall not let it become old. 15And the whole tithe of oxen and sheep is holy to the LORD and it will belong to the priests who will eat it before Him year after year because it is so ordered and engraved on the heavenly tablets concerning the tithe.<\/p>\n
Jacob\u2019s Vision Which Prevented Him from Sanctifying the Court at Bethel<\/p>\n
16And in the second night, on the twenty-second day of this month, Jacob planned to build up that place and to build a wall around the court and to sanctify it and to make it eternally holy for himself and his sons after him. 17And the LORD appeared to him in the night and blessed him and said to him, \u201cYour name will not be called Jacob, but you will be named Israel.\u201d 18And He said to him again, \u201cI am the LORD who created heaven and earth, and I shall increase you and multiply you very much. And there will be kings from you; they will rule everywhere that the tracks of mankind have been trod. 19And I shall give to your seed all of the land under heaven and they will rule in all nations as they have desired. And after this all of the earth will be gathered together and they will inherit it forever.\u201d
\n20And He finished speaking with him, and He went up from him. And Jacob watched until He went up into heaven. 21And he saw in a vision of the night, and behold an angel was descending from heaven, and there were seven tablets in his hands. And he gave (them) to Jacob, and he read them, and he knew everything which was written in them, which would happen to him and to his sons during all the ages. 22And he showed him everything which was written on the tablets. 23And he said to him, \u201cDo not build this place, and do not make an eternal sanctuary, and do not dwell here because this is not the place. Go to the house of Abraham, your father, and dwell with Isaac, your father, until the day of your father\u2019s death 24because you will die peacefully in Egypt and you will be buried honorably in this land in the tomb of your fathers with Abraham and Isaac. Do not fear, because just as you have seen and read, thus will everything come to pass. But you write down everything just as you have seen and read (it).\u201d 25And Jacob said, \u201cMy lord, how will I remember everything that I read and saw?\u201d And he said to him, \u201cI will cause you to remember everything.\u201d 26And he went up from him and he woke up from his sleep and he recalled everything that he had read and seen and he wrote down all of the matters which he had read and seen.<\/p>\n
The Institution of the Day of \u201cAddition\u201d to the Feast<\/p>\n
27And he observed there yet one (more) day and he sacrificed in it according to everything which he had been sacrificing on the previous days. And he called it \u201cAddition\u201d because that day was added, but the previous (days) he called \u201cthe feast.\u201d 28And thus it was revealed that it should be. And it is written in the heavenly tablets. Therefore it was revealed to him so that he might observe it and add it to the seven days of the feast. 29And it was called \u201cAddition\u201d because it is written (on high) in the attestation of feast days according to the number of days of the year.<\/p>\n
The Death of Deborah<\/p>\n
30And on the night of the twenty-third of that month Deborah, the nurse of Rebecca, died. And she was buried south of the city under the oak at the river. And that place was called \u201cDeborah\u2019s River\u201d and the oak (was called) \u201cthe Oak of Sorrow for Deborah.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca\u2019s Departure<\/p>\n
31And Rebecca went and returned to her house, to his father, Isaac, and Jacob sent in her hands rams and sheep and he-goats so that she might make for his father a meal such as he desired. 32And he traveled after his mother until he approached the land of Kabr\u00e2t\u00e2n. And he dwelt there.<\/p>\n
The Birth of Benjamin and Death of Rachel<\/p>\n
33And Rachel bore a son in the night and called him \u201cson of my sorrow,\u201d because she suffered when she bore him, but his father called him Benjamin, on the eleventh of the eighth month in the first year of the sixth week of that jubilee. 34And Rachel died there and she was buried in the land of Ephrata, i.e. Bethlehem. And Jacob built a pillar on the tomb of Rachel, on the road above her tomb.<\/p>\n
Account of Reuben\u2019s Sin with Bilhah<\/p>\n
33:1And Jacob went and dwelt toward the south of Magdaladra\u2019ef. And he and Leah, his wife, went to his father, Isaac, on the first day of the tenth month. 2And Reuben saw Bilhah, the attendant of Rachel (and) his father\u2019s concubine, washing in the water privately, and he desired her. 3And hiding at night, he entered Bilhah\u2019s house at night and found her sleeping in her bed, alone in her house. 4And he lay with her. And she woke up and looked, and behold, Reuben was lying with her on the bed. And she uncovered the hem of her (skirt) and seized him and screamed and recognized that it was Reuben. 5And she was ashamed because of him and released her hand from upon him. And he fled. 6And she lamented greatly concerning this matter. And she did not tell anyone at all. 7And when Jacob came and sought her, she said to him, \u201cI am not clean for you since I have become polluted for you because Reuben has defiled me and lay with me at night, but I was sleeping and I was unaware until he had uncovered my skirt and lain with me.\u201d 8And Jacob was very angry with Reuben because he had lain with Bilhah, for he had uncovered his father\u2019s robe. 9And therefore Jacob did not draw near her since Reuben had defiled her. And the deed of any man who uncovers his father\u2019s robe is very evil because he is despicable before the LORD.<\/p>\n
The Laws of Incest<\/p>\n
10Therefore it is written and ordered in the heavenly tablets that a man should not lie with his father\u2019s wife, and he should not uncover his father\u2019s robe because that is defilement. They shall certainly die together, the man who lies with his father\u2019s wife and also the wife because they have made a defilement upon the earth. 11And there shall be no defilement before our God among the people whom He has chosen for himself as a possession. 12And again it is written a second time: \u201cLet anyone who lies with his father\u2019s wife be cursed because he has uncovered his father\u2019s shame.\u201d And all the holy ones of the LORD said, \u201cSo be it, so be it.\u201d
\n13And you, Moses, command the children of Israel and let them keep this word because it is a judgment worthy of death. And it is a defilement. And there is no forgiveness in order to atone for a man who has done this, forever, but only to execute him and kill him and stone him and to uproot him from the midst of the people of our God. 14For any man who does this in Israel should not have life for a single day upon the earth because he is despicable and polluted.<\/p>\n
The Example of Reuben Does Not Permit Exception to Law of Incest<\/p>\n
15And let them not say, \u201cReuben had life and forgiveness after he lay with his father\u2019s concubine and while she had a husband and while her husband, Jacob, his father, was alive.\u201d 16For the ordinance and judgment and law had not been revealed till then (as) completed for everyone, but in your days (it is) like the law of (appointed) times and days and an eternal law for everlasting generations. 17And this law has no consummation of days. And also there is no forgiveness for it but only that both of them should be uprooted from the midst of the people. On the day when they have done this they shall be killed.<\/p>\n
Moses Is Directed to Warn People of Laws of Sexual Defilement<\/p>\n
18And you, Moses, write for Israel, and let them keep this. And let them do according to these words. And let them not commit a sin worthy of death because the LORD our God is a judge who does not accept persons or gifts. 19And say to them these words of the ordinance that they might hear and guard and watch themselves concerning them and they will not be destroyed or uprooted from the earth. For defiled, and an abomination, and blemished, and polluted are all who do them upon the earth before our God. 20And there is no sin greater than the fornication which they commit upon the earth because Israel is a holy nation to the LORD his God, and a nation of inheritance, and a nation of priests, and a royal nation, and a (special) possession. And there is nothing which appears which is as defiled as this among the holy people.<\/p>\n
The Children of Jacob Appear before Isaac<\/p>\n
21And in the third year of this sixth week it came to pass as Jacob and all his sons were traveling that they dwelt (at) the house of Abraham near Isaac, his father, and Rebecca, his mother. 22And these are the names of the children of Jacob: his firstborn, Reuben, and Simeon and Levi and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun, the sons of Leah. And the sons of Rachel (are) Joseph and Benjamin. And the sons of Bilhah (are) Dan and Naphtali. And the sons of Zilpah (are) Gad and Asher. And Dinah (is) the daughter of Leah, the only daughter of Jacob. 23And when they came, they bowed down to Isaac and Rebecca. And when they saw them, they blessed Jacob and all of his sons. And Isaac rejoiced greatly because he saw the sons of Jacob, his younger son. And he blessed them.<\/p>\n
The Sons of Jacob Successfully Defeat an Amorite Coalition<\/p>\n
34:1And in the sixth year of this week from this forty-fourth jubilee, Jacob sent his sons with their servants to pasture their sheep in the field of Shechem. 2And while hiding themselves under the trees, seven kings of the Amorites assembled themselves to fight against them and to plunder their animals. 3And Jacob and Levi and Judah and Joseph were at home with Isaac, their father, because his soul grieved him, and they were unable to leave him. And Benjamin was the youngest and therefore he dwelt with his father.
\n4And the kings of Tafu, and the kings of \u2018Aresa, and the kings of Serag\u0101n, and the kings of S\u00e8lo, and the kings of G\u0101\u2019as, and the kings of Bethoron, and the king of Ma\u2019anisakir, and all of those who dwelt in that mountain, who dwelt in the woods of the land of Canaan, came. 5And they reported it to Jacob, saying that, \u201cBehold, the kings of the Amorites have surrounded your sons and they have plundered their herds.\u201d 6And he and his three sons and all of his father\u2019s servants and his servants arose from his house and went against them with six thousand men who carried swords. 7And he killed them in the field of Shechem and he pursued those who fled and killed them with the edge of the sword. And he killed \u2018Aresa and Tafu and Serag\u0101n and S\u00e8lo and Ma\u2019anisakir and G\u0101\u2019as, and he collected his herds. 8And he prevailed over them and decreed a tribute against them so that they might give a tribute of five of the fruits of their land. And he built Robel and Tamnatares. 9And he returned peacefully and he made peace with them and they became servants to him until the day he and his sons went down into Egypt.<\/p>\n
The Brothers Sell Joseph and Deceive Their Father<\/p>\n
10And in the seventh year of this week he sent Joseph from his house to the land of Shechem in order that he might know about the welfare of his brothers, and he found them in the land of Dothan. 11And they acted fraudulently and made a plot against him to kill him, but they repented and sold him to a band of Ishmaelites. And they took him down to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, a eunuch of Pharaoh, the chief guard, the priest of the city of Heliopolis. 12And the sons of Jacob slaughtered a kid and dipped Joseph\u2019s garment into the blood and sent (it) to Jacob, their father, on the tenth of the seventh month. 13And he lamented all of that night, because they had brought it to him in the evening. And he became feverish in lamenting his death, and said that, \u201cA cruel beast has eaten Joseph.\u201d And all of the men of his house lamented with him on that day. And it happened as they were mourning and lamenting with him all that day 14that his sons and his daughter rose up to comfort him but he was not comforted concerning his son.<\/p>\n
The Death and Burial of Bilhah and Dinah<\/p>\n
15And on that day Bilhah heard that Joseph had perished and she died while mourning for him. And she was dwelling in Qafratef. And Dinah, his daughter, also died after Joseph perished. And these three lamentations came upon Israel in a single month. 16And they buried Bilhah opposite the tomb of Rachel, and they also buried Dinah, his daughter, there. 17And it happened, as they lamented for Joseph one year, that he was not consoled, because he said, \u201cI will go down to the grave lamenting for my son.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Day of Memorial Established for the Crime against Joseph<\/p>\n
18Therefore it is decreed for the children of Israel that they mourn on the tenth (day) of the seventh month\u2014on the day when that which caused him to weep for Joseph came to Jacob, his father\u2014so that they might atone for them(selves) with a young kid on the tenth (day) of the seventh month, once a year, on account of their sin because they caused the affection of their father to grieve for Joseph, his son. 19And this day is decreed so that they might mourn on it on account of their sins and on account of all their transgressions and on account of all their errors in order to purify themselves on this day, once a year.<\/p>\n
The Wives of the Sons of Jacob<\/p>\n
20And after Joseph perished, the sons of Jacob took wives for themselves. The name of the wife of Reuben (was) \u2018Ada. And the name of the wife of Simeon (was) \u2018Adiba\u2019a, a Canaanite. And the name of the wife of Levi (was) Melka, from the daughters of Aram, from the seed of the sons of Terah. And the name of the wife of Judah (was) Betasu\u2019el, a Canaanite. And the name of the wife of Issachar (was) Hezaqa. And the name of the wife of Zebulun (was) Ni\u2019iman. And the name of the wife of Dan (was) \u2018Egla. And the name of the wife of Naphtali (was) Rasu\u2019u, who (was) Mesopotamian. And the name of the wife of Gad (was) Maka. And the name of the wife of Asher (was) \u2018Iyona. And the name of the wife of Joseph (was) Asenath, an Egyptian. And the name of the wife of Benjamin (was) \u2018Iyasaka. 21And Simeon repented and took another wife from Mesopotamia as his brothers had.<\/p>\n
Rebecca\u2019s Conversation with Jacob Predicting Her Death<\/p>\n
35:1And in the first year of the first week in this forty-fifth jubilee, Rebecca called to Jacob, her son. And she commanded him with regard to his father and brother that he should honor them all the days of Jacob\u2019s life. 2And Jacob said, \u201cI will do everything just as you have commanded me because this thing is an honor and a greatness for me and a righteousness for me before the LORD, that I should honor them. 3And you, mother, know from the day I was born until this day all of my deeds and everything which is in my heart, that I always think of good for everyone. 4And why would I not do this thing which you have commanded me, that I should honor my father and my brother. 5Tell me, mother, what perversity you have seen against me and I will withdraw from it and mercy will be upon me.\u201d 6And she said, \u201cMy son, all my days I have never seen against you anything perverse but only uprightness. But I will rightly tell you, my son, (that) I shall die within this year, and I shall not pass through this year alive because I have seen in a dream the day of my death, that I shall not live more than one hundred and fifty-five years. And behold, I have completed all of the days of my life which I will live.\u201d
\n7And Jacob laughed about his mother\u2019s words, because his mother said that she would die, but she was sitting opposite him, and her strength was in her. And she was not suffering loss of strength, because she was coming and going and seeing (clearly), and her teeth were sound, and no disease had touched her all the days of her life. 8And Jacob said, \u201cI (would be) happy, mother, if my days approached the days of your life and my powers were thus in me as your powers. And you will not die because you have spoken to me (in) idle jest concerning your death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca\u2019s Conversation with Isaac Concerning Jacob and Esau<\/p>\n
9And she went in to Isaac and she said to him, \u201cOne request I beg of you. Make Esau swear that he will not harm Jacob and will not pursue him hostilely because you know Esau\u2019s inclination, that it has been evil since his youth. And there is no goodness in him because he wants to kill him after your death. 10And you know everything that he has done from the day that Jacob, his brother, traveled to Haran until this day, that he abandoned us with all his heart and did evil with us. He gathered your flocks and robbed all of your possessions before your face. 11And while we were begging and asking for what was ours he acted like a man who was taking pity on us. 12And he is bitter against you because you blessed Jacob, your perfect and upright son, because he has no evil but only goodness. And since he came from Haran until this day he has not been depriving us of anything, for he has always been bringing us everything in its season. And he rejoices with his whole heart whenever we accept (anything) from his hand. And he has been blessing us and has not separated from us since he came from Haran until this day. But he has been dwelling with us continually at home honoring us.\u201d 13And Isaac said to her, \u201cI know and see the deeds of Jacob, who is with us, that with all his heart he is honoring us. And I first loved Esau more than Jacob because he was born first, but now I love Jacob more than Esau because he has increasingly made his deeds evil. And he has no righteousness because all of his ways are injustice and violence. And he has no righteousness around him. 14And now my heart is vexed on account of all his deeds. And neither he nor his seed is to be saved for they will be destroyed from the earth, and they will be uprooted from under the heaven since he has forsaken the God of Abraham and he has gone after his wives and after their defilement and after their errors, (both) he and his sons. 15And you say to me that I should make him swear that he will not kill his brother, Jacob. If he swears he will not abide by his oath, and he will not do goodness, but only evil. 16But if he wishes to kill Jacob, his brother, he will be given into the hand of Jacob. And he will not escape from his hand because he will fall into his hand. 17And you should not fear on account of Jacob because the protector of Jacob is greater and mightier and more honored and praised than the protector of Esau.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca Seeks Assurances of Fraternal Love between Jacob and Esau<\/p>\n
18And Rebecca sent and called Esau. And he came to her and she said to him, \u201cI have a request, my son, which I will ask of you. Say that you will do it, my son.\u201d 19And he said, \u201cI will do everything which you say to me. And I will not refuse your request.\u201d 20And she said to him, \u201cI ask of you on the day when I die that you bring me and bury me near Sarah, your father\u2019s mother, and that you and Jacob love one another, and that one will not seek evil for his brother, but only love him. And you will prosper, my sons, and be honored in the midst of the earth and the enemy will not rejoice over you. And you will become a blessing and a mercy in the sight of all who love you.\u201d 21And he said, \u201cI shall do everything which you have been saying to me. And I shall bury you on the day when you die near Sarah, my father\u2019s mother, just as you have desired so that your bones will be near her bones. 22And Jacob, my brother, I shall love more than all flesh. And I have no brother in all the earth except him alone. And this is not a great (thing) for me if I love him because he is my brother and together we were sown in your belly and together we came forth from your womb. And if I do not love my brother, whom shall I love? 23But I beg of you only that you admonish Jacob concerning my sons because I know that he will certainly rule over me and my sons because on the day my father blessed him he set him above and me beneath. 24And I swear to you that I will love him and that I will not seek evil for him all the days of my life, but only good.\u201d And he swore to her concerning all of these matters.
\n25And she called Jacob in the sight of Esau, and she commanded him according to what she had spoken with Esau. 26And he said, \u201cI will do your pleasure. Trust me, that evil will not proceed from me or my sons against Esau and I will not act first in anything except to love (him) only.\u201d 27And they ate and they drank, she and her sons, that night. And she died (at the age of) three jubilees and one week and one year on that night. And her two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried her in the cave of Machpelah near Sarah, their father\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n
Isaac\u2019s Farewell Advice and Blessings for Jacob and Esau<\/p>\n
36:1And in the sixth year of this week, Isaac called his two sons, Esau and Jacob. And they came to him and he said to them, \u201cMy sons, I am going in the way of my fathers to the eternal home where my fathers are. 2Bury me near Abraham, my father, in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron the Hittite which Abraham acquired for a burial place there. In the tomb which I dug for myself there, bury me. 3And I am commanding this, my sons, that you might perform righteousness and uprightness upon the earth so that the LORD will bring upon you everything which the LORD said that He would do for Abraham and for his seed. 4And among yourselves, my sons, be loving of your brothers as a man loves himself, with each man seeking for his brother what is good for him, and acting together on the earth, and loving each other as themselves. 5And regarding the matter of idols, I command you and admonish you to scorn them and hate them and not to love them because they are full of error for those who worship and bow down to them. 6Remember, my sons, the LORD, the God of Abraham, your father, and (that) I subsequently worshiped and served Him in righteousness and joy so that He might multiply you and increase your seed like the stars of heaven with regard to number and (so that) He will plant you on the earth as a righteous planting which will not be uprooted for all the eternal generations. 7And now I will make you swear by the great oath\u2014because there is not an oath which is greater than it, by the glorious and honored and great and splendid and amazing and mighty name which created heaven and earth and everything together\u2014that you will fear Him and worship Him. 8And (that) each one will love his brother with compassion and righteousness and no one will desire evil for his brother from now and forever all the days of your lives so that you will prosper in all your deeds and not be destroyed. 9And if either of you seeks evil against his brother, know that hereafter each one who seeks evil against his brother will fall into his hands and be uprooted from the land of the living and his seed will be destroyed from under heaven. 10And on the day of turmoil and execration and indignation and wrath, (then) with devouring burning fire just as He burned Sodom so too He will burn up his land and his city and everything which will be his. And he will be wiped out from the book of the discipline of mankind, and he will not be written (on high) in The Book of Life for, (he is written) in the one which will be destroyed and pass on to eternal execration so that their judgment will always be renewed with eternal reproach and execration and wrath and torment and indignation and plagues and sickness. 11I have been speaking and exhorting you, my sons, according to the judgment which will come upon the man who desires to harm his brother.\u201d
\n12And he divided all his possessions which he had with the two of them on that day, and he gave a larger (portion), to the one whose birth was first: both the tower and everything which surrounded it and everything which Abraham acquired at the Well of the Oath. 13And he said, \u201cI will surely increase this (portion) for the one whose birth was first.\u201d 14And Esau said, \u201cI have sold to Jacob and I have delivered my right of seniority to Jacob and so let it be given to him, and there is not anything which I can say concerning it because it is his.\u201d 15And Isaac said, \u201cMay a blessing rest upon you and upon your seed on this day, my sons, because you have given rest to me, and my heart has not been grieved concerning the right of seniority lest you act perversely concerning it. 16May the LORD Most High bless the man who does righteousness, him and his seed forever.\u201d
\n17And he finished commanding them and blessing them. And they ate and drank together before him. And he rejoiced because they were in mutual agreement. And they went out from him and they rested that day and they slept. 18And Isaac slept on his bed on that day rejoicing. And he slept the eternal sleep. And he died at the age of one hundred and eighty years. He completed twenty-five weeks and five years. And his two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried him. And Esau traveled to the land of Edom, to the mountain of Seir, and he dwelt there.
\n20And Jacob dwelt in Mount Hebron in the tower of the land of the sojourning of his father, Abraham. And he worshiped the LORD with all of his heart and according to the commands which were revealed (and) according to the division of the days of his generations.<\/p>\n
The Death of Leah<\/p>\n
21And Leah, his wife, died in the fourth year of the second week of the forty-fifth jubilee. And he buried her in the cave of Machpelah near Rebecca, his mother, and north of the tomb of Sarah, his father\u2019s mother. 22And all of her children and his children went out to weep with him for Leah, his wife, and to comfort him concerning her because he was lamenting her. 23For he loved her very much after Rachel, her sister, died since she was perfect and upright in all of her ways, and she honored Jacob. And in all of the days which she lived with him he never heard a harsh word from her mouth because she possessed gentleness, peace, uprightness, and honor. 24And he remembered all of her deeds which she had done in her life, and he lamented greatly for her because he loved her with all his heart and all his soul.<\/p>\n
Esau\u2019s Sons Reprove Him for Yielding to Jacob<\/p>\n
37:1And on the day that Isaac, the father of Jacob and Esau, died, the sons of Esau heard that Isaac had given the right of seniority to Jacob, his younger son, and they were very angry. 2And they argued with their father, saying, \u201cWhy, since you are the elder and Jacob the younger, did your father give the right of seniority to Jacob and abandon you?\u201d 3And he said to them, \u201cBecause I sold my right of firstborn to Jacob for a little dish of lentils. And on the day that my father sent me to hunt and snare [and bring to him] so that he might eat and bless me, he went with guile and brought food and drink to my father and my father blessed him and placed me under his hand. 4And now our father has made us swear, (both) me and him, that we will not seek after evil, either one against his brother, but that we will continue with an affection and a peace, each one with his brother, so that we will not corrupt our ways.\u201d 5And they said, \u201cWe will not listen to you in order to make peace with him because our might is stronger than his might and we are stronger than he. We will go against him and we will kill and destroy him and his sons. And if you do not go with us we will do harm to you. 6And now listen to us, and we will send to Aram and to Philistia and to Moab and to Ammon and we will choose for ourselves chosen men who are ardent in battle and we will go against him and we will fight with him and we will uproot him from the land before he seizes power.\u201d 7And their father said to them, \u201cDo not go and make war with him lest you fall before him.\u201d 8And they said to him, \u201cThis very (thing) is your (type of) act from your youth until this day, and you put your neck under his yoke. But we will not listen to these words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Esau\u2019s Sons Hire Mercenaries for War against Jacob<\/p>\n
9And they sent to Aram and to Aduram, to their father\u2019s friend, and they hired from them one thousand fighting men, chosen warriors. And they came to them: 10from Moab and from the Ammonites, those who were hired, one thousand chosen men, and from Philistia one thousand chosen fighting men, and from Edom and from the Hurrians one thousand chosen fighting men, and from the Kittim strong men, warriors.<\/p>\n
Esau\u2019s Approach to Battle against Jacob<\/p>\n
11And they said to their father, \u201cGo forth with them and lead them. And if not, we will kill you.\u201d 12And he was filled with wrath and indignation when he saw that his sons were forcing him to go before (them) in order to lead them to Jacob, his brother. 13But afterward he remembered all of the evil which was hidden in his heart against Jacob, his brother, and he did not remember the oath which he swore to his father and his mother that he would not seek any evil against Jacob, his brother, all of his days.
