'^ Moses commanded us a Torab; 
 Even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.' 
 
 EX LIBRIS 
 
■■.'rvSTa9W;S 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924076045669 
 
The Book of Jubilees 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE ETHIOPIC 
 
 BY 
 REV. GEORGE H. SCHODDE, Ph.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR IN CAPITAL UNIVERSITY, COLUMBUS, OHIO 
 
 OBERLIN, OHIO: 
 
 E. J. GOODRICH 
 
 1888 
 

INTRODUCTORY NOTES. 
 
 One of the most marked features of theological research 
 in our day and decade is the intense interest which char- 
 acterizes the work in biblical theology, technically so 
 called, and in this department no auxiliary branch has 
 been more productive of good results than has been that 
 discipline called History of New Testament Times, or the 
 study of the times of Christ as to their religious, moral, 
 and social features. The aim of such study is to repro- 
 duce, as far as possible, the exact picture of Christ's 
 earthly career in the midst of all the agencies which influ- 
 enced him and upon which he exerted his influence ; in 
 other words, to understand Christ's words and works with 
 their true historical background and surroundings. It is 
 a line of investigation that has produced, indirectly, such 
 masterpieces as Weber's System der altsynagogalen palds- 
 tinischcn TJieologie (Leipzig, 1880), and, directly, such as 
 Edersheim's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, as also 
 the two Neu- Tcstamentliche Zeitgeschichten, of Schiirer and 
 Hausrath, as well as many other works, smaller in dimen- 
 sions and more closely circumscribed in scope, while the 
 spirit and method of this research is felt in every fibre of 
 the leading exegetical and historical works on biblical 
 subjects. The object of all this study is to produce an 
 accurate and truly historical picture of Christ and Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 In the pursuit of this aim the Book of Jubilees has a 
 not unimportant mission. This importance lies in the fact 
 that it, if carefully studied, will furnish valuable contribu- 
 tions toward the understanding of that problem which 
 lies back and behind all the work and teachings of both 
 
X INTRODUCTORY NOTES. 
 
 Christ and his disciples, as also of the writings of the lat- 
 ter, namely, the doctrines, beliefs, and spirit of New Test- 
 ament Judaism. Christ came unto his own, and his own 
 received him not (John i. 1 1), because Israel had departed 
 from the revelations of God. Instead of a justification by 
 faith, as is taught throughout the whole Old Testament, 
 the cotemporaries of our Lord taught a justification by the 
 law, a legal righteousness. The central principle of Jew- 
 ish orthodoxy was the nomistic principle, that obedience 
 to the law in all its real and imagined ramifications must 
 be the basis of acceptance before God. Thus there was 
 an impassable gulf fixed between the theological system 
 of the Jews and that of Christ and his disciples. The 
 latter was a further development from Old Testament 
 premises; the former was a radical departure from all 
 pre-Christian revelation. This woful heterodox)-, which 
 constituted the backbone and marrow of the accepted 
 theology of the day, meets Christ and his disciples 
 wherever they work or speak, and has been an all-power- 
 ful factor in moulding the shape and form which the New 
 Testament revelation and development has assumed. We 
 need in this connection to cite as examples only the Paul- 
 ine doctrine of the law, in which he antagonizes, not the 
 law as such, but only the false stand-point of the Jews in 
 regard to the law, and his outspoken and decided cham- 
 pionship of the doctrine of justification by faith alone 
 over against a justification by works, suggested, beyond 
 all doubt, by the fundamental error of the Jewish system 
 of his day. 
 
 In the study of these problems the book before us finds 
 its mission. The editor of the Ethiopic text and German 
 translator. Professor Dillmann, has proved to the satisfac- 
 tion of scholars in general, that the book is a production 
 of the first Christian century. In Ewald's Jahrbucher der 
 biblischen Wissenschaft for 1850 and 1851, he has published 
 a German translation of the book from a single and 
 defective manuscript, and added a short discussion of the 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTES. XI 
 
 contents. There (pp. 90-4) he shows that the book presup- 
 poses and cites those parts of the Book of Enoch which 
 date up to about the birth of Christ, while it, in turn, has 
 been used and quoted by the Testament of the Twelve 
 Patriarchs, a work similar in spirit and a product of the 
 early part of the second century. This will decide the 
 end of the first century after Christ as the date for the 
 composition of the Book of Jubilees. By Christian au- 
 thors the work is not quoted until later. Epiphanius, 
 Jerome, and Rufinus are the first to mention it, while 
 Syncellus, Cedrinus, and other Byzantine writers quote 
 from it at length. These citations are collected in Fabri- 
 cius, Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti, 1722, vol. i. 
 pp. 849-64. But the testimony of the Testamentuni XII. 
 Patriarchariim is decisive as to the terminus ad quern. 
 Ronsch, who has made a most exhaustive study of the 
 book, confidently claims that it was written before the 
 destruction of the temple, pointing to the words in c. i, 
 23 ; 49, 27, and similar passages, which could not have 
 been written after that event. Cf. also Drummond, The 
 Jewish Messiah, p. 146, and Schiirer, 1. c. 463. 
 
 As the book is undoubtedly the work of a Palestinian 
 Jew and written in Hebrew (although the Ethiopic is 
 translated from the Greek — cf. Dillmann, 1. c. p. 88 ff.), it 
 can be fairly considered as an outgrowth of that school 
 and spirit of Judaism which we in the New Testament 
 find arrayed in opposition to Christianity and its work. 
 The book can best be described by calling it a haggadic 
 commentary on certain portions of Genesis and the 
 opening chapters of Exodus, and it is thus the oldest of 
 all the Midrashim, and a representative example of the 
 manner in which the learned contemporaries of Christ 
 made use of the biblical books for their own peculiar pur- 
 pose and object. It is a sample of an exegetical Targum 
 of those days in the spirit of New Testament Judaism. 
 Just to what particular school of Jewish thought it owes 
 its origin would be difficult to decide. Since the publica- 
 
XU INTRODUCTORY NOTES. 
 
 tion of the German translation, a number of Jewish schol- 
 ars, such as Jellenek {Beth-ha-Midrash, 1855, p. x. ff.), Beer 
 {Das Buck der Jubilaen, 1856), Frankel {Monatsschrift fur 
 Gescliichte u. Wissenschaft desjudenthums, 1856), and earlier, 
 Treuenfels (Literaturblatt des Orients, p. 1846), have dis- 
 cussed the problem, one advocating a Samaritan origin, 
 another an Essene, another claiming that it arose in the 
 Egyptian Diaspora, but all agreeing as to its thoroughly 
 Jewish origin and, in general, its representative character, 
 while Ronsch even thinks that he detects an anti-Christian 
 tendency {Das Buck der Jubilaen, oder die kleine Ge^iesis, 
 pp. 518-20). 
 
 What time and source would indicate is amply verified 
 by an examination of the contents. This, of course, can- 
 not be the place, nor is it our object, to analyze critically 
 the contents of the book, but by pointing to- a few prom- 
 inent features it will be readily seen how thoroughly the 
 book harmonizes with the leading thoughts of Jewish 
 orthodoxy in Christ's day. The centre of that orthodoxy 
 was the law and its paraphernalia, and all means, lawful 
 and unlawful, were put into requisition to exalt the im- 
 portance of that law and to increase its authority. The 
 eternity and pre-existence of this law, its festivals and its 
 ceremonies, are accepted beliefs of later Judaism (cf. 
 Weber, 1. c. § 4 ff.). To the service of this dogma the 
 writer of the Book of Jubilees has lent his pen. He 
 again and again maintains the thesis that the law existed 
 from eternity, although revealed in full only through 
 Moses; that even in heaven, before the creation, the 
 angels observed the festivals, services, and ceremonies of 
 this law; that throughout their lives the patriarchs all 
 strictly carried out its behests. All these things were 
 written on the "tablets of heaven," and were gradually 
 introduced among the pious fathers as occasion offered an 
 opportunity, and the teachings concerning them were 
 laid down in writing at the very beginning, which books 
 of mystery were handed down from father to son in theo- 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTES. xiii 
 
 cratic succession. This is the leading thought of the 
 whole work, and, in some form or other, is found in nearly 
 every chapter. It is a remarkable example of how willing 
 the Jews in Christ's day were to employ a most remark- 
 able exegesis in order to make the records of revelation 
 accord with their false view of its legal features. 
 
 Besides this leading characteristic of the work, there are 
 many others of less importance that are interesting and 
 instructive, and that cast a discerning light on the Jewish 
 world of thought at the New Testament era. Outwardly 
 the leading feature is the chronological system of the 
 book, namely, its division of all ancient history of the 
 Israelites according to the sacred periods of jubilees of 
 forty-nine years, which fact gives it one of its Greek 
 names, TaT&)/S'>;Xata(Epiphanius,«^i'.//^r., i, 3,6), the other 
 being r] Xe-Trrr) yiveai';, XeiTTD'yevecri';, or fjLi,Kpo<yeveaL<;, so called, 
 not because it is shorter than the canonical Genesis, but be- 
 cause it had less authority. The time between the crea- 
 tion and the entrance of Israel into Canaan is counted as 
 fifty jubilees, or 2,450 years, which in general agrees with 
 the biblical records. In the details of this chronological 
 arrangement there are occasionally slight variations from 
 the Hebrew text, and in these instances there is often a 
 surprising agreement with the Septuagint and the Samar- 
 itan versions. Dillmann is probably correct (p. yy) in 
 ascribing these variations from the Hebrew, not to the 
 author, but to the translator, accommodating the numbers 
 to the Septuagint text recognized among the Greeks. 
 
 It is remarkable how the writer bridges over all the 
 difficulties of the canonical Genesis. The speaking of the 
 serpent in Paradise is explained by the fact that before the 
 fall all animals could speak ; he knows the names of all the 
 wives of the patriarchs, also the day and month when 
 their children were born; he shows how Genesis ii. 17 
 was literally fulfilled, since before the Lord a thousand 
 years are as one day, and Adam died before he was a 
 thousand years old ; a parallel exegesis to this is found in 
 
XIV INTRODUCTORY NOTES. 
 
 Justin Martyr c. Tryphone 8i. He narrates with whose 
 assistance Noah brought the animals into the ark; how 
 the Hamitic tribes of Palestine unlawfully took possession 
 of Shem's portion ; that Rebecca loved Jacob more than 
 Esau because Abraham had told her that the younger 
 son would be the theocratic successor; also why it was 
 that Amnon refused to take Tamar to wife ; how Moses 
 was preserved in the bulrushes, etc., and many other bib- 
 lical narratives are explained and complemented in various 
 manners, usually in an apologetical spirit. 
 
 The book is also full of stories and fables concerning 
 the fathers in Israel, some of these being found also in the 
 Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, and other earlier 
 and later works, but many not preserved elsewhere. In 
 this connection we mention the names of the wives of the 
 patriarchs and of the sons of Jacob ; the name of the land 
 to which Adam was driven after the expulsion from Eden ; 
 the number of the sons of Adam ; the four sacred moun- 
 tains of the earth ; the name of the mountain of the Ara- 
 rat chain where the ark rested ; the extensive account of 
 the fall of the angels in the days of Jared, together with 
 the dire consequences of their sins with the daughters of 
 men, which story forms the burden of the earliest por- 
 tions of the book ; the story of the books of Enoch, 
 Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and others; the early days of 
 Abraham, 1 is piety, and fight against the idolatry of his 
 father's house; the ten temptations of Abraham, and 
 many similar stories concerning Jacob and his relations to 
 Esau, and concerning the sons of Jacob and their history. 
 The angelology and demonology of the book are carried 
 out quite cyieasively, and in the main thoughts agree 
 with the ideas [.)und in other apocalyptic works. The 
 patriarchs are all models of virtue, and especially promi- 
 nent through their observance of the Levitical ordinances 
 and ceremonies. The rest of the work is in harmony with 
 these statements. Both through what it states and what 
 it omits, the work is instructive in teaching what was the 
 Zeitgeist among the Jews in those memorable days. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTES. XV 
 
 But, of course, the full contribution of the Book of 
 Jubilees to the New Testament can only be secured 
 through a careful and patient study of every chapter and 
 verse. In order to enable scholars who are not acquainted 
 with the Ethiopic to do this work, the present translation 
 is here offered. It has been made directly from the best 
 Ethiopic text accessible, and with the best aids at the trans- 
 lator's command. As has been stated above, the German 
 translation by Dillmann is from a single defective and 
 poor manuscript. Nine years after its publication, in 1859, 
 Dillmann, the prince of Ethiopic scholars in our century, 
 issued a critical edition of the Ethiopic text on the basis 
 of two manuscripts, entitled. Liber Jiibilaeoriim Qui idem a 
 Graccis'^A. Xsttt^ 'yeveai'; inscribititr, vcrsione Graeca dcpcrdita, 
 nunc nonnisi in Gcez lingua conservatus, nupcr ex Abyssinia 
 in Europam allatus, Aethiopice ad duoriini librorum inainu- 
 scriptoruvi fidcm prinium cdidit Dr. August Dillmann. He 
 had hoped himself to make a new translation of the book 
 from this improved text (cf. Praefatio p. x.), but has never 
 been able to do so. In Rbnsch's edition, however, of a 
 Latin fragment of the book found in 1861 by Ceriani, and 
 embracing about one-third of the book, he has given a 
 Latin translation from the Ethiopic of those sections cor- 
 responding to the Ceriani fragment. The need of a new 
 translation has frequently been urged (cf., e.g., Drummond, 
 1. c, p. 144). As there is no such version in any modern 
 language, the present translator has attempted to do this, 
 leaving to others to investigate the book in its- whole, 
 length, depth, and breadth. In order to facilitate the study 
 of the book, the translator has not only adopted the divis- 
 ion of Dillmann into chapters, but has also divided these 
 again into verses. The lack of this latter feature in Dill- 
 mann makes the use of his version very difficult. The 
 fullest discussion of the book is that of Ronsch, besides 
 whose work those mentioned in this introductor}- note 
 may be consulted. The English reader will find valuable 
 aid in Drummiond, pp. 143-147. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 These are the words of the division ' of days, according 
 to the law and testimony," according to the events of the 
 years, according to their sevens, according to their Jubi- 
 lees, to all the years of the world, according to the word 
 of the Lord on Mount Sinai to Moses, when he ascended 
 to receive the stone tablets of the law and the command- 
 ments by the voice of the Lord when he said to him : 
 "Ascend to the top of the mountain ! " ' 
 
 Chap. L And it happened in the first year of the exo- 
 dus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the 3rd month, 
 on the i6th of this tnonth, and the Lord spoke to Moses 
 saying: "Ascend to me here on the mountain, and I will 
 give to thee the two stone tablets of the law and the 
 commandments; as I have written them, thou shalt make 
 them known." 2. And Moses ascended the mountain of 
 the Lord, and the glory of the Lord dwelt on the moun- 
 tain of Sinai, and a cloud overshadowed it six days. 3. 
 And the Lord called to Moses on the seventh day in the 
 
 ' Kufale, i. e., division, or rather, "Book of Division," is tlie name by 
 which this book is known among the Abyssinians. As such it is cited, c. g., 
 in the Apostolic Canons, 55. In Fell's edition, c. 56, we read of "three 
 books of the KiifalS." The name is derived from the fact that the author 
 divides the history he records according to the chronological system of 
 jubilee periods. 
 
 ' Both words used in the original for law and testimony are frequently 
 employed for "covenant," 6ia^f/KTi. The two together evidently express the 
 covenant relation between Israel and Jehovah. 
 
 ^ In claiming divine and Sinaitic authority for the production before us, 
 the author does nothing more than what is claimed for the whole of the oral 
 traditions of the Jews. Cf. especially the opening sentences of the Pirke 
 Aboth in the Mishna. The apocalypses of the same period also claim in- 
 spiration, prominently the book of Enoch. Such z.pia fraus was manifestly 
 not considered a moral wrong. 
 
2 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 midst of the cloud ; and he saw the glory of the Lord 
 like a flaming fire on the top of the mountam/ 4. And 
 Moses was there on the mountain forty days and forty 
 nights, and the Lord instructed him in regard to what 
 was past and what would be, the words of the division of 
 days, both in the law and the testimony. 5. And he said to 
 him: "Incline thy heart to every word which I shall 
 speak to thee, and write them into a book, in order that 
 their generations may see how I have left them on account 
 of all the evil which they do, in rebelling and in deserting 
 the covenant which I established between me and thee 
 this day on Mount Sinai for their generations. 6. And it 
 will be and these words shall declare it thus when all the 
 punishments shall come over them, and they will know 
 that I am more righteous than they in all their judgments 
 and their desires, and they will know that I was with 
 them. 7. And thou, write for thyself all these words 
 which I make known to thee this day (for I know their 
 rebellion and their stiff neck ' ) before I shall lead them 
 into the land which I have sworn to their fathers, to 
 Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, saying, "To your 
 seed I will give this land, which flows with milk and 
 honey ; and they shall eat and be satisfied. 8. And they 
 will turn themselves to false gods, who did not dfeliver 
 them from all their oppression ; and this testimony will be 
 heard against them for a testimony. 9. For they will 
 forget all my ordinances which I have commanded them, 
 and will vv^alk after the Gentiles and after their impurity 
 and after their shame, and will serve their gods, and these 
 will become for them an offence unto oppression and misfor- 
 tune and for a trap. 10. And many virill be destroyed and will 
 be taken captive and will fall into the hands of the enemy, 
 because they have deserted my ordinances and my com- 
 
 ' Cf. Ex. xxiv. 15-17. 
 