\n14And with all of this, Jacob did not know that they were coming against him for battle. But he was lamenting Leah, his wife, until they drew very near the tower with four thousand men, warriors and chosen fighting men. 15And the men of Hebron sent to him, saying, \u201cBehold, your brother has come up against you in order to fight with you with four thousand men (who are) girded (with) swords and bear shields and military weapons\u201d; because they loved Jacob more than Esau. And they spoke to him because Jacob was a more generous and merciful man than Esau.
\n16But Jacob did not believe (them) until they drew very close to the tower. 17And he closed the gates of the tower and he stood on the battlement and spoke with his brother, Esau, and he said, \u201cIs the consolation (with) which you have come in order to console me concerning my wife who died good? Is this the oath which you swore to your father and again to your mother before they died? You have sinned against the oath. And on the day when you swore to your father, you were condemned.\u201d 18And (at) that time, Esau answered and said to him:<\/p>\n
\u201cMankind and beasts of the field have no righteous oath which they have surely sworn forever.
\nBut daily they seek evil, one against the other, and each one (seeks) to kill his enemy and adversary.
\n19And you will hate me and my sons forever.
\nAnd so there is no observing of fraternity with you.<\/p>\n
[And Jacob said, \u201cDo not act (thus), my brother. As for me, there is no evil in my heart against you. Do not plan evil against me. Know that there is a God and He sees what is hidden and requites to everyone according to his deeds. Calm down the heat of your anger and do not do anything rashly so that evil will come upon you.\u201d Then Esau turned and said harshly:]<\/p>\n
20Hear these words of mine which I will speak to you.
\nIf a boar changes his hide and his bristles (and) makes (them) soft as wool,
\nand if he brings forth horns upon his head like the horns of a stag or sheep;
\nthen I will observe fraternity with you.
\nAnd if sucklings separate themselves from their mother, you would not be a brother to me.
\n21And if the wolves make peace with lambs so as not to eat them or assault them,
\nand if their hearts are (set) upon them to do good,
\nthen peace will be in my heart for you.
\n22And if the lion becomes a friend of the ox,
\nand if he is bound with him in a single yoke,
\nand he plows with him and makes peace with him,
\nthen I will make peace with you.
\n23And if the raven becomes white like the Raza bird,
\nthen know that I will love you and I will make peace with you.
\nYou will be uprooted,
\nand your sons will be uprooted,
\nbut you will have no peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
24And when Jacob saw that he had planned evil against him from his heart and from his whole being so that he might kill him, and (that) he had come leaping like a wandering boar who had come upon a spear which was piercing him and killing him, and he would not withdraw from it, then he spoke to his own (followers) and to his servants so that they might attack him and all his friends.<\/p>\n
The Defeat of Esau and His Forces<\/p>\n
38:1And afterward Judah spoke to Jacob, his father, and he said to him, \u201cO father, stretch your bow and shoot your arrows and strike down the enemy and kill the adversary. And may you have might because we will not kill your brother (inasmuch as) he is near to you and with us he is like you with respect to honor.\u201d 2And then when Jacob drew his bow and shot an arrow and struck Esau, his brother, on his right breast, he killed him. 3And again, he shot an arrow and struck Adoran, the Aramean, in his left breast and drove him back and killed him.
\n4And afterward, the sons of Jacob and their servants went forth to divide themselves on the four (sides) of the tower. 5And Judah went out in front and Naphtali and Gad and fifty servants with him on the south side of the tower. And they killed everyone they found before them. And not a single one escaped from them. 6And Levi and Dan and Asher went forth on the east side of the tower and fifty (men were) with them. And they killed the warriors of Moab and Ammon. 7And Reuben and Issachar and Zebulun (went) forth on the north side of the tower and fifty (men were) with them. And they killed the fighting men of the Philistines. 8And Simeon and Benjamin and Enoch, the son of Reuben, went forth on the west side of the tower, and fifty (men were) with them. And they killed four hundred strong men, warriors, of the Edomites and Hurrians. And six hundred fled. And the four sons of Esau fled with them and they left their slain father just as he had fallen on the hill which is in Aduram. 9And the sons of Jacob pursued them as far as the mountain of Seir. But Jacob buried his brother in the hill which is in Aduram and he returned to his house.
\n10And Jacob\u2019s sons besieged the children of Esau on the mountain of Seir. And they bowed down their necks to become servants of the children of Jacob. 11And they sent to their father (to ask) whether they should make peace with them or whether they should kill them. 12And Jacob sent notice to his sons to make peace. And they made peace with them and placed a yoke of servitude upon them so that they might pay tribute to Jacob and his sons always. 13And they continued paying tribute to Jacob until the day that he went down to Egypt. 14And the children of Edom have not ceased from the yoke of servitude which the twelve sons of Jacob ordered upon them until today.<\/p>\n
The Kings of Edom<\/p>\n
15And these are the kings who ruled in Edom before a king ruled the children of Israel until today in the land of Edom. 16And Balaq, son of Be\u2019or, ruled in Edom. And the name of his city was Danaba. 17And Balaq died, and Yobab, son of Zara, who was from Boser, ruled instead of him. 18And Yobab died. And Asam, who was from the land of Teman, ruled instead of him. 19And Asam died. And \u2018Adath, son of Barad, who killed Median in the field of Moab, ruled instead of him. And the name of his city was \u2018Avith. 20And \u2018Adath died. And Salman, who was from \u2018Amaseqa, ruled instead of him. 21And Salman died. And Saul, who was from Ra\u2019aboth, (by the) river, ruled instead of him. 22And Saul died. And Ba\u2019elunan, son of \u2018Achbor, ruled instead of him. 23And Ba\u2019elunan, son of \u2018Achbor, died. And \u2018Adath ruled instead of him. And the name of his wife was Maitabith, daughter of Matarat, daughter of Metabedza\u2019ab. 24These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom.<\/p>\n
Joseph in the House of Potiphar<\/p>\n
39:1And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father\u2019s sojourning, (in) the land of Canaan. 2These are the generations of Jacob. And Joseph was seventeen years old (when) they brought him down into Egypt, and Potiphar, Pharaoh\u2019s eunuch, the chief of the guard, bought him. 3And he set Joseph over all of his house and the blessing of the LORD was upon the house of the Egyptian because of Joseph and the LORD caused everything which he did to prosper.
\n5And Joseph was good-looking and very handsome. And the wife of his master lifted up her eyes and saw Joseph and desired him. And she begged him to lie with her. 6And he did not surrender himself but he remembered the LORD and the words which Jacob, his father, used to read, which were from the words of Abraham, that there is no man who (may) fornicate with a woman who has a husband (and) that there is a judgment of death which is decreed for him in heaven before the LORD Most High. And the sin is written (on high) concerning him in the eternal books always before the LORD. 7And Joseph remembered these words and he did not want to lie with her. 8And she begged him (for) one year. And he turned away and refused to listen to her.
\n9And she embraced him and seized him in the house so that she might force him to lie with her. And she shut the door of the house and seized him. And he left his garment in her hand and he broke the door and fled outside (away) from her presence. 10And that woman saw that he would not lie with her and she falsely accused him before his master, saying, \u201cYour Hebrew servant, whom you love, desired to seduce me so that he might lie with me. And it came to pass when I raised my voice that he fled and he left his garment in my hand when I seized him. And he broke the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph in Prison<\/p>\n
11And the Egyptian saw Joseph\u2019s garments and the broken door and he heard his wife\u2019s story and he put Joseph in prison, in the place where the prisoners whom the king imprisoned stayed. 12And he was there in the prison and the LORD gave Joseph favor and mercy before the chief guard of the prison because he saw that the LORD was with him and the LORD caused everything which he did to prosper. 13And he left everything in his hands, and the chief guard of the prison knew nothing which was with him because Joseph did everything, and the LORD perfected (it). 14And he dwelt there two years.
\nAnd in those days, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, was angry with two of his eunuchs, with the chief of the butlers and with the chief of the bakers. And he put them in prison, in the house of the chief of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was held. 15And the chief of the guard of the prison ordered Joseph to serve them. And he served before them. 16And both of them had a dream, the chief of the butlers and the chief of the bakers, and they told it to Joseph. 17And just as he interpreted to them so it happened to them. And Pharaoh returned the chief of the butlers to his task, but he killed the baker just as Joseph interpreted is for them. 18But the chief of the butlers forgot Joseph in the prison when he made known to him what would happen to him, and he did not remember to tell the Pharaoh what Joseph told him because he forgot.<\/p>\n
Joseph as an Interpreter of Pharaoh\u2019s Dreams<\/p>\n
40:1And in those days, Pharaoh dreamed two dreams in a single night concerning the matter of the famine which would come upon all of the land. And he awoke from his sleep and called all of the interpreters of dreams and magicians who were in Egypt. And he told them of both of his dreams but they were unable to explain (them). 2Then the chief of the butlers remembered Joseph and he told the king about him. And he brought him out of the prison and told both of the dreams in his presence. 3And he said in the presence of the Pharaoh that both of his dreams were one. And he said to him, \u201cSeven years will come. Abundance will be in all the land of Egypt, but afterward seven years of famine, which (is) unlike any (previous) famine, (will be) in all the land. 4And now let Pharaoh appoint overseers in all the land and let them store up food for a city within the city during the days of the plentiful years. And there will be food for the seven years of famine. And the land will not perish in the presence of the famine because it will be very severe.\u201d 5And the LORD gave Joseph favor and mercy in the sight of the Pharaoh. And the Pharaoh said to his servants, \u201cWe will not find a man wise and knowledgeable as this man because the spirit of the LORD is with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph becomes a Ruler in Egypt<\/p>\n
6And he set him second in all his kingdom and he made him rule in all of Egypt and he made him ride upon the second chariot of the Pharaoh. 7And he invested him with a garment of byssus and hung a golden chain on his neck and they proclaimed before him \u201cEl, El wa Abirer\u201d and he gave him the signet ring on his hand and he made him rule over all his house and he made him great and he said to him, \u201cI will not be greater than you except (regarding) the throne alone.\u201d 8And Joseph ruled in all the land of Egypt and all of the judges and all of the servants of the Pharaoh and all of those who did the king\u2019s work loved him because he walked uprightly and he had no pompousness or arrogance or partiality, and there was no bribery because he ruled all the people of the land uprightly. 9And the land of Egypt was at peace before the Pharaoh on account of Joseph because the LORD was with him and gave him favor and mercy for all his family before all who knew him and those who heard witness of him. And the kingdom of the Pharaoh was upright. And there was no Satan and there was no evil. 10And the king called Joseph \u201cSephantiphans.\u201d And he gave the daughter of Potiphar, the daughter of the priest of Heliopolis, the chief of the guard, to Joseph (as) a wife. 11And on the day that Joseph stood with the Pharaoh he was thirty years old, when he stood with the Pharaoh.
\n12And in that year Isaac died. And it came (about) just as Joseph related concerning the interpretation of the two dreams, and there were seven abundant years in all of the land of Egypt. And the land of Egypt was very fruitful, one measure (yielding) eighteen hundred measures. 13And Joseph gathered the food of a city into the city until it was full of grain, until they were unable to count or measure it because of its magnitude.<\/p>\n
The Story of Judah and Tamar<\/p>\n
41:1And in the forty-fifth jubilee, in the second week, in the second year, Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, from the daughters of Aram, and her name was Tamar. 2But he hated (her) and would not lie with her because his mother was from the daughters of Canaan. And he wanted to take a wife from his mother\u2019s people, but Judah, his father, did not permit him. 3And Er, the firstborn of Judah, was evil and the LORD killed him. 4And Judah said to \u2018Onan, his brother, \u201cGo to your brother\u2019s wife and act as levirate and raise up seed for your brother.\u201d 5And \u2018Onan knew that the seed would not be his (but) only his brother\u2019s and he entered the house of his brother\u2019s wife and poured out (his) seed on the ground and he was evil in the sight of the LORD and He killed him. 6And Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, \u201cRemain at the house of your father as a widow until Selah, my son, grows up. And I will give you to him (as) a wife.\u201d 7And he grew up, but Bedsuel, Judah\u2019s wife, did not permit Selah, her son, to marry. And Bedsuel, Judah\u2019s wife, died in the fifth year of that week.
\n8And in the sixth year, Judah went up in order to shear his sheep at Timnah. And they told Tamar, \u201cBehold, your father-in-law is going up to shear his sheep at Timnah.\u201d 9And she put off the clothes of her widowhood. And she put on a veil. And she made herself beautiful and sat by the gates which are toward the Timnah road. 10And when Judah walked along he found her and presumed that she was a prostitute. And he said to her, \u201cLet me enter into you.\u201d And she said to him, \u201cCome on.\u201d And he entered. 11And she said to him, \u201cGive me my fee.\u201d And he said to her, \u201cI have nothing in my hand except my signet ring of my finger and my necklace and my staff which is in my hand.\u201d \u2018And she said to him, \u201cGive them to me until you send my fee to me.\u201d And he said to her, \u201cI will send to you a young goat.\u201d And he gave them to her, and he was with her, and she became pregnant by him.
\n13And Judah went to his sheep and she went to her father\u2019s house. 14And Judah sent a young goat in the hand of his shepherd, an Adulamite, but he did not find her. And he asked the men of the district, saying, \u201cWhere is the prostitute who was here?\u201d And they said to him, \u201cThere is no prostitute here with us.\u201d 15And he returned and told him that he did not find (her). And he said, \u201cI inquired of the men of the district. And they said to me, \u2018There is no prostitute here.\u2019 \u201d And he said, \u201cLet her take (it) lest we become an object of scorn.\u201d 16And when she completed three months it was obvious that she was pregnant. And they told Judah, saying, \u201cBehold, Tamar, your daughter-in-law is pregnant through prostitution.\u201d 17And Judah went to her father\u2019s house and said to her father and her brothers, \u201cBring her out and let them burn her because she has caused a defilement in Israel.\u201d
\n18And it came to pass when they brought her out to burn her that she sent to her father-in-law the signet ring and the necklace and the staff. And she said, \u201cRecognize whose these are because I am pregnant by him.\u201d 19And Judah recognized (them) and said, \u201cTamar was more righteous than I. And therefore let them not burn her.\u201d 20And on account of that she was not given to Selah. And therefore he did not approach her again. 21And after this she bore two children, Perez and Zerah, in the seventh year of this second week. 22And after this the seven years of full harvest which Joseph told Pharaoh (about) were completed.<\/p>\n
Judah\u2019s Repentance<\/p>\n
23And Judah knew that the deed which he did was evil because he lay with his daughter-in-law. And he condemned himself in his own sight. And he knew that he had sinned and gone astray because he uncovered the robe of his son. And he began to mourn and make supplication before the LORD on account of his sin. 24And we told him in a dream that it was forgiven him because he made great supplication and because he mourned and did not do it again.<\/p>\n
Judah\u2019s Forgiveness Contrasted with Subsequent Strict Enforcement of the Law<\/p>\n
25And there was forgiveness for him because he turned from his sin and from his ignorance because the sin was great before our God. And anyone who does anything like this, who lies with his mother-in-law, they shall burn with fire so that he might burn in it because defilement and impurity have come upon them. In the fire they shall burn them.
\n26And you command the children of Israel and there will be no defilement in their midst because everyone who lies with his daughter-in-law or with his mother-in-law causes defilement. In the fire they shall burn the man who has lain with her and also the woman. And the wrath and punishment he will cause to cease from Israel.
\n27And we told Judah that his two sons had not lain with her and therefore his seed stood for a second generation and it would not be uprooted 28because in the integrity of his eyes he went and sought judgment because by the judgment of Abraham, which he commanded his sons, Judah wanted to burn her with fire.<\/p>\n
The Arrival of the Years of Famine<\/p>\n
42:1In the first year of the third week of the forty-fifth jubilee the famine began to come upon the land and rain refused to be given to the land because there was nothing which would come down. 2And the earth suffered famine but in the land of Egypt there was food because Joseph gathered the grain of the land during the seven years of full harvest and he guarded it. 3And Egypt came to Joseph so that he might give them food. And he opened up the storehouses where the wheat of the first year was and he sold it to the people of the land for gold.<\/p>\n
The Sons of Jacob Travel to Egypt for Grain<\/p>\n
4And the famine was very severe in the land of Canaan. And Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt and he sent ten of his sons to get food for him in Egypt, but he did not send Benjamin. And the ten sons of Jacob arrived in Egypt with those who were traveling (there). 5And Joseph knew them, but they did not know him. And he spoke with them and interrogated them and said to them, \u201cAre you men not spies? And you have come to examine the paths of the land.\u201d And he locked them up. 6But afterward he released them again, and he made only Simeon stay. And he sent his nine brothers away. 7And he filled their grain sacks with grain and he also put their gold in their grain sacks, but they did not know (it). 8And he commanded them that they should bring their little brother because they told him that their father was alive and also their little brother.<\/p>\n
The Sons of Jacob Recount Their Adventures in Egypt<\/p>\n
9And they went up from the land of Egypt. And they arrived in the land of Canaan, and told their father everything just as they experienced (it) and how the overseer of the district had spoken harshly with them and held Simeon until they would bring Benjamin. 10And Jacob said, \u201cYou have therefore bereaved me. Joseph is not (here) and Simeon is not (here) either and you will take Benjamin. Your evil has therefore come upon me.\u201d 11And he said, \u201cMy son will not go down with you\u2014perhaps he might become ill\u2014because their mother bore two, and one has perished, and you will take this one from me. If perhaps he became feverish on the way then you would send down my old age to death in grief.\u201d 12For he saw that the money of each one had been returned in his sack, and he feared to send him on account of that.<\/p>\n
The Famine Causes the Sons of Jacob to Return to Egypt<\/p>\n
13But the famine increased and became severe in the land of Canaan and in all the earth except in the land of Egypt. For many of the Egyptians stored up their grain for food after they saw that Joseph was gathering grain and placing it in storehouses and guarding it for the year of famine. 14And the men of Egypt ate it in the first year of their famine. 15And when Israel saw that the famine was very severe in the land and there was no escaping, he said to his sons, \u201cGo, return and get food for us lest we die.\u201d 16And they said, \u201cWe shall not go. If our little brother does not come with us, we shall not go.\u201d 17And Israel saw (that) if he did is not send him with them they would all be destroyed due to the famine. 18And Reuben said, \u201cPlace him in my hands, and if I do not return him to you, kill both of my sons for his life.\u201d And he said to him, \u201cHe will not go with you.\u201d 19And Judah drew near and said, \u201cSend him with me. And if I do not return him to you, I will be guilty before you all the days of my life.\u201d
\n20And he sent him with them in the second year of that week on the first of the month and they arrived at the district of Egypt with all of those who were traveling (there). And their presents (were) in their hands: stacte, almonds, terebinth nuts, and pure honey. 21And they arrived and stood before Joseph. And he saw Benjamin, his brother, and he knew him. And he said to them, \u201cIs this your little brother?\u201d And they said to him, \u201cHe is.\u201d And he said, \u201cMay the LORD be merciful to you, my son.\u201d 22And he sent him into his house. And he brought Simeon to them, and made a banquet for them. And they presented him with his gift, which they brought in their hands. 23And they ate before him. And he gave a portion to all of them. And he increased Benjamin\u2019s portion seven times more than any of their portions. 24And they ate and drank, and got up and stayed with their asses.
\n25And Joseph thought of an idea by means of which he might learn their thoughts, whether they had thoughts of peace for one another. And he said to the man who was over his house, \u201cFill all of their bags with food for them. And also return their money to them in the midst of their containers. And place my cup from which I drink, the silver cup, in the bag of the youngest one and send them off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph\u2019s Stratagem to Test His Brothers<\/p>\n
43:1And he did as Joseph told him. And he filled all their bags for them (with) food. And he also put their money in their bags. And the cup he put in Benjamin\u2019s bag. 2And (at) daybreak in the morning, they went. And it came to pass when they departed from there, that Joseph said to the man of his house, \u201cPursue them. Run and reproach them, saying, \u2018You have repaid me evil in place of good. You have robbed me of the silver cup from which my lord drinks.\u2019 And return to me their little brother. And hurry, bring (him) before I go to my judgment seat.\u201d
\n3And he ran after them and he spoke to them according to these words. 4And they said to him, \u201cMay God forbid that your servants would do this thing or steal any vessel from your lord\u2019s house. But rather our money which we found at first in our bags your servants have brought back from the land of Canaan. 5Therefore, why would we steal any vessel? Behold, search both us and our animals and wherever you find the cup, in the bag of any one of our men, let him be killed, and both we and our asses will become slaves to your lord.\u201d 6And he said to them, \u201cIt will not be so, (but) with the man with whom I find it, he alone, I will take as a servant, but you will return in peace to your house.\u201d
\n7And when he searched in their baggage, he started from the eldest and ended with the youngest. And it was found in the bag of Benjamin. 8And they tore their clothes and loaded up their donkeys and returned to the city. And they reached Joseph\u2019s house, and they all bowed to him with their face on the ground. 9And Joseph said to them, \u201cYou have done evil.\u201d And they said, \u201cWhat can we say? (With) what can we defend ourselves? Our lord has found the guilt of his servants. Behold, we (are) servants of our lord and also our donkeys.\u201d 10And Joseph said to them, \u201cI fear the LORD. You, go to your houses, but let your brother alone be my servant because you have done evil. Did you not know that a man would be pleased with his cup as I am with this cup? And you stole it from me.\u201d 11And Judah said, \u201cI pray, O lord, let me, your servant, speak a word in my lord\u2019s ear. His mother bore two brothers to our father, your servant. One went forth and was lost, and was not found. 12And he alone was left from his mother, and your servant, our father, loves him. And his life is bound with the life of this (one). And it will come to pass that if we go to your servant, our father, and if the lad is not with us, he will die. And we will bring down our father to death with sorrow. 13And let me, your servant, remain alone instead of the child as a servant to my lord, and let the lad go with his brothers because I was put as a pledge for him at the hand of your servant, our father. And if I should not return him your servant will always be guilty to our father.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers<\/p>\n
14And Joseph saw that the heart of all of them was in accord one with another for good. And he was unable to control his emotion and he told them that he was Joseph. 15And he conversed with them in the Hebrew language and embraced their necks and wept. But they did not recognize him. And they began to weep. 16And he said to them, \u201cDo not weep for me, but hasten and bring my father to me. And I shall see him before I die even as the eyes of my brother Benjamin see. 17For behold this is the second year of famine, and there will still be five years. And there will be no harvest or fruit of the tree or plowing. 18Hasten, come down, you and your households, lest you be destroyed in the famine. And you shall not grieve for your possessions. For the LORD has sent me first to prepare before you so that many people might live. 19And tell my father that I am still alive and behold, you were seeing that the LORD ordained me as a father to the Pharaoh and so that I might rule in his house and over all the land of Egypt. 20And tell my father about all my honor and all the wealth and honor which the LORD has given to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brothers Return to Canaan to Get Their Father<\/p>\n
21And by the word of the mouth of the Pharaoh he gave them chariots and provisions for the way. And he gave them all clothing of many colors and money. 22And he also sent to their father clothing and money and ten asses which were carrying wheat. And he sent them off. 23And they went up and they told their father that Joseph was alive and that he was distributing grain to all of the people of the land. And he ruled over all the land of Egypt. 24And their father did not believe because there was a confusion in his mind. And after this he saw the chariots which Joseph sent and the life of his soul was renewed. And he said, \u201cIt is enough for me if Joseph is alive. I will go down and I will see him before I die.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob Observes a Feast of Firstfruits at Beer-Sheba<\/p>\n
44:1And Israel rose up from Hebron, from his house on the first of the third month and he went by the way of the Well of the Oath. And he offered up a sacrifice to the God of his father, Isaac, on the seventh day of that month. 2And Jacob recalled the dream which he dreamed in Bethel, and he was afraid to go down into Egypt. 3And as he was planning to send to Joseph so that he might come to him, and he would not go down, he remained there seven days (to learn) if he would see a vision (concerning) whether he should remain or go down. 4And he observed the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits from old wheat for there was not in the whole land of Canaan a handful of any seed in the land because there was a famine for all the wild animals and the cattle and the birds and also man.<\/p>\n
Jacob\u2019s Theophany at Beer-sheba<\/p>\n
5And on the sixteenth day the LORD appeared to him and He said to him, \u201cJacob, Jacob.\u201d And he said to him, \u201cHere I am.\u201d And He again said to him, \u201cI am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac. Do not fear to go down to Egypt because I will make you into a great people there. 6I shall go down with you and I shall bring you (back) and you will be buried in this land. And Joseph will place his hand upon your eyes. Do not fear. Go down into Egypt.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Preparation for the Journey to Egypt<\/p>\n
7And his children and grandchildren rose up and they loaded their father and their possessions on the chariots. 8And Israel rose up from the Well of the Oath on the sixteenth day of this third month and he went to the land of Egypt. 9And Israel sent Judah before him to Joseph, his son, so that he might examine the land of Goshen, for Joseph told his brothers that they should come to dwell there so they might be his neighbor. 10And it was the best in the land of Egypt. And it was near him for all (of them) and for the cattle.<\/p>\n
A List of the Children of Jacob<\/p>\n
11And these are the names of the sons of Jacob who went into Egypt with their father, Jacob. 12Reuben was the firstborn of Israel. And these (are) the names of his sons: Enoch, and Pallu, and Hezron, and Carmi\u2014five.
\n13Simeon and his sons; and these (are) the names of his sons: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Zephathite woman\u2014seven.
\n14Levi and his sons; and these (are) the names of his sons: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari\u2014four.
\n15Judah and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Shela, and Perez, and Zerah\u2014four.
\n16Issachar and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Tola, and Phua, and Jasub, and Shimron\u2014five.
\n17Zebulun and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel\u2014four. 18And these are the sons of Jacob and their sons whom Leah bore to Jacob in Mesopotamia, six, plus one girl, Dinah, their sister. And all of the persons who (were) sons of Leah and their sons, who entered Egypt with Jacob, their father, were twenty-nine. And Jacob, their father, was with them. And they totaled thirty.
\n19And the sons of Zilpah, the attendant of Leah, the wife of Jacob, which she bore to Jacob, were Gad and Asher. 20And these are the names of their sons who entered into Egypt with him. The sons of Gad (are) Ziphion, and Gaggi, and Shuni, and Ezbon, and Eri, and Areli, and Arodi\u2014eight.
\n21And the sons of Asher (are) Imnah, and Ishvah, [and Ishvi], and Beriah, and Serah, their one sister\u2014six. 22And all of the persons (were) fourteen. And the total [with those] of Leah was forty-four.
\n23And the sons of Rachel, who (was) the wife of Jacob, (were) Joseph and Benjamin.
\n24And (sons) were born to Joseph in Egypt before his father entered Egypt whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, the priest of Heliopolis, bore to him, (namely) Manasseh and Ephraim\u2014three.
\n25And the sons of Benjamin (are) Bela, and Becher, and Ashbel, and Gera, and Naaman, and Ehi, and Rosh, and Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard\u2014eleven. 26And all of the persons of Rachel were fourteen.
\n27And the sons of Bilhah, the attendant of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, which she bore to Jacob, (are) Dan and Naphthali, and these are the names of their sons who entered Egypt with them.
\n28And the sons of Dan (are) Hushim, and Samon, and Asudi, and \u2018Ijaka, and Solomon\u2014six. 29And they died during the year they entered Egypt and there was left to Dan only Hushim.
\n30And these are the names of the sons of Naphthali: Jaziel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shallum, and \u2018Iv. 31And \u2018Iv, who was born after the years of the famine, died in Egypt. 32And all of the persons [with those] of Rachel were twenty-six.
\n33And all of the persons of Jacob who entered Egypt were seventy persons. Therefore all these sons and grandsons of his were seventy, but five died in Egypt before Joseph, and they had no children. 34And two sons of Judah, Er and Onan, died in the land of Canaan. And they had no children. And the children of Israel buried those who perished. And they were set among the seventy nations.<\/p>\n
The Family of Jacob Is Settled in Goshen<\/p>\n
45:1And Israel entered into the land of Egypt into the land of Goshen on the first of the fourth month in the second year of the third week of the forty-fifth jubilee. 2And Joseph came to greet his father, Jacob, in the land of Goshen. And he embraced the neck of his father and wept. 3And Israel said to Joseph, \u201cLet me die now after I have seen you. And now let the LORD, the God of Israel, be blessed, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, who did not withhold his mercy and his kindness from his servant Jacob. 4It is enough for me that I have seen your face while I was alive, for the vision which I saw in Bethel was certainly true. May the LORD my God be blessed forever and ever and blessed (be) his name.\u201d
\n5And Joseph and his brothers ate bread before their father, and they drank wine. And Jacob rejoiced very greatly because he saw Joseph eating and drinking with his brothers before him. And he blessed the Creator of all who kept him and kept for him his twelve sons. 6And Joseph gave to his father and his brothers (as) a gift that they might dwell in the land of Goshen and Ramses and all of the districts (belonging) to them which he ruled over before the Pharaoh. And Israel and his sons dwelt in the land of Goshen, the best of the land of Egypt. And Israel was one hundred and thirty years old when he entered Egypt. 7And Joseph provided bread for his father and his brothers and their possessions, as much as was sufficient for them for the seven years of famine.<\/p>\n
Joseph\u2019s Skill as an Administrator<\/p>\n
8And the land of Egypt suffered in view of the famine. And Joseph gathered all of the land of Egypt for the Pharaoh by means of the food. And men and their cattle and everything he acquired for Pharaoh. 9And the years of the famine were completed. And Joseph gave seed and food to the people who were in the land so that they might sow the land in the eighth year because the river was full in all the land of Egypt. 10For during the seven years of famine it was not full. And it did not irrigate except a few places by the shore of the river. But now it was full and the Egyptians sowed the land and it bore much wheat in that year. 11And that was the first year of the fourth week of the forty-fifth jubilee. 12And Joseph took for the king one fifth of everything which bore fruit and he left four parts for them for food and seed. And Joseph set it up as an ordinance for the land of Egypt until this day.<\/p>\n
The Death of Jacob<\/p>\n
13And Israel lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and all of the days which he lived were three jubilees, one hundred and forty-seven years. And he died in the fourth year of the fifth week of the forty-fifth jubilee. 14And Israel blessed his sons before he died. And he told them everything which was going to happen to them in the land of Egypt and in the latter days; he made them know how it would come upon them. And he blessed them and he gave to Joseph a double portion upon the land. 15And he slept with his fathers. And he was buried in the cave of Machpelah in the land of Canaan near Abraham, his father, in the tomb which he excavated for himself in the cave of Machpelah in the land of Hebron. And he gave all of his books and his fathers\u2019 books to Levi, his son, so that he might preserve them and renew them for his sons until this day.<\/p>\n
The Death of Joseph and His Generation<\/p>\n
46:1And it came to pass after Jacob died that the children of Israel increased in the land of Egypt. And they became a numerous people, and they were all in accord in their hearts so that each one loved his brother and each man helped his brother, and they increased exceedingly and increased very much for ten weeks of years, all the days of the life of Joseph. 2And there was no Satan or anything evil all the days of the life of Joseph which he lived after his father, Jacob, because all of the Egyptians were honoring the children of Israel all the days of the life of Joseph. 3And Joseph died at one hundred and ten years of age. And seventeen years he dwelt in the land of Canaan and ten years he remained as a slave and three years in the prison and eighty years under the king ruling all of the land of Egypt. 4And he died and all of his brothers and all of that generation.<\/p>\n
The Removal of Jacob\u2019s Bones and a Comment on Joseph\u2019s Burial<\/p>\n
5And he commanded the children of Israel before he died to carry his bones at the time when they would go out of the land of Egypt. 6And he made them swear an oath concerning his bones because he knew that Egypt would not again bring them forth and bury them in the land of Canaan because when Makamaron, the king of Canaan, was dwelling in the land of Asshur, he fought in the valley with the king of Egypt. And he killed him there. And he pursued after the Egyptians as far as the gates of Ermon. 7And he was unable to enter because another new king ruled Egypt and he was stronger than he. And he returned to the land of Canaan and the gates of Egypt were shut up and there was none who could leave or enter Egypt. 8And Joseph died in this forty-sixth jubilee in the sixth week in the second year. And they buried him in the land of Egypt. And all of his brothers died after him.<\/p>\n
The Removal of the Bones of the Children of Jacob<\/p>\n
9And the king of Egypt went forth to fight with the king of Canaan in this forty-seventh jubilee in the second week in the second year. And the children of Israel brought forth the bones of the children of Jacob, all except the bones of Joseph. And they buried them in the field in the cave of Machpelah in the mountain. 10And many returned into Egypt but a few of them were left in Mount Hebron. And Amram, your father, was left with them.<\/p>\n
The Children of Israel Are Reduced to Slavery<\/p>\n
11And the king of Canaan was victorious over the king of Egypt and he closed the gates of Egypt. 12And he conceived an evil thought against the children of Israel so that he might cause them to suffer. And he said to the men of Egypt, 13\u201cBehold, the people of the sons of Israel have grown and increased more than we. Come let us act wisely concerning them before they increase. And let us cause them to suffer in slavery before war comes to us, or before they battle with us, or if not (that, then) they will mix with our enemy. And they will depart from our land because their hearts and their faces are upon the land of Canaan.\u201d
\n14And they appointed over them taskmasters to make them suffer in slavery. And they built strengthened cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Ramses. And they built all of the walls and all of the ramparts which had fallen in the cities of Egypt. 15And they made them slaves by force. And to the extent that they acted cruelly against them, they likewise increased and multiplied. 16And the men of Egypt regarded the sons of Israel as defiled.<\/p>\n
The Birth and Early Life of Moses<\/p>\n
47:1And in the seventh week, in the seventh year in this forty-seventh jubilee, your father came from the land of Canaan. And you were born in the fourth week, in the sixth year, in this forty-eighth jubilee, which were days of affliction upon the children of Israel. 2And the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, issued an order concerning them that they should throw all of their male children who were born into the river. 3And they continued throwing (them into the river) seven months, until the day when you were born. And your mother hid you three months, and they reported concerning her. 4And she made an ark for you. And she covered it with pitch and asphalt. And she placed it among the reeds by the shore of the river and she placed you in it seven days. And your mother came in the night and suckled you and (in) the day Miriam, your sister, guarded you from the birds.
\n5And in those days Tharmuth, the daughter of Pharaoh, came in order to bathe in the river and she heard your voice as you were crying and she told her maids to fetch you. And they brought you to her. 6And she took you from the ark and had pity on you. 7And your sister said to her, \u201cShall I go and call for you one of the Hebrew women who will nurse and suckle the infant for you?\u201d And she said to her, \u201cGo!\u201d 8And she went and called your mother, Jochebed. And she gave a wage to her. And she nursed you.
\n9And after this when you had grown they brought you to the daughter of Pharaoh and you became her son. And Amram, your father, taught you writing. And after you completed three weeks (of years) they brought you into the royal court. 10And you were in the court three weeks of years until the day when you went out of the royal court. And you saw an Egyptian beating your friend who was from the children of Israel. And you killed him and hid him in the sand. 11And on the second day you found two of the children of Israel striving together. And you said to that one who was acting falsely, \u201cWhy are you striking your brother?\u201d 12And he was angry and indignant and said, \u201cWho set you as a ruler and judge over us? Do you also desire to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?\u201d And you were afraid and you fled because of those words.<\/p>\n
Moses\u2019s Experience in Midian and Encounter with Mastema<\/p>\n
48:1And on the sixth year of the third week of the forty-ninth jubilee you went and dwelt in the land of Midian five weeks and one year and you returned to Egypt on the second week in the second year in the fiftieth jubilee. 2And you know what was related to you on Mount Sinai, and what Prince Mastema desired to do with you when you returned to Egypt, on the way when you met him at the shelter. 3Did he not desire to kill you with all of his might and save the Egyptians from your hand because he saw that you were sent to execute judgment and vengeance upon the Egyptians? 4And I delivered you from his hand and you did the signs and wonders which you were sent to perform in Egypt against Pharaoh, and all his house, and his servants, and his people.<\/p>\n
The Plagues on Egypt<\/p>\n
5And the LORD executed great vengeance upon them on account of Israel. And He smote them with blood, and frogs, and lice, and dog flies; and evil boils which break out (as) blisters; and their cattle with death; and hailstones with which he destroyed everything which sprouted up for them; and with locust who ate the remainder which was left from the hail; and with darkness, and (with death of) the firstborn of men, and cattle; and upon all of their gods the LORD took vengeance and He burned them with fire. 6And everything was sent in your hand to announce before it was done. And you related it to the king of Egypt before all of his servants and before his people. 7And everything happened according to your word, ten great and cruel judgments came on the land of Egypt so that you might execute vengeance upon it for Israel. 8And the LORD did everything on account of Israel and according to His covenant which He made with Abraham that He would take vengeance upon them just as they had made them serve by force.<\/p>\n
The Escape from Egypt and a Discussion of Mastema\u2019s Deeds<\/p>\n
9And Prince Mastema stood up before you and desired to make you fall into the hand of Pharaoh. And he aided the magicians of the Egyptians, and they stood up and acted before you. 10Thus we let them do evil, but we did not empower them with healing so that it might be done by their hands. 11And the LORD smote them with evil wounds and they were unable to stand because we destroyed (their ability) to do any single sign. 12And despite all the signs and wonders, Prince Mastema was not shamed until he had become strong and called to the Egyptians so that they might pursue after you with all the army of Egyptians, with their chariots, and with their horses, and with all the multitude of the peoples of Egypt.
\n13And I stood between the Egyptians and Israel and we delivered Israel from his hand and from the hand of his people. And the LORD brought them out through the midst of the sea as through dry land. 14And all of the people whom He brought out to pursue after Israel the LORD our God threw into the middle of the sea into the depths of the abyss beneath the children of Israel. Just as the men of Egypt cast their sons into the river He avenged one million. And one thousand strong and ardent men perished on account of one infant whom they threw into the midst of the river from the sons of your people.
\n15And on the fourteenth day, and on the fifteenth, and on the sixteenth, and on the seventeenth, and on the eighteenth Prince Mastema was bound and shut up from (coming) after the children of Israel so that he might not accuse them. 16And on the nineteenth day we released them so that they might help the Egyptians and pursue after the children of Israel. 17And he hardened their hearts and strengthened them. And it was conceived of by the LORD our God that He might smite the Egyptians and throw them into the midst of the sea. 18And on the fourteenth day we bound him so that he might not accuse the children of Israel on the day when they were requesting vessels and clothing from the men of Egypt\u2014vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of bronze\u2014so that they might plunder the Egyptians in exchange for the servitude which they subjected them to by force. 19And we did not bring the children of Israel from Egypt in their nakedness.<\/p>\n
The Feast of Passover, Its Institution and Observance<\/p>\n
49:1Remember the commandment which the LORD commanded you concerning Passover, that you observe it in its time, on the fourteenth of the first month, so that you might sacrifice it before it becomes evening and so that you might eat it during the night on the evening of the fifteenth from the time of sunset. 2For on this night there was the beginning of the feast and there was the beginning of joy. You continued eating the Passover in Egypt and all of the powers of Mastema were sent to kill all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive maidservant who was at the millstone and to the cattle. 3And this is the sign which the LORD gave to them in every house where they saw the blood of a year-old lamb upon its doors so that they would not enter into the house to kill, they would pass over so that all who were in the house might be saved because the sign of the blood was on its doors.
\n4And the host of the LORD did everything which the LORD commanded them. And they passed over all the children of Israel. And the plague did not come upon them to destroy any life from them whether cattle or men or dogs. 5And there was a very great plague in Egypt. And there was no house in Egypt in which there was no corpse and weeping and lamenting. 6And all of Israel remained eating the flesh of the Passover and drinking wine and praising and blessing and glorifying the LORD the God of their fathers. And they were prepared to depart from the yoke of Egypt and from evil slavery.
\n7And you, remember this day all of the days of your life and observe it from year to year all the days of your life, once per year on its day according to all of its law and you will not delay (one) day from (its) day or from (one) month to (another) month. 8For it is an eternal decree and engraved upon the heavenly tablets for all of the children of Israel that they might observe it in each and every year in its day once per year in all of their generations. And there is no limit of days because it is ordained forever.
\n9And (as for) the man who is purified and does not come so that he might observe it on its appointed day to bring a gift which is acceptable before the LORD and to eat and to drink before the LORD on the day of his feast, that man who is purified and nearby shall be uprooted because he did not bring a gift of the LORD in its (appointed) time. That man shall lift up sin upon himself. 10So that the children of Israel will be ones who come and observe Passover on its appointed day on the fourteenth of the first month between the evenings from the third (part) of the day until the third (part) of the night because two parts of the day are given for light and one third for evening. 11This is what the LORD commanded you so that you might observe it between the evenings.
\n12And it is not fitting to sacrifice it during any time of light except during the time of the border of evening. And they shall eat it during the time of evening until a third of the night. And what is left of all its flesh from the third of the night and beyond, they shall burn with fire. 13And it is not fitting that they should boil it in water. And they shall not eat it raw but roasted in the fire, cooked with care, its head with its inner organs and with its feet. They shall roast it in fire without breaking any of its bones within it because no bone of the children of Israel will be broken.
\n14Therefore the LORD commanded the children of Israel to observe the Passover on its appointed day. And it is not fitting to break any bone from it because it is the day of the feast and it is the day of the command. And there is no passing over in it (one) day from (its) day or from month (to) month because it shall be observed on the day of the feast.
\n15And you command the children of Israel to observe the Passover in their days in every year, once per year, on its appointed day. And it will come as an acceptable memorial from before the LORD. And the plague will not come to kill or to smite during that year when they have observed the Passover in its (appointed) time in all (respects) according to His command.
\n16And it is not fitting to eat it outside of the sanctuary of the LORD, but facing the sanctuary of the LORD. And all the people of the congregation of Israel will observe it in its (appointed) time. 17And all the men who come on its day will eat it in the sanctuary of your God before the LORD, whoever is twenty years or older, because thus it is written and decreed that they shall eat it in the sanctuary of the LORD.
\n18And whenever the children of Israel enter into the land which they will possess, into the land of Canaan, they will set up the tabernacle of the LORD in the midst of the land, in one of their tribes, until the sanctuary of the LORD is built upon the land. And it will come to pass when they come and observe the Passover, in the midst of the tabernacle of the LORD that they will sacrifice it before the LORD from year to year. 19And in the days when a house is built in the name of the LORD in the land of their inheritance, they shall go there and they shall sacrifice the Passover at evening when the sun is setting on the third (part) of the day. 20And they shall offer up its blood on the threshold of the altar. And its fat they shall place on the fire which is above the altar. And they shall eat its flesh cooked in fire within the court of the house which is sanctified in the name of the LORD.
\n21And they shall not be able to observe the Passover in their cities or in any district except before the tabernacle of the LORD or before His house in which His name dwells. And let them not stray from after the LORD.
\n22And you, Moses, command the children of Israel so that they shall keep the ordinance of the Passover just as it was commanded to you so that you might relate to them its annual (occurrence) each year, both its period of days and the feast of unleavened bread so that they might eat unleavened bread for seven days so that they might observe its feast, and so that they might bring its gift, day by day, during those seven days to rejoice before the LORD upon the altar of your God. 23For this feast you observed with nervousness when you went out from Egypt until you entered into the wilderness of Sur because you completed it on the shore of the sea.<\/p>\n
The Laws Pertaining to the Sabbath<\/p>\n
50:1And after this law I made you know the days of the Sabbaths in the wilderness of Sin which is between Elim and Sinai. 2And I also related to you the Sabbaths of the land on Mount Sinai. And the years of jubilee in the Sabbaths of years I related to you. But its year I have not related to you until you enter into the land which you will possess. 3And the land will keep its Sabbaths when they dwell upon it. And they will know the year of jubilee.
\n4On account of this I ordained for you the weeks of years, and the years, and the jubilees (as) forty-nine jubilees from the days of Adam until this day and one week and two years. And they are still forty further years to learn the commands of the LORD until they cross over the shore of the land of Canaan, crossing over the Jordan to its western side. 5And jubilees will pass until Israel is purified from all the sin of fornication, and defilement, and uncleanness, and sin and error. And they will dwell in confidence in all the land. And then it will not have any Satan or any evil (one). And the land will be purified from that time and forever.