 - Deut. xxxi. 27. Here, and indeed throughout the opening chapters of 
 the book, there is a marked similarity between the author's ideas and that 
 of the book of Deuteronomy. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 3 
 
 mands and the festivals of my covenant, and my sabbaths 
 and that which I have sanctified to myself in their midst, 
 and my tabernacle and my sanctuary which I have sancti- 
 fied to myself in the midst of the land that I should set 
 my name over it and it should dwell there, ii. And they 
 will make to themselves altars on heights and groves and 
 sculptured idols, and each one will worship his own idol 
 for sin, and they will offer their children to the demons 
 and to all the deeds of the error of their hearts. 12. And 
 I will send witnesses to them that I may testify over 
 them, but they will not hear and will slay my witnesses, 
 and they will cast out those who seek the law, and will 
 abolish the whole [law], and will begin to do evil before 
 my eyes. 13. And I will hide my face from them and I 
 will deliver them over to the gentiles for captivity and for 
 binding and for devouring and for expelling them from 
 the midst of the land, and I shall scatter them in the 
 midst of the gentiles. 14. And they will forget all my 
 law and all my commandments and all my judgment, 
 and they will err in reference to new moons and sab- 
 baths and festivals and jubilees and ordinances. 15. And 
 then they will turn themselves to me from the midst 
 of the gentiles with all their hearts and all their soul 
 and all their power, and I shall gather them from 
 amongst all the gentiles, and they will seek me that 
 I may be found for them when they seek, me with all their 
 heart and with all their soul, and I will open to them 
 much peace and righteousness. 16. And I will transplant 
 them as a plant of righteousness, with all my heart and 
 with all my soul, and they will be to me for a blessing and 
 not for a curse, a head and not a tail ; and I will build up 
 my sanctuary in their midst, and 1 will dwell with them, 
 and I will be to them their God, and they shall be to me 
 my people, in truth and in righteousness, and I will not 
 desert them and will not deny them, for I am the Lord 
 their God." 17. And Moses fell down upon his face, and 
 he prayed and said : " My Lord and my God, do not for- 
 
4 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 sake thy peoplp and thy inheritance to wander in the 
 error of their hearts, and do not deliver them into the 
 hands of their enemies, the gentiles, that these may not 
 rule over them, and that they do not make them to sin 
 against thee. i8. O Lord, let thy mercy be raised over 
 thy people, and create for them a righteous mind, and let 
 not the spirit of Beliar ' rule over them to accuse them 
 before thee, to entrap them away from the path of right- 
 eousness, that they be destroyed from before thy face. 19. 
 But they are thy people and thy inheritance, which thou hast 
 delivered from the hands of the Egyptians with thy great 
 power; and create in them a clean heart and a holy spirit, 
 and let them not be entrapped in their sins from now on 
 and to eternity ! " 20. And the Lord said to Moses: "I 
 know their contrariness and their thoughts and their stiff 
 neck, and they will not obey until they learn their sins 
 and the sins of their fathers. And after this they will 
 turn to me in all righteousness and with their whole heart 
 and with their whole soul, and I will circumcise the fore- 
 skin of their hearts and the foreskin of the hearts of their 
 seed, and I will create for them a holy spirit, and will cleanse 
 them so that they do not turn away from me from this day 
 to eternity. 21. And their souls will cling to me and to 
 all my commandments, and my commandments shall re- 
 turn to them, and I will be to them a father, and they shall 
 be to me children. And they shall all be called the chil- 
 dren of the living God, and will know all things of the 
 spirit and all things of service, and it will be known that 
 they are my children and that I am their father in right- 
 eousness and in truth, and that I love them. 22. And 
 thou, write down for thyself all these words which I have 
 this day make known to thee on this mountain, the first 
 and the last and what is future, according to all the divis- 
 ion of days in the law and in the testimony, and according 
 
 ' Beliar, (ieXiap, cf. 2 Cor. vi. 15, a name of Satan frequently found in 
 apocalyptic and early ecclesiastical literature. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 5 
 
 to the weeks ' of the jubilees to eternity, until I descend 
 and dwell with them in all eternity." 
 
 23. And he said to the angel of the face;' "Write for 
 Moses from the beginning of creation until my sanctuary 
 shall have been established in their midst for all eternity, 
 and the Lord will have appeared to the eyes of all, and 
 all will know that I am the God of Israel and the Father of 
 all of the children of Jacob and King on Mount Zion from 
 eternity to eternity. And Zion and Jerusalem will be 
 holy." 
 
 24. And the angel of the face, who went before the 
 tents of Israel, took the tablets of the division of years 
 from the time of the creation, the law and the testimony 
 for the weeks and the jubilees, each year according to all 
 its numbers and the jubilees according to years from the 
 day of the new creation, when heaven and earth were 
 created new, and also all creation according to the poweis 
 of heaven and all the creation of the earth, until then when 
 the sanctuary of the Lord will be made in Jerusalem on 
 Mount Zion, and all the luminaries will be renewed for a 
 healing and for peace and for a blessing for all the chosen 
 of Israel, that it may be thus from this day on and to all 
 the days of the world ! 
 
 Chap. II. And the angel of the face spoke to Moses by 
 the command of the Lord, saying : " Write all the words 
 
 ' The word " weeks " is used throughout the work in the sense of week of 
 years, i. e., forty-nine years, or one jubilee period. 
 
 ^ The biblical D''JBn 1XPD, the favorite angels of apocalyptic writers, 
 whose mission is the mediatorship between God and man. Later writers 
 resort to this means of communication between divinity and humanity all 
 the more in order to preserve the former from all contact with the latter, 
 and thus preserve the holiness of God. The idea is born from the same 
 spirit that induced the Septuagint translators to smooth over the anthropo- 
 morphism and antjiropopathies of the Hebrew text, and helped much to the 
 development of Philo's logos idea and allegorical method of interpretation, 
 as also to the popularity of the Menire mediatorship in Grd's dealings with 
 men and the world so generally prevalent in the Targumim. Of. Zech. i. 9, 
 and similar passages, and also Web,er, System der altsynag. palest. Theolo- 
 gie, passim. 
 
6 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 of creation, how in six days the Lord God finished all the 
 works which he created, and rested on the seventh day and 
 sanctified it for all the years and established it as a sign for 
 all his works." For on the first day he created the heav- 
 ens above and the earth and the waters and all the spirits 
 that serve before him, and the angels of the face and the 
 angels- that cry "holy," and the angels of the spirit of 
 fire,' and the angels of the spirit of wind, and the angels 
 of the spirit of the clouds of darkness and of hail and of 
 hoarfrost, and the angels of the abysses and of thunder 
 and of lightning, and the angels of the spirits of cold and 
 of heat, of winter and of spring and of fall and of sum- 
 mer and of all the spirits of the multitude of works which 
 are in the heavens and on the earth and in all the depths, 
 and of darkness and of light and of dawn and of eve 
 which he has prepared in the knowledge of his heart. 
 2. And at that time we saw his work and praised him and 
 lauded before him on account of all his work, for seven 
 great things did he make on the first day." 3. And on the 
 second day he made a firmament between the waters, and 
 the waters divided on this day, and half of it ascended 
 upward, and half of it descended beneath the firmament 
 over the face of the earth. And this work alone was 
 made on the second day. 4. And on the third day he did 
 as he said to the waters that they should cross from the 
 face of the whole earth to one place, and that dry land 
 should appear. 5. And he made the waters thus as he 
 said to them, and they gathered from over the face of the 
 earth into one place outside of this firmament, and the 
 dry land appeared. 6. And on that day he created for it 
 
 ' The idea underlying this and similar expressions found so frequently in 
 the Jewish apocalypses is that all objects in nature which can be agencies 
 for good or for evil are under the management of particular angels who 
 direct their use according to the will of the Lord. Especially is this the 
 case in the Noachic fragments of Enoch. Cf. the translator's version of 
 that book (Andover, 1882), chap. 60 sqq. and notes. 
 
 ' ' I. e., heaven, earth, water. Serving spirits, angels of the face, angels of 
 praise, and angels of the elements. Cf. also verse 17 of this chapter. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 7 
 
 [the water] the abysses of the seas, according to their 
 separate gathering places, and all the rivers and the gath- 
 ering places of the waters in the hills and in all the earth, 
 and all the lakes, and all the dew of the earth, and the 
 seed which is sown according to its kind, and every thing 
 that is eaten, and the trees which bear fruit, and the 
 wild trees, and the garden of Eden for pleasure ; and all 
 these four ' great creations he made on the third day. 
 7. And on the fourth day he made the sun . and moon 
 and stars and placed them in the firmament of heaven 
 that they should shine over the earth and to rule over 
 day and night and to divide between night and day 
 and between darkness and light. 8. And God established 
 the sun as a great sign over the earth and for days and 
 for sabbaths and for months and for festivals and for 
 years and for jubilees and for all seasons of the years, 
 g. And he shall divide between light and darkness and 
 for prosperity that all things that sprout and grow on 
 earth may prosper. 10. These three kinds God made on 
 the fourth day. 11. And on the fifth day he created the 
 great animals in the abysses of the seas (for these were 
 the first things of flesh created by his hands), and every 
 thing that moves in the waters, and the fishes and every 
 thing that flies, the birds and their whole kind. 12. And 
 the sun arose over them to prosper them, and over all 
 that was on the earth, every thing that sprouts out of the 
 earth and all the trees that bear fruit and all flesh: these 
 three kinds he made on the fifth day. 13. And on the 
 sixth day he made all the animals of the earth and all the 
 beasts and every thing that moves over the earth. 14. And 
 after all this he made mankind, a single one ; male and 
 female he created them, and made him ruler over all 
 things upon the earth and in the seas and over that which 
 flies and over all the animals and beasts and over every 
 thing that moves on the earth, and over the whole earth ; 
 ' I. e., the terra firma, the gathering places for the water, the plants, and 
 Eden. 
 
8 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 and over all this he made him ruler. 15. And these four 
 kinds he made on the sixth day. And there were alto- 
 gether twenty -two kinds.' 16. And he completed all his 
 work on the sixth day,'' all that is in the heavens and on the 
 earth and in the seas and in the abyfeses, in the light and in 
 the darkness and in every thing ; ^nd he gave us [the an- 
 gels] a great sign, the day of sabbaths, that we should do 
 work six days, and should rest oti the sabbath from all 
 work. 17. And all the angels of thfe face and all the angels 
 that cry " holy," to us, these two great kinds, he said that 
 we should observe the sabbath with him in heaven and 
 on earth." 18. And he said to us: " Behold, I shall sep- 
 arate for myself a people from among all the nations, and 
 these shall celebrate the sabbath, and I shall sanctify them 
 unto myself as a nation, and I will sanctify them unto my- 
 self as a people, and will bless thetti, as I have sanctified 
 the day of sabbaths, and I will sanctify them unto me and 
 thus I will bless them ; and they shall be to me my people, 
 but I will be to them a God. 19. And I chose the seed of 
 Jacob from among all that I have seen and have written 
 him down as a first born son, and I have sanctified him 
 unto myself forever and ever ; and the day of the sab- 
 baths I will teach them, that they observe sabbath on it 
 from all work." 20. And he made therein a sign that they 
 too should observe the sabbath with us on the seventh 
 day, to eat and to drink and to bless him who has created 
 all things, as he blessed and sanctified unto himself a 
 
 'I. e., seven kinds on the first day, one on the second, four on the third, 
 three on the fourth, three on the fifth, and four on the sixth day. 
 
 '' The writer follows the Septuagint with its ev rfj y/iepa -y ektij in Gen. ii.2. 
 It will be remembered that the Hebrew text here has 'JJ'^KTI DV3- 
 
 ' Not only the pre-existence of great persons, such as the Messiah, but of 
 sacred objects and ceremonies is a favorite idea of apocalyptic writers. 
 According to the book of Jubilees, the Israelite economy was but a reflex 
 and reproduction of an eternal and more perfect hierarchia caelestis among 
 the angels around the throne of grace. Cf. especially the translator's intro- 
 duction to Enoch p. 48 sqq. In Assuinpiio Mosis i. 17 we have the same 
 view we find expressed here concerning the observance of the sabbath in 
 heaven, cf. also verse 27 of this chapter. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. $. 
 
 people which shall appear from amongst the nations and 
 that they should observe the sabbath together with us. 
 And he caused that before him his commands should 
 ascend like a sweet savor which should be acceptable 
 before him all the days of the twenty-two heads of men 
 from Adam to Jacob. And twenty-two kinds of works 
 were made until this seventh day ;' this thing is blessed 
 and holy, and the former too is blessed and holy : and this 
 one with that one serves for a sanctification and blessing. 
 21. And to this one [Jacob and his seed] was given that 
 they should be for all days the blessed and holy ones of 
 the testimony and the first law, just as he had blessed and 
 sanctified the seventh day on the seventh day. 22. He 
 created heaven and earth and every thing that he created 
 in six days, and the Lord established a holy festival day 
 for all his creation ; and therefore he commanded on its ac- 
 count that he who does any work on it shall die, and who- 
 ever defiles it shall surely die. 23. And thou, command 
 the children of Israel, and they shall observe this day, so 
 that they keep it holy and do not work on it any work, and 
 do not defile it ; for it is holier than all the days. 24. All 
 who profane this day shall surely die, and all who do any 
 work on it shall surely die forever ; so that the children 
 of Israel observe this day in their generations and be 
 not rooted out of the land ; for it is a holy day and a 
 blessed day. 25. And ever)'^ man who observes it and keeps 
 the sabbath on it away from all his work, will be blessed 
 and holy for all his days like unto me. 26. And announce 
 and say 'to the children of Israel the law of this day, and 
 that they shall observe the sabbath on it, and do not des- 
 ert it in the error of their hearts, and that they be not 
 engaged in doing any thing on it which should not be 
 done, and that they do not prepare on it any thing that 
 
 ' In connection with this observe, that as there had been twenty-two dif- 
 ferent works of creation before the sanctification of the sabbath by the 
 angels (cf. v. 15 sqq.) thus too there should be twenty-two generations of 
 people before in Israel a nation should arise that would establish the sancti- 
 fication of the sabbath on earth. 
 
lO THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 is eaten or drunk, nor draw water, nor on it carry in or 
 bring out of their gates any thing that is carried, which 
 they have not prepared for themselves as a work on the 
 six days in their houses. 27. And they shall not carry 
 out or bring in on that day frqm one house to another, 
 for this is a holy and blessed day over all the days of ju- 
 bilees ; on it we observed the sabbath in heaven, before it 
 was known to any mortal to observe the sabbath on it 
 on the earth. 28. And the Creator of all blessed it ; but 
 he did not sanctify all nations and peoples to observe the 
 sabbath on it, only Israel alone : to them alone he granted 
 to eat and to drink and to observe sabbath on it on the 
 earth. 29. And the Creator of all blessed it, who had 
 created this day for a blessing and a sanctification and for 
 glory above all the days. 30. This law and testimony was 
 given to the children of Israel as a law forever to their 
 generations. 
 
 Chap. III. i.' And in the sixth day of the second sab- 
 bath we brought, by the command of the Lord, to Adam 
 all the animals and all the beasts and all the birds and 
 every thing that moves on the earth and every thing that 
 moves in the water, each according to their kind, and each 
 according to their similarity : on the first day the animals ; 
 the beasts on the second day ; the birds on the third day ; 
 every thing that moves on the earth the fourth day ; what- 
 ever moves in the water on the fifth day. 2. And Adam 
 gave unto each its name ; and as he called them, this was 
 their name. And on these five days Adam saw this : a 
 male and a female in each kind that is on the earth, but 
 that he was alone and could not find a companion who 
 could be an aid to such as he. 3. And God said to me:' 
 " It is not good that man should be alone : let us make for 
 him a helpmeet like unto him." 4. And the Lord our God 
 caused a stupor to fall upon him and he slept, and he took 
 for a wife one rib from amongst his ribs, and this rib was 
 made into a woman from amongst his ribs, and he built 
 
 ' I. e., to the angel who is narrating these matters to Moses. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 1 1 
 
 flesh there in its place, and byilt a woman. 5. And he 
 awakened Adam out of his sleep, and awakening he arose 
 on the sixth day and came to her and knew her and said 
 unto her: 'This is now bone from my bone and flesh from 
 my flesh : this one shall be called my wife, for she came 
 and originated from man. 6. For this reason man and 
 wife shall be one, and for this reason a man shall leave his 
 father and his mother and will connect himself with his 
 wife, and they shall be one flesh. 7. And in the first sev- 
 enth was Adam created, and his wife in his side, and in 
 the second seventh he showed her to him, ' and on that 
 account the command was given to observe in their defile- 
 ment seven days for a male and twice seven days for a 
 female. " 
 
 8. And when Adam had completed forty days in the 
 land where he had been created, we brought him into the 
 garden of Eden, that he should work it and watch it ; but 
 his wife they brought in on the eightieth day, and after 
 this she entered the garden; and on this account the com- 
 mandment is written on the tablets of heaven" in reference 
 to her that gives birth, that "if she brings forth a male, 
 she shall remain in her uncleanness seven days according 
 to the first week of days, and thirty days shall she abide 
 in the blood of purifying, and she shall touch nothing 
 holy and shall not enter into the sanctuary until these 
 days are completed for her who has a male child. 9. But 
 she who has a female child shall remain in her uncleanness 
 two weeks, according to the first two weeks, and sixty-six 
 days in the blood of purifying, and all the days for her 
 shall be eighty." " 10. And she having completed these 
 
 ' I. e., she was created at the same time with Adam, but in and within 
 him, and it was only in the second week that she became a separate creature. 
 
 "^ Cf. Lev. xii. 
 
 ^ Throughout this and similar works the laws of God and his ordinances 
 are looked upon as taken from the tablets of heaven ; especially is this idea 
 and expression found in the Testamentum XIL Patriarcharum. 
 
 ■• Cf. Lev. XV. 
 
12 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 eighty days we brought her-into the garden of Eden, for 
 it is holy above the whole earth, and every tree that is 
 planted in it is holy. And on this account was ordained 
 concerning her that gives birth to a male or female this 
 law for these days, that they shall touch nothing holy nor 
 enter a sanctuary until these days for a male or a female 
 are completed.' ii. This law and testimony was given 
 and written for the children of Israel that they should 
 observe it all the days. 12. And in the first week of the 
 first jubilee Adam and his wife were in the garden of 
 Eden seven years working and watching it ; and we gave 
 them work and taught them to work every thing that 
 offered itself for work. 13. And he labored and was naked 
 and did not know it and was not ashamed, and he watched 
 the garden against the birds and the animals and the 
 beasts," and gathered its fruits and ate and laid aside the 
 rest for himself and his wife, and laid aside that which 
 he had guarded for himself. 14. And having ended the 
 completion of seven years which he completed there, in 
 the seventh year exactly, and in the second month, on the 
 seventeenth of the month, the serpent came and ap- 
 proached the woman, and the serpent said to the woman : 
 " Has God commanded that you shall not eat of any of 
 the fruit of the tree in the garden? " 15. And she said to 
 it. " He has told us, ' Eat from all the fruit of the trees in 
 the garden, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the 
 midst of the garden ye shall not eat, nor shall ye touch it, 
 that ye die not ! ' " 16. And the serpent said to the 
 woman : " Ye will surely not die, but because God knows 
 that on which day ye eat of it your eyes shall be opened 
 and ye shall be like gods and will know good and evil." 
 17. And the woman saw the tree that it was pleasant and 
 it pleased the eye, and that its fruit was good to eat ; she 
 
 ' To the present day yet this law is preserved in the Church of Abyssinia. 
 Cf. Thiersch's elaborate articles on Abyssinia in the July and August num- 
 bers of the Allgm. Conservat. Monatschrift for 1884. 
 
 ^ On this point our book differs from other apocalypses where the animals 
 before the fall are represented as harmless. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 1 3 
 
 took from it and ate. i8. And she first covered her shame 
 with fig leaves, and gave to her husband, and he ate, and 
 his eyes were opened and he saw that he was naked. 19. 
 And he took fig leaves and sewed them together and 
 made for himself an apron and covered his shame. 20. 
 And God cursed the serpent and was enraged at it for- 
 ever ; and he was enraged at the woman also, because she 
 had obeyed the voice of the serpent, and he said to her: 
 " I shall surely increase thy pains and thy trouble ; in thy 
 pains bear children, and to thy husband be thy refuge, 
 and he shall be thy lord." 21. And to Adam he said: 
 " Because thou didst obey the voice of thy wife and didst 
 eat from this tree of which I had commanded thee that 
 thou shouldst not eat, let the earth be cursed on account 
 of thy deed ; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth for 
 thee ; and eat thou thy bread in the sweat of thy brow 
 until thou returnest to the earth from which thou hast 
 been taken ; for earth thou art, and to earth thou shalt 
 return." 22. And he made for them garments of skin 
 and clothed them, and sent them from the garden. 23. 
 And on that day on which Adam came out of the garden 
 of Eden he offered, as a sweet savour, a burnt offering : 
 frankincense and galbanum and myrrh spices, in the morn- 
 ing with the rising of the sun, on the day when>he cov- 
 ered his shame. 24. And on that day was closed the 
 mouth of all the animals and of the beasts and of the 
 birds and of whatever walks and of whatever moves, so 
 that they could not speak ; for they all had spoken with 
 each other one lip and one tongue.' 25. And he sent out 
 of the garden of Eden all flesh that was in the garden of 
 Eden, and all flesh was scattered according to its kinds 
 and according to its natures to the places which had been 
 created for them. 26. And to Adam alone did he give 
 to cover his shame, of all the ammals and beasts. 27. On 
 this account it is commanded in the tablets of heaven con- 
 cerning all who know the judgment of the law, that they 
 ' The idea that animals spolce before the fall is not confined to this book. 
 
14 The Book of jubilees. 
 
 shall cover their shame and shall not uncover themselves 
 as the geiitiles uncover themselves. 28. And at the new- 
 moon of the fourth month Adam and his wife came out of 
 the garden of Eden and dwelt in the land of Elda, in the 
 land of their creation. 29. And Adam called the name of 
 his wife Eve. 30. And they did not have a son until the 
 first jubilee year; and after" this he knew her. 31. But he 
 cultivated the land, as he had been ^taught in the garden 
 of Eden. 
 
 Chap. IV. i. And in the third week of the second 
 jubilee she gave birth to Cain, and in the fourth she gave 
 birth to Abel, and in the fifth she gave birth to her daugh- 
 ter Awin." 2. And in the first [week] of the third jubilee 
 Cain slew Abel, because [God] accepted an offering from 
 his hands, but did not receive a fruit offering from the 
 hands of Cain. 3. And he slew him on the field ; and 
 his blood cried aloud from earth to heaven lamenting that 
 he had slain him, and God punished Cain, because he had 
 slain Abel. 4. And he made him a refugee over the earth, 
 on account of the blobd of his brother, and he cursed him 
 upon the earth. 5. And on this account it is written in 
 the tablets of heaven : " Cursed be he who slays his neigh- 
 bor in wickedness, and all who hear shall say, ' So be it ! ' 
 and the man who sees it and does not announce it, cursed 
 be he like the other." 6, And on this account we hear- 
 ing come to announce before the Lord our God all the 
 sins which take place in heaven and earth, and in light 
 and in darkness, and everywhere. 7. And Adam and his 
 wife mourned for Abel four weeks of years ; and in the 
 fourth year of the fifth week he became joyful and knew 
 his wife again, and she brought forth for him a son, and 
 
 ' Who invented this and the other non-biblical names that are found in 
 this and the following chapters is not known. As in the whole known litera- 
 ture of that day and kind there" is no other book that contains so many of 
 them as does the one before us, it may not be incorrect to think that the 
 author himself inyented many. But he is certainly not the originator of the 
 idea of inventing such names. Indications abound that the popular Jewish 
 faith of the day had many such names. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 15 
 
 they called his name Seth ; for he said : " The Lord has 
 raised up for us a second seed on the earth in the place of 
 Abel ; for Cain slew him." 8. In the sixth week he begat 
 his daughter Azura. 9. And Cain took Awan his sister 
 to himself as wife, and she brought forth for him Enoch 
 at the end of the fourth jubilee. And in the first year of 
 the first week of the fifth jubilee houses were built on the 
 earth, and Cain built a city, and called it by the name of 
 his son Enoch. 10. And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and 
 she brought forth yet nine sons. 11. And in the fifth 
 week of this jubilee Seth took Azur^ his sister to himself 
 as wife, and in the fourth [year] she brought forth for 
 him Enos. 12. And he began first to call upon the name 
 of the Lord on the earth. 13. And in the seventh jubilee, 
 in the fifth week, Enos took N68m his sister to himself as 
 wife, and she brought forth for him a son in the third year 
 of the fifth week, and called his name Cainan. 14. And at 
 the end of the eighth jubilee Cainan took to himself as 
 wife Mual8t his sister, and she bore for him a son in the 
 ninth jubilee, in the first week, in the third year of this 
 week, and he called his name Mal§,161. 15. And in the 
 second week of the tenth jubilee MaMel took unto him- 
 self as wife Sina, the daughter of BarakhSl, the daughter 
 of the sister of his father, and she bore him a son in the 
 third week, in the sixth year, and he called his name 
 Jargd ; for in his days the angels of the Lord descended 
 upon the earth, those that are called Watchmen,' that they 
 should teach the children of men to do judgment and 
 right over the earth. 16. And in the eleventh jubilee 
 Jir6d took to himself a wife, and- her name was BarakS,, a 
 daughter of R&suj^l, a daughter of the sister of his father, 
 
 ' The name by which the angels of Gen. vi; i sqq. are known in apoc- 
 alyptic literature. Their evil deeds and the consequences thereof form the 
 burden of the oldest portion of the book of Enoch. All that is here related 
 of them and of Enoch is based upori the account there given,^ and the whole 
 matter is treated in extenso in the writer's translation of that- book. Cf. 
 especially the Introduction, p. 32 sqq., and chap. vi. and sqq. of the book 
 itself, together with the notes. 
 
16 THE BOOlt OP JUBiLfiES. 
 
 in the fourth week of this jubilee ; and she bore for him a 
 son in the fifth week, in the fourth year, of this jubilee, 
 and he called his name Enoch. 17. He was the first one 
 from among the children of men that are born on the 
 earth to learn writing and knowledge and wisdom. 18. 
 And he wrote the signs of heaven ' according to the 
 order of their months in a book, that the sons of men 
 might know the time of the year according to their sepa- 
 rate months. 19. He was the first to write a testimony, 
 and he testified to the children of men concerning the 
 generations of the earth, and explained the weeks of the 
 jubilees, and made known to them the days of the years, 
 and arranged the months and explained the sabbaths of 
 the years as we made them known to him. 20. And what 
 was and what will be he saw in a vision of the night in a 
 dream, and as it will happen to the children of men in 
 their generations until' the day of judgment; he saw and 
 learned every thing and wrote it as a testimony and laid 
 the testimony on the earth over all the children of men 
 and for their generations. 21. And in the twelfth jubilee, 
 in the seventh week tjjereof, he took to himself a wife, 
 and her name was EdjiS,, the daughter of Daniel, the 
 daughter of the sister .ol his father ; and in the sixth year 
 in this week she bore.hdm a son, and he called his name 
 Methusaleh. 22. And then he was with the angels of God 
 six years of this jubilee, and they showed h?m all things 
 on earth and in heaven, the rule of the sun, and he wrote 
 down all things. 23. J^nd he testified to the Watchmen, 
 those that sinned with the daughters of men ; for they had 
 commenced to mix with phe^ . daughters of the earth, so 
 that they were defiled ; and -Enoch testified against them 
 all. 24. And he was removed from the midst of the chil- 
 dren of men, and we conducted him into the garden of 
 Eden for greatness and for honor, and behold here he was 
 
 ' The standard reputation of Enoch among legend-loving Jews, Christians, 
 and Mohammedans. Cf. Enoch (Introd.) pp. 14-17. The writing here 
 referred to is the book of Enoch. 
 
The book of jubilees. 17 
 
 engaged in writing down the judgment and the eternal 
 condemnation and all the wickedness of the sons of the 
 children of men. 25. And on his account [God] brought 
 the deluge over the whole land of Eden ; ' for there he 
 was set as a sign and that he should testify over all the 
 sons of the children of men, that he should declare all the 
 deeds of the generations until the day of judgment. 26. 
 And he offered a burnt offering on the west side of the 
 sanctuary [?] which was pleasing before the Lord on the 
 hill of the south ; for there are four places to the Lord on 
 earth : the garden of Eden and the hill of the east in it," 
 and this hill on which thou art to-day, the hill of Sinai, 
 and the hill of Zion, which will be sanctified in the new 
 creation for a sanctification of the earth : through it the 
 earth will be sanctified from all its sin and its un cleanness 
 to the generation of eternity." 27. And in the fourteenth 
 jubilee Methusaleh took unto himself as his wife Edni, 
 the daughter of Ezr9,gl, the daughter of the sister of his 
 father, in the third week in first year of this week, and he 
 begat a son and called his name Lilm8ch. And in the 
 fifteenth jubilee, in the third week, Lam6ch took to himself 
 a wife, and her name was BilanSs, the daughter of Bara- 
 k61, the daughter of the sister of his father ; and in this 
 week she bore him a son, and he called his name Noah, 
 saying : " This one will comfort me on account of all my 
 work and on account of the earth which the Lord has 
 
 ' This is a somewhat strange statement, and the text may be corrupt. 
 The term "land of Eden" generally is the same as simply Eden. The 
 connection might lead to the thought that all but Eden was then destroyed, 
 as it was no longer inhabited since Adam's expulsion. A negative particle 
 of some sort may have drqpped out. 
 
 ' Naturally the locality of the first two of these sacred places cannot be 
 ascertained ; it may be that the writer himself had no accurate idea on this 
 matter. 
 
 ^ Referring to the hope of all writers of Jewish apocalypses that God 
 would establish Israel as his ruling people on Zion, and from that centre 
 spread his blessings over all natioijs. This is one of the most fixed hopes 
 of this and similar works. 
 
1 8 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 cursed." 28. And at the end of the nineteenth jubilee, in 
 the seventh week, in the sixth year thereof, Adam died, 
 and all of his sons buried him in the land of the creation of 
 Adam, and he was the first to be buried in the earth, and 
 he lacked seventy years of one thousand years ; for one 
 thousand years are like one day in the testimony of 
 heaven, ' and therefore it was written concerning the 
 tree of knowledge : " On the day on which ye eat thereof 
 ye shall die." 29. And for this reason he did not com- 
 plete the years of this day ; for in it he died. 30. At the 
 end of this jubilee Cain was killed, after him, in the same 
 year; and his house fell upon him, and he died in the 
 midst of the house, and he was killed with his stones, for 
 with a stone he had killed Abel, and with a stone he was 
 killed by a judgment of righteousness. 31. On this 
 account it is ordained in the tablets of heaven : " With the 
 instrument with which a man kills his neighbor, he shall 
 be killed ; as he wounded him, shall thus they do to him." '' 
 32. And in the fifty -fifth jubilee. Noah took to himself a 
 wife, and her name was Emzarih, the daughter of Rakgl 
 the daughter of his sister [sic] in the first year, in the 
 fifth week ; and in the third year thereof she bore him 
 Shem, in the fifth year thereof she bore him Ham, and in 
 the first year in the sixth week she bore him Japhet. 
 
 Chap. V. i. And it happened, when the ^ons of the chil- 
 dren of men commenced to increase over the face of the 
 whole earth and daughters were born to them,that the angels 
 of the Lord saw them in one year of this jubilee, that they 
 were beautiful to look upon ; and they took unto them- 
 selves wives from all of them whomever they chose, and 
 they bore them sons, and these were giants. * 2. And 
 injustice increased over the earth and all flesh corrupted 
 its way, from men to animals and to beasts and to birds 
 and to all that walks upon the earth; all corrupted 
 
 ' A somewhat peculiar commentary on Ps. xc. 4. 
 ^ The /ex talionis, based partly on Lev. xxiv. 19, 20. 
 *Cf. note on iv. 15. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 19 
 
 their ways and their orders ' and began to devour each 
 other, and unrighteousness increased over the earth, and 
 all the thoughts of the knowledge of all the sons of men 
 were thus wicked all the days. 3. And the Lord looked 
 upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, and all flesh 
 corrupted its order and they all did evil before his eyes, 
 all that were on the earth. 4. And he said : " I shall 
 destroy mankind and all flesh that has been created above 
 the face of the earth." And Noah alone found grace 
 before the eyes of the Lord. 5. And concerning the 
 angels whom he had sent upon the earth, he was greatly 
 enraged, that he would root them out of all their power; 
 and he said to us that we should bind them in the depths 
 of the earth ; and behold they are bound in the midst of 
 them [depths] and separate. 6. And against their children 
 came a word from before the face of the Lord, that they 
 should be slain with a sword and be removed from under 
 heaven. 7. And he said : " My spirit shall not abide over 
 men forever, for they are flesh ; and let their days be one 
 hundred and twenty years." 8. And he sent into their 
 midst his sword that each should slay his neighbor ; and 
 they began to slay one the other until they all fell upon 
 the sword and were destroyed from the earth. 9. And 
 their fathers witnessed it; and after this these were bound 
 in the depths of the earth, until the day of the great 
 judgment for the coming of punishment unto eternity 
 over all those who have corrupted their ways and their 
 works before the Lord. 10. And he destroyed all their 
 places, and there was not left a single one of them who 
 was not judged according to all their wickedness. 11. And 
 he made for all of his works a new and righteous nature, 
 so that they did not sin in their entire nature unto eternity 
 and were righteous each in his generation all the days. 12. 
 And the judgment of all is ordained and written on the tab- 
 lets of the heaven and without injustice ; and all who depart 
 from the path which is ordained for them to walk in, and 
 ' I. e., the spheres to which the Creator had assigned them. 
 