\n6And behold the commandment of the Sabbaths I have written for you and all of the judgments of its law. 7Six days you will work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, or your children, or your manservant or your maidservant, or any of your cattle or the stranger who is with you. 8And let the man who does anything on it die. Every man who will profane this day, who will lie with his wife, and whoever will discuss a matter that he will do on it so that he might make on it a journey for any buying or selling, and whoever draws water on it, which was not prepared for him on the sixth day, and whoever lifts up anything that he will carry to take out of his tent or from his house, let him die. 9You shall not do any work upon the day of the Sabbath except what you prepared for yourself on the sixth day to eat and to drink and to rest and to observe a Sabbath from all work of that day and to bless the LORD your God who gave to you the day of festival and the holy day. And a day of the holy kingdom for all Israel is this day among their days always. 10For great is the honor which the LORD gave to Israel to eat and to drink and to be satisfied on this day of festival and to rest in it from all work of the occupations of the children of men except to offer incense and to bring gifts and sacrifices before the LORD for the days and the Sabbaths. 11This work alone shall be done on the day of the Sabbath in the sanctuary of the LORD your God so that they might atone for Israel (with) continual gift day by day for an acceptable memorial before the LORD. And so that He might accept them forever, day by day, just as He commanded you.
\n12And (as for) any man who does work on it, or who goes on a journey, or who plows a field either at home or any (other) place, or who kindles a fire, or who rides on any animal, or who travels the sea in a boat, and any man who slaughters or kills anything, or who slashes the throat of cattle or bird, or who snares any beast or bird or fish, or who fasts or makes war on the day of the Sabbath, 13let the man who does any of these on the day of the Sabbath die so that the children of Israel might keep the Sabbath according to the commands of the Sabbaths of the land just as it was written in the tablets which He placed in my hands so that I might write for you the law of each time and according to each division of its days.<\/p>\n
Pseudo-Jubilees<\/p>\n
James L. Kugel<\/p>\n
This text from Qumran consists of three fragments, of which the longest and most interesting is translated here. Pseudo-Jubilees acquired its name because, while 4Q225 (along with its related texts 4Q226 and 4Q227) seemed to recapitulate parts of Jubilees and share some of its terminology (for example, referring to its Satan-like figure as \u201cthe angel of Mastema\u201d), it was not an actual copy of the text of Jubilees itself. The manuscript fragments have been dated paleographically to the latter part of the 1st century BCE or the first decade or two of the Common Era, but its composition might be dated somewhat earlier.<\/p>\n
SIGNIFICANCE<\/p>\n
The text contains a retelling of Abraham\u2019s near-sacrifice of his son Isaac that is different from both the biblical account (Gen. 22) and the version in the book of Jubilees (chapter 18). In the climactic scene, as Abraham raises the knife to kill his son, the author of Pseudo-Jubilees describes two opposing groups of angels observing from above: the good angels are weeping at the prospect of Isaac\u2019s imminent death, while the wicked angels are chortling over the same outcome. The motif of weeping angels is known from later, Rabbinic texts, but their appearance here seems to have been designed to explain a troubling detail in Jubilees\u2019 version of the events; see comment below on 2:5\u20136.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Kugel, J. \u201cExegetical Notes on 4Q225 \u201cPseudo-Jubilees.\u201d DSD 13 (2006), 73\u201398.
\nVanderKam, J. C., and J. T. Milik. \u201c4Q Pseudo-Jubileesa.\u201d In Qumran Cave 4. VIII Parabiblical Texts Part 1, DJD 13, edited by H. Attridge, et al., 141\u201355. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
Column 1<\/p>\n
[\u2026] that s[oul] shall be cut off[\u2026
\n1.2 [from among] his people. [sett]led in Haran twent[y ye]ars
\n1.3 And Ab]raham [said] to God: My LORD, behold I am childless and Eli[ezer]
\n1.4 is [my household servant] and he will be my heir. [blank]
\n1.5 [The Lo]rd [said] to A[b]raham: Lift up (your eyes) and observe the stars, and see
\n1.6 [if you can count] the sand that is on the seashore or the dust of the earth, for if
\n1.7 these [can be num]bered or if not, such will be your descendants. And he tr[usted]
\n1.8 in Go[d] and it was reckoned to his credit. And a son was born af[terward]
\n1.9 [to Abrah]am and he called his name Isaac. And the angel of Ma[s]tema went
\n1.10 [to G]od and accused Abraham regarding Isaac, and [G]od said
\n1.11 [to Abra]ham, \u201cTake your son Isaac, [your] only on[e from Sarah, whom]
\n1.12 you [love] and offer him up to Me as a whole burnt offering on one of the [hig]h mountains
\n1.13 [that I will show] you.\u201d And he aro[se and w]en[t] from the wells ne[ar Gerar which]
\n1.14 [his servants had dug and he we]n[t to the land of Moriah.] And Ab[raham] lifted<\/p>\n
Column 2<\/p>\n
2.1 [his ey]es [and there was a] fire, and he plac[ed the wood on his son Isaac, and they went together.]
\n2.2 Isaac said to Abraham [his father, \u201cHere is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb]
\n2.3 for the sacrifice? Abraham said to [his son Isaac, \u201cGod has said that you are to be the lamb that is]
\n2.4 His.\u201d Isaac said to his father, \u201cA[ll that the LORD has told you so shall you do.\u201d]
\n2.5 The angels of holiness were standing weeping above [him, saying \u201cShall God annihilate]
\n2.6 His sons from the earth? The angels of Ma[stema stood opposite them in the heavens]
\n2.7 celebrating and saying, \u201cNow he is lost! [For if Abraham withholds his son, he will be found to be]
\n2.8 false; and if not, he will be found faithful, b[ut his son will die.\u201d And the angel called out]
\n2.9 \u201cAbraham, Abraham!\u201d He said: Here I am. He said, \u201cN[ow I have made known to everyone that]
\n2.10 the one who loves Me cannot be false.\u201d God the LORD blessed Is[aac all the days of his life. He became the father of]
\n2.11 Jacob, and Jacob became the father of Levi, a [third] generation. [blank]<\/p>\n
Pseudo-Philo, Book of Biblical Antiquities<\/p>\n
Howard Jacobson<\/p>\n
Book of Biblical Antiquities (also known as Liber antiquitatum biblicarum, or L. A. B.), is an example of a genre known as rewritten Bible. The author reviews the biblical narrative from Adam to David, adding, subtracting, embellishing, and revising. He covers biblical material from the book of Genesis through the books of Samuel. The work begins with genealogies from Adam to Noah and continues with stories, some biblical (e.g., the Flood, the Tower of Babel) and some extrabiblical (e.g., Abram\u2019s rescue from the burning furnace). Among important biblical episodes that are not included as part of the chronological narrative are Jacob\u2019s deception of his father, Joseph and Potifar\u2019s wife, Moses and the burning bush, the building of the Tabernacle in the desert, Moses begging to enter Canaan, the fall of the walls of Jericho.<\/p>\n
Authorship and History<\/p>\n
L.A.B. survives as a Latin text preserved in approximately 20 medieval manuscripts, the earliest of which dates to the 11th century. Internal evidence confirms that the work\u2019s original language was Hebrew and that the Latin text was translated from a Greek translation of the original Hebrew. Thus, our Latin text stands two stages removed from the original. It is therefore no surprise that it is riddled with corruption. The Latin text itself comes in two recensions. Sometimes one version preserves the superior reading, other times the other.
\nL.A.B. was almost certainly written between 70 CE and 150CE. L. Cohn established over a century ago that L.A.B. was written after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70CE, an argument based on the importance of the date 17 Tammuz in L.A.B. and further developed by James and Howard Jacobson. An author writing in Hebrew in the decades following 70 CE was almost certainly living in Palestine. Thus, L.A.B. falls into the same category as 4 Esdras and 2 Baruch, works written in Hebrew in Palestine not long after the fall of the Second Temple and surviving only in translations at two stages from the original. And like those works, L.A.B. is a reaction and response to the catastrophe that had befallen the Jewish people.
\nThe manuscripts attribute L.A.B. to Philo of Alexandria. For many reasons this is impossible; in particular, because Philo did not know enough Hebrew to write in the language. We have no idea who the author of the work was. Indeed, in some sense it is problematic to speak of an author at all. The work as we have it is unquestionably the product of one formative mind, one shaping spirit, yet the contents of the book are so largely derivative that one tends to think of the author as the person who gave this work form rather than substance. Not only is the biblical narrative the foundation of the whole book, but even the deviations and embellishments probably come, in some measure, from a tradition that preceded our author. Still, the very act of selection is a matter of creative decision, and the work as a whole takes on an identity that is uniquely its own and far greater than the sum of its parts. In fairness, some of the substantive innovations in the book may indeed be the author\u2019s own work. But whoever the molder of L.A.B. was, we can feel certain that we will never know his identity.<\/p>\n
Significance<\/p>\n
As noted above, L.A.B. is one of a number of works that were written as a reaction to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple. The many similarities among these works include themes, ideas, language, phrasing, and imagery. Regardless of which works influenced which others in this group, it seems a fair inference that these works, different though they are in certain respects, all derive from the same historical, cultural, and social context and were all drawing upon a common body of themes, ideas, and goals.
\nL.A.B. is perhaps the earliest extensive rewriting of the Bible that is firmly grounded in the Bible. Certainly, works derived from the biblical narrative already existed in the Hellenistic period. Ezekiel the Tragedian (2nd century BCE) produced some of the same kind of \u201crewritings\u201d found in L.A.B., but Ezekiel\u2019s work is not a predecessor of L.A.B. in any serious way. In L.A.B., the author presents his version of the Bible in biblical form; Ezekiel\u2019s interest is to completely change the form and format. The author of L.A.B. covers nearly the entire narrative portion of the Bible, whereas Ezekiel writes about a single\u2014if extended\u2014episode (the Exodus from Egypt). Joseph and Aseneth, unlike L.A.B., is a fictional narrative that takes off from one or two facts in the Bible and then goes its own independent route. Similarly, our surviving fragments of the treatise by Artapanus do not suggest that his work (written between the mid-3rd and early 1st centuries BCE) was a paraphrastic narrative of the Bible. The Genesis Apocryphon scroll found at Qumran (written in Aramaic) sometimes appears to be an imitation of the Bible, though its fragmentary nature makes this somewhat hard to judge. Although in Aramaic, it does sometimes come close to being an imitation of the Bible. Josephus\u2019s Jewish Antiquities contains similarities to L.A.B. (e.g., the tone and themes of Moses\u2019s speech during the Revolt of Korah [Ant. 4.40\u201350] mirror some invented speeches in L.A.B.). But Jewish Antiquities is written in a completely different (and nonbiblical) style, is highly rhetorical, and exhibits a degree of implicit authorial judgment that is absent in L.A.B.
\nThe Palestinian book of Jubilees (composed roughly when Ezekiel was writing) is, on the surface, quite similar to L.A.B. Although Jubilees covers biblical history only through the beginning of Moses\u2019s career, it is, like L.A.B., a continuous prose rewriting of the Bible. Of course, no one would mistake Jubilees for L.A.B.: their central themes are entirely different; the framework of the secret revelation to Moses used in Jubilees is an artifice absent from L.A.B.; and, perhaps most important, Jubilees does not read like an imitation of the Bible, whereas L.A.B. does. In spite of all this, among L.A.B.\u2019s antecedents, Jubilees is probably its closest cousin.
\nWith L.A.B. the genre seems to come to a dead halt; only centuries later does it revive. Among L.A.B.\u2019s descendants, surely the work closest to it is the much later Sefer ha-Yashar. L.A.B. is not only one of the earliest surviving works of Midrash, but by virtue of its extensive treatment of the post-Pentateuch historical narratives, it is indeed our single most important repository of midrashic exegesis on these books. Later Rabbinic midrashic texts on these books contain much material that is either derivative of L.A.B. or in the same tradition.
\nIf there is a single predominant theme in L.A.B., it is the following: No matter how much the Jewish people suffer, no matter how bleak their situation appears, God will never completely abandon God\u2019s people and in the end will grant salvation and triumph to the Jews.
\nFaced with a communal past filled with trauma and a present colored mainly by catastrophe, how did the author of L.A.B. attempt to convince a people that in the face of their current despair and disaster there was reason for hope and room for optimism? He did this by bringing to bear on his narrative a particularly pointed and tendentious interpretive perspective on Jewish history, centered on the role of God in history. Of course, the Bible portrays God as the prime mover in history, but L.A.B.\u2019s author goes even further, taking pains to emphasize that not only the positive events, but even the very disasters that befall the Jews, are God\u2019s doing. (To a lesser degree, the later prophets often do this as well, but again not to the degree that L.A.B. does.) But God does not act randomly; on the contrary, God acts with reason and consistency. Disasters are nothing but God\u2019s punishment for sin. In other words, God is in complete control. Since God is also truthful, the ultimate salvation of the Jews (in accord with God\u2019s promises) is assured, no matter how long it may take. When the Jews cease sinning grievously and devote themselves faithfully to God and the Law\u2014which is within their power and will at some point happen\u2014salvation will come (cf. L.A.B. 21:6).<\/p>\n
GUIDE TO READING<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most salient features of L.A.B.\u2019s author\u2019s writing are his profound familiarity with the Bible and his ability to fluently compose narrative in biblical style. The reader would do well to read L.A.B. with a Bible at hand, open to the pertinent biblical passage.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Cohn, L. \u201cAn Apocryphal Work Ascribed to Philo of Alexandria.\u201d Jewish Quarterly Review 10 (1898): 277\u2013332.
\nFeldman, L. H. \u201cProlegomenon.\u201d In The Biblical Antiquities of Philo, translated by M. R. James. New York: Ktav, 1971 (first published 1917 by SPCK).
\nFisk, Bruce N. Do You Not Remember. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001.
\nHarrington, D. J., J. Cazeaux, C. Perrot, and P.-M. Bogaert. Pseudo-Philon: Les Antiquit\u00e9s Bibliques. Paris: Cerf, 1976.
\nJacobson, H. A Commentary on Pseudo-Philo\u2019s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum. Leiden: Brill, 1996.
\nJames, M. R., trans. The Biblical Antiquities of Philo. New York: Ktav, 1971 (first published 1917 by SPCK).
\nMurphy, F. J. Pseudo-Philo: Rewriting the Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
\nNickelsburg, G. W. E. Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah, revised ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005, 265\u201370.<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION<\/p>\n
The Generations from Adam to Noah<\/p>\n
The beginning of the world. Adam begot three sons and one daughter: Cain, Noaba, Abel, and Seth. 1:1After he begot Seth, Adam lived 700 years: he begot twelve sons and seven daughters. 2These are the names of the males: Eliseel, Suri, Slumiel, Brabal, Naat, Zara, Maza, Samma, Athal, and Anath. 3These are his daughters: Fua, Iectas, Arebica, Sifa, Tetia, Saba, Asin. 4Seth lived 105 years and begot Enosh. After he begot Enosh Seth lived 807 years and begot three sons and two daughters. 5These are the names of his sons: Elidia, Fonna, and Matha; and of his daughters: Malida and Thila. 6Enosh lived 190 years and begot Kenan. After he begot Kenan, Enosh lived 715 years and begot two sons and a daughter. 7These are the names of his sons: Fo and Haal; and of his daughter: Catennath. 8Cainan lived 170 years and begot Mahalalel. After he begot Mahalalel, Kenan lived 740 years and begot three sons and two daughters. 9These are the names of the males: Athac, Socer, Lfa; and the names of the daughters: Ana and Leva. 10Mahalalel lived 165 years and begot Jared. After he begot Jared, Mahalalel lived 730 years and begot seven sons and five daughters. 11These are the names: Leta, Mata, Cechar, Melie, Suriel, Lod and Otim. These are the names of his daughters: Ada and Noa, Iebal, Mada, Sella.
\n12Jared lived 162 years and begot Enoch. After he begot Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and begot four sons and two daughters. 13These are the names of the males: Lead, Anac, Soboac, and Ietar; and of the daughters: Tetzeco, Lesse.
\n14Enoch lived 165 years and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methusaleh, Enoch lived 200 years and begot five sons and three daughters. 15Now Enoch walked with God at that time and he was no more, for God took him. 16The names of his sons: Anaz, Zeum, Achaun, Feledi, Elith; and of his daughters: Theiz, Lefith, Leath. 17Methusaleh lived 187 years and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methusaleh lived 782 years and begot two sons and two daughters. 18These are the names of the males: Inab and Rafo; and of the daughters: Aluma and Amuga.
\n19Lamech lived 182 years and begot a son and called him, in accord with the time of his birth, \u201cNoah,\u201d saying, \u201cThis one will give rest to us and to the earth from those who dwell on it, upon whom punishment will be brought on account of the wickedness of their evil deeds.\u201d 20After he begot Noah, Lamech [blank] lived 595 years. 21And Noah lived 300 years and begot three sons: Shem, Ham, Japheth.<\/p>\n
The Generations from Cain to Lamech<\/p>\n
2:1Cain dwelt in the land trembling, as God had determined for him after he had killed Abel his brother. The name of his wife was Themech. 2Cain knew Themech his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. 3Cain was sixty-six years old when he did these things, and from then on he began to build cities until he had founded seven cities. These are the names of the cities: the name of the first city was Enoch, corresponding to the name of his son; the name of the second city Mauli, and of the third Leed; the name of the fourth Teze, the name of the fifth Iesca, the name of the sixth Celeth, and the name of the seventh Iebbat. 4After he begot Enoch, Cain lived 715 years and begot three sons and two daughters. These are the names of his sons: Olad, Lizaf, Fosal; and of his daughters: Citha and Maac. All the days of Cain were 730 years; then he died. 5Then Enoch took a wife from the daughters of Seth, and she bore him Irad and Cuut and Madab. Irad begot [blank] Methusael, and Methusael begot Lamech. 6Lamech took for himself two wives. The name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Sella. 7Ada bore Javal; he was the father of all those who dwell in tents and who pasture cattle. She gave birth for him a second time, to Jobal, who was the first to teach all kinds of musical instruments. 8At that time, when the inhabitants of the earth began to do evil deeds, every man against his neighbor\u2019s wife, and they defiled them, God became angry. And men began to play the lyre and the cythera and every instrument of sweet music and to corrupt the earth. 9Sella bore Tobel and Miza and Theffa. This is the Tobel who showed men arts in lead and tin and iron and copper and silver and gold. Then the inhabitants of the earth began to make sculpted objects and to worship them. 10Lamech said to both his wives, Adah and Sella, \u201cHear my voice, wives of Lamech, and attend to my remark, for I have destroyed men on my behalf and snatched nursing babies from the breast, in order to teach my sons and the inhabitants of the earth to do evil. And now punishment will be exacted from Cain seven times, but from Lamech seventy times seven times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noah and the Flood<\/p>\n
3:1When men began to multiply upon the earth, attractive daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were very beautiful and took for themselves wives from whom they had chosen.
\n2God said, \u201cMy spirit shall not abide in those men forever, because they are of flesh, but their years shall be 120, at which I have set the limit of the world. But the crimes committed by their hands will not stop.\u201d
\n3God saw that among all the inhabitants of the earth wicked deeds were many and they were plotting evil all their days, and he said, \u201cI will blot out man and all the things that grow on earth, for I regret that I made him.\u201d
\n4But Noah found favor and mercy before the LORD, and these are his generations. Noah, who was a righteous man and blameless in his generation, walked with the LORD. God said to him, \u201cThe end of all men who dwell upon the earth has arrived, for their deeds are wicked. And now make for yourself an ark from cedar wood. You will make it in the following way: Its length will be 300 cubits, its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. You will go into the ark, you, your wife, your sons and the wives of your sons with you, and I will establish my covenant with you, so that I may destroy all the inhabitants of the earth. Now of the clean animals and of the clean birds of the heaven you shall take seven pairs, male and female, so that their seed can live upon the earth. But of the unclean animals and birds you shall take for yourself and for them [blank] to eat.\u201d
\n5Noah did what God commanded him. He entered the ark, he and all his sons with him. After seven days the water of the flood began to be upon the earth. On that day all the depths and the great spring and the floodgates of the heaven opened; and there was rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
\n6It was then the sixteen hundred and fifty-second year from God\u2019s creation of the heaven and earth, the day on which the earth along with its inhabitants was destroyed on account of the wickedness of their deeds.
\n7The deluge continued on the earth for one hundred and fifty days. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived. And when God remembered Noah, he made the water subside.
\n8On the ninetieth day God dried up the earth and said to Noah, \u201cGo out of the ark, you and all who are with you, and increase and multiply upon the earth.\u201d Noah went out of the ark, he, his sons [blank] and the wives of his sons, and brought out with him all the animals and reptiles and birds and cattle, as God commanded him. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took from every clean animal and clean bird, and offered burnt offerings upon the altar; and it was accepted by the LORD like a restful scent.
\n9God said, \u201cI will never again curse the earth on man\u2019s account, for the inclination of man\u2019s heart is degenerate from his youth; and so I will never again destroy all living creatures together as I have done. But when the inhabitants of the earth sin, I will judge them by famine or by the sword or by fire or by pestilence; there will be earthquakes, and they will be scattered to uninhabited places. However, I will not again destroy the earth by the water of the flood. For all the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter will not cease day and night as long as I remember those who inhabit the earth, until time is fulfilled.