20 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 if they do not walk in it, then is written down a judgment 
 for every creature and every generation ; and nothing that 
 is in heaven, or on earth, or in the light, or in the darkness, 
 or in Sheol, or in the depth, or in the dark place [can escape] ; 
 all their judgments are ordained and written and engraved 
 concerning all. 13. He will judge the small and the great, 
 the great according to his greatness and the small accord- 
 ing to his smallness, and each one according to his path. 
 14. And he is not one who has regard for persons, nor one 
 who receives bribes when he says that he will hold judg- 
 ment over each one : if one gives him all things on earth, 
 he will have no regard for his person and will not receive 
 any thing from his hands, for he is the judge. 15. And of 
 the children of Israel it has been written and ordained, if 
 they shall turn to him in righteousness, he will remove all 
 their guilt and pardon all their sins. 16. It is ordained 
 and written that he will show mercy to all who turn from 
 all their errors, once each year. 17. And concerning all 
 those who corrupted their ways and works before the 
 flood, he had no regard for their persons, with the excep- 
 tion of Noah alone ; for he had regard for his person on 
 account of the sons whom he saved from the water of 
 the flood for his sake ; ' for his heart was righteous in all 
 his ways, as had been commanded concerning it, and he 
 had not transgressed any thing that had been ordained 
 for him. 18. And the Lord said: "Every thing that is on 
 the dry land and every thing that is created, from men to 
 animals and to beasts and to birds and to whatever moves 
 upon the earth, shall be destroyed." 19. And he com- 
 manded Noah to build an ark for himself that he might 
 save him from the water of the flood. 20. And Noah 
 made an ark in every thing as he had commanded him in 
 the [twenty-seventh] jubilee, in the fifth week, in the fifth 
 year. 21. And he entered on the sixth [year] thereof, in 
 the second month, in the new moon of the second month: 
 
 'I. e., Noah's sons were not themselves worthy of being saved, but 
 escaped death for their father's sake. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 21 
 
 until the sixteenth thereof he entered and all that we 
 brought to him into the ark, and the Lord locked it from 
 without on the seventeenth, at eve. 22. And the Lord 
 opened seven flood-gates of heaven and the mouths of the 
 fountains of the great deep, seven mouths in number. 23. 
 And the flood-gates began to pour down water from 
 heaven forty days and forty nights, and the fountains of 
 the deep also sent up waters, until the whole world was 
 full of water. 24. And the water increased upon the 
 earth : fifteen ells the waters were raised over all the high 
 mountains, and the ark was lifted above the earth and 
 moved upon the face of the waters. 25. And the water 
 remained standing upon the face of the earth five months, 
 one hundred and fifty days. 26. And the ark proceeded 
 and rested upon the top of Liibar, one of the mountains 
 of Ararat. 17. And in the fourth month the fountains of 
 the great deep were closed, and the flood-gates of heaven 
 were restrained, and in the new moon of the seventh 
 month all the mouths of the deep of the earth were 
 opened, and the water began to descend into the deep 
 below. 28. And in the new moon of the tenth month the tops 
 of the' mountains became visible, and in the new moon of the 
 first month the earth became visible. 29. And the waters 
 disappeared from above the earth in the fifth week, in the 
 seventh year thereof, and on the seventeenth day in the 
 second month the earth became dry. 30. And on the 
 twenty-seventh thereof he opened the ark and sent out of 
 it the animals and the beasts and the birds and whatever 
 moves. 
 
 Chap. VL i. And at the new moon of the third month 
 he came out of the ark and built an altar on that hill. 2. 
 And he appeared on the earth, and he took a young goat 
 and atoned by its blood for all the guilt of the earth, 
 because every thing that had been on it was destroyed 
 except those that were in the ark with Noah; and he 
 placed the fat on the altar, and he took an ox and a goat 
 and a sheep and young goats and salt and a turtle dove 
 
22 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 and the young of a dove and brought a burnt sacrifice 
 upon the altar and scattered over th3m fruit offerings 
 baked in oil and sprinkled the blood and wine, and placed 
 upon it frankincense, and a sweet savour arose which was 
 acceptable before the Lord. 3. And the Lord smelt the 
 sweet savour, and he made with him a covenant that there 
 should no more be a flood upon the earth which would 
 destroy the earth : all the days of the earth, seed and har- 
 vest shall not cease, frost and heat and summer and win- 
 ter and day and night shall not change their order and 
 shall not cease forever. 4. "And ye, grow and increase 
 on the earth and increase over it, and be for a blessing in 
 its midst: your fear and your terror I will, put upon every 
 thing that is on the earth and in the sea. 5. And, behold, 
 I have given you all the animals and all the beasts and 
 every thing that flies and every thing that moves on the 
 earth and the fish in the waters and all things for food ; 
 like the herbs of grass, I have given them all to you to 
 eat. 6. Only flesh in which is its life with blood ye shall 
 not eat: for the blood is the soul of all flesh, so that your 
 blood in your souls be not demanded of you. 7. From 
 the hands of each one I will demand the blood of a man ; 
 .every one that sheddeth the blood of a man, by the hand 
 of a man shall his blood be shed ; for in the image of God 
 did he create Adam. 8. But ye, grow and increase upon 
 the earth." 9. And Noah and his sons swore that they 
 would not eat any blood that is in any flesh, and they 
 made a covenant before the Lord God for ever, in all the 
 generations of the world, in this month. 10. On this 
 account he spoke to thee that thou shouldst make a cove- 
 nant with the children of Israel in this month upon the 
 mountain, with an oath, and shouldst sprinkle blood over 
 them on account of all the words of the covenant which 
 the Lord has made with them for all days.' 11. And this 
 testimony is written concerning you, that you observe it 
 in all days, that ye do not in all days eat any blood of ani- 
 ■ The covenant of Sinai is regarded as a renewal of the Noachic covenant. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 23 
 
 mals and birds and beasts in all the days of the earth ; and 
 the man who eats the blood of an animal or of beasts or 
 of birds in all the days of the earth, he and his seed shall be 
 rooted out of the land. 12. And thou command the children 
 of Israel that they shall not eat any blood, so that their names 
 and their seed may be before the Lord our God all the days. 
 13. And for this law there is no limit of days, for it is for 
 eternity ; and they shall observe it to generation and gen- 
 eration, so that they may continue supplicating in their 
 behalf with blood before the Lord on the altar on each 
 day and day ; mornings and evenings they shall supplicate 
 in their behalf perpetually before the Lord, that they may 
 observe this and not be rooted out. 14. And he gave to 
 Noah and his sons a sign that there should not again be a 
 deluge over the earth ; he placed his bow in the clouds as the 
 sign of the eternal covenant that no water of the deluge 
 should again come over the earth to destroy it all the 
 days of the earth. 15. On this account it is ordained and 
 written on the tablets of heaven that the celebration of 
 the festival of weeks should be in this month, once a year, 
 for a renewed covenant in each year and year. ' 16. And 
 during the time this festival was being celebrated in 
 heaven, from the days of creation to the days of Noah, it 
 was twenty -six jubilees and five weeks of years; and Noah 
 and his sons observed it seven jubilees and one week of 
 years until the time when Noah died. 17. But his chil- 
 dren violated it until the days of Abraham, and they ate 
 blood^^ But Abraham alone observed it, and Isaac and 
 Jacob observed it, for these are his children, up to thy 
 day ; and in thy day the children of Israel forgot it until 
 I renewed it for them on this mountain. 18. And thou 
 command the children of Israel that they should observe 
 this festival in all their generations as a commandment for 
 
 1 It will be observed here and throughout the book that the author con- 
 nects the religious system and worship in Israel not only with the ordinances 
 of the tablets of heaven, but also with important events in the lines of the 
 patriarchs. 
 
^4 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 them: one day in the year, in this month, they shall cele- 
 brate this festival. 19. For it is the festival of weeks and 
 is a festival of first fruits; for this festival is of a doubl'i 
 nature and double kind, as is written and engraved con- 
 cerning its celebration. 20. For I have written it in the 
 book of the first law in which I wrote to thee that thou 
 shouldst observe it in its time one day a year ; and I have 
 explained to thee the offerings on that day, that they 
 should be remembered and that the children of Israel 
 should celebrate it one day in each year. 21. And at the 
 new moon of the first month, and in the new moon of the 
 fourth month, and in the new moon of the seventh month, 
 and in the new moon of the tenth month are the days of 
 remembrance and the days of the festivals in the four 
 divisions of the years : written and ordained they are for 
 a testimony until eternity. 22. And Noah ordained them 
 for himself as festivals for future generations, for on them 
 there was to him a remembrance. 23. At the new moon of 
 the first month it was said to him that he should make for 
 himself an ark, and on it the earth became dry, and he 
 opened [the ark] and saw the earth. And at the new 
 moon of the fourth month the mouth of the flood-gates of 
 the lowest deep was closed. 24. And at the new moon of 
 the seventh month all the mouths of the flood-gates of the 
 earth were opened and the waters began to descend into 
 the depth beneath. 25. And at the new moon of the 
 tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared, and 
 Noah became glad. 26. And on this account he ordained 
 them as festivals of remembrance unto himself unto eter- 
 nity, and thus they are ordained. 27. And they were 
 raised into the tablets of heaven: thirteen sabbaths to 
 each, from one to another their lemembrance, from the 
 first to the second, from the second to the third, from the 
 third to the fourth. 28. And all the days of this com- 
 mandment are fifty-two sabbaths of days, and the whole 
 year is completed. 29. Thus it is engraved and ordained 
 in the tablets of heaven, and there is no transgression 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 25 
 
 from one year to another. And thou command the chil- 
 dren of Israel that they should observe the years in this 
 number, three hundred and sixty-four days, and the year 
 shall be complete and the fixed date of their days and 
 their festivals shall, pot be corrupted, for every thing 
 transpires in them according to their testimony; and they 
 [Israel] shall not miss a day or corrupt a festival. 31. But 
 if they do transgress and do not observe them according 
 to his commandment, then will be corrupted all their 
 fixed dates,, and the years will waver in consequence, and 
 also their times and their years, and they will transgress 
 their ordinances. 32. And all the children of Israel will 
 forget and will not find the paths of the years, and will 
 forget the new moon and the sabbaths and the festivals, 
 and in all the order of the years they will err. 33. For I 
 know, and from now on I shall make it known to thee, 
 and not from my heart, but thus is written in a book 
 before me and is ordained in the tablets of heaven, the 
 division of the days, that they forget not the festivals of 
 my covenant and walk according to the festivals of thr, 
 gentiles, after their errors and after their ignorance, 34. 
 And there will be those who will make observations of 
 the moon, for this one [the moon] corrupts the stated 
 times and comes out earlier each year by ten days. 35. 
 And in this way they will corrupt the years and will 
 observe a wrong day as the day of testimony and a cor- 
 rupted festival day, and every one will mix holy days 
 with unclean ones and unclean with holy ; for they will 
 err as to months and sabbaths and festivals and jubilees. 
 36. And on this account I command thee and testify to 
 thee that thou shouldst testify to them, for after thy death 
 thy children will corrupt, so that they make a year only 
 three hundred and sixty-four days, ' and on this account 
 they will err as to new moons and sabbaths and fixed 
 times and festivals and will ever eat blood with all kinds 
 of flesh. 
 
 ' How this statement is to be reconciled with verse 30 is not clear. 
 
 *3 
 
26 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 Chap. VII. i. And in the seventh week, in the first 
 year thereof, in this jubilee, Noah planted vines on this 
 hill upon which the ark had rested, named Lfibir, the 
 Ararat Mountains, and they produced fruit in the fourth 
 year, and he watched their fruit and gathered them in 
 this year in the seventh month, and he made wine of it, 
 and put it into a vessel and kept it until the fifth year, until 
 the first day of the new moon of the first month. 2. And 
 he celebrated this day in rejoicing as a festival,' and he 
 made a sacrifice unto the Lord, a young one from among 
 the oxen and a ram and a sheep, each seven years old, and a 
 young goat, that he might thereby obtain pardon for him- 
 self and his sons. 3. And he prepared the goat first, and 
 he placed of its blood upon the flesh of the altar which he 
 had made, and all the fat he laid upon the altar where he 
 was sacrificing to the Lord, and of the ox and the sheep 
 he also placed the flesh upon the altar. 4. And he made 
 all the fruit offerings thereof mixed with oil upon them, 
 and thereupon he first scattered wine upon the fire on the 
 altar, and placed incense upon the altar, and a sweet savor 
 ascended which was acceptable before the Lord his God. 
 5. And he and his children rejoiced and drank of this wine 
 in joy." 6. And it was evening, and he went into his tent, 
 and he lay down drunken, and he slept, and he was uncov- 
 ered in his tent while sleeping. 7. And Ham saw his 
 father naked, and going out he told it to his two brothers 
 without. 8. And Shem took his garment and arose, he 
 and Japheth, and they carried the garment upon their 
 shoulders, and their faces backward, and covered the 
 shame of their father. 9. And Noah awoke from his sleep 
 and learned everything that his youngest son had done to 
 him ; and he cursed his son and said : " Cursed be Canaan, 
 St. slaving servant shall he be to his brothers." And he 
 blessed Shem : " Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and 
 
 ' Cf. chap. vi. vs. 21 and 22. 
 
 ^ The writer apologetically describes the wine as having been drunk by 
 Noah on the occasion of a religious festival. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 2J 
 
 may Canaan be his servant ; and may the Lord extend 
 Japheth and may the Lord dwell in the tent of Shem, and 
 Canaan shall be his servant ! " 1 1. And Ham knew that his 
 father had cursed his youngest son, and he became dis- 
 pleased with him because he had cursed his son and he 
 separated himself from his father, he and his sons with 
 him, Chush, and Meshrgm, and Pfid, and Canaan. 12. And 
 he built for himself a city, and called its name after the 
 name of his wife Nl^lata-Mgk.' 13. And Japheth saw it 
 and became envious of his brother, and he too built a city, 
 and called its name after the name of his wife AdalSns6s. 
 14. But Shem dwelt with his father Noah, and he built a 
 city by the side of his father on the hill, and he too called 
 its name by the name of his wife S^dukitSlb&b. 15. And 
 behold these three cities are near Mount Lfibir: SSdfiki- 
 tSlbib on the side of the hill on the east ; NSultemS.uk 
 on the south side ; and Adal§.n6s@s toward the west ; and 
 these are the sons of Shem : Elam, and Asdr, and Arpakeed: 
 this is the generation after the second year of the flood (?)" 
 
 these are the children of Noah. 16. And in the 
 
 twenty-eighth jubilee he began to command the sons of 
 his sons the ordinances and the commandments all as he 
 had learned them and the judgments, and he testified to 
 his sons that they should observe righteousness, and that 
 they should cover the shame of their flesh, and that they 
 should bless him who created them, and should honor 
 father and mother, and each should love his neighbor, and 
 should preserve their souls from all fornication and from 
 all uncleanness and unrighteousness. 17. For on account 
 of these three things the deluge came over the earth, 
 namely on account of fornication, in which the Watchnien 
 indulged against the commandments of their law, with the 
 daughters of men, and took to themselves wives from all 
 
 ' Very little reliance can be placed upon these names as the MSS. vary, 
 and nearly all trace of the etymology is lost. The copyists naturally made 
 mistakes in writing them. 
 
 ^ Here is a lacuna in the Ethiopic text. 
 