\n10But when the years of the world will be complete, then the light will cease and the darkness will be extinguished, and I will bring the dead to life and raise up from the earth those who are sleeping. The underworld will pay back its debt, and the place of perdition will return its deposit so that I will render to each according to his works and according to the fruits of his own deeds, until I judge between soul and flesh. And the world will be at rest, and death will be extinguished, and the underworld will close its mouth. The earth will not be without issue or sterile for those who dwell in it; and no one who has been vindicated by me will be polluted. There will be another earth and another heaven, an everlasting dwelling place.\u201d
\n11The LORD spoke again to Noah and to his sons, saying, \u201cLo, I will establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you, and I will not again destroy the earth by the water of a flood. Everything that moves and is alive will be food for you, but meat with the blood of the soul you shall not eat. Indeed, whoever will shed the blood of a man, his own blood will be shed, because man was made in the image of God. But you, increase and multiply and fill the earth, like a multitude of fish that multiplies in the waves.\u201d
\n12God said. \u201cThis is the [blank] covenant that I have established between me and you. When I bring clouds to the heavens, my bow will appear in the cloud; and it will be a memorial of the covenant between me and you and all those who dwell upon the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Descendants of Noah<\/p>\n
4:1The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The Census of Noah\u2019s Descendants<\/p>\n 5:1Then the sons of Ham came and made Nimrod their leader; the sons of Japheth appointed Fenech their chief; and the sons of Shem gathered together and made Joktan their leader. Abram and the Tower of Babel<\/p>\n 6:1Then all those who had been separated while inhabiting the earth afterward gathered and dwelled together. Setting out from the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylon. They dwelled there and said to each other, \u201cBehold, it will come about that we will be scattered from each other and in later times we will be fighting each other. Therefore, come now, let us build for ourselves a tower whose top will reach the heavens, and we will make for ourselves a name and a glory upon the earth.\u201d The Tower and the Dispersion<\/p>\n 7:1After these events the people of the land did not turn from their evil thoughts and they came together again to their leaders and said, \u201cLet not the people ever be defeated. and now let us come together and build ourselves a city and a tower that will never be taken away.\u201d From Abram to Joseph<\/p>\n 8:1Abram went forth from there and dwelled in the land of Canaan and took with him Lot the son of his brother and Sarai his wife. Since Sarai was sterile and had borne no children, Abram then took Hagar his maid and she bore him Ishmael. Ishmael begot twelve sons. Amram and the Birth of Moses<\/p>\n 9:1After Joseph\u2019s death, the sons of Israel multiplied and increased greatly. A new king, who did not know Joseph, arose in Egypt, and he said to his people, \u201cBehold, that people is more numerous than are we. Come, let us make a plan against them so that they will not increase.\u201d The king of Egypt ordered all his people, saying, \u201cEvery son that is born to the Hebrews, throw into the river; but let their females live.\u201d The Egyptians answered their king, saying, \u201cWe will kill their males and keep their females so that we may give them to our slaves as wives. And whoever is born from them will be a slave and will serve us.\u201d This is what seemed worst before the LORD. The Exodus<\/p>\n 10:1When the king of the Egyptians died, a new king rose up and afflicted the entire people of Israel. But they cried out to the LORD, and he heard them. He sent Moses and freed them from the land of the Egyptians. God also sent upon them ten plagues and smote them. These were the plagues, namely, blood and frogs and mixed creatures and hail and pestilence upon cattle and locusts and lice and palpable darkness and the death of the first-born. The Decalogue<\/p>\n 11:1In the third month after the departure of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, they came to the wilderness of Sinai, and God remembered his words and said, \u201cI will give a light to the world and illuminate their habitations and establish my covenant with human beings and glorify my people above all nations. I will enjoin upon them the eternal statutes that will be a light for the righteous, but will be a punishment for the impious.\u201d The Golden Calf<\/p>\n 12:1Moses came down. (Having been bathed with light that could not be gazed upon, he had gone down to the place where the light of the sun and the moon are. The light of his face surpassed the splendor of the sun and the moon, but he was unaware of this.) When he came down to the children of Israel, upon seeing him they did not recognize him. But when he had spoken, then they recognized him. This was similar to the event in Egypt, when Joseph recognized his brothers, they however did not recognize him. Afterward, when Moses realized that his face had become glorious, he made himself a veil with which to cover his face. The Tabernacle and the Festivals<\/p>\n 13:1Moses hastened and did everything that God commanded him. He went down and made the < The Census of the People<\/p>\n 14:1Then God said to him, \u201cDo a census of my people from twenty years and up, to forty years, so that I may show your clans as much as I declared to their fathers in a foreign land, because in a fiftieth part I raised them up from the land of Egypt, but forty-nine fiftieths died in the land of Egypt, when you were residing there. The Report of the Spies<\/p>\n 15:1Moses sent spies to spy out the land, twelve men, for so he had been ordered. After they had gone up and spied out the land, they returned to him and brought back fruits from the fruits of the land. But they shattered the heart of the people, saying, \u201cYou will not be able to take possession of the land, because it is shut up with iron bars by its mighty men.\u201d Korah\u2019s Rebellion<\/p>\n 16:1At that time he commanded him about the fringes. Then Korah and two hundred men with him rebelled and said, \u201cWhy is an unbearable law imposed upon us in this way?\u201d The Selection of the Priest<\/p>\n 17:1Then the identity of the priestly family was revealed by the selection of a tribe. Moses was told, \u201cTake for the twelve tribes one rod apiece and put them in the tabernacle. Then the one to whom my glory will speak, that one\u2019s rod will flower and I will take away the murmuring from my people.\u201d Balak and Balaam<\/p>\n 18:1At that time, Moses smote Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and he apportioned all their land to his people, and they dwelled in it. Moses\u2019s Farewell Speech<\/p>\n 19:1At that time Moses smote the nations and gave half their spoils [blank] to the people. He began expounding to them the words of the Law that God had spoken to them on Horeb. Joshua\u2019s Conquest of the Land<\/p>\n 20:1At that time God established his covenant with Joshua the son of Nun, who was left from the men who had spied out the land; for the lot had fallen upon them that they should not see the land because they had spoken ill about it, and on account of this that generation died. The Altar at Gilgal<\/p>\n 21:1When Joshua had grown old and was advanced in days, God said to him, \u201cBehold you are old and advanced in days, the land has proved to be very large, and there is no one to apportion it. After your death this people will mingle with the inhabitants of the land, and they will go astray after strange gods, and I will abandon them as I testified in my words to Moses. But you testify to them before you die.\u201d The Altar across the Jordan<\/p>\n 22:1After these events, when Joshua and all Israel heard that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan had built an altar for themselves and were offering sacrifices on it and had made priests for the sanctuary, all the people were very disturbed and came to them at Shiloh. Joshua\u2019s Covenant<\/p>\n 23:1Now Joshua the son of Nun, a mighty warrior, organized the people and apportioned the land among them. While there still remained enemies of Israel upon the land, the time approached for Joshua to die. He sent and summoned all Israel throughout all their land, along with women and children, and he said to them, \u201cGather before the ark of the covenant of the LORD in Shiloh, and I will establish a covenant with you before I die.\u201d Joshua\u2019s Death<\/p>\n 24:1After that time Joshua the son of Nun again gathered all the people and said to them, \u201cBehold now the LORD has testified among you. Today I call to witness against you heaven and earth, that if you continue to serve the LORD, you will be a special people to him; but if you refuse to serve him and you wish to obey the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, speak today before the LORD and go. But I and my household will serve the LORD.\u201d Cenaz and the Sinners\u2019 Confessions<\/p>\n 25:1After the death of Joshua the land of Israel was peaceful. But the Philistines sought to fight with the children of Israel. The latter inquired of the LORD and said, \u201cShould we go up and fight against the Philistines?\u201d And God said to them, \u201cIf you go up with a pure heart, fight; but if your heart is defiled, do not go up.\u201d They inquired again, saying, \u201cHow will we know if the heart of all the people is the same?\u201d God said to them, \u201cCast lots by your tribes, and for every tribe, let whoever comes out in the lot be set apart on one side, and then you will know whose heart is pure and whose is defiled.\u201d The Stones<\/p>\n 26:1When Cenaz, after hearing all these words, had written them in a book and had read them before the LORD, God said to him, \u201cTake the men and what was found with them and all their possessions, and put them into the wadi Kison and burn them with fire, so that my anger will turn away from them.\u201d Cenaz\u2019s Victory<\/p>\n 27:1After this he armed three hundred thousand men of the people, and went up to fight the Amorites. He smote on the first day eight hundred thousand men, and on the second day he killed five hundred thousand. Cenaz\u2019s Vision and Death<\/p>\n 28:1When the time approached for Cenaz to die, he sent and summoned all [blank], and Jabis and Phinehas the two prophets and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and he said to them, \u201cBehold now the LORD has shown me all his wonders that he has prepared to do for his people in the last days. 11And the LORD opened the womb of Leah and she conceived and she bore a son to Jacob, and he called him Reuben, on the fourteenth of the ninth month, in the first year of the third week. 12But the womb of Rachel was closed because the LORD saw that Leah was hated, but Rachel … <\/p>\n
\n2The sons of Japheth: [blank] Magog and Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras, Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah, Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, Dodanim. The sons of Gomer: Thelez, Lud, Deberleth. The sons of Magog: Cesse and Thifa, Faruta, Ammiel, Fimei, Goloza, Samanac. The sons of Javan: Sallus, Felucta, Fallita. The sons of Tubal: Fanata, Nova, and Eva. The sons of Meshech: Amboradat, Urac, Bosara. The sons of Tiras: Maac, Tabel, Ballana, Samplameac, Elaz. The sons of Ashkenaz: Jubal, Zaraddana, Anac. The sons of Riphath: Doad, Defad, Zead, Enoc. The sons of Togarmah: Abiuth, Safath, Asapli, Zepthir. The sons of Elishah: Zaac, Zenez, Mastisa, Rira. The sons of Tarshish: Meccul, Loon, Zelatabac. The sons of Kittim: Macziel, Temna, Aela, Finon. The sons of Dodanim: Itheb, Beath, Feneth.
\n3These are the ones who were scattered abroad and dwelled on the mainland among the Persians and Medes and in the islands that are in the sea. Feneth the son of Dodanim went up and ordered that ships of the seas be built. Then a third part of the earth was divided up.
\n4Gomer and his sons received Ladech. Magog and his sons received Degal. Madai and his sons received Besto. Javan and his sons received Ceel. Tubal and his sons received Feed. Mesech and his sons received Nepthi. Tiras and his sons received Iesca. Duodenin [?Ascenaz?] and his sons received Goda. Riphath and his sons received Bosorra. Togarmah and his sons received Futh. Elishah and his sons received Thabola. Tarshish and his sons received Marecham. Kittim and his sons received Thaan. Dodanim and his sons received Caruba.
\n5Then they began to work the land and to sow upon it. When the earth was thirsty, its inhabitants cried out to the LORD; and he heard them and gave them rain in abundance. When the rain descended upon the earth, the bow appeared in the cloud. The earth\u2019s inhabitants saw the memorial of the covenant and fell upon their faces and made sacrifices of burnt offerings to the LORD.
\n6These are the sons of Ham: Cush and Mestraim and Put and Canaan. These are the sons of Cush: Seba and
\n7Cush begot Nimrod. He began to be arrogant before the LORD. Mestraim begot Ludim and Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim and Pathrusim and Casluhimm, whence came the Philistines and the Cappadocians.
\n8Then they also began to build cities. These are the cities that they built: Sidon and its surroundings, that is, Resen, Beoso, Gaza, Gerar, Calon, Dabir, Camo, Tellun, Lachish, Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Seboim.
\n9The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arpachshad begot Shelah; Shelah begot Eber. To Eber were born two sons; the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother\u2019s name was Joktan.
\n10Joktan begot Almodad and Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. The sons of Peleg were: Reu, Refuth, Zefaram, Aculon, Sachar, Sifaz, Nabi, Suri, Seciur, Falacus, Rafo, Faltia, Zaldefal, Zavis and Arteman, Helifaz. These are the sons of Peleg, and these are their names. They took wives for themselves from the daughters of Joktan and produced sons and daughters and filled the earth.
\n11Reu took as his wife Melcha the daughter of Ruth, and she bore to him Serug. When the day of delivery came, she said, \u201cFrom this one there will be born in the fourth generation one who will set his dwelling on high and will be called perfect and blameless; and he will be the father of nations, and his covenant will not be broken, and his seed will be multiplied forever.\u201d
\n12After he begot Serug, Reu lived 119 years and begot seven sons and five daughters. These are the names of his sons: Abiel, Obthi, Salma, Aded, Asal, Zeneza, Accur, Nefis. These are the names of his daughters: Cedema, Derisa, Seifa, Ferita, Theima.
\n13Serug lived 29 years and begot Nahor. After he begot Nahor, Serug lived 207 years and begot four sons and three daughters. These are the names of the males: Zela, Zoba, Dica, and Fodde. These are his daughters: Tefila, Oda, Selifa.
\n14Nahor lived 34 years and begot Terah. After he begot Terah, Nahor lived 200 years and begot eight sons and five daughters. These are the names of the males: Recap, Dediap, Berecha, Iosac, Sithal, Nisab, Nadab, Camoel; and his daughters were: Esca, Thifa, Bruna, Cene, Etha.
\n15Terah lived 70 years and begot Abram and Nahor and Haran. Haran begot Lot.
\n16Then those who inhabited the earth began to gaze at the stars and started to prognosticate by them and to perform divination and to pass their sons and daughters through fire. But Serug and his sons did not walk in accord with them.
\n17These are the generations of Noah in their lands according to their tribes and languages, from which the nations were distributed on the earth after the Flood.<\/havilah,><\/p>\n
\n2When these three came together, they decided to review and count the people who were kin to them. And so, while Noah was still alive, all assembled and lived together, and the earth was at peace.
\n3In the three hundred and fortieth year after Noah\u2019s departure from the ark, after God dried up the flood, the leaders did a census of their people.
\n4Fenech reviewed the sons of Japheth. The sons of Gomer, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 5,800 in number. Of the sons of Magog, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 6,200 in number. The sons of Madai, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 5700 in number. The sons of Tubal, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 9,400 in number. The sons of Meshech, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 5,600 in number. The sons of Tiras, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 12,300 in number. The sons of Riphath, passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 11,500 in number. The sons of Togarmah, passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 14,400 in number. The sons of Elishah, passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 14,900 in number. The sons of Tarshish, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 12,100 in number. The sons of Kittim, all passing by under their captains; staffs, were 17,300 in number. The sons of Dodanim, passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 17,700 in number. The total of the camp of the sons of Japheth, all men of might and all equipped with arms for battle before their leaders, was 142,200, apart from women and children. The census of Japheth: in all there were 142,000 [?].
\n5Nimrod too came forth and <
\n6Joktan the son of Shem reviewed the sons of Shem. The sons of Elam, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were 37,000 in number. The sons of Ashur, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were found to be 78,000 in number. The sons of Aram, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were found to be 87,400 in number. The sons of Lud, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were found to be 30,600 in number. The sons of Arpachshad, all passing by under their captains\u2019 staffs, were found to be 114,600 in number. Their total number was 347,600,
\n7the total of the camp of the sons of Shem. All were capable of engaging in battle and were equipped for war in the presence of their captains, besides women and children.
\n8These are the generations of Noah, arranged separately, whose total number altogether was 914,100. All these were counted while Noah was still alive. Noah lived 350 years after the flood. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.<\/reviewed><\/p>\n
\n2They said to each other, \u201cLet us take bricks and let each of us write our names on the bricks and burn them with fire; and what will be burned will serve as mortar and brick.\u201d
\n3They each took their own bricks, aside from twelve men who refused to take them. These are their names: Abram, Nahor, Lot, Ruge, Tenute, Zaba, Armodat, Jobab, Esar, Abimahel, Saba, Aufin.
\n4The people of that land seized them and brought them to their chiefs and said, \u201cThese are the men who have violated our plans and refuse to walk in our ways.\u201d The leaders said to them, \u201cWhy were you not willing, every one of you, to contribute bricks together with the people of the land?\u201d Those men answered and said, \u201cWe are not contributing bricks with you, nor are we joining in your wishes. We know only the LORD, and him we worship. Even if you throw us into the fire with your bricks, we will not assent to you.\u201d
\n5The leaders were angered and said, \u201cAs they have spoken, so do to them. Unless they agree to contribute bricks with you, burn them in the fire together with your bricks.\u201d
\n6Joktan, who was the chief of the leaders, answered, \u201cNot so, but a period of seven days will be given them, and if they repent their evil plans and are willing to contribute bricks with you, they may live. If not, let it be done, let them be burned then in accord with your judgment.\u201d He, however, was seeking a way to save them from the hands of the people, since he was of their tribe and served God.
\n7After saying this, he took them and shut them in the royal house. When evening came, the leader ordered that fifty mighty warriors be summoned to him, and he said to them, \u201cGo forth and take tonight those men who are shut up in my house, and put provisions for them from my house on ten pack animals. The men themselves bring to me, but bring their provisions with the pack animals to the mountains and await them there. Be aware that, if anyone learns what I have said to you, I will burn you in the fire.\u201d
\n8The men went forth and did everything that their chief had commanded them. They brought the men from his house at night, and they took their provisions and put them on the pack animals and took them to the mountains as he had ordered them.
\n9The chief summoned to himself those twelve men and said to them, \u201cBe confident and do not fear, for you will not die. For God in whom you trust is mighty, and therefore be secure in him, for he will free and save you. But now, behold, I commanded the fifty men to bring you forth, after taking provisions from my house, and to go ahead into the mountains and wait for you in the valley. Fifty other men I will give you to bring you all the way there. Go and hide yourselves in the same place in the valley; you will have water to drink that flows from the rocks. Keep yourselves there for thirty days, until the anger of the people of the land ceases and until God sends his wrath upon them and breaks them. For I know that the evil plan that they have planned to accomplish will not stand, because their devising is futile. When the seven days are complete and they will look for you, I will say to them, \u2018The door of the prison in which they were locked up broke and they went out. They escaped by night. I have sent a hundred men to search for them.\u2019 And I will turn them from the anger that is upon them.\u201d
\n10Eleven of the men answered him and said, \u201cYour servants have found favor in your eyes, in that we are rescued from the hands of these arrogant men.\u201d
\n11But Abram alone was silent. The leader said to him, \u201cWhy do you not answer me, Abram servant of God?\u201d Abram answered and said, \u201cBehold, today I flee to the mountains. If I have escaped the fire, wild beasts will come forth from the mountains and devour us; or we will lack food and die of famine. We will be found to have escaped the people of the land, but to have fallen because of our sins. And now, as surely as God in whom I trust lives, I will not move from my place where they have put me. If there be any sin of mine such that I should be burned, let the will of God be done.\u201d And the leader said to him, \u201cYour blood be upon your head if you refuse to go forth with these men. If however you are willing, you will be saved; but if you wish to stay, stay as you wish.\u201d And Abram said, \u201cI will not go forth, but I will stay here.\u201d
\n12The leader took those eleven men, sent another fifty with them and commanded them, saying, \u201cYou also wait in the mountains for fifteen days with those fifty who were sent on ahead; afterward, come back and say, \u2018We have not found them,\u2019 as I told the former group. And be aware that if anyone disregards any of all these words that I have spoken to you, he will be burned by fire.\u201d After the men set out, he took Abram by himself and shut him up again where he had been shut up.
\n13When seven days had passed, the people assembled and spoke to their leader, \u201cDeliver to us the men who refused to join in our plan, and we will burn them in the fire.\u201d The leaders sent men to bring them, but they found no one except Abram alone. All of them gathered before their leaders and said, \u201cThe men whom you locked up have fled and have evaded our plan.\u201d
\n14Fenech and Nimrod said to Joktan, \u201cWhere are the men whom you locked up?\u201d But he said, \u201cThey broke out at night. But I have sent a hundred men to search for them and instructed them that, if they find them, they should not only burn them in fire but also give their corpses to the birds of the heavens; let them destroy them in this way.\u201d
\n15Then those men said, \u201cThis one who alone has been found, let us burn him.\u201d They took Abram and brought him to their leaders. They said to him, \u201cWhere are the men who were with you?\u201d He said, \u201cI was asleep during the night; when I awoke, they were not there.\u201d
\n16They took him and built a furnace and lit it with fire. They threw the bricks into the furnace to be fired. Then the leader Joktan, dismayed, took Abram and threw him with the bricks into the fiery furnace.
\n17But God stirred up a great earthquake, and burning fire leaped forth out of the furnace into flames and sparks of flame, and it burned up all those standing around in front of the furnace. All those who were consumed in that day were 83,500. But there was not even the slightest injury to Abram from the burning of the fire.
\n18Abram arose out of the furnace, and the fiery furnace collapsed. And Abram was saved and went off to the eleven men who had been hiding in the mountains, and he told them everything that had happened to him. They went down with him from the mountains, rejoicing in the name of the LORD. No one who met them frightened them that day. They named that place after the name of Abram and in the language of the Chaldeans \u201cDeli,\u201d which means \u201cGod.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n2When they had begun to build, God saw the city and the tower that the sons of men were building, and he said, \u201cBehold they are one people and there is one language for all. As for what they have begun to do, upon seeing it neither will the earth endure nor will the heavens hold out. If they are not restrained now, they will be daring in all the things they propose to do.
\n3Therefore, behold, I will divide up their languages and scatter them into all regions so that one man will not recognize the other nor will people understand each other\u2019s language. I will assign them to the cliffs, and they will build for themselves abodes in nests of stalks and will dig caves for themselves and live there like the beasts of the field. And so they will be before me all the time, so that they will never make such plots, and I will consider them like a drop of water and liken them to spittle. For some the end will come by water, but others will dry up from thirst.
\n4In preference to all these I will choose my servant Abram, and I will bring him out from their land and will bring him into the land upon which my eye has looked from the beginning. When all the inhabitants of the earth sinned before me and I brought the waters of the flood, I did not destroy it but preserved it. For neither did the fountains of my anger burst forth in it, nor did the waters of my wrath descend on it. There I will settle my servant Abram and I will establish my covenant with him and will bless his seed and be called by him the eternal God.\u201d
\n5When the people inhabiting the earth had begun to build the tower, God divided up their languages and changed their appearances, and so they did not recognize each other nor did they understand each other\u2019s language. And so, when the builders would order their assistants to bring bricks, those would bring water; and if they requested water, they would bring straw. Thus, their plan was broken, and they stopped building the city. The LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth. For this reason the name of the place was called \u201cBabel,\u201d because there God confounded their languages and from there scattered them over the face of all the earth.<\/p>\n
\n2Then Lot left Abram and settled in Sodom. But Abram lived in the land of Canaan. The men of Sodom were wicked and great sinners.
\n3God appeared to Abram, saying, \u201cTo your seed I will give this land, and your name will be called Abraham, and Sarai, your wife, will be called Sarah. I will give to you from her an eternal seed, and I will establish my covenant with you.\u201d And Abraham knew Sarah, his wife, and she conceived and bore Isaac.
\n4Isaac took for himself a wife from Mesopotamia, the daughter of Bethuel, who conceived and bore to him Esau and Jacob.
\n5Esau took for himself as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri, Basemath the daughter of Elon, [blank], Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael. Adah bore him Eliphaz. The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, Cenaz, Amalek. Judith bore Tenacis, Ieruebemas; Basemath bore Reuel. The sons of Reuel were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, Mizzah. Oholibama bore Iush, Ialam, Korah. Mahalath bore Tenetde, Thenatela.
\n6Now Jacob took for himself as wives the daughters of Laban the Aramean, Leah and Rachel, and two concubines, Bilhah and Zilphah. Leah bore to him Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah their sister. Rachel bore Joseph and Benjamin. Bilhah bore Dan and Napthali. Zilphah bore Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, twelve in number, and one daughter.
\n7Jacob dwelled in the land of Canaan. Shechem the son of Hamor the Hurrite took Dinah his daughter and raped her. The sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, went in and killed their whole city by the sword; and they took their sister Dinah and went out from there.
\n8Afterward, Job took her as a wife and begot from her fourteen sons and six daughters, that is, seven sons and three daughters before he was struck down with suffering, and afterward seven sons and three daughters when he was healed. These are their names: Elifaz, Omar, Disan, Bilhan, Esar, Alvan, Theman; and his daughters: Meru, Litaz, Zeli. Such as had been the names of the earlier, so were those of the later.
\n9Jacob and his twelve sons lived in the land of Canaan. They hated their brother Joseph and they sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, the chief of Pharaoh\u2019s cooks; he spent fourteen years in his house.
\n10Afterward, the king of Egypt had a dream. He was told about Joseph, and Joseph explained to him the dreams. After he had explained to him the dreams, Pharaoh made him chief over all the land of Egypt. At that time there was a famine over all the land, as Joseph had interpreted, and his brothers went down to buy food in Egypt because only in Egypt was there food. Joseph recognized his brothers, but was not recognized by them. But he did not deal maliciously with them, and he sent and summoned his father from the land of Canaan; and Jacob came down to him.
\n11These are the names of the sons of Israel who went down to Egypt with Jacob, each with his own household. The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. The sons of Simeon: Namuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and [blank] Shaul the son of the Canaanite woman. Now the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The sons of Judah: Er and Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. The sons of Issachar: Tola and Puvah, Job and Shimron. The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. And Dinah their sister bore fourteen sons and six daughters. These are the generations of the sons <
\n12The sons of Dan: Hushim. The sons of Naphtali: Betaal, Neemmu, Surem, Opti, Sariel. These are the descendants of Bilhah that she bore to Jacob; the total was eight.
\n13The sons of Gad: [blank] Sariel, Sua [blank], Isui, Mofar, Serah their sister; the sons of Beriah, Heber and Melchiel. These are the descendants of Zilphah the wife of Jacob that she bore to him, and all the sons and daughters were ten in number.
\n14The sons of Joseph: Ephraim and Manasseh. Benjamin begat Bela, Ashbel, Nanubal, Abocmefec, Utendeus. These are the persons whom Rachel bore to Jacob, fourteen. They went down to Egypt and dwelled there 210 years.<\/of><\/p>\n
\n2Then the elders of the people gathered the people together in mourning, and they mourned with lamentation, saying, \u201cThe wombs of our wives have lost their children; our fruit is delivered to our enemies. Now let us make a resolution and let us establish a rule for ourselves that a man should not approach his wife lest the fruit of their wombs be defiled and our offspring serve idols. For it is better to die without children, until we know what God does.\u201d
\n3Amram answered and said, \u201cSooner will the world be destroyed forever or the universe sink into the immeasurable or the heart of the deep touch the stars than that the race of the sons of Israel will be destroyed. Some day the covenant will be fulfilled, that he established with Abraham and said, \u2018Your sons will dwell in a land not their own and will be reduced to slavery and afflicted 400 years.\u2019 And behold from the time when the word of God that he spoke to Abraham was spoken, it is 350 years; from the time when we became slaves in Egypt, it is 130 years.
\n4Accordingly now I will not abide by what you decree, but I will go in and take my wife and produce children so that we will multiply upon the earth. For God will not continue in his anger, nor will he forget his people forever, nor will he cast forth the race of Israel into nothingness upon the earth; nor did he emptily establish a covenant with our fathers. When we did not yet exist, God nonetheless spoke about these things.
\n5Now therefore I will go and take my wife, and I will not consent to the orders of the king; if it is right in your eyes, so let us all do. For when our wives conceive, they will not be recognized as pregnant until three months have passed, as also our mother Tamar did. For her intention was not to commit fornication, but being unwilling to separate from the sons of Israel she so reflected and said, \u2018It is better for me to have intercourse with my father-in-law and die than to have intercourse with Gentiles.\u2019 And she hid the fruit of her womb until the third month. For then she was recognized. When going to her execution, she stopped and said, \u2018The man to whom belongs this staff and signet ring and the sheepskin, from him I have conceived.\u2019 Her purpose saved her from all danger.
\n6Now therefore let us also do thus. When the time of giving birth has been completed, if we are able, we will not cast forth the fruit of our womb. Who knows, perhaps God will act zealously on account of this to free us from our humiliation.\u201d
\n7The plan that Amram contemplated was pleasing to God. And God said, \u201cBecause Amram\u2019s plan has pleased me, and he has not put aside the covenant established between me and his fathers, behold therefore now he who will be born from him will serve me forever, and I will do wonders in the house of Jacob through him and I will perform through him signs and wonders for my people that I have not done for anyone else; and I will place my glory among them and proclaim to them my ways.
\n8And I, God, will kindle on his behalf my lamp to reside in him, and I will show him my house that no one has seen. I will reveal to him my majesty and statutes and judgments, and I will kindle an eternal light for him, because I thought of him in the days of old, saying, \u2018My spirit will not be a mediator among man forever, because he is flesh and his days will be 120 years.\u2019 \u201d
\n9Amram of the house of Levi went out and took his wife from his own tribe. When he had taken her, the others imitated him and took their own wives. And this man had one son and one daughter; their names were Aaron and Miriam.
\n10The spirit of God came upon Miriam one night, and she saw a dream and reported it to her parents in the morning, saying, \u201cI had a vision this night, and behold a man was standing in a linen garment and he said to me, \u2018Go and say to your parents, \u201cBehold the child who will be born of you will be cast forth into the water; likewise through him the water will be dried up. And I will work signs through him and save my people, and he will exercise leadership always.\u201d \u2019 \u201d When Miriam reported her dream, her parents did not believe her.
\n11The king\u2019s plan became increasingly oppressive against the sons of Israel and they were afflicted and burdened in the making of bricks.
\n12Jochebed conceived from Amram and hid him in her womb [blank] for three months. For she could not conceal him any longer, because the king of Egypt appointed regional officials who, when the Hebrew women gave birth, would immediately throw their male children into the river. She took her child and made for him an ark from the bark of a cedar tree and placed the ark at the edge of the river.
\n13That boy was born in the covenant of God and the covenant of his flesh.
\n14When they cast him forth, all the elders assembled and quarreled with Amram, saying, \u201cWasn\u2019t this what we said to you when we spoke, \u2018It is better for us to die without having children than that the fruit of our womb be cast into the waters\u2019?\u201d When they said this, Amram did not respond.
\n15Pharaoh\u2019s daughter came down to wash in the river, in accord with what she had seen in a dream, and her maids saw the ark. She dispatched one, and she fetched and opened it. When she saw the boy and noticed that he was covenantal (that is, he was in the covenant of the flesh) she said, \u201cHe is one of the Hebrew children.\u201d
\n16She took him and nursed him. And he became her own son, and she called him by the name Moses. But his mother called him Melchiel. The child grew up and became glorious above all other men, and through him God freed the sons of Israel as he had said.<\/p>\n
\n2When they had departed that place and were going forward, the heart of the Egyptians was hardened again, and they proceeded to pursue them and found them by the Red Sea. The children of Israel cried out to their LORD and said to Moses, saying, \u201cBehold now the time of our destruction has arrived. For the sea is in front of us, and the throng of enemies is behind us, and we are in the middle. Was it for this that God brought us out? Are these the covenants that he established with our fathers, saying, \u2018To your seed will I give the land which you inhabit\u2019? Now let him do with us whatever is pleasing in his eyes.\u201d
\n3Then the children of Israel, in fear because of the pressing crisis, were split in their opinions according to three plans. The tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Issachar and the tribe of Zebulun and the tribe of Simeon said, \u201cCome, let us throw ourselves into the sea. For it is better for us to die in the water than to be killed by our enemies.\u201d The tribe of Gad and the tribe of Asher and the tribes of Dan and Naphtali said, \u201cNo, but let us go back with them; and if they are willing to grant us life, we will serve them.\u201d But the tribe of Levi and the tribes of Judah and Joseph and the tribe of Benjamin said, \u201cNot so, but let us take up our weapons and fight with them, and may God be with us.\u201d
\n4Moses cried out to the LORD and said, \u201cLORD God of our fathers, did you not say to me, \u2018Go and tell the sons of Israel, \u201cGod has sent me to you\u201d \u2019? And now behold you have brought your people to the edge of the sea and the enemy has pursued them. But you, LORD, think of your reputation.\u201d
\n5And God said, \u201cSince you have cried out to me, lift up your rod and strike the sea, and it will be dried up.\u201d Moses did all this and God raged at the sea and it dried up. The streams of water stood up and the depths of the earth became visible, and the foundations of the world were laid bare by the fearful roar of God and by the breath of the anger of the LORD.
\n6Israel passed through the middle of the sea on dry ground. The Egyptians saw this and continued to pursue them. God dulled their minds, and they did not know that they were entering the sea. While the Egyptians were in the sea, God again commanded the sea and said to Moses, \u201cStrike the sea again.\u201d And he did so. The LORD commanded the sea, and it returned to its course and covered the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen to this day.
\n7He guided his people in the wilderness for forty years. He rained down for them bread from heaven and brought quail to them from the sea and brought forth a well of water to follow them. With a pillar of cloud he led them by day, and with a pillar of fire he gave them light by night.<\/p>\n
\n2He said to Moses, \u201cBehold I will call you from the mountain; be prepared and tell my people, \u2018For three days let no man approach his wife,\u2019 and on the third day I will speak to you and to them. Afterward you will come up to me, and I will put my words in your mouth, and you will instruct my people, for I have given an everlasting Law into your hands and with this I will judge the whole world. For this will serve as a witness. For if men should say, \u2018We did not know you, and so we did not serve you,\u2019 on this account will I punish them, because they did not recognize my Law.\u201d
\n3Moses did what God commanded him, and he sanctified the people and said to them, \u201cBe prepared for the third day, because in three days God will establish his covenant with you.\u201d And the people were sanctified.
\n4On the third day, lo, there were sounds of thunder and the brightness of lightning, and the sound of trumpets sounded loudly. There was terror in all the people that were in the camp. And Moses brought the people out toward God.
\n5And behold the mountains were ablaze with fire, the earth trembled, the hills shook, the mountains tottered, the depths bubbled, all the habitable world was shaken, the heavens folded up, the clouds dripped water, flames of fire burned, thunder and lightning abounded, winds and storms roared, the stars assembled, and angels ran ahead, until God should give the law of his eternal covenant to the children of Israel and give everlasting commandments that will not pass away.
\n6Then the LORD spoke to his people all these words, saying, \u201cI am the LORD your God who took you from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. You shall not make for yourselves graven gods; neither shall you make any abomination [blank] of the sun and moon or of any of the host of heaven; nor shall you make a likeness of any of the things that are upon the earth or of those things that are in the water or creep upon the earth. I am the LORD your God, a jealous God who visits the sins of them that sleep on the living sons of the impious if they walk in the ways of their parents, until the third and fourth generation, but who acts mercifully for a thousand generations to those who love me and keep my commandments.
\n7You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, lest my words be rendered vain. For God abominates him who takes his name in vain.
\n8Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it. For six days do work, but on the seventh day is the LORD\u2019s Sabbath. You shall not do any work on it, you and all your servants, except to praise the LORD in the congregation of the elders and to glorify the Mighty One in the assembly of the aged. For in six days the LORD made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things that are in them and all the world and the uninhabitable wilderness and all land that is cultivated and all the arrangement of heaven. And God rested on the seventh day. Therefore, God sanctified the seventh day because he rested on it.
\n9Honor your father and your mother, and fear them, and then your light will rise up. I will command the heaven, and it will give its rain, and the earth hasten its fruit. You will live a long life and dwell in your land, and you will not be without children, for your seed will not be lacking in people to dwell in it.
\n10You shall not commit adultery, because your enemies committed adultery against you, but you went out with a high hand.
\n11You shall not kill, because your enemies had power over you so as to kill you, but you saw their death.
\n12You shall not be a false witness against your neighbor, speaking false testimony, lest your neighbors speak false testimony against you.
\n13You shall not covet your neighbor\u2019s house nor whatever he possesses, lest others should covet your land.\u201d
\n14When the LORD ceased speaking, the people feared with great fear, because they had seen the mountain burning with fire in the midst of torches. They said to Moses, \u201cYou speak to us; let not God speak to us lest perhaps we die. For behold today we know that God speaks to man face to face and man shall live. And now we have recognized truly that the earth bore the voice of God with trembling.\u201d And Moses said to them, \u201cDo not fear. For God has come for the purpose of testing you, that you should receive the fear of him into you, so that you will not sin.\u201d
\n15All the people stood far off, but Moses approached the cloud, knowing that God was there. Then God told him his statutes and his laws, and he kept him with him forty days and forty nights. There he commanded him many things and showed him the tree of life, a piece of which he cut off and took and threw into Marah, and the water of Marah became sweet. It followed them in the wilderness forty years and went up to the mountain with them and went down into the plains. He commanded him about the tabernacle and the ark of the LORD and about the sacrifice of burnt offerings and about the incense and about the duties pertaining to the table and the lamp and about the laver and its base and about the ephod and the breastplate and about the precious stones, so that the children of Israel might make these things. He showed him their likeness in order that he might make them according to the pattern that he had seen. He said to him, \u201cMake me a sanctuary, and the tabernacle of my glory will be among you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n2While he was on the mountain, the heart of the people was corrupted, and they gathered together to Aaron, saying, \u201cMake for us gods to serve, as the other nations have, because that Moses through whom wonders were done in our presence has been taken from us.\u201d Aaron said to them, \u201cBe calm. For Moses will come, and he will bring us statutes and will teach us the law and from his own mouth will tell us of the majesty of God and set up rules for our people.\u201d
\n3When he said this, they did not heed him, so that the word spoken at the time when the people sinned by building the tower might be fulfilled, when God said, \u201cAnd now if I do not deter them, whatever they think of doing they will venture worse.\u201d Aaron, however, fearful because the people were greatly strengthened, said to them, \u201cBring us the earrings of your wives.\u201d Each man asked his wife, and they gave immediately. They cast them into the fire, and they were fashioned in a mold, and there came out a molten calf.
\n4The LORD said to Moses, \u201cHurry from here, because the people have been corrupted and have turned aside from my ways that I commanded them. What if the promises I made to your fathers had been fulfilled, when I said to them, \u2018To your seed I will give the land in which you live.\u2019 For behold the people have not even entered the land yet and already now are guilty, and they have abandoned me. Thus, I know that if they enter that land, they will do greater iniquities. Now I in turn will abandon them, but I will turn again and be reconciled with them so that a house may be built for me among them, a house that in turn will be destroyed because they will sin against me. And the race of men will be to me like a drop from a pitcher and will be counted as spittle.\u201d
\n5Moses descended in haste and saw the calf. He looked at the tablets and saw that they were not written upon, and agitated he smashed them. He stretched out his hands; and he became like a woman in labor with her first child who, when she is seized by pains, her hands are upon her chest and she has no strength to aid her delivery.
\n6After one hour he said to himself, \u201cDoes bitterness persist always, and does evil prevail forever? Now I will rise up and gird my loins, because even if they have sinned, what was declared to me on high will not be in vain.\u201d
\n7He arose and smashed the calf and cast it into the water and made the people drink of it. Whoever had it in his will and mind that the calf be made, his tongue was cut off; but whoever had consented under compulsion of fear, his face shone.
\n8Then Moses went up to the mountain and prayed to the LORD, saying, \u201cBehold now, O God, you who have planted this vine and set its roots in the deep and stretched out its shoots to your lofty seat, look upon it at this moment, because that vine has put forth its fruit but does not recognize its cultivator. And now, if you will be angry at your vine and uproot it from the deep and dry up its shoots from your lofty and eternal seat, no longer will the deep come to nourish it, nor will your throne come to cool that vine of yours that you have destroyed.
\n9For you are he who are all light; and you have adorned your house with precious stones and gold; and you have sprinkled your house with perfumes and spikenard and balsam wood and cinnamon and roots of myrrh and costum; and you have filled it with various foods and the sweetness of various drinks. Therefore, if you do not have mercy on your vine, all things, LORD, have been done in vain, and you will have no one to glorify you. For even if you plant another vine, it will not trust you, because you destroyed the former one. For if you indeed abandon the world, then who will do for you that which you spoke as God? And now let your anger be kept from your vine. Rather, let that which was said previously by you and what remains to be said be done, and let not your labor be in vain, and let not your portion be sold cheaply.\u201d
\n10God said to him, \u201cBehold, I pardon, in accord with your words. Carve out then two stone tablets for yourself from the same place whence you cut out the former ones, and write again on them the commandments that were on the first ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n2Then the LORD called to Moses, and God spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, \u201cThis is the law of the altar, on which you will make sacrifices to me and atone for your souls. With regard to the animals that you will offer to me, from the cattle offer the calf and the sheep and the goat, but from the birds the turtledove and the dove.
\n3If there will be leprosy in your land and the leper be cleansed, they shall take for the LORD two live chicks and cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet; and he will approach the priest, and he will kill one but keep the other alive. And the leper will be made subject to all the commandments that I have commanded in my Law.
\n4When the times come round for you, you shall sanctify me as holy on the festival day and rejoice before me on the festival of the unleavened bread and set before me the bread, celebrating a festival of remembrance, because on that day you went forth from the land of Egypt.
\n5On the festival of weeks you shall set before me bread and make me an offering in thanks for your crops.
\n6On the festival of trumpets there will be an offering on behalf of your watchmen. Because on it I review creation, so as to take note of the entire world. At the beginning of the year, when you present yourselves, I will decide the number of those who are to die and who are to be born. On the fast of mercy you will fast for me for the sake of your souls, so that the promises made to your fathers may be fulfilled.
\n7Celebrate for me the festival of the booth, and take for me the beautiful fruit of the tree and a branch of palm and willows and citron and branches of myrtle. And I will remember the whole earth with rain, and the measure of the seasons will be fixed, and I will fix the stars and command the clouds, and the winds will sound, and lightning bolts will run about, and there will be storm and thunder. This will be an eternal sign; and the nights will give dew, as I said after the flooding of the earth.\u201d
\n8Then he instructed him about the year of the life of Noah, and he said to him, \u201cThese are the years that I ordained after the oaths, when I visited the city of men, at which time I showed them the place of creation and decay.\u201d And he said, \u201cThis is the place concerning which I taught the first-fashioned one, saying, \u2018If you do not transgress what I have commanded you, all things will be subject to you.\u2019 But that one transgressed my ways and was persuaded by his wife; she was deceived by the serpent. Then death was ordained for the generations of men.\u201d
\n9The LORD proceeded to show him the ways of paradise and said to him, \u201cThese are the ways that men have lost by not walking in them, because they have sinned against me.\u201d
\n10And the LORD commanded him concerning the welfare of the lives of the people and said, \u201cIf they will walk in my ways, I will not abandon them but will have mercy on them always and bless their sowing; and the earth will hasten to yield its fruit, and rain will be to their profit, and the earth will not be barren. But I surely know that they will corrupt their ways and I will abandon them, and they will forget the covenants that I have established with their fathers; but nevertheless I will not forget them forever. For they will know in the last days that on account of their own sins their seed has been abandoned, because I am faithful to what I say.\u201d<\/the><\/tablets>\n
\n2When you will have done the census, write down their number [blank] until I fulfill all that I have spoken to their fathers and until I set them securely in their own land; for I will diminish nothing of what I have said to their fathers. And I said to them: \u2018Your seed will be like the stars of heaven in multitude.\u2019 By number they will enter the land, and in a short time they will become without number.\u201d
\n3Then Moses went down and counted them, and the number of the people was 604,550. But he did not count the tribe of Levi with them, because he had been so commanded. But he did count those who were above fifty years, whose number was 47,300. He also counted those who were below twenty years, and their number was 850,850. And he surveyed the tribe of Levi, and their whole number was 100 [blank].
\n4Moses told their number to God, and God said to him, \u201cThese are the words that I spoke to their fathers in the land of Egypt, and I set their number for 210 years later for all who saw my wonders; and the number of all of them was 109,000,000 men, aside from women. I put to death a great number of them because they did not believe in me. One fiftieth of them was left, and I consecrated them to myself. Therefore I command my people for all generations that they should give to me offerings from their fruits, to be before me as a remembrance of how many of your forefathers I removed from them.\u201d
\n5When Moses descended and told these matters to the people they mourned and lamented; and they dwelt in the wilderness for two years.<\/p>\n
\n2But two men of the twelve did not speak so, and said, \u201cJust as hard iron can overcome the stars, or as weapons conquer lightning, or thunder is extinguished by the arrows of men, so can these men fight against the LORD!\u201d For they saw that on their ascent lightning from the stars shone forth and thunder sounded along with them and followed.
\n3These are their names: Caleb the son of Jephunneh, son of Beri, son of Batuel, son of Galifa, son of Cenen, son of Selumin, son of Selon, son of Judah. The second was Joshua son of Nun, son of Eliphat, son of Gal, son of Nefelien, son of Emon, son of Saul, son of Dabra, son of Ephraim, son of Joseph.
\n4But the people did not listen to the voice of these two, but they were very disturbed and spoke saying, \u201cAre these the words that God spoke to us, saying, \u2018I will bring you into a land flowing with milk and honey\u2019? How is it possible that he now brings us up so that we should fall by the sword and our wives will go into captivity?\u201d
\n5When they had said this, suddenly the glory of God appeared, and said to Moses, \u201cDoes the people thus continue not to heed me at all? Behold now the plan that issues from me will not be in vain. I will send the angel of my wrath upon them to break their bodies with fire in the wilderness. However, I will command my angels who watch over them not to plead for them; for I will shut up their souls in the storehouses of darkness, and I will tell my servants, their fathers, \u2018Behold this is the seed of which I spoke, saying, \u201cYour offspring will be strangers in a land not their own, and I will judge the nation whom it will serve.\u201d \u2019 I fulfilled my words and made their enemies melt away and put the angels beneath their feet and placed the cloud as shade for their heads. And I commanded the sea, and the depths froze in front of them and walls of water stood forth.
\n6Nothing like this ever happened since the day I said, \u2018Let the waters beneath the heaven be gathered together into one place,\u2019 until that day. I brought them forth, but I killed their enemies. I brought them before me to Mount Sinai, and I bent the heavens and descended to kindle a lamp for my people and to set boundaries for creation. I taught them to make a sanctuary for me that I might dwell among them, but they abandoned me and did not have faith in my words, and their sense faded away. Now behold the time will come, and I will do to them as they wished, and I will cast forth their bodies in the wilderness.\u201d
\n7And Moses said, \u201cBefore you took the seed with which to make man upon the earth, was it I who set their ways? So now let your mercy support us forever, and your kindness for many years; for unless you show mercy, who would be protected?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n2God was angry and said, \u201cI commanded the earth, and it gave me man; at first two sons were born to him. The elder rose up and killed the younger and the earth in haste swallowed up his blood. I drove Cain out and cursed the earth and spoke, saying, \u2018You will not swallow up blood again.\u2019
\n3Now the thoughts of men are very polluted; behold I command the earth, and it will swallow up body and soul together. Their dwelling place will be in darkness and in the place of destruction. They will not die but waste away until I remember the world and renew the earth. Then they will die and not live, and their life will be taken away from the number of all men. The underworld will no longer spit them back, and the place of destruction will not remember them, and their passing will be like that of those peoples of whom I said, \u2018I will not remember them,\u2019 that is, the camp of the Egyptians and the race that I destroyed with the water of the flood. The earth will swallow them up. I will add no more.\u201d
\n4Moses spoke all these words to the people, but Korah and his men were still unbelieving. Korah sent to summon his three sons, who had not joined with him in the plot.
\n5They however sent word to him, saying, \u201cJust as a painter does not produce an image by his art unless he has been instructed beforehand, so we, who have received the Law of the LORD that teaches us his ways, do not enter upon them except to walk in them. Our father begot us, but the LORD has fashioned us. And now if we walk in his ways, we will be his sons. But if you are unbelieving, go your own way.\u201d And they did not come up to him.