28 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 whom they chose and made the beginning of uricleanness. 
 1 8. And they begat sons, the Naphid6m, and they were all 
 unlike and they devoured one another : the giant slew the 
 Naphil, and the Naphil slew Elj6, and EIj6 the children of 
 men, and all publicly practised every unrighteousness and 
 shed much blood, and the earth was filled with unright- 
 eousness ; and aftei" all these the animals, and the beasts, 
 and the birds, and whatever walks and moves on the earth; 
 and much blood was spilt on the earth, and all the thoughts 
 and deeds of men were wicked in all the days. 19. And 
 the Lord destroyed everything from the face of the; earth 
 oii Account of their deeds and on account of the blood 
 which AVas spilt over the earth. 20. And we wei-e left, I 
 and you, my sons, and everything that entered with us 
 into the ai"k, and behold I am the first to see yoiir works 
 that ye do not walk in righteousness, for in the path of 
 destruction have you commenced to walk, and are sepa- 
 rating yourselves each from his neighbor, and are envious 
 the bne of the other, and are not in harmony each with 
 his neighbor and his brother. 21. And yet, my sons, for 
 I see and behold the satans have commenced to lead astray 
 you and your children ; and now I fear on your behalf 
 that after my death ye will spill the blood of men over the 
 face of the earth, and that ye too will' be destroyed from 
 its face. 22. For every one that sheds the blood of any 
 man, and every one that eats the blood in any flesh, shall 
 all be destroyed from the earth. 23. And there shall not be 
 left any man who eats blood and who sheds blood upon the 
 earth, and there shall not be left aloiie for him any seed or 
 children under heaven ; for they will go into Sheol, and into 
 the place of judgment they will descend, in the darkness 
 of the deep they will all be cast by a terrible death. 24. 
 With regard to all blood over you which is in all the days 
 that ye sacrifice an animal or a beast or whatever flies 
 over the earth, and do a good deed concerning your souls 
 in your covering of that which has been spilt over the face 
 of the earth. 25. And ye shall not be like him that eats 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 29 
 
 with blood ; be strong that no one eat blood in your pres- 
 ence : bury the blood in the earth ; for as I Jiaye been 
 commanded, I testify to you and, your children,, together 
 with all fl,esh.. ,, 26. And ye shall not eat the soul with the 
 meat, that ye be not those of whom, your blood, that is, 
 your soul( be demanded from the hands of every one th^t 
 sheddeth blood on the earth- 27. For the earth will not 
 be clean of the blood which has been spilt upon it, .but 
 only by the blood of him that shed it will the earth be 
 cleansed in all the generations of the earth. 28. And now, 
 my children, obey and practise rigjiteousness and justice 
 so that ye be planted in righteousness upon the whole 
 face lOf the earth, and that your renown be eleyated before 
 my God who has saved me from thewater of the deluge. 
 
 29. And, behold, ye will proceed and build for yourselves 
 cities and will plant in them all the plants that are upon 
 the earth and every tree that bears fruit ; for three years 
 its fruit shall not be gathered to eat it, and in the fourth 
 year the fruit shall be sanctified, and the first fruits which 
 they gather shall be brought before the Lord our God, 
 the Most High, who created heaven and. earth and all 
 things, so, that they bring in fatness the first of the wine 
 and oil as first fruits upon the altar of the Lord who 
 receives it ; and what is left the servants of the house of 
 the Lord shall eat before the altar which he has accepted. 
 
 30. And in the fifth yesar make the release, so that ye 
 release them, in righteousness and justice, and you shall be 
 just and all your plants shall be right. 31. For thus did 
 Enoch, the father of your father Methusaleh, command 
 his sons, and Methusaleh his son Lamech, and Lamech 
 .commanded me all th,e things which his father commanded 
 
 ihim ; but .1 command it to you, my children, just as Enoch 
 commanded his son in his first jubilee ; while he was alive, 
 in his geneirsLt-ion the seventh, he commanded and testified 
 .to his son and to the sons of his sons until the day of his 
 de;g^th.' . , . , : . 1 ',;..,,, . 
 
 1 We notice here the principle of the traditions of the fathers so potent in 
 the theology of New Testament Judaism. Cf. also c. x. ii. 
 
30 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 Chap. VIII. i. In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first 
 week, in the first [year] thereof, Arphaksed took to himself 
 a wife, and her name was Rasfij^, the daughter of Sfls&n, 
 the daughter of E19,m, and she bore him a son in the third 
 year of this week, and he called his name Ktinin. 2. And 
 his son grew, and his father taught him writing, and he 
 went to seek for himself a place Avhere he might seize for 
 himself a city. 3. And he found a writing which the 
 forefathers had carved into a rock, and he read what was 
 in it, and he translated it and found that there was within 
 it the science of the Watchmen by which they had seen 
 the astrology of the sun and the moon and the stars and 
 in all the signs of heaven ; ' and he wrote this down and 
 did not say any thing concerning it, for he feared to speak 
 to Noah concerning it, lest he be angry with him on this 
 account. 4. And in the thirtieth jubilee, in the se.cond 
 week, in the first year thereof, he took to himself a wife, 
 and her name was Milki, the daughter of Ab&dai, the son 
 of Japhet, and in the fourth year she bore him a son, and 
 he called his name S&.1^, for he said, " Verily, I have been 
 sent away." 5. And in the fourth year Sil^ was born, 
 and he grew up and took to himself a wife, and her name 
 was Miiak, the daughter of K6s^d, the brother of his father, 
 in the thirty-first jubilee, in the fifth week, in the first year 
 thereof. And she bore him a son in the fifth year, and he 
 called his name Eb6r ; and he took to himself a wife, and 
 her name was Azilr9.d, the daughter of N6br6d, in the 
 thirty-second jubilee, in the seventh week, in the third year 
 thereof. 6. And in the sixth year thereof she bore him a 
 son, and he called his name Phal8k, for in the days when 
 he was born the children of Noah began to divide the 
 earth among themselves; and on this account he called 
 his name Phal6k. 7. And they divided the earth among 
 themselves in wickedness, and told it to Noah. 8. And it 
 happened in the beginning of the thirty-third jubilee, and 
 they divided the earth into three parts, to Shem and to 
 
 ' Cf. Book of Enoch, c. viii. i sqq. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 3 1 
 
 Ham, and to Japhet, each one his inheritance, in the first 
 year of the first week, while an angel, one of us who were 
 sent to them, was there. 9. And he called his sons, and 
 they came to him, they and their children, and he divided 
 the earth by lot what his three sons should take, and they 
 stretched out their hands and took to themselves the 
 writing out of the bosom of their father Noah. 10. And 
 there came out on the writing as the lot for Shera the 
 middle of the earth, which he and his children should 
 have as an inheritance for the generations unto eternity, 
 from the middle of the mountain Rifil, from the exit of 
 the water of the river Tln9,, and his portion goes toward 
 the west through the midst of this river, and they go 
 until they approach to the abyss of the waters out of 
 which comes this river, and this river empties and pours 
 its waters into the sea Ml6t, and this river goes into the 
 great sea : all that is toward the north of this is Japhet's, 
 and all that is to the direction of the south is Shem's. 11. 
 And it reaches until it comes to Kar§,s&, which is in the 
 bosom of the tongue which looks toward the south. 12. 
 And his portion reaches unto the great sea, and reaches 
 straight until it approaches the west of the tongue which 
 looks toward the south ; for the sea is called the tongue of 
 the Egyptian sea. 13. And it turns from there toward the 
 south, toward the mouth of the great sea in the shorfe of 
 the waters and proceeds toward Arabia and Ophra, and it 
 proceeds until it reaches to the water of the river Gej6n 
 and toward the south of the water of Gej6n, along the 
 shore of this same river. 14. And it proceeds toward the 
 north until it approaches the garden of Eden, toward the 
 south thereof to the south, and from the east of the whole 
 land of Eden, and toward the whole east, and it turns to 
 the east, and proceeds until it approaches toward the east 
 of the hills whose name is RM^, and it descends toward 
 the border of the outlet of the water -of the river Tina. 
 15. This portion came out in the lot for Shem and 
 his sons, and he remembered his word which he had 
 
32 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 spoken with his mouth in prophecy, for he had said : 
 " Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and may the Lord 
 dwell in the dwelling of Shem!" 17. And he knew that 
 the garden of Eden is the holy of holies, and the dwelling 
 of the Lord, and Mount Sinai, the centre of the desert, 
 and Mount Zion, the centre of the navel of the earth,' 
 these three, opposite one another, were created as sanctu- 
 aries. 18. And he blessed the God of gods who had 
 put the speech of the Lord into his mouth. .19. And 
 he knew that a blessed portion and a blessing' had come 
 to Shem and to the children of his generations forever ; 
 the whole land of Edom, and all the land of the Erythrian 
 sea, and all the land of the east, and India and at the Ery- 
 thrian and the mountains thereof, and all the land of 
 Bis6r, and all the land of Lebanon and the islands of 
 Kuphatiir, and all the land of El§,m and Asflr and B^b^l 
 and Siisin and Madir, and all the mountains of Ararat, 
 and all the land beyond the sea which is beyond the hills 
 of Asur toward the north, a blessed and prosperous land, 
 and all that is in it is very good. 2o. And for Ham came 
 out as the second portion, beyond the Gij6n, toward the 
 south, to the right of the garden, and it proceeds to all 
 the fire mountains, and goes toward the west to the sea 
 Atil, and goes to the west until it reaches to the sea of 
 Mauk, of that one into which everything descends that is 
 destroyed. 21. And it proceeds to the north to the shore 
 of Gidil and goes to the west of the water of the sea 
 until it approaches the river Gej6n, and the river Gej6n 
 goes until it approaches to the right of the garden of 
 Eden: and this is the land which came forth for Ham as 
 the portion he shall retain for himself and the children of 
 his generations forever. 22. And for Japhet there came 
 forth a third portion beyond the river Tina, toward the 
 north of the exit of its waters, and it goes toward the 
 
 ' That Jerusalem is the centre of the earth is an idea often met with in 
 the later Jewish writers, and it is therefore also the central place of the Messi- 
 anic rule. Cf., e, g., Enoch, Ivi. 7; Dillmann, Aethiop. Chrest., p. 15. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 33 
 
 northeast the whole district of Ll,g, and all the east 
 thereof. 23. And it goes toward the north to the north, 
 and goes to the mountains of Kilt, toward the north and 
 toward the sea M^iik, and it goes toward the east of 
 Gadir over toward the coast of the water of the sea. 24. 
 And it proceeds until it approaches the west of Para, and 
 returns toward Aphgr^g, and goes toward the east, 
 towards the waters of the sea M8at. And it goes toward 
 the shore of the river Tina, toward the east of the north, 
 until it approaches to the shore of the waters thereof, 
 toward the mountain Rafa, and it bends toward the north. 
 25. This is the land which came forth for Japhet and his 
 children as the portion of his inheritance which he should 
 hold unto eternity for himself and the children of their 
 generation unto eternity : five great islands and a greas 
 land in the north; only it is cold, but the land of Ham it 
 hot, and the land of Shem has neither heat nor frost, for it 
 mixed in coldness and heat. 
 
 Chap. IX. i. And Ham divided among his sons; and 
 the first portion came out for Ques toward the east, and 
 to the west of him for Phud, and to the west of him for 
 Kainan toward the west of the sea. 2. And Shem also 
 divided among his sons, and the first portion came forth 
 for Elam'and his sons toward the eastof the river Tiger, 
 until it approaches the east, the- whole land of India and 
 on the Erythrian and its coast, and the waters of D6dan 
 and all the mountains of M6bri and Ela, and all the land 
 of Susan, and all that is on the side of the Phgrnak to the 
 Erythrian sea and the river Tina. 3. But for Asur catoe 
 forth a second portion, all the land of Asdr and Nineva 
 and Sinadr and to the border of India, and ascends along 
 the river. 4. And for Arphaksed came forth a third por- 
 tion, all the land of the district of the'Chaldees toward 
 the east of the Euphrates, bordering on the Erythrian 
 lea, and all the waters of the desert until near to the 
 tongue of the sea which looks toward Egypt, and all the 
 sand of Libanon and Saner and Amana to the border 6i 
 
34 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 the Euphrates. 5. And for Aram came forth as a fourth 
 portion all the land of Mesopotamia, between the Tiger 
 and the Euphrates, toward the north of the Chaldees, to 
 the border of the mountains of Asur. 6. And the land of 
 Arara came out as a fifth portion to his son, the mountains 
 of Asur and all belonging to them until it reaches to the 
 east of Asur, his brother. 7. And Japhet, too, divided the 
 land of his inheritance between his sons, and the first por- 
 tion came forth for G6m6r toward the east, from the north 
 side to the river Tina. And in the north there came 
 out for Magog all the inner portions of the north until it 
 reaches the sea M6at. 8. And for Madai came forth as 
 his portion that he should possess, to the west of his two 
 brothers, unto the islands and unto the coasts of the islands. 
 And to Egawan came forth as a fourth portion all the 
 islands, and the islands which are toward Edaldd. 9. And 
 for T6b^l came forth as a fifth portion, between the tongue 
 which approaches toward the side of the portion of Lild, 
 to the second tongue, unto beyond the second tongue into 
 the third tongue. 10. And for Melek came forth as a 
 sixth portion, all that beyond the third tongue, until 
 it approaches to the east of Gadir. 11. And for Tiras 
 came forth a seventh portion ; four great islands in the 
 midst of the sea, which approach to the portion of Ham ; 
 and the islands of Kamatura came out for the sons of 
 Arphaksed in his division of his inheritance by lot. 12. 
 And thus the sons of Noah divided out to their children, 
 in the presence of Noah their father, and he caused them 
 to swear an oath cursing him who endeavored to seize a 
 portion which had not been alloted him. And they all 
 said: "Thus be it! Thus be it!" for themselves and for 
 their descendants to eternity in their generations, until 
 the day of judgment, on which the Lord God will judge 
 them with a sword and with fire for all the wickedness of 
 uncleanness which they have committed in that they filled 
 the earth with transgression, uncleanness, fornication, and 
 sin. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 35 
 
 Chap. X. i. And in the third week of this jubilee the 
 evil demons began to lead astray the sons of Noah and 
 deceived them and destroyed them. 2. And the sons 
 came to Noah their father and told him concerning the 
 demons which were leading astray, darkening, and slaying 
 the sons of their sons. 3. And he prayed before the Lord 
 his God, and he said : " Lord of the spirits' of all flesh, 
 thou who hast shown mercy to me and hast delivered me 
 and my children from the waters of the deluge, and hast 
 not suffered me to be destroyed as thou didst the children 
 of destruction, for thy grace was great over men, and 
 great was thy mercy over my soul ; may thy grace be 
 exalted over the sons of thy sons, and may the evil spirit 
 not rule over them to destroy them off the earth. And 
 thou hast verily blessed me and my sons that we increase 
 and multiply and fill the earth. 4. And thou knowest 
 how the Watchmen, the fathers of these spirits, acted in 
 my day ; and these spirits also which are alive, cast them 
 into prison and hold them in the places of judgment, and let 
 them not destroy the, sons of thy servant, my God, for 
 they are terrible and created for destroying ; and may 
 they not rule over the spirits of the living ; for thou alone 
 knowest their judgment. 5. And let them have no sway 
 over the children of the righteous from now on and to 
 eternity. 6. And our God said unto us that we should 
 bind all. 7. And the angel of the spirits, MastSma," came 
 and said : " O Lord, Creator, leave some of them before 
 me, and they shall hear my voice and they shall do all 
 things that I tell thern ; for if thou dost not leave any of 
 them to me I shall not be able to accomplish the power of 
 
 ' A typical name of God in the Parables of Enoch, c. xxxvii. 71. 
 
 ^ The name of the leader of the evil spirits found throughout the book. 
 The role here occupied by him may have been taken from that of Satan in 
 Job, but it is in place to remark that in many apocryphal works, especially 
 in Enoch, demonology has a wide field and the satans are recognized as 
 organized opponents of God, who, however, do their evil deeds only with 
 his permission. The word Mastema is derived from DDK' = |L3K', the Gr«ek 
 form being fiaarujiiiT. 
 