\n6After this the earth split apart before them. His sons sent to him, saying, \u201cIf your madness is still upon you, who will help you on the day of your destruction?\u201d But he did not heed them. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up them and their households. Four times the foundation of the earth shook so as to swallow up the men, as it had been commanded. After this, Korah and his company groaned until the stability of the earth was restored.
\n7The congregation of the people said to Moses, \u201cWe cannot stay around this place where Korah and his men were swallowed up.\u201d And he said to them, \u201cRemove your tents from round about them; do not be joined [blank] in their sins.\u201d And so they did.<\/p>\n
\n2Moses did so, and he deposited the twelve rods. The rod of Aaron sprouted and flowered and produced seed of almonds.
\n3What happened then was like what Israel did while he was in Mesopotamia with Laban the Aramean, when he took almond rods and put them at the cisterns of water; and the flocks came to drink and were divided according to the peeled rods, and they brought forth white and speckled and multi-colored kids.
\n4Thus the assembly of the people became like the flock of sheep. And as the flocks brought forth according to the almond rods, so the priesthood was established through almond rods.<\/p>\n
\n2Balak was king of Moab. He dwelled opposite them, and he was very much afraid. He sent to Balaam the son of Beor, the interpreter of dreams, who lived in Mesopotamia, and sent word to him, saying, \u201cBehold I know that in the reign of my father Zippor, when the Amorites fought him, you cursed them and they were handed over before him. Now come and curse this people, because they are too many for us, and I will honor you very much.\u201d
\n3Balaam said, \u201cBehold, this pleases Balak, but he does not know that the plan of God is not like the plan of man. He does not realize that the spirit that is given to us is given for a time. But our ways are not made secure unless God wishes it. Now wait here, and I will learn what the LORD will say to me this night.\u201d
\n4And God said to him by night, \u201cWho are the men who have come to you?\u201d And Balaam said, \u201cWhy, LORD, do you test the human race? They cannot endure it, because you knew well what is to happen in the world, even before you founded it. Now enlighten your servant if it be right that I go with them.\u201d
\n5And he said to him, \u201cWas it not concerning this people that I spoke to Abraham in a vision, saying, \u2018Your seed will be like the stars of the heaven,\u2019 when I lifted him above the firmament and showed him the arrangements of all the stars? I demanded his son as a burnt offering and he brought him to be placed on the altar. But I gave him back to his father and, because he did not object, his offering was acceptable before me, and in return for his blood I chose them. Then I said to the angels of the service, \u2018Was it not of this man that I said, \u201cI will reveal everything I am doing to Abraham [blank]\u201d
\n6And of Jacob his son, the third one whom I called first-born, who, when he wrestled with the angel who was in charge of hymns, did not let him go until he blessed him\u2019? But now behold you propose to go with them to curse those whom I have chosen? But if you curse them, who will there be to bless you?\u201d
\n7Balaam arose in the morning and said, \u201cGo on your way, because God does not wish me to come with you.\u201d They set out and reported to Balak Balaam\u2019s words. Balak again sent other men to Balaam, saying, \u201cBehold I know that when you offer burnt offerings to God, God will be reconciled with men. Now seek again from your LORD and beg with as many burnt offerings as he wishes. But if he should forgive my wrongdoings, you will have your reward and God will receive his offerings.\u201d
\n8Balaam said to them, \u201cBehold the son of Zippor is a seer but does not recognize that he dwells among the dead. Now wait here this night, and I will learn what God will say to me.\u201d And God said to him, \u201cGo with them. Your journey will be a stumbling block, and for Balak will prove to be his ruin.\u201d He rose in the morning and went with them.
\n9His she-ass came by way of the wilderness and saw an angel and crouched down beneath him. And he opened Balaam\u2019s eyes, and he saw the angel and prostrated himself on the ground before him. And the angel said to him, \u201cHurry and go, because whatever you say will come to pass.\u201d
\n10He came into the land of Moab and built an altar and offered sacrifices. When he had seen part of the people, the spirit of God came upon him. He took up his poem and said, \u201cBehold Balak brought me to the mountain, saying, \u2018Come, run into the fire of those men.\u2019 The fire that waters will extinguish, I cannot resist; indeed, who will resist the fire that consumes water?\u201d And he said to him, \u201cIt is easier to take away the heavens and all their expanse and to extinguish the light of the sun and to darken the light of the moon than for one who so wished to uproot the planting of the Most Powerful or to destroy his vine.\u201d He did not know that his spirit was puffed up so as to hasten his own destruction.
\n11\u201cBehold, I see the vision that the LORD showed me at night. Behold, the time is coming when Moab will be amazed at what is happening to it because Balak wished to persuade the LORD with gifts and to buy a decree with money. Should you not have asked what he sent upon Pharaoh and his land because he wished to reduce them to slavery? Behold, an overshadowing and highly desirable vine; who will be jealous because it does not wither? But if anyone says to himself that the LORD has labored in vain or has chosen them to no purpose, behold now I see the salvation and liberation that will come upon them. I am restrained in my speech and cannot say what I see with my eyes, because there is little left of the holy spirit that abides in me. For I know that I have been persuaded by Balak and have lost time from my life.
\n12Behold, here is my remaining time. Behold, again I see a vision of the dwelling place of this people. Its brightness shines more brilliantly than the splendor of lightning, and its running is swifter than that of an arrow. The time will come when Moab will groan and those who serve Chemosh, who have plotted these things against them, will become weak. But I will gnash my teeth, because I have been led astray and have transgressed what was said to me at night. My prophecy will remain manifest, and my words will live on. The wise and understanding will remember my words for, when I cursed, I perished, but though I blessed, I was not blessed.\u201d He said this and was silent. Balak said, \u201cYour God has deprived you of many gifts from me.\u201d
\n13Then Balaam said to him, \u201cCome and let us plan what you should do to them. Pick out beautiful women who are among us and in Midian, and station them naked and adorned with gold and precious stones before them. When they see them and lie with them, they will sin against their LORD and fall into your hands; for otherwise you cannot overcome them.\u201d
\n14After saying this, Balaam turned away and went back to his place. Afterward the people were seduced after the daughters of Moab. For Balak did everything that Balaam had showed him.<\/p>\n
\n2He spoke to them, saying, \u201cBehold, I am to lie with my fathers and will be gathered unto my people. But I know that you will rise up and forsake the words established for you through me, and God will be angry at you and abandon you and depart from your land. And he will bring upon you your enemies, and they will rule over you, but not forever, because he will remember the covenant that he established with your fathers.
\n3But then you and your sons and all your generations who will rise up after you will lament the day of my death and say in their heart, \u2018Who will give us another shepherd like Moses or such a judge to the sons of Israel to make atonement always for our sins and to be answered on behalf of our iniquities?\u2019
\n4Today I call to witness against you heaven and earth (for heaven will hear, and earth will give ear) that God revealed himself from the end of the world so that he might place his majesty with you and he kindled in you an eternal light. Remember, o wicked ones; when I spoke to you, you answered saying, \u2018All that God has said to us, we will do and hear. But if we transgress or grow corrupt in our ways, you will call the witness against us, and he will destroy us.\u2019
\n5You know that you have eaten the bread of angels for forty years. And now behold I bless your tribes before my end comes. You know my toil that I have toiled for you from the time you went up from the land of Egypt.\u201d
\n6After he said this, God spoke to him a third time, saying, \u201cBehold, you go to lie with your fathers. But this people will rise up and not seek me, and they will forget my Law, by which I have enlightened them, and I will abandon their seed for a time.
\n7To you however I will show the land before you die, but you will not enter it in this age lest you see the graven images through which this people will start to lapse and be led off the path. I will show you the place where they will serve me for 440 years. After this it will be given over to the hands of their enemies, and they will breach it and foreigners will encircle it. And it will be on the same day that you smashed the tablets of the covenant which I established with you on Horeb; and when they sinned, what was written on them flew away. Now that day was the seventeenth day of the fourth month.\u201d
\n8Moses ascended Mount Abarim as God had commanded him, and he prayed saying, \u201cBehold, I have indeed completed the time of my life, I have completed 120 years. And now I beg, may your mercy toward your people and your pity toward your portion, LORD, be firm; may your long-suffering be directed toward your place upon the chosen nation, because you love them beyond all others.
\n9You know that I was a shepherd. When I pastured the flock in the wilderness, I brought them to your mountain Horeb and then I first saw your fiery angel from the bush. You called me from the bush; I was afraid and turned my face. You sent me to them and freed them from Egypt, but their enemies you drowned in the water. You gave them the Law and statutes by which they should live and enter upon as human beings. For who is the man who has not sinned against you? And unless your patience abides, how will your portion be secure, unless you be merciful to them? Who will yet be born without sin? Chastize them for a time, but not in anger.\u201d
\n10Then the LORD showed him the land and all that is in it and said, \u201cThis is the land that I will give to my people.\u201d He showed him the place from which the clouds draw up water to water the whole earth, and the place from which the river takes its water [and the land of Egypt], and the place in the firmament from which only the holy land drinks. He showed him the place from which he rained down manna upon the people, all the way to the paths of paradise. He showed him the measurements of the sanctuary and the number of sacrifices and the signs by which men shall interpret the heaven. And he said, \u201cThese are what have been denied to the human race because they have sinned against me.
\n11And now your staff with which these signs were performed will serve as a witness between me and my people. When they sin, I will be angry with them but I will recall your staff and spare them in accord with my mercy. Your staff will be before me as a reminder forever, and it will be like the bow with which I established my covenant with Noah when he went forth from the ark, saying, \u2018I will place my bow in the cloud, and it will serve as a sign between me and men that never again will the water of a flood be upon all the earth.\u2019
\n12I will take you from here and lay you down to sleep with your fathers, and I will give you rest in your resting place and bury you in peace. All the angels will mourn over you, and the heavenly hosts will grieve. But no angel nor man will know your sepulchre in which you will be buried. You will rest in it until I visit the world. I will raise up you and your fathers from the earth in which you sleep and you will come together and dwell in the immortal dwelling place that is not subject to time.
\n13But this world will be in my eyes like a fleeting cloud and like yesterday that has passed. When I will draw near to visit the world, I will command the years and order the times and they will be shortened, and the stars will speed up and the light of the sun will hurry to set and the light of the moon will not abide; for I will hasten to raise up you who are sleeping in order that all who will be restored to life will dwell in the place of sanctification that I showed you.\u201d
\n14Moses said, \u201cIf I can make another request of you, LORD, in accord with the abundance of your mercy, be not angry with me, but show me how much time has passed and how much remains.\u201d
\n15And he said to him, \u201cOn one side there is a large black cloud, the fullness of a cloud, on the other side a drop from a ladle. But time will fulfill all things. Four and a half have passed, two and a half remain.\u201d
\n16When Moses heard this, he was filled with understanding and his appearance was changed to a state of glory; and he died in glory in accord with the word of the LORD, and he buried him as he had promised him. The angels mourned his death and went before him all together with lightning bolts and torches and arrows. On that day the hymn of the heavenly hosts was not sung because of the passing of Moses, nor was there such a day from the time when the LORD made man upon the earth, nor shall there again be such forever, that the hymn of the angels should be humbled on account of men, because he loved him very much. He buried him with his own hands in a high place as a light for the entire world.<\/p>\n
\n2Then God said to Joshua the son of Nun, \u201cWhy do you mourn and why do you hope in vain, thinking that Moses yet lives? But you wait in vain, for Moses is dead. Take his garments of wisdom and clothe yourself, and with his belt of knowledge gird your loins, and you will be changed and become another man. Was it not about you that I spoke to Moses my servant, saying, \u2018This one will lead my people after you, and into his hand I will deliver the kings of the Amorites\u2019?\u201d
\n3Joshua took the garments of wisdom and clothed himself and girded his loins with the belt of understanding. When he clothed himself with it, his mind was kindled and his spirit was aroused, and he said to the people, \u201cBehold, the prior generation died in the wilderness because they opposed their God. Behold now, all you tribes, be aware today that if you go in the ways of your God, you will prosper.
\n4If however you do not heed his voice and you be like your fathers, your affairs will be ruined and you yourselves will be crushed and your name will perish from the earth. And what will become of the words that God spoke to your fathers? But though the nations may perhaps say, \u2018God has failed, for he has not freed his people,\u2019 nevertheless, when they will recognize that he has not chosen for himself other peoples and done great wonders for them, then they will understand that the LORD does not regard persons, but because you sinned through pride, therefore did he take away his power from you and cast you out. Now rise up and set your heart to walk in the ways of your LORD, and he will make you prosper.\u201d
\n5The people said to him, \u201cBehold, we see today what Eldad and Medad prophesied in the days of Moses, saying, \u2018After Moses\u2019s death, the leadership of Moses will be given to Joshua the son of Nun.\u2019 Moses was not jealous but rejoiced when he heard them. From then on all the people believed that you would exercise leadership over them and apportion the land to them. Now even if there is conflict, be strong and resolute, because you alone will be ruler in Israel.\u201d
\n6On hearing these words Joshua decided to send spies to Jericho. He summoned Cenaz and his brother, Naam by name, the two sons of Caleb, and he said to them, \u201cI and your father were sent by Moses in the wilderness, and we went up with ten other men. On their return they spoke ill about the land and disheartened the people, and they and the heart of the people with them were discouraged. But I and your father alone fulfilled the word of the LORD, and behold we are alive today. Now I will send you to spy out the land and Jericho. Imitate your father, and you also will live.\u201d
\n7They went up and spied out the city. After they brought back word, the people went up and stormed the city and burned it with fire.
\n8After Moses died, the manna stopped descending for the children of Israel, and then they began to eat from the fruits of the land. These are the three things that God gave to his people on account of three persons: that is, the well of the water of Marah for Miriam and the pillar of cloud for Aaron and the manna for Moses. After these three died, these three things were taken away from them.
\n9The people and Joshua fought against the Amorites. They prevailed in battle against their enemies all the days of Joshua, and thirty-nine kings who inhabited the land were destroyed. Joshua gave the land to the people as a possession, to each tribe according to lots, as he had been commanded.
\n10Then Caleb approached him and said, \u201cYou know that the two of us were sent by lot by Moses to go with the spies, and because we fulfilled the word of the LORD, behold we are alive now. And now, if it is pleasing in your eyes, let my son Cenaz be given the territory of the three towers for a portion.\u201d Joshua blessed him, and so he did.<\/p>\n
\n2And Joshua said, \u201cYou beyond all know, LORD, what moves the heart of the sea before it rages, you have searched out the constellations and numbered the stars and regulated the rain; you know the mind of all generations before they are born. Now, LORD, bestow upon your people a wise heart and an understanding mind; and when you will give your orders to your portion, they will not sin against you and you will not be angry at them.
\n3Isn\u2019t this what I said before you, LORD, when Achan stole from the proscribed and the people were delivered up before you, and I prayed before you and said, \u2018Would it not have been better for us, LORD, if we had died in the Red Sea, where you drowned our enemies, or if we had died in the wilderness like our fathers, than to be delivered into the hands of the Amorites so as to be destroyed forever?\u2019
\n4Even if disaster is near us, no evil will befall us. For even if our end be moving toward death, you nonetheless who are before the world and after the world live on. If man cannot devise to prefer one generation to another, he says, \u2018God destroys the people whom he has chosen for himself.\u2019 But behold, though we will be in the underworld, you will fulfill your words. Now let the abundance of your mercy sustain your people and choose for your portion a man who will rule your people, he and his offspring.
\n5Did not our father Jacob speak about him, saying, \u2018The scepter will not be lacking from Judah, nor the ruler\u2019s rod from between his feet\u2019? Now fulfill those words spoken beforehand so that the nations of the earth and the tribes of the world will learn that you are eternal.\u201d
\n6And he added, saying, \u201cLORD, behold the time will come when the house of Israel will be like a dove who has given birth. She places her young in the nest and does not leave or forget her place. So also these, after repenting of their deeds, will attain the salvation that will come about for them.\u201d
\n7Joshua went down to Gilgal and built an altar with whole stones and did not lift any iron upon them as Moses had commanded. He set up large stones on Mount Ebal and plastered them and wrote on them very clearly the words of the Law. He gathered all the people together and read into their ears all the words of the Law.
\n8He came down with them and offered peace offerings on the altar; they all gave much praise in song. They lifted the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the tabernacle with timbrels and dances and harps and lyres and lutes and every good-sounding instrument.
\n9The priests and Levites brought up the ark and rejoiced in song, and they put the ark in front of the altar. They offered very many peace offerings upon it, and all the house of Israel sang together in a loud voice saying, \u201cBehold, our LORD has fulfilled what he spoke to our fathers, saying: \u2018To your seed I will give the land to dwell in, a land flowing with milk and honey.\u2019 Behold, he led us into the land of our enemies and delivered them broken in spirit before us, and he is the God who sent word to our fathers in the secret dwelling places of souls, saying, [blank]. Behold, the LORD has done everything that he has said to us. Truly now we know that God has confirmed every word of his Law that he spoke to us on Horeb. If our heart keeps to his ways, it will go well for us and for our sons after us.\u201d
\n10Joshua blessed them and said, \u201cMay the LORD grant that your heart abide in him for all time and not depart from his name. May the covenant of the LORD remain with you and not be ruined, but may there be built among you a dwelling place for God, as he said when he brought you into his portion with joy and gladness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n2Joshua and all the elders said to them, \u201cWhat are these deeds that are done by you, when we are not yet settled in our land? Isn\u2019t this what Moses said to you in the wilderness, saying, \u2018Make sure that on entering your land you do not corrupt your behavior and destroy all this people\u2019? Now why have our enemies abounded unless it is because you have corrupted your ways and made all this trouble? Thus, they will gather against us and crush us.\u201d
\n3The children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh said to Joshua and to all the people of Israel, \u201cBehold now, God has implanted the fruit of the womb of men and set up a light that they may see what is in darkness, because he himself knows what are in the hidden places of the abyss and the light abides with him. Now the LORD God of our fathers knows if any of our people or we ourselves have done this deed on account of wickedness, but only for our posterity\u2019s sake so that their heart may not be removed from the LORD our God and that they will not say to us, \u2018Behold now, our brothers who are across the Jordan have an altar and offer sacrifice on it, but we in this place, since we do not have an altar, let us withdraw from the LORD our God; for our God is too far from our roads for us to serve him.\u2019
\n4On saying this, we said among ourselves, \u2018Let us make an altar for ourselves so that they will have enthusiasm for seeking out the LORD.\u2019 Some of us stood up and did it. We stand before you knowing that we are your brothers and innocent. Do therefore whatever is pleasing in the eyes of the LORD.\u201d
\n5Joshua said, \u201cIs not the LORD the King mightier than thousands of sacrifices? Why have you not taught your sons the words of the LORD that you heard from us? For if your sons had been studying the Law of the LORD, their mind would not have been led astray after a man-made altar. Do you not know that when the people were bereft for a while in the wilderness, when Moses went up to receive the tablets, their mind was led astray and they made idols for themselves. If the mercy of the God of our fathers had not been their guardian, all the community would have become a byword and all the sins of the people would be made public because of your foolishness.
\n6Therefore, go now and destroy the altar that you built for yourselves, and teach your children the Law and let them study it day and night, so that for all the days of their life the LORD may be for them a witness and a judge. God will be a witness and a judge between me and you and between my heart and your heart, that if you have done this deed out of cunning, you will be punished, for you were going to destroy your brothers. If however you have done it out of ignorance, as you say, because of your sons, God will be merciful to you.\u201d And all the people answered, \u201cAmen, amen.\u201d
\n7Joshua and the entire people of Israel offered a thousand rams on their behalf as expiatory offerings, and they prayed for them, and he sent them away in peace. They went and destroyed the altar, and they fasted and cried, they and their sons, and they prayed saying, \u201cGod of our fathers who know beforehand the heart of all men, you know that our ways were not undertaken out of wickedness before you; nor have we strayed from your ways but we all serve you, for we are the works of your hands. Now have pity on your people and your children.\u201d
\n8After this Joshua went up from Gilgal and took up the tabernacle of the LORD with all its vessels and the ark of the covenant, and he took them up to Shiloh and set up the Urim and Tummim there. At that time Eleazar the priest was ministering the altar. When all who had come from the people would assemble and seek the LORD, he would teach them with the Urim, for in this way they were given instruction. At the new altar that was in Shiloh Joshua instituted unto this day the burnt offerings that were offered every year by the sons of Israel.
\n9For until the house of the LORD was built in Jerusalem and sacrifice offered on the new altar, the people were not prohibited from offering sacrifice there, because the Tummim and Urim revealed all things in Shiloh. Until the ark was placed in the sanctuary of the LORD by Solomon, they offered sacrifice there until that day. Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest served in Shiloh.<\/p>\n
\n2On the sixth day of the third month all the people including women and children gathered together before the LORD in Shiloh, and Joshua said to them, \u201cHear, O Israel. Behold, I establish with you the covenant of this Law that the LORD established for your fathers on Horeb. And so wait here this night and you will see what God will say to me about you.\u201d
\n3While the people were waiting that night, the LORD appeared to Joshua in a vision and said to him, \u201cSuch and such words speak to this people.\u201d
\n4Joshua rose up in the morning and gathered all the people and said to them, \u201cSo says the LORD: \u2018There was one rock from which I hewed out your father. The hewing-out of that rock bore two men whose names are Abraham and Nahor, and out of the hollowed-out place were born two women whose names are Sarah and Melcha, and they lived together across the river. And Abraham took Sarah, and Nahor took Melcha.
\n5When the inhabitants of the land were led astray, each after his own devices, Abraham believed in me and was not led astray with them. I rescued him from the flame and took him and led him over all the land of Canaan and said to him in a vision, \u201cTo your seed I will give this land.\u201d And he said to me, \u201cBehold now you have given me a wife, and she is sterile. How will I have offspring from that womb that is closed up?\u201d
\n6And I said to him, \u201cTake for me a three-year-old calf and a three-year-old she-goat and a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a dove.\u201d He took them as I commanded him. I cast upon him a deep sleep and encompassed him with fear and <
\n7And I said to him, \u201cThese will serve as a witness between me and you, that I will give you offspring from one who is closed up. I will liken to the dove that you took for me the city which your children will build before me. The turtledove I liken to the prophets who will be born from you, and the ram I liken to the wise men who will be born from you and will enlighten your sons; I will liken the calf to the multitude of peoples, who will be made many through you; the she-goat I will liken to the women whose wombs I will open and they will give birth. These prophecies and this night will be a witness between us, that I will not violate my words.\u201d
\n8I gave him Isaac and formed him in the womb of her who bore him and commanded [blank] to restore him quickly and to give him back to me in the seventh month. Therefore, every woman who gives birth in the seventh month, her son will live, because upon him I summoned my glory and revealed the new age.
\n9I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau. And I gave to Esau the land of Seir as a possession but Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt. The Egyptians persecuted your fathers, as you know; but I remembered your fathers and sent Moses my beloved and freed them from there, but their enemies I struck down.