36 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 jriy will among the children of men, for they are here for 
 :Corrupting, and destroying, and leading astray before the 
 j^udgment, for great is their wickedness to the children of 
 men." ,8. And he said : " The tenth part of them shall be 
 left before him and nine parts shall descend into the place 
 'of judgment." 9. And one of us said : " We will teach 
 Noah all their medicines ; " for they did not walk in right- 
 eousness, and. did not contend in uprightness. And we 
 did according to his word ; all the wicked ones that were 
 iterrible we bound in the place of judgment, but the tenth 
 part of them we left, that they shouid be judged before 
 Satan on the earth. 10. And the medicines of all their 
 sicknesses we explained to Noah together with all their 
 deceptions how to heal them with the plants of the earth. 
 II. And Noah wrote all these down in a book as we in- 
 structed him, concerning every kind of medicines, and the 
 evil spirits were held away from the sons of Noah. 12. 
 And he gave all the writings which he had written to 
 Shem, his oldest son, for him he loved exceedingly above 
 all his children. 13. And Noah slept with his fathers and 
 was buried on Mount Lubar, in the land of Ararat. ,14. 
 Nine hundred and fifty years he completed in his life; 
 nineteen jubilees and two weeks and five years; he excelled 
 ,in his life on the earth the children of men on account of 
 his righteousness, in which he was perfect, with the ex- 
 ception of Enoch. 15. For the history of Enoch is made 
 atestimony to the generations of eternity to announce all 
 the deeds of the generation on the day of judgment. i6. 
 In the thirty-third [fourth] jubilee, in the first year of the 
 second week, Phal8k took to himself a wife, whose name 
 was Limni, the daughter of Sinaar, and she bore hjm a 
 son in the fourth year of this week, and he called his name 
 , Ragev, for be said : " Pehold, the sons of men have become 
 ■evil through a plan of wickedness, because they build for 
 'themselves a city and ai tOwer in the land of Sinaar ; " for 
 'they separated from the land of Ararat toward the east to 
 Stnaar, for iii his day they were building a city apd a 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 37 
 
 tower, saying: "We will ascend on it into heaven." 17. 
 And they began to build in the fourth week, and they 
 burned with fire, and they used bricks for stones, and the 
 clay with which they joined them was asphalt, which 
 conies out of the sea and out of the fountains of water in 
 the land of Sinaar, and they built forty years, and three 
 
 years they were making bricks 18. And the Lord 
 
 our God said to us : " Behold it is one people that has 
 commenced to do it, and now I shall not let go of them ; 
 behold, we will descend and mix their tongues, and one 
 shall not hear the other and they shall be scattered into cit- 
 ies and into nations and one counsel shall no longer abide 
 with them until the day of judgment." 19. And the Lord 
 descended, and we descended with him to see the city and 
 tower which the children of men were building. 20. And 
 he confounded all the speech of their tongues, and they 
 no longer heard the voice one of the other, and they ceased 
 then to build the city and the tower. On this account the 
 whole land of Sinaar is called Babel, because there God 
 confused all the tongues of the children of men, and from 
 there they were scattered to all their cities, each aecord- 
 iilg' to his language and his nation. Arid the Lord sent a 
 great wind against the tower and it overturned it upon 
 ^the ground, and behold, [if stood] between th^ land of 
 Assur and Babylon in the land of Sinaar, and they called 
 its name Ruins. 21. And in the fourth week, in the first 
 year of the thirty -fourth jubilee they were scattered out 
 'of the land of Sinaar. 22. And Ham and his sons went 
 into the land which he had taken, which fell to him by lot 
 in the land of the north [south]; and Kainaan saw the land 
 of the Libanon to the canal of Egypt that it was very 
 good, and he did not go into the land of his inheritance 
 to the west of the sea, and dwelt in the land of Libanon 
 to the east and to the west of the land of the Jordan and 
 on the coast of the sea. 23. And Ham, his father, and 
 Cush and MSzrSm, his brothers, said to him : "Thou hast 
 settled in a land which is not thine and did not fair to us 
 
38 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 by lot, thou shouldst not do thus ; for if thou doest thus, 
 then thou and thy children will fall by condemnation in 
 the land, and as cursed ones by sedition, for by sedition 
 ye have settled and by sedition thy children will fall and 
 thou wilt be rooted out to eternity. 24. Do not dwell in 
 the dwelling place of Shem, for to Shem and his children 
 was it given by lot. 25. Cursed art thou and cursed shalt 
 thou be above all the sons of Noah by the curse which we 
 covenanted with an oath between i|s in the presence of 
 the holy judge and before Noah our father." 26. But he 
 did not listen to them and dwelt in the land of Libanon 
 from Emath to the entrance of Egypt, he and his sons 
 until this day. 27. And on this account this land is called 
 Canaan. 28. But Japheth and his sons went toward the 
 east and dwelt in their portions and\ Madai saw the land 
 of the sea, and it pleased him, and he begged it from ' 
 Elam, and Assur, and Arphaksed, the brother of his wife, 
 and he dwelt in the land M6dkin, near to the brother of 
 his wife until this day. 29. And he called his dwelling 
 place and the dwelling place of his sons Madakia, by the 
 name of their father Madai. 
 
 ' Chap. XI. i. In the thirty-fifth jubilee, in the third 
 week, in the first year thereof, Ragev took unto himself a 
 wife, and her name was Ora, the daughter of Or, the 
 daughter of the son of KSsed, and she bore him a son, and 
 he called his name SSriig, in the sevejjth year of this week 
 of this jubilee. 2. And the sons of Noah began to fight 
 with each other, to take captive and to slay each one his 
 brother, and to spill the blood of men over the earth, and 
 to eat blood, and to build strong cities, and walls, and 
 towers (and single men elevated themselves above the 
 people, and first founded kingdoms), and to make war, a 
 nation against a nation, and nations against nations, and 
 city against city, and all things became worse, and they 
 acquired for themselves arms, and taught their sons war, 
 and began to take captive the cities and to sell male and 
 female slaves. • 3. And Ur, the son of K6s6d, built Er& of 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 39 
 
 the Chaldees, and called its name after his own name and 
 by the name of ,his father. 4. And he made for himself 
 molten images, and they worshipped each one his own 
 image which they had made for themselves by molding, 
 and they began to make sculptured images ahd unclean 
 forms, and the terrible spirits assisted them and misled 
 them to commit transgression and uncleanness. 5. And 
 the prince Mast8ma gave his power to make all this, 
 and through the angels who had been given under his 
 hand, he sent out his hand to do all wickedness and sin 
 and all transgression, and to destroy and to murder and to 
 shed blood over the earth. 6. On this account his name 
 was called S^rach, for SSrach turned himself in all things 
 to do all kinds of sin. 7. And he grew and dwelt in Ur 
 of the Chaldees near to the father of the mother of his wife, 
 and he worshipped idols, and he took to himself a wife in 
 the thirty-sixth jubilee, in the fifth week, in the first year 
 thereof, and her name was M81ka, the daughter of K6her, 
 the daughter of the brother of his father. And she bore 
 him a son Nak6r, in the first year of this week, and he 
 grew and dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, and his father 
 taught him the researches of the Chaldees, divination and 
 astrology according to the signs of the heavens. 8. And 
 in the thirty-seventh jubilee, in the sixth week, in the first 
 year thereof, he took to himself a wife, and her name was 
 Ij6sek, the daughter of Ngsteg of the Chaldees. 9. And 
 she bore him Tarah in the seventh year of this week. 10. 
 And the prince Mastema sent ravens and birds that they 
 should eat what was sown on the land, in order to destroy 
 the land, so that they might deprive the children of men 
 of their labor, for before they plowed in the seed the 
 ravens picked it up from the surface of the ground. 1 1 . 
 On that account his father called his name Tarah, because 
 the ravens and the birds robbed them and devoured their 
 seed. 12. And the years began to be barren on account 
 of the birds, and all the fruit of the trees they ate from the 
 trees ; with great strength they were able to save a little 
 
40 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 from all the fruit of the land in their days. 13. And in 
 the thirty-ninth jubilee, in the second week, in the first 
 year, Tarah took to himself a wife, and her name was 
 Edna, the daughter of Abram, the daughter of the sister 
 of his father. 14. And in the seventh year of this week 
 she bore him a son, and he called his name Abram by the 
 name of the father of his mother, for he had died before 
 his daughter conceived a son. 15. And the child began 
 to understand the errors of the earth, that all went astray 
 after the images and after uncleanness ; and his father 
 taught him writing when two weeks of years old ; and he 
 separated himself from his father that he might not wor- 
 ship the idols with him. 16. And hfe began to pray to the 
 Creator of all things that he should save him from the 
 errors of the children of men, and that his portion should 
 not fall into error after uncleanness and shame. 17. And 
 the time of seed came to sow it upon the land, and all 
 came out together to watch their seed against the ravens, 
 and Abram came out with those that came out, and he 
 was a boy of fourteen years. 18. And a cloud of ravens 
 came to devour the seed, and Abram ran to scatter them 
 before they sat down on the earth to eat the seed, and 
 said: "Do not devour; return to the place whence you 
 came ! " and they turned back. 19. And clouds of ravens 
 returned that day seven times, and of all the ravens none 
 sat down upon any of the land where Abram was, and not 
 one was left there. 20. And all those that were with him 
 on the whole land saw him crying, and all the ravens 
 turned back, arid great was his name in all the land of the 
 Chaldeesr 21. And there came to him in this year all 
 those that had sowed seed, and he would go with them 
 until the time of sowing in the land ceased, and they 
 sowed in their land, and in this year they brought home 
 grain, and ate it and were satisfied. 22. And in the fifth 
 year of the fifth week Abram taught those who make the 
 instruments for oxen, the workmen in wood, and they 
 made utensils over the earth, opposite the crook timber 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 4I 
 
 of the plows in order to put the seed thereon, and to let 
 the seed fall out of it into the seed furrows. 23. And it 
 was hidden in the earth, and they no longer feared the 
 ravens ; and thus they did on all the crook-timber of the 
 plows over the earth, and they sowed and worked the 
 land each one as Abram had commanded them, and no 
 longer feared the ravens. 
 
 Chap. XII. i. And it happened in the sixth week, in 
 the seventh year thereof, Abram said unto Tarah, his 
 father, saying, "Father!" And he said, "Behold, here I 
 am, my son!" 2. And he said: "What assistance and 
 what pleasure have we from all the idols which thou dost 
 worship and before which thou dost prostrate thyself? 
 3. For there is no spirit in them, but they are dumb 
 statues and a deception of the heart: do not worship 
 them. 4. Worship the God of heaven, who sends down 
 dew and rain upon the earth and does everything upon 
 the earth and has created everything through his word 
 and all living things are from before his face. 5. Why 
 do ye worship those who have no heart and spirit in 
 them ; for they are the works of hands, and upon your 
 shoulders do ye carry them, and ye have from them no 
 help, but a great disgrace to those who make them 
 and a deception of the heart to those who worship them : 
 do not worship them ! " 6. And Tarah said : " I also know 
 it, my son ; but what shall I do with this people who com- 
 mand me that I should serve them ? 7. If I tell them the 
 truth, they will slay me ; for their soul clings to them to 
 worship and to glorify them. 8. Keep silent, my son, lest 
 they slay thee ! " 9. And these words he spoke to his two 
 brothers, and they became angry at him, and he kept 
 silent. 10. And in the fortieth jubilee, in the second week, 
 in the seventh year thereof, Abram took to himself a wife, 
 and her name was Sara, the daughter of his father, and 
 she became to him a wife. 11. And Arin, his brother, 
 took to himself [a wife] in the third year of this week, 
 
42 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 and his wife bare him a son in the seventh year of this 
 week, and he called his name Lot. 12. And Nachor also, 
 his brother, took to himself a wife. 13. And in the [six- 
 tieth] year of the life of Abram, that is, in the fourth 
 year of the fourth week, Abram arose in the night, and 
 burned down the house of his idols, and burned all that 
 was in the house, and there was no man that knew it. 14. 
 And they arose in the night and desired to save their idols 
 from the rtiidst of the flame. 15. And Aran ran in order 
 to save them, and the fire burned over him and he burned 
 in the midst of the tire, and he died in Ur of the Chaldees 
 before Tarah, his father, and they buried him in Ur. 16. 
 And Tarah went away from Ur of the Chaldees, he and 
 his sons, in order to come into the land of the Lebanon 
 and into the land of Canaan ; and he dwelt in Haran, and 
 Abram dwelt with his father Tarah in Haran two weeks 
 of years. 17. And in the sixth week, in the fifth year 
 thereof, Abram arose and sat in the night at the new 
 moon of the seventh month, so that he might observe the 
 stars from the evening to the morning, so that he might 
 know what would be the character of the year with 
 regard to the rains, and he was sitting alone and observ- 
 ing. 18. And a word came into his heart, and he said: 
 " All the signs of the stars and the signs of the sun and of 
 the moon are all in the hand of the Lord ; why do I search 
 them out? 19. If he desires, he causes it to rain, niorning 
 and evening ; and if he desires, he causes it to descend, 
 and all things are in his hands." 20. And he prayed in 
 that night, and said : " My God, God Most High, thou 
 alone art a God to me, and thou hast created all things, 
 and all things that are are the works of thy hand, and thee 
 and thy godship have I chosen. 21. Deliver me from the 
 hands of the evil spirits who reign over the thoughts of 
 the hearts of men, and let them not lead me astray from 
 thee, my God, and cause thou me and my seed in eternity 
 not to go astray from now on and to eternity ! 22. And I 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 43 
 
 say, shall I return to Ur of the Chaldees, who seek my 
 face, that I should return to them ; or shall I remain here 
 in this place; the right path before thee prosper in the 
 hands of thy servant, that he may follow it and not walk 
 in the error of my heart, O my God ! " 23. He com- 
 pleted his words and prayer, and, behold, the Lord sent a 
 word to him through me, saying: Up, go thou out of thy 
 country, and out of thy kindred, and out of the house 
 of thy father, into a land which I will show to thee, and I 
 will make thee in the land which is great into a great and 
 numerous people. 24. And I will bless thee and will 
 make thy name great, and thou shalt be blessed in the 
 land, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in 
 thee ; those that bless thee I will bless, and those that 
 curse thee I will curse. 25. And I will be a God to thee 
 and to thy children and to thy children's children and to 
 all thy seed, and behind thee will be thy God. 26. Fear 
 not, from now on to all the generations of the earth I am 
 thy God." 27. And the Lord God said to me: "Open his 
 mouth and his ears that he may hear and speak with the 
 language which has been revealed ; " for it had ceased 
 from the mouths of all the children of men. 28. And I 
 opened his mouth and his lips, and I opened his ears, and 
 I began to speak with him in Hebrew, in the tongue of 
 creation ; and he took the books of his father, and these 
 were written in Hebrew, and he copied them, and he 
 began to learn them from then on, and I made known to 
 him every thing he was incapable [of understanding], and 
 he studied them the six months of the rainy period. 29. 
 And it happened in the seventh year of the sixth week, 
 and he spoke with his father, and informed him that he 
 would go from Haran to go to the land of Canaan to see 
 it and to return to him. 30. And Tarah, his father, said 
 to him: "Go in peace! the God of the worlds make 
 straight thy path, and the Lord be with thee and protect 
 thee from all evil, and give to thee good will and mercy 
 and grace before those who see thee ; and may none of 
 
44 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 the sons of men come over thee to do thee evil ; go in 
 peace ! 31. And if thou seest a land pleasant to thy eyes 
 to dwell in it, then up, and take me with thee ; and take 
 Lot with thee, the son of Ar§,n thy brother, as thy son, 
 and God be with thee. 32. But Nachor thy brother leave 
 with me until thou returnest in peace and we go with thee 
 together." 
 
 Chap. XIII. i. And Abram went from Haran, and 
 took Sara, his wife, and Lot, the son of his brother Ar§,n, 
 to the land of Canaan, and he came into the; land of Asur, 
 and proceeded to SakimSn, and dwelt near a great oak.' 
 And he saw the land, and, behold, it was very beautiful 
 from the entrance of Em8t to the great mountains. 2. 
 And the Lord said to him : " To thee and to thy seed I 
 will give this land." 3. And he built an altar there, and 
 brought upon it a sacrifice to the Lord who had appeared 
 to him. 4. And he arose from there, with the hill Bethel 
 toward the sea [west], and Ai to the east, and fixed his 
 tent there. 5. And he saw, and, behold, the land was 
 pleasant and extended and very wide, and every thing 
 grew on it, vines and figs and pomegranates and terebinths 
 and oil trees and cedars and Lebanon trees and cypresses 
 and all the trees of the field ; and water Was upon the 
 hills. 6. And he blessed the Lord who had led him out 
 of Ur of the Chaldees and brought him to this hill. 7. 
 And it happened in the first year, in the seventh week, at 
 the new moon of the first month, that he built an altar on 
 this hill, and called upon the name of the Lord : " Thou 
 art my God, the God unto eternity." 8. And he placed 
 upon the altar a sacrifice unto the Lord, that he should 
 be with him and should not desert him all the days of his 
 life. 9. And he arose from th6re and went toward the 
 north,'' and he came to Hebron, and Hebron was built at 
 that time,' and he dwelt there two )'ears in the land to the 
 
 1 Cf. Gen. xii. 6. 
 
 * It should, of course, be "southward," — probably a blunder of a trans- 
 lator living in Ethiopia. ' Cf. Num. xiii. 22, 
 
^ THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 45 
 
 north of Boa-Lot, and there was a famine in the land, and 
 Abram went into Egypt in the third year of this week, 
 and he dwelt in Egypt five years before his wife was torn 
 away from him. lo. But Tanai ' in Egypt was then built 
 in the seventh winter after Hebron, ii. And it happened 
 that when Pharaoh seized Sara, the wife of Abram, the 
 Lord punished Pharaoh and his whole house with large 
 plagues, on account of Sara, the wife of Abram. And 
 Abram was very conspicuous by wealth in sheep and 
 oxen and asses and horses and camels and in man-servants 
 and in maid-servants and in silver and in gold exceedingly, 
 and Lot, also, the son of his brother, was wealthy. 12. 
 And Pharaoh brought back Sara, the wife of Abram, and 
 sent him out of the land of Egypt ; and he came to a place 
 where he had first fixed his tent, at the place of the altar 
 at Ag& to the east of Bethel, and he went and blessed the 
 Lord his God who had brought him back in peace. 13. 
 And it happened in the forty-first jubilee, in the third year 
 of the first week, he returned to this place, and placed 
 upon it a burnt sacrifice, and called upon the name of the 
 Lord, and said: "Thou, O Lord, Most High God, art my 
 God to all eternity." 14. And in the foarth year of this 
 week Lot separated from him, and Lot dwelt in Sodom ; 
 ■but the men of Sodom were great sinners. And he grieved 
 in his heart that the son of his brother had separated 
 from him, for he had no children. 15. And in that year 
 ■when Lot was taken captive, the Lord also said to Abram, 
 after Lot had separated from him, in the fourth year of 
 this week, and said : " Lift up thine eyes from the place 
 here where thou art dwelling toward the north and south 
 and west and east. 16. For the whole* land which thou 
 seest I will give to thee and thy seed to eternity, and I 
 will make thy seed like the sand on the sea ; and when 
 man is able to count the sand on the sea, then thy seed 
 will be counted. 17. Arise and go through it in its length 
 
 ' I. c, Wi, Tavlv. Num. xiii. 22. 
 
46 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 and breadth and see it all, for to thy seed I will give it." 
 1 8. And Abram went to Hebron and dwelt there. 19. And 
 in that year came K616d6g6m6r, the king of Elam, and 
 Emilphel, the king of Slnir, and Ari6k, the king of Sfili- 
 sar, and TirgM, the king of the Gentiles, and slew the 
 king of Gomorrha, and the king of Sodom fled, and many 
 fell by wounds in S6d6miv and in the salt-district, and 
 they took captive Sodom and Adam and Sh6b6Sm, and 
 Lot, also, the son of the brother of Abram, and. all 
 his possessions, and went to Dan. 20. And one who had 
 escaped came and told Abram, that the son of the brother 
 of Abram had been taken captive.' 21. And the house- 
 servant brought for Abram and his seed the first tenth to 
 the Lord, and the Lord ordained it as an ordinance to 
 eternity, that they should give [this] to the priests who 
 served before him, that they should possess it forever. 22. 
 And to this law is not a limit of days, but it is ordained 
 to the generation of eternity, that they should give the 
 tenth to the Lord, of their seed and of their wine and of 
 their oil and of their oxen and of their sheep. 23. And 
 he gave it to his priests to eat and to drink in joy before 
 him. 24. And the king of Sodom came to him and bowed 
 down before him, and said : " Our lord Abram, give us 
 the souls thou hast saved, but let the booty be thine." 
 25. And Abram said to him : " I lift up my hands to God 
 on high, from a thread to a shoe-latchet I will take nothing 
 from all that is thine, so that thou sayest not, 'I have 
 made Abram rich,' only except what the youths have 
 eaten and the portion for the men who came with me, 
 Avn§,n, Esk61, and Mamr8, these shall take their share." 
 Chap. XIV. i. And after these events, in the fourth 
 year of this week, in the new moon of the third month, 
 the voice of the Lord came to Abram in a dream, saying : 
 " Fear not, Abram, for I am thy defender and thy exceed- 
 ing great reward." 2. And he said : "O Lord, Lord, what 
 
 ' There is certainly a lacuna between this and the following verse, although 
 there is nothing in the Ethiopia text to show it. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 47 
 
 wilt thou give me, and I have no son; and the son of 
 M§.s6k, the son of my maid-servant,' this Eleazer of Darii- 
 ascus, he will be my heir ; but to me thou hast not given 
 any seed." 3. And he said to him: " This one will not be 
 thy heir, but he that comes from thy body, he will be thy 
 heir." 4. And he took him without and said to him: 
 " Look upon the heavens and see the stars of heaven, if 
 thou art able to count them." 5. And he looked at the 
 heavens and saw the stars ; and he said to him : " Thus 
 shall be thy seed." 6. And he believed the Lord, and it 
 was accounted to him for righteousness. 7. And he said 
 to him : " I am the Lord thy God, who have brought thee 
 out of Ur of the Chaldees, that I might give thee the land 
 of Canaan for an eternal possession, and I will be to thee 
 and thy children after thee a God." 8. And he said: " O 
 Lord, Lord, by what am I to know that I shall inherit it?" 
 9. And h© said to him : " Take to thyself a heifer of three 
 years, and a goat of three years, and a sheep of three 
 years, and a turtle-dove and a pigeon." 10. And he took 
 all these in the middle of the month, and he dwelt near 
 the oak Mimrg, which is near Hebron, and he built there 
 an altar, and sacrificed all these and poured their blood 
 upon the altar, and divided them into halves and laid them 
 opposite each other; but the birds he did not divide. 12. 
 And birds descended upon the pieces, and Abram drove 
 them away and would not Suffer the birds to touch them. 
 13. And it happened when the sun had set, a stupor fell 
 upon Abram, and, behold, a great horror of darkness fell 
 upon him, and it was "spoken to Abram:" "Know in 
 truth that thy seed will be a stranger in a strange land, 
 and they will make them servants and oppress them four 
 -hundred years. 14. But the na;tion which they serve I 
 will judge, and after that they will go out from there with 
 many possessions, i S . And thou shalt go to thy fathers in 
 peace and shalt be buried in a good age. 16. And in the 
 iourth generation they shall return hither, for not yet are 
 
 ' Cf. LXX. on Gen. xv. 2. ' Cf. LXX. on Gen. xv. 13. 
 
48 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 the sins of the Amorites completed." 17. And he awoke 
 from his sleep, and he arose, and the sun had set, and 
 there was a flame, and, behold, an oven was smoking, and . 
 a flame of fire passed through between the pieces. 18. 
 And on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, 
 saying: "To thy seed I will give this land from the river 
 of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates, the Kenites and 
 the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites and the Perizzites and 
 the Rephaimites and the Ewites and the Amorites and the 
 Canaanites and the Girgashites." 19. And Abram went 
 and took up the pieces and the birds and the fruit and the 
 drink offerings, and the fire devoured them. 20. And on 
 that day we made a covenant with Abram according to 
 the covenant which he had made in this month with 
 Noah ; and Abram renewed the festival and ordinance for 
 himself unto eternity.' 21. And Abram rejoiced and told 
 all these things to Sara, his wife, and he believed that he 
 would have seed ; but she did not bring forth. And Sara 
 advised her husband Abram, and said to him : " Go in to 
 Hagar, my Egyptian maid ; it is possible that he will raise 
 up for thee seed from her." 22. And Abram obeyed the 
 voice of Sara, his wife, and said to her, " Do it," and Sara 
 took her Egyptian maid Hagar and gave her to Abram, 
 her husband, that she should become his wife. 23. And 
 he went in to her, and she conceived and bore him a son, 
 and he called his name Ishmael, in the fifth year of this 
 week: and this was the eighty-sixth year of the life of 
 Abram." 
 
 Chap. XV. i. In the fifth year of the fourth week of 
 this jubilee, in the third month, in the beginning of the 
 month, Abram celebrated the festival of the first of the 
 grain harvest ; and he brought new offerings beside offer- 
 ing of the first-fruits to the Lord, an ox and a goat and a 
 sheep upon the altar as a sacrifice to the Lord, and their 
 fruit offerings and their drink offerings he placed upon 
 the altar together with frankincense. 2. And the Lord 
 
 ' Cf. note on Chap. vi. 15. ^ Gen. xvi. 16. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 49 
 
 appeared to Abram and said to him: "I am the omnipo- 
 tent God ; be pleasing to me and be perfect, and I will 
 establish my covenant between me and thee, and will 
 increase thee exceedingly." 3. And Abram fell down on 
 his face. 4. And the Lord spoke to him and said : " Behold 
 niy ordinance is with thee, and I will make thee the father 
 of many nations, and thy name shall no longer be called 
 Abram, and thy name henceforth and to eternity shall be 
 Abraham, for I will make thee a father of niany nations, 
 and I will make thee exceedingly great, and will cause 
 nations and kings to proceed from thee. 5. And I will 
 establish my covenant between me and thee and between 
 thy seed after thee in their generations, as an ordinance 
 of eternity, that I will be a God to thee and to thy seed 
 after thee in their generations, [and I will giv:; thee] the 
 land where thou art a stranger, the land of Canaan, that 
 thou shalt be ruler over it to eternity, and I will be their 
 God." 6. And the Lord said to Abraham : "And thou, 
 preserve my covenant, thou and thy seed after thee, and 
 circumcise all your foreskins, and let it be a sign of my 
 ordinance unto eternity between me and thee and for thy 
 descendants. 7. On the eighth day ye shall circumcise 
 all the males in your generation, the members of the 
 household, and him whom ye have bought with gold from 
 all the sons of the strangers whom ye have as your prop- 
 erty, who are not of thy seed, — -they shall circumcise the 
 children of the household, and whomsoever ye have 
 bought shall be circumcised. 8. And my covenant shall 
 be on your flesh as an eternal ordinance; and whosoever 
 is not circumcised, all of thy males the flesh of whose 
 fqreskin is not circumcised on the eighth day, his soul 
 shall be rooted out of his generation, for he has over- 
 thrown ray covenant." 9. And the Lord said unto Abra- 
 ham : " Sara, thy wife, shall no longer be called by her 
 name Sara, for Sarah shall be her name ; ' for I will bless 
 
 ' The actual change made, according to the Ethiopic, is from S6r& to 
 S&ra, which is the same as made in the best MSS. of the Ethiopic Bible in 
 
So THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 and give to thee a son from her, and I will bless him and 
 he will become a people, and kings and nations shall pro^ 
 ceed from him." lo. And Abraham fell upon hi^ face and 
 rejoiced, and he said in his heart: "Should there be born 
 a son to one of a hundred years, and shall Sarah, who is 
 ninety, yet bring forth!" ii. And Abraham said to the 
 Lord: "O that Ishmael might live before thee!" 12. 
 And the Lord said : " Yea, and Sarah also shall bear thee a 
 son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish 
 my eternal covenant with him and with his seed -after him. 
 13. And also in reference to Ishmael have I heard thee, 
 and, behold, I will bless him, and I will make him great 
 and will increase him exceedingly, and twelve princes he 
 will beget, and I will make him a great nation ; but I will 
 establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear 
 for thee, in these days, in the second year." 14. And 
 having ended speaking with him, the Lord ascended from 
 over above Abraham. 15. And Abraham did as the Lord 
 had said to him, and took Ishmael his son, and all the 
 members of his household, and those whom he had bought 
 with gold, all the males that were in his house, and cir- 
 cumcised the flesh of their sexual member. 16. And at 
 the time of these days Abraham was circumcised, and all 
 the men of his house and all whom he had bought with 
 gold from among the sons of the strangers were circum- 
 cised with him. 17. And this is the law for all the gene- 
 rations of eternity, with no change of days and no devia- 
 tion of day from the eighth day, for it is an eternal ordi- 
 nance, ordained and written in the tablets of heaven. 18. 
 And every one that is born, the flesh of whose member is 
 not circumcised upon the eighth day, is not of th^, children 
 of the covenant which the Lord made with Abraham, but 
 is of the children of destruction ; and he has no sign upon 
 
 Gen. xvii. 15. Really, throughout the text, before this, the Book of Jubi- 
 lees has been using the word S6r3,, for which now Sara is employed. In 
 Ethiopic this involves no change in the meaning of the name. The LXX. 
 changes from Sdpa to ^appa. 
 
THE BOOK OF Jubilees. 51 
 
 him that he is the Lord's, but he is for destruction and 
 slaying from the earth and for rooting out of the earth ; 
 for he has broken the covenant of the Lord our God. 19. 
 For all the angels of, the face and all the angels of glorifi- 
 cation were thus created from the day of their creation ; ' 
 and he looked upon the angels of glorification, and he 
 sanctified Israel that they should be with him and with 
 his holy angels. 20. And thou command the children of 
 Israel and let them observe the sign of this covenant, and 
 for their generations as an etefnal ordinance that they be 
 not rooted out of the land. 21. For it is ordained as a 
 command of the covenant that they should observe it 
 forever among all the children of Israel. 22. For Ishmael 
 and his sons and his brothers and Esau the Lord did not 
 permit to approach him and did not choose them, for the 
 sons of Abraham are those he acknowledged, and he chose 
 Israel to be his people. 23. And he sanctified it and col- 
 lected it from among all the children of men, for there 
 are many nations and many peoples, and all are his, and 
 over all has he appointed spirits to rule, that they should 
 lead them astray from him, but over Israel he did not 
 appoint any ruler, neither an angel nor a spirit, but he 
 alone is th'tir ruler, and he preserves them, and he con- 
 tends for them against the hands of his angels and his 
 spirits and all; and they shall keep all his command- 
 ments, and he will bless them, and they shall be his, and he 
 will be theirs, from now on and to eternity. 24. And from 
 now on I will announce to you that the children of Israel 
 will brfeali faith with this ordinance, and will not circum- 
 cise their sons according to this whole law, for they will 
 omit this circumcision of the children on this flesh of their 
 circumcision, and they all, the sons of Belial, will leave 
 their children without circumcision as they were born. 
 25. And the wrath upon the children of Israel will be 
 great from the Lord, for they have deserted his covenant, 
 
 ' The angels even are circumcised, or rather created in that condition. 
 One of the MSS. upon which D. bases his Ethiopic text omits this sentence. 
 
52 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 and have departed from his word, and enrage him and 
 blaspheme him, as they do not observe this ordinance 
 according to this sign, for they make thpir members Uke 
 the Gentiles for being torn and rooted out of the land. 
 And no longer is there forgiveness or pardon for them 
 that all their sin may be forgiven and pardoned for this 
 error to eternity. 
 
 Chap. XVI. i. And at the new moon of the fourth 
 month we appeared to Abraham at the oak of MamrS, 
 and we conversed with him, and we announced to him 
 that a son would be given him from Sarah his wife. 2. 
 And Sarah laughed, for she heard that we spoke these 
 words with Abraham ; and we admonished her, and she 
 became afraid and denied that she had laughed on account 
 of the words. 3. And we told her the name of her son 
 as it is written on the tablets of heaven, namely, Isaac, as 
 his name. 4. And when we returned to her in a fixed 
 time then she was pregnant with a son. 5. And in this 
 month the Lord carried out the judgments of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah and Sebril6m and all the circuit of the Jordan, 
 and burnt them with fire and brimstone, and demolished 
 them unto the present day, according to what we have 
 made known to thee concerning all their actions, that they 
 were terrible and very sinful and they defiled themselves 
 and committed fornication and uncleanness over the earth. 
 6. And accordingly the Lord inflicted judgment upon all 
 the places by the hand of his servants, according to the 
 uncleanness of Sodom, according to the, judgment of 
 Sodom. 7. But Lot we saved, for the Lord remembered 
 Abraham, and led him out of the destruction. 8. And he 
 and his daughters committed sin on the earth, such as had 
 not been from the days of Adam until now, for the man 
 lay with his daughters. 9. And, behold, it is commanded 
 and engraven concerning all his seed on the tablets of 
 heaven, that they should tear them out and root them out 
 and judge them according to the judgment of Sodom, 
 and that no seed should be left this man on the earth in 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 53 
 
 the day of judgment. lo. And in this month Abraham 
 migrated from Hebron, and dwelt between Kades and 
 Shur in the mountains of G6r^r&n. ii. And in the middle 
 of the fifth month he migrated from there and dwelt at 
 the well of the oath.' And in the middle of the • sixth 
 month the Lord visited Sarah, and did to her as he had 
 said to her, and she conceived and bore a son. And in 
 the third month, in the middle of the month, in the days 
 which the Lord had said to Abraham, on the festival of 
 the first harvest, Isaac was born ; and Abraham circum- 
 cised his son on the eighth day : he was the first one cir- 
 cumcised in the covenant as it was ordained forever. 12. 
 And in the sixth year, in this month, of the fourth week, 
 we came to Abraham to the well of the oath, and we 
 appeared to him as we had told Sarah, that we would 
 come to her, but she became pregnant with a son, and we 
 returned in the seventh month and found Sarah pregnant 
 before us, and we blessed her and told her all things that 
 had been commanded us concerning him [Abraham] that 
 he should not die until six sons had been born to him, and 
 that he would see them before he should die ; but that in 
 Isaac his name and seed should be called. 13. And all the 
 seed of his [other] sons will become Gentiles and will be 
 numbered with the Gentiles ; but from the sons of Isaac 
 one shall become a holy seed and shall not be numbered 
 among the Gentiles. 14. For he shall become the' portion 
 of the Most High, and among those of whom God is ruler 
 will be his abode and all his seed, that it become a seed of 
 the Lord, a nation of inheritance among all the nations, 
 and that it may be a kingdom and a priesthood and a holy 
 nation. 15. And we went our way, and we announced to 
 Sarah all that we had told him; and these two rejoiced 
 with an exceeding great joy. 16. And he built there an altar 
 to the Lord who had saved him and had filled him with 
 joy in the land of his pilgrimage, and he celebrated a fes- 
 tival of great joy in this month, seven days, at the altar 
 ' I. e., Beer-Sheba. 
 