\n10I brought them out with a high hand and led them through the Red Sea and laid a cloud beneath their feet and led them out through the deep. I brought them to the foot of Mount Sinai, and I bowed the heaven and came down and congealed the flame of fire and stopped up the sources of the deep and impeded the course of the stars and quieted the sounds of thunder and quenched the fullness of the wind and rebuked the many clouds and stayed their movements and interrupted the storm of the heavenly hosts so that they would not ruin my covenant. For all things were in motion when I came down, and everything was stirred up at my arrival. I did not let my people be scattered, but I gave them my Law and enlightened them in order that by doing these things they would live and have length of days and not die.
\n11I brought you into this land and gave you vineyards [blank] cities that you did not build you inhabit. I fulfilled my covenant that I spoke to your fathers.
\n12And now, if you heed your forefathers, I will pay attention to you forever and protect you, and your enemies will subdue you no more. Your land will be renowned throughout all the world, and your seed elect amidst the peoples, who will say, \u201cBehold, a faithful people; because they had faith in the LORD, therefore the LORD freed them and planted them.\u201d And so I will plant you like a delightful vine and shepherd you like a lovable flock. I will command the rain and the dew, and they will satisfy you all the time of your lives.
\n13At the end the lot of each one of you will be in eternal life, for you and your seed, and I will take your souls and store them in peace until the time allotted the world be complete. I will restore you to your fathers and your fathers to you, and they will know through you that I have not chosen you to no purpose.\u2019 These are the words that the LORD spoke to me this night.\u201d
\n14All the people answered and said, \u201cThe LORD is our God, him alone will we serve.\u201d All the people rejoiced on that day and made a rededication ceremony for twenty-eight days.<\/set><\/p>\n
\n2All the people raised their voice and wept and said, \u201cPerhaps God will account us worthy; it is better for us to die in fear of him than to be blotted out from the land.\u201d
\n3Joshua the son of Nun blessed the people and kissed them and said to them, \u201cMay your words be acceptable before our LORD, and may he send his angel and guard you. Remember me after my death and remember Moses the beloved of the LORD, and let not the words of the covenant that he established with you depart from you all the days.\u201d He sent them away, and they went away, each man to his own portion.
\n4Joshua laid himself on his bed and sent and summoned the son of Eleazar the priest and said to him, \u201cBehold now I see with my own eyes the transgression of this people by which they will go astray; but you strengthen yourself for the time you are still with them.\u201d He kissed him and his father and his sons, and he blessed him and said, \u201cMay the LORD God of your fathers prosper your ways and those of this people.\u201d
\n5When he ceased speaking to them, he drew up his feet into the bed and lay with his fathers; and his sons placed their hands over his eyes.
\n6Then all Israel gathered together to bury him. They made a great lamentation for him, and they said this in their lamentation: \u201cLament for the wing of this swift eagle because he has flown away from us, and lament for the might of the lion\u2019s cub because he has been hidden from us. Who will go and tell the righteous Moses that we have had a leader like him for forty years?\u201d They finished their lamentation and buried him with their own hands on Mount Ephraim, and they returned each to his own tent.<\/p>\n
\n2The people said, \u201cFirst let us appoint a leader among us, and then let us cast the lot.\u201d The angel of the LORD said to them, \u201cAppoint one.\u201d The people said, \u201cWhom will we appoint who is worthy, LORD?\u201d The angel of the LORD said to them, \u201cCast the lot upon the family of Caleb; whoever will be indicated by lot, he will rule over you.\u201d They cast the lot upon the family of Caleb, and the lot came out upon Cenaz, and they made him ruler in Israel.
\n3Cenaz said to the people, \u201cBring me your tribes and hear the word of the LORD.\u201d The people assembled, and Cenaz said to them, \u201cYou know how often Moses the beloved of the LORD commanded you not to transgress the Law to the right or to the left. Joshua too, who was ruler after him, commanded you the same. And now behold we have heard from the mouth of the LORD that your heart is defiled, and the LORD has ordered us to cast lots by your tribes in order that we may know whose heart has turned away from the LORD our God, so that the fury of his wrath not be brought upon the people. I proclaim to you today that, even if someone from my own household comes out in the lot of sin, he will not be saved but will be burned in the fire.\u201d The people said, \u201cWhat you have proposed to do is good.\u201d
\n4He brought the tribes before him. From the tribe of Judah there were found 345 men, from the tribe of Reuben 560, from the tribe of Simeon 775, from the tribe of Levi 150, from the tribe of Issachar 665, from the tribe of Zebulun 545, [blank], from the tribe of Gad 380, from the tribe of Asher 665, from the tribe of Manasseh 480, from the tribe of Ephraim 448, from the tribe of Benjamin 267. The total number of those who were found in the lot of sin was 6,110. Cenaz led them all away and shut them up in prison until it should be known what should be done with them.
\n5Cenaz said, \u201cWas it not about these people that Moses the beloved of the LORD spoke, saying, \u2018Perhaps there is among you a root bearing poison and bitterness\u2019? Now blessed be the LORD, who has revealed all the plans of these men and did not let them corrupt the people with their evil deeds. Bring then here the Urim and Tummim, and summon Eleazar the priest, and let us inquire of the LORD through him.\u201d
\n6Then Cenaz and Eleazar and all the elders and all the congregation prayed together saying, \u201cLORD God of our fathers, reveal to your servants the truth, for we are found not to believe in the wonders that you did for our fathers from the time you brought them out of the land of Egypt until this day.\u201d The LORD answered and said, \u201cFirst question those who have been found, and let them confess their deeds that they have done with cunning, and afterward they will be burned in the fire.\u201d
\n7Cenaz had them brought and said to them, \u201cBehold now you know that Achan confessed when the lot fell on him and he declared everything he had done. Now declare to us your wickedness and schemes. Perhaps, if you tell the truth to us, though you die now, nevertheless God will have mercy on you when he will resurrect the dead.\u201d
\n8One of them, Elas by name, said, \u201cWill not death soon come upon us, that we will die in the fire? But I tell you, my lord, the acts that we have done wickedly are not all alike. If you wish to seek out the truth clearly, examine the men of each tribe individually and thus any of the bystanders will know the differences among those sins.\u201d
\n9Cenaz examined those of his own tribe, and they said to him, \u201cWe desired to imitate [blank] and make the calf that they made in the wilderness.\u201d After this he examined the men of the tribe of Reuben, and they said, \u201cWe desired to sacrifice to the gods of the inhabitants of the land.\u201d [blank]. He examined the men from the tribe of Levi, and they said, \u201cWe desired to test the tabernacle, to see if it was holy.\u201d He examined the next ones, from the tribe of Issachar, and they said, \u201cWe desired to make inquiry through the demons of the idols, to see if they reveal things clearly.\u201d He examined the men of the tribe of Zebulun, and they said, \u201cWe desired to eat the flesh of our own children and to determine whether or not God cares for them.\u201d He examined the next ones, from the tribe of Dan, and they said, \u201cThe Amorites taught us what they did, [blank] that we might teach our children, and behold these things are hidden beneath Abraham\u2019s mountain and stored beneath a heap of earth. So send, and you will find them.\u201d Cenaz sent and found them. He examined the next ones, from the tribe of Naphtali, and they said, \u201cWe desired to make what the Amorites made, and behold they are hidden beneath the tent of Elas, who told you to examine us. So send, and you will find them.\u201d Cenaz sent and found them.
\n10Afterward he examined the next ones, from the tribe of Gad, and they said, \u201cWe have committed adultery with each other\u2019s wives.\u201d Then he examined the men of the tribe of Asher, who said, \u201cWe have found the seven golden idols which the Amorites call the sacred virgins, and we carried them off with the precious stones set upon them and hid them. Behold now they are laid up beneath the summit of Mount Shechem. So send, and you will find them.\u201d Cenaz sent men, and they removed them from there.
\n11These are the virgins that, when called upon, showed the Amorites their deeds from hour to hour. They are what seven sinful men devised after the flood. These are their names: Canaan, Futh, Selath, Nimrod, Elath, Desuath [blank]. Nor will there again be their like in the world, graven by the hand of a craftsman or adorned with the variety of painting. They were fixed and set up for the worship of idols. Those precious stones, among which were crystal and prase, had been brought from the land of Havilah; and they were graven in appearance in the manner of open-work decoration. One of them was engraved on the top, and another, as if marked with spots, so shone in its cutting as if it revealed the water of the deep lying beneath [blank].
\n12These are the precious stones that the Amorites had in their sanctuary, the value of which was inestimable because when they would enter at night the light of a lamp was not necessary, so brightly did the natural light of the stones shine forth. Among them the brightest was the one that was cut in the fashion of open-work and purified people of demons. For even if one of the Amorites was blind, he would go and put his eyes on it and regain his sight. These Cenaz found, and setting them aside he stored them until he would know what should be done with them.
\n13After this he examined the next ones, from the tribe of Manasseh, and they said, \u201cWe surely profaned the Sabbaths of the LORD.\u201d He examined the next ones, from the tribe of Ephraim, who said, \u201cWe desired to make our sons and daughters pass through the fire, to find out if what had been said were true.\u201d He examined the next ones, from the tribe of Benjamin, and they said, \u201cWe desired in this time to investigate the book of the Law, to see whether God had really written what was in it or Moses had taught these things on his own.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n2Cenaz said, \u201cShall we burn those precious stones in the fire or sanctify them to you, for among us there are none like these?\u201d God said to him, \u201cIf God takes anything for his own sake from what was proscribed, what will man do? Therefore, now take those precious stones and everything that was found, books as well as men, and so arrange things that you place the stones on one side with the books since the fire will not be able to consume them; afterward I will show you how to destroy them. But the men and everything else that was found, burn in the fire. When all the people is assembled, say to them, \u2018So will it be done to every man whose heart has turned from his God.\u2019
\n3After the fire has consumed those men, then place on the top of the mountain by the new altar the books and the precious stones that cannot be consumed by fire or cut by iron or erased by water. I will command a cloud, and it will go and take dew and send it upon the books and erase what is written in them, because they will not be erased by any other water except that which has never served men. Afterward I will send my lightning, and it will consume those books.
\n4But regarding the precious stones, I will command my angel, and he will take them and go and put them in the depths of the sea. I will order the deep, and it will swallow them up, for they cannot abide in the world, because they have been defiled by the idols of the Amorites. I will command another angel, and he will take for me twelve stones from that place whence these seven were taken. When you find them on the top of the mountain where you will place these others, take them and set them on the ephod to correspond to the twelve stones that Moses in the wilderness set on the breastplate and sanctify them according to the twelve tribes. Do not say, \u2018How will I know what stone to set for what tribe?\u2019 Behold, I will tell you the name of the tribe and the name of the stone corresponding to the name of the tribe, and you will find them both engraved.\u201d
\n5Cenaz went and took everything that had been found and the men together with these things, and he gathered all the people to himself again and said to them, \u201cBehold, you have seen all the wonders that God has shown us until this day. And behold, when we sought out all those who devised evil deeds cunningly against the LORD and against Israel, God revealed them to us according to their works. Now cursed be the man who will plot to do such things in your midst, brothers.\u201d All the people answered, \u201cAmen, Amen.\u201d When this had been said, he burned all those men in the fire and everything that had been found with them except the precious stones.
\n6After this Cenaz wished to test whether the stones would be consumed by fire, and he cast them into the fire. As soon as they fell into the fire, the fire was extinguished. Cenaz took the iron sword in order to break them. When the sword touched them, its iron melted. After this, he wished at least to erase the books with water, but as soon as the water fell upon them it congealed. When he saw this, Cenaz said, \u201cBlessed be God, who has done such great wonders for the sons of men, and he made Adam the first-fashioned one and showed him everything on condition that when Adam sinned thereby, he would deny the human race all he had shown, lest these things gain control over them.\u201d
\n7After saying this, he took the books and the stones and he placed them on the top of the mountain by the new altar as the LORD had commanded him. He brought a peace offering and offered the burnt offerings on the new altar, 2,000 burnt offerings in all. He gave them as a burnt offering on that day, and he and all the people together rejoiced greatly.
\n8That same night God did as he had told Cenaz. He commanded a cloud, and it went and took dew from the ice of paradise and poured it on the books and erased them. Afterward came an angel and burned them. Another angel took the precious stones and cast them into the heart of the sea, and he commanded the deep of the sea and it swallowed them. Another angel came and took twelve stones and put them by that place from which the seven had been taken and he engraved on them the names of the tribes.
\n9Cenaz arose the next morning and found those twelve stones on the top of the mountain where he himself had placed the seven. The engraving on them was such as if the forms of eyes were portrayed on them.
\n10The first stone, on which was written the name of the tribe Reuben, was like sardinus. The second stone was cut from a crag, and there was engraved the name of the tribe of Simeon, and a similarity to topaz was apparent in it. On the third stone, which was like smaragdus, was engraved the name of the tribe of Levi. The fourth stone, on which the name of the tribe of Judah was engraved, was called crystal, and it was like carbuncle. The fifth stone was prase and upon it was engraved \u201ctribe of Issachar,\u201d and it had the color of sapphire in it. The cut of the sixth stone was like chrysoprase speckled with diverse markings, and there was written \u201ctribe of Zebulun;\u201d jasper was similar to it.
\n11The engraving of the seventh stone shone and displayed within itself, as it were, the poured-in water of the deep, and there was written the name of the tribe of Dan, and it was like ligure. The eighth stone was cut out from adamant, and there was written the name of the tribe of Naphtali, and it was like amethyst. The engraving of the ninth stone was pierced-work from Mount Ophir, and there was written \u201ctribe of Gad,\u201d and the agate was similar to it. The engraving of the tenth stone was hollowed out, and it had the appearance of stone from Thema, and there was written \u201ctribe of Asher,\u201d and the chrysolite was similar to it. The eleventh stone was taken from the Lebanon, and there was written the name of the tribe of Joseph, and the beryl was like it. The twelfth stone was cut out from the height of Zion, and on it was written \u201ctribe of Benjamin,\u201d and the onyx was similar to it.
\n12God said to Cenaz, \u201cTake these stones and put them in the ark of the covenant of the LORD along with the tablets of the covenant that I gave to Moses on Horeb; and they will be there with them until Jahel will arise to build a house for my name, and then he will set them before me above the two cherubim, and they will be before me as a memorial for the house of Israel.
\n13When the sins of my people have reached full measure and their enemies will have power over their house, I will take these stones and the former stones along with the tablets, and I will put them back in the place from which they were brought forth at the beginning. They will be there until I remember the world and visit the inhabitants of the earth. Then I will take these and many others, much better ones, from those which the eye has not seen nor has the ear heard nor have they entered the mind of man until the light will come into existence in the world. The just will not need the light of the sun or the brightness of the moon, for the light of those most precious stones will be their light.\u201d
\n14Cenaz arose and said, \u201cBehold how much good God has made for men, but because of their sins they have been deprived of all these things. Now today I know that the race of men is unstable and their life should be reckoned as nought.\u201d
\n15Having said this, he took the stones from the place where they had been placed. When he took them, it was as if the light of the sun poured over them and the earth shone from their light. Cenaz put them in the ark of the covenant of the LORD with the tablets as he had been commanded, and they are there to this day.<\/p>\n
\n2On the third day certain men of the people spoke slander against Cenaz, saying, \u201cBehold now Cenaz alone spends time at his home with his wife and his concubines, and he sends us into battle to be destroyed at the hands of our enemies.\u201d
\n3The servants of Cenaz heard this and reported it to him. He commanded the captain of fifty, and the captain brought from them thirty-seven men who had denigrated him, and he shut them up in prison.
\n4These are their names: Leetuz, Betul, Efal, Dealma, Anaf, Desac, Besac, Getel, Anael, Anazim, Noac, Cehec, Boac, Obal, Labat, Enath, Beath, Zelut, Effor, Ecent, Deffaf, Abidan, Esar, Moab, Duzal, Azat, Felac, Igat, Zefal, Eliesor, Ecar, Zebat, Sebet, Nesach, Cere. When the captain of fifty had shut them up according to the command of Cenaz, Cenaz said, \u201cWhen God will have given victory to his people through my hands, then I will punish those men.\u201d
\n5After saying this, Cenaz commanded the captain of fifty, saying, \u201cGo and choose from my young men three hundred men and horses of the same number, and let no one of the people know the hour in which I am to go out for battle. Just have the men prepared for the time I will tell you, so that they will be ready at night.\u201d
\n6Cenaz sent emissaries as spies to see where the large force of the Amorite camp was. The emissaries went and in their spying saw that the large force of the Amorite camp was located on the cliffs and that they were planning to come and fight against Israel. The emissaries returned and reported such and such to him. Cenaz and the three hundred horsemen with him arose by night, and he took trumpets in his hand and began to go down with the three hundred men. When he drew near the Amorite camp, he said to his young men, \u201cStay here. I will go down alone to have a look at the Amorite camp. If I sound the trumpet, come down; but if not, wait for me there.\u201d
\n7Cenaz went down alone and before he went down he prayed and said, \u201cLORD God of our fathers, you have shown your servant the wonders that you are ready to do for your people in the last days. Now send one of your wonders to your servant, and I will defeat your enemies so that they and all the nations and your people will know that the LORD saves not by means of a large army or by the strength of horsemen, and that you LORD will make for me a sign of victory today. Behold, I will draw my sword out of its scabbard, and it will shine in the Amorite camp. If the Amorites recognize that I am Cenaz, I know that you have delivered them into my hands. But if they do not recognize me and think I am someone else, I know that you have not heard me but have delivered me to my enemies. But even if I be given over to death, I know that on account of my sins the LORD has not heard me and has handed me over to my enemies. But he will not destroy his portion through my death.\u201d
\n8He went forth after he prayed, and he heard many of the Amorites saying, \u201cLet us rise up and fight against Israel. For we know that our sacred virgins are there with them, and they will deliver them into our hands.\u201d
\n9Cenaz rose up and the spirit of the LORD clothed him, and he unsheathed his sword. When its brightness shone on the Amorites like a sharp lightning bolt, they saw it and said, \u201cIs this not the sword of Cenaz who has killed so many of us? What we said is correct, that the sacred virgins have delivered them into our hands. Behold now there is rejoicing for the Amorites today, since our enemy will be delivered over to us. Now therefore rise up, let each one gird himself with his sword, and begin to fight.\u201d
\n10When Cenaz heard their words, he was clothed with the spirit of power and was changed into another man, and he went down to the Amorite camp and began to smite them. The LORD sent before him the angel Ingethel, who is in charge of hidden things and works without being seen, and another, the angel of strength, who helped him. Ingethel smote the Amorites with blindness so that, since each could not see his fellow, they thought they were their adversaries and they killed one another. Zeruel, the angel who is in charge of strength, held up the arms of Cenaz so they should not sink down. Cenaz killed forty-five thousand men of the Amorites. Forty-five thousand men also died by their smiting of each other.
\n11When Cenaz had killed such a great number, he wished to release his hand from the sword, because it stuck to the handle of the sword and could not be released, and his right hand had taken on the power of the sword. Then those of the Amorites who survived fled into the mountains. Cenaz sought how to release his hand, and looking up, he saw an Amorite man fleeing. He grabbed him and said to him, \u201cI know that the Amorites are cunning; now show me how to release my hand from this sword, and I will let you go.\u201d The Amorite said, \u201cGo and get a man of the Hebrews, and kill him; and while his blood is still hot, put your hand beneath it; on catching his blood, your hand will be released.\u201d Cenaz said, \u201cAs surely as the LORD lives, if you had said, \u2018Take a man of the Amorites,\u2019 I would have taken one of them and let you live. But because you said \u2018of the Hebrews\u2019, so as to reveal your hatred, you are responsible for your own death, and, just as you have said, so I will do to you.\u201d After saying this, Cenaz killed him. While his blood was still hot, he put his hand underneath and caught it, and it was released.
\n12Cenaz left and took off his clothes. He threw himself into the river and washed himself. He came up again, changed his clothes, and returned to his young men. But the LORD had sent upon them a deep sleep at night, and they slept and did not know anything of all that Cenaz had done. Cenaz came and aroused them out of sleep, and they looked and saw, behold the field was full of bodies; and they looked at each other wonderstruck. Cenaz said to them, \u201cWhy are you amazed? Are the ways of God like the way of man? For among men numbers have significance, but with God only whatever he has decided. And so if God wished to give victory to his people through my hands, why are you amazed? Arise, and gird on, each one of you, your swords, and we will go home to our brothers.\u201d
\n13When all Israel heard that victory had been accomplished through the hands of Cenaz, all the people went out together to meet him and they said, \u201cBlessed be the LORD who has made you leader over his people and has shown that his words to you were reliable. What we heard in words, now we see with our eyes; God\u2019s prophecy is fulfilled.\u201d
\n14Cenaz said to them, \u201cQuestion your brothers, and let them tell you how much they toiled with me in battle.\u201d Those men who were with him said, \u201cAs surely as the LORD lives, we did not fight nor did we even know anything except only that, when we awoke, we saw the field full of bodies.\u201d And the people answered, \u201cNow we know that when the LORD decides to give victory to his people, he does not need a great number but only holiness.\u201d
\n15Cenaz said to the captain of fifty who had shut up those men in prison, \u201cBring those men here, and we will hear their words.\u201d When he had brought them, Cenaz said to them, \u201cTell me, what did you see so as to murmur about me among the people.\u201d They said, \u201cWhy do you ask us? Now therefore order that we be burned in the fire, because we will not die for this sin that we have been talking about now but for that previous one with regard to which the men were caught and confessed and were burned for their sins. For then we assented to their sins, saying, \u2018Perhaps the people will not find us out,\u2019 and then we escaped the people. But rightly have we been led by our sins to fall into slandering you.\u201d And Cenaz said, \u201cIf then you testify against yourselves, how will I have mercy on you?\u201d Cenaz ordered that they be burned in the fire and threw their ashes into the bed of the wadi Kison, where he had cast those of the great number of sinners.
\n16Cenaz ruled the people fifty-seven years, and there was fear upon all his enemies all his days.<\/p>\n
\n2Now I will establish my covenant with you today, that you not abandon the LORD your God after my death. For you have seen all the wonders that came upon those who sinned and what great punishment those who willingly confessed their sins paid, and how the LORD our God destroyed them because they transgressed his covenant. Now therefore have consideration for the members of your household and your children, and abide in the ways of the LORD your God lest the LORD destroy his portion.\u201d
\n3Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said, \u201cIf Cenaz the leader and the prophets and the people and the elders allow, I will speak the word that I heard from my father when he was dying, and I will not be silent about the command that he commanded me while his soul was being taken.\u201d Cenaz the leader and the prophets said, \u201cSpeak, Phinehas. Does anyone speak before the priest who guards the commandments of the LORD our God, especially since truth goes forth from his mouth and a shining light from his heart?\u201d
\n4Then Phinehas said, \u201cWhen my father was dying, he commanded me, saying, \u2018Say thus to the children of Israel when you are gathered together in assembly, \u201cThe LORD appeared to me three days ago in a dream by night and said to me, \u2018Behold you have seen, and your father before you, how much I have toiled for my people. But after your death this people will rise up and corrupt its ways and stray from my commands, and I will wax angry with them. But I will recall the time that was before the world,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"