54 THE BOOK. OF JUBILEES. 
 
 which he had built at the fountain of the oath; and he 
 built tents fpr himself and his servants on this festival, and 
 he was the first one to celebrate the festival of tabernacles 
 on the earth. 17. And in these seven days Abrahani 
 would bring every single day upon the altar a burnt offer- 
 ing to the Lord, two oxen, seven sheep, one young goat, 
 on account of his sins that thereby these might be for- 
 given him and his seed, and as an. offering of salvation 
 seven rams, seven goats, and their fruit offering and their 
 drink offering ; over all the fat thereof he burnt incense 
 upon the altar as a sacrifice chosen to the Lord as a sweet 
 savor. 18. At mornings and evenings he burnt frankin- 
 cense, galbanum, stakle and wood and myrrh and spice 
 and costum ; all these seven he brought, united with each 
 oth^r in equal parts and clean. 19. And thus he cele- 
 brated his festival seven days, rejoicing with his whole 
 heart and his whole soul, he and all those that were in his 
 house ; and there was not any stranger with him nor any 
 bastard. 20. And he blessed his Creator who had created 
 him in his generation, for according to his pleasure did he 
 create him ; for he knew and observed that from him 
 would come the plant of righteousness for the generations 
 of eternity, and that from him should also come the holy 
 seed, like him who had made all things.' 21. And he 
 blessed his Creator, and he was glad, and he called the 
 name of this festival the festival of the Lord with a joy 
 acceptable to the Most High God. 22. And we blessed 
 him forever and all his seed after him in all the genera- 
 tions of the world on this earth, because he celebrated 
 this festival in its house according to the testimony of the 
 tablets of heaven. 23. On this account it is ordained in 
 the tablets of heaven concerning Israel that they shall 
 celebrate the festiyal of the tabernacles seven days in joy, 
 in the seventh month, that it be accepted before the Lord 
 as an eternal law in the generations of all the years, 24. 
 
 ' This is one of the passages in this book which can be interpreted 
 messianically. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 55 
 
 And to this there ,is no limit of days, but it is ordained 
 over Israel as a festival that they shall observe it, and 
 shall dwell in tents, and shall place wreaths upon their 
 heads, and they shall take a willow branch with foliage 
 from the brook. 25. And Abraham took the heart of the 
 palm and good fruit of trees, and every day and day he 
 would go around the altar with the branches, seven times 
 a day, and in the morning he praised and thanked his 
 God for all things in joy. 
 
 Chap. XVII. i. And in the first year of the fifth week 
 Isaac was weaned, in this jubilee, and Abraham made a 
 great feast in the third month on the day his son Isaac 
 was weaned. 2. And Ishmael, the son of the Egyptian 
 Hagar, was before the face of his father in this place; and 
 Abraham rejoiced and blessed the Lord, because that he 
 could see sons to himself and had not died without sons. 
 3. And he remembered the words which he had spoken 
 to him on the day that Lot separated from him ; and he 
 rejoiced, because the Lord had given him seed on the 
 earth to inherit the land ; and he blessed with his whole 
 mouth the Creator of all things. 4. And when Sarah 
 saw that Ishmael was playing and growing, and that Abra- 
 ham was rejoicing exceedingly, she became jealdus of Ish- 
 mael, and she said to Abraham : " Drive away this slave 
 and her son, for the son of this one shall not inherit with 
 my son Isaac." 5. And these words were grievous in the 
 eyes of Abraham, on account of his maid, and on account 
 of his son, that he should drive them away from him. 6. 
 And the Lord said to Abraham : " Let it not be grievous 
 in thy eyes concerning the child, and concerning the slave; 
 all that Sarah says to thee, hear her words and do them, 
 for in Isaac shall thy name and thy seed be called for thee. 
 7. But the son of this [slave] I will make into a great 
 nation, for he is of thy seed. 8. And Abraham arose early 
 in the morning and took bread and a bag of water and put 
 them upon the shoulders of Hagar and of the boy and 
 sent them away. 9. And she went wandering about in the 
 
$6 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 desert Beer-Sheba ; and the water was finished from the bag, 
 and the boy was thirsty, and was not able to walk, and he 
 fell down. io. And his mother took him, and going, 
 threw him under an olive tree, and she went and sat down 
 opposite him, the distance of an arrow shot, saying : " I 
 cannot see the death of my child ; " and she sat weeping. 
 
 1 1. And an angel of God, one of the holy ones, said to her: 
 " Why dost thou weep, Hagar? arising, take the boy, and 
 lead him by the hand, for the Lord has heard thy voice." 
 
 12. And she looked at the bag and opened her eyes and 
 saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bag with 
 water and gave her boy to drink, and she arose and went 
 toward the desert of Paran. 13. And the boy grew and 
 became a horseman, and the Lord was with him. 14. And 
 his mother took for him a wife from among the daughters 
 of Egypt, and she bore him a son, and he called his name 
 Nl,b^m6th, for she said : " The Lord was near to me when 
 I cried out to him." 15. And it happened in the seventh 
 week, in the first year thereof, in the first month of this 
 jubilee, on the twelfth of this month, there was a word in 
 the heavens concerning Abraham, that he was a believer 
 in all that the Lord told him, and that he loved him, 
 because in all temptations he was faithful. 16. And the 
 prince Mast6m^ approached and said before God : " Be- 
 hold Abraham loves Isaac his son, and esteems him more 
 than all other things ; say that he should bring him as a 
 burnt offering on the altar and thou wilt see if , he will do 
 this word, and thou wilt know if he is a believer in every- 
 thing with which thou triest him." 17. And the Lord 
 knew that Abraham was a believer in all trials which he 
 spoke to him ; for he had tried him in his country, and in 
 the strange land, and had tried him with the wealth of 
 kings, and had tried him again with his wife in that she 
 was torn from him, and with the circumcision, and had 
 tried him with Ishmael and Hagar his maid, when he sent 
 theni away, and in all in which he had tried him he was 
 found faithful, and his soul did not become impatient, nor 
 
The book of jubilees. 57 
 
 did he hesitate to do it, for he was faithful and a lover of 
 God.' 
 
 Chap. XVIII. i. And the Lord said to Abraham, "Abra- 
 ham." And he said to him, " Behold, O Lord, here I am." 
 2. And he said to him : " Take thy son Isaac whom thou 
 lovest, and go into the high land, and take him upon one 
 of the hills which I will show thee." 3. And he arose in 
 the morning from there and saddled his ass, and took two 
 young men with him, and Isaac his son, and split the wood 
 for a sacrifice, and he came to the place on the third day, 
 and saw the place from afar. 4. And he came to a well of 
 water, and he said to the young men : " Remain here with 
 the ass, and I and the boy will go on and will worship, 
 and after worshipping will return to you." 5. And he 
 took the wood for the sacrifice and put it upon the shoul- 
 ders of his son Isaac and he took in his hands the fire and 
 the knife, and the two went together to that place. 6. 
 And Isaac said to his father : " My father." 7. And he 
 said to him : " Behold, here I am, my son." 8. [And he 
 said] " Behold here is the fire, and the knife, and the wood; 
 but where, my father, is the sheep for the sacrifice ? " 9. 
 And he said : " The Lord will show me the sheep for the 
 sacrifice, my son." 10. And he came to the place of the 
 hill of the Lord, and he built an altar and laid the wood 
 upon the altar, and tied Isaac his son and placed him upon 
 the wood over the altar, and he stretched out his hands 
 to take the knife to sacrifice Isaac. 11. And I stood 
 before him [God] and before the prince Mast^mi, and the 
 Lord said : " Tell him not to lay his hand upon the boy 
 and to do him no harm ; for I know that he fears the 
 Lord." 12. And the Lord called to him from heaven and 
 said to him : "Abraham ! Abraham ! " and he was fright- 
 ened and said : " Behold, here I am." 13. And he said to 
 him : " Do not lay thy hands upon the boy, and do him no 
 
 ' This list of temptations appears elsewhere, although with variation of 
 figures, in similar writings. The Targum Jerusal. to Gen. xxii. i has the 
 same number. 
 
 *5 
 
58 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 harm, for now I know that thou fearest the Lord, and 
 hast not spared from me thy first-born son." 14 And the 
 prince MastSmS, was confounded ; and Abraham lifted up 
 his eyes and looked, and behold a ram held fast with his 
 horns. 15. And Abraham went and took the ram and 
 brought him as a sacrifice in the place of his son Isaac. 
 16. And Abraham called this place "The Lord seeth," 
 so that it is said " The Lord saw it " for Mount Zion. 17. 
 And the Lord called Abraham by name a second time 
 from heaven as he had appeared to us that we should 
 speak to him in the name of the Lord. 18. And he said : 
 " By my head, I swear, saith the Lord, because thou 
 hast done this thing and hast not spared from me thy first- 
 born son whom thou lovest, therefore I will surely bless thee 
 and will surely increase thy head like the stars of heaven 
 and like the sand of the shore of the sea. 19. And thy 
 seed shall inherit the cities of their enemy, and in thy seed 
 shall be blessed all the nations of the earth, for this that 
 thou hast listened to my voice and hast shown unto all 
 that thou art faithful unto me in all that 1 say to thee ; go 
 in peace." 20. And Abraham went to his young men, and 
 they arose and went together to Beer-Sheba, and Abraham 
 dwelt near the well of the oath ; and he celebrated this 
 festival in all the years, seven days in joy, and called it 
 " the festival of the Lord," according to the seven days in 
 which he had gone and returned in peace. 21. And thus 
 it is, and it is engraven and written in the tablets of heaven 
 concerning Israel and its seed to keep this festival seven 
 days in joy. 
 
 Chap. XIX. i. And in the first year of the first week 
 in the forty-second jubilee Abraham returned and dwelt 
 opposite Hebron, that is, KarjatirbSk, two weeks of years. 
 2. And in the first year of the third week of this jubilee 
 the days of the life of Sarah were completed, and she died 
 in Hebron. 5. And Abraham went to mourn over and to 
 bury her ; and we tried him if his spirit was patient and 
 if he was impatient in the words of his moufh, and he 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 59 
 
 was found patient in this, and was not shaken. 4. For in 
 the patience of his soul he conversed with the children of 
 K6ti that they should give him a place that he could bury 
 his body in it ; and the Lord gave him grace before all 
 who saw him, and he asked with modesty of heart of the 
 children of K6ti, and they gave him the land of the double 
 cave opposite Mamre, which is Hebron, for forty pieces 
 of silver. 5. But they begged him, saying :" We will 
 give it to thee ; " and he did not take anything from them 
 for nothing, for he gave the price for the place, perfect 
 silver ; and he bowed down before them twice, and then 
 he buried the body in the double cave. 6. And all the 
 days of the life of Sarah were one hundred and twenty- 
 seven years, and this is two jubilees and four weeks and 
 one year ; those are the days of the years of the life of 
 Sarah. And this was the tenth trial with which Abraham 
 was tempted, and he was found faithful and of patient 
 spirit. 8. And he did not speak a single word concerning 
 that God had said that he would give him and his seed 
 after him this land when he petitioned that he might bury 
 his body there, for he was found faithful and patient and 
 was written down as a friend of the Lord in the tablets of 
 heaven. 9. And in the fourth year thereof he took a wife 
 for Isaac his son, and her name was Rebecca, the daughter 
 of Betuel, the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. 10. 
 And Abraham took to himself a third wife, and her name 
 was Keturah, from among the sons of his household, for 
 Hagar had died before Sarah. 11. And she bore him six 
 sons, Zambari, and Joksan, and Madai, and Ejazbok, and 
 Sachai in the second week of years.' 12. And in the sixth" 
 week, in the second year, Rebecca bore to Isaac two sons, 
 Jacob and Esau : but Jacob was pious and righteous and 
 Esau was a rough man, a tiller of the field and hairy, but 
 Jacob dwelt within tents. 13. And the youths grew, and 
 
 ■ Only five names are given in the Ethiopic text. The similarity of the 
 names Medan and Midian (Gen. xxv. 2) has manifestly led to the omission 
 of one. 
 
6o THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 Jacob learned writing ; but Esau did not learn it, for he 
 was a man of the field and a hunter, and learned war and 
 all rough, deeds. 14. But Abraham loved Jacob, but Isaac 
 loved Esau. 15. And Abraham saw the deeds of Esau, 
 and he knew that his name and seed should be called for 
 him in Jacob, and he called Rebecca, and commanded her 
 concerning Jacob, for he saw that she too loved Jacob 
 much more than Esau. 16. And he said to her: "My 
 daughter, watch my son Jacob, for he shall be in my stead 
 upon the earth as a blessing among the sons of men and 
 to all the seed of Shem, and for an honor, and I know that 
 the Lord has chosen him for himself as a people secluded 
 from all those upon the face of the earth,, and behold, 
 Isaac, my son, loves Esau more than Jacob, and I see that 
 thou lovest righteousness for Jacob ; add yet to do some- 
 thing good for him and let thine eyes be over him as the 
 beloved, for he shall be to me a blessing over the earth, 
 from now on and to all the generations of the earth. 1 7. 
 Let thy hands be strong, and thou shalt rejoice in thy son 
 Jacob, for him do I love exceedingly above all my child- 
 ren ; for to eternity the Lord will be blessed in him, and 
 his seed shall fill all the land. 18. If a man can number 
 the dust of the earth, then his seed will be numbered. 
 19. And all the blessings with which the Lord has blessed 
 me and my seed shall be to Jacob and his seed all the 
 days, and in his seed shall my name be blessed and the 
 names of my fathers, Shem, and Noah, and Enoch, and 
 Mahaalel, and Seth, and Adam ; and .these will serve to a 
 founding of heaven and a strengthening of the earth and 
 for a removal of all the stars upon the firmament." ' 20. 
 And he called Jacob before the eyes of his mother Rebecca, 
 and he kissed him, and blessed him, and said to him ; " My 
 beloved son Jacob, whom my soul loveth, may God bless 
 thee from the firmament above and give thee all the bless- 
 i«gs with which he blessed Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, 
 
 ' This probably means that a. great nation is to come from Jacob, refer- 
 ring either to the Israel of history or to that of the messianic period. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 6l 
 
 and Shem, and all that he has conversed' with me and all 
 thathehas said that he would give me, may he fasten 
 these to thee and to thy seed to eternity, according- to the 
 days of heaven over the earth. 21. And the spirits of 
 MastSmi shall not become masters over thee and over thy 
 seed to remove thee from the Lord who is thy God; from 
 now on- and to eternity. 22' And may the Lord God be 
 thy father, and thou his first-born son, and his people for 
 all days: go; my son, in peace ! " 23. And the two went 
 together from Abraham. 24. And Rebecca loved Jacob 
 with all her heart, and with all her soul, exceedingly more 
 than Esau ; and Isaac loved Esau exceedingly more than 
 Jacob. 
 
 Chap. XX. i And^ in the thirty-second jubilee, in the 
 first year of the seventh week, Abraham called Ishmael 
 and his twelve sons, and Isaac and his two sons, and the 
 six sons of Keturah and their sons. 2. And he commanded 
 them that they should preserve the path of the Lord to 
 do righteousness and should love each his neighbor, and 
 that they should be thus in all the wars that they go into 
 against every one that is against them, and do justice and 
 righteousness over the earth, and that they circumcise their 
 sons according to the covenant which he had made with 
 them, and that they should not transgress neither to the 
 right hand nor to the left from all the paths which the 
 Lord had commanded them, and that they should preserve 
 themselves from all uncleanness, and that we should re- 
 rtiove from our midst all uncleanness and fornication. 3. 
 And if any woman or maid commit fornicationi amongst 
 you, burn her with fire, and do not commit fornication 
 after their eyes and hearts ; and that they should not 
 take unto themselves wives from among the daughters of 
 Canaan, for the seed of Canaan shall be rooted out of the 
 land. 4. And he spoke to them concerning the judgment 
 of the giants and the judgment of Sodom, that these had 
 been judged on account of their wickedness, and on ac- 
 count of 'fornication and uncleanness and destruction 
 
62 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 among each other. 5. " But be on your guard against all 
 fornication and uncleanness and contamination of sin, so 
 that ye do not make our name a curse and bring your lives 
 and your sons to destruction by the sword and ye become 
 accursed like Sodom, and all your remnant like the sons 
 of Gomorrah. 6. And I call upon you as witnesses, my 
 sons, love the God of heaven and submit to all his com- 
 mandments, and do not walk after their idols and after 
 their uncleanness, and do not make molten gods for your- 
 selves nor wooden ones. 7. For they are vanity, and have 
 no spirit, but they are the work of hands, and all who 
 
 depend upon them Do not worship them nor bow 
 
 down to them. 8. But worship ye the Most High God 
 and bow down to him ever, and hope upon his face at all 
 times, and do rectitude and righteousness before him, that 
 he may find pleasure in you and give you his mercy, and 
 send down rain to you morning and evening, and bless all 
 your work which ye do on the earth, and bless thy grain 
 and thy water, and bless the seed of thy body, and the 
 seed of thy land, and the herds of thy oxen, and the herds 
 of thy sheep. 9. And thou shalt be for a blessing over 
 the earth, and all the nations of the earth shall desire for 
 you and will bless thy sons in my name that they be 
 blessed as I am." 10. And he gave to Ishmael his son and 
 to the sons of Keturah a gift and sent them away from 
 Isaac his son. 10. And Ishmael and his sons and the sons 
 of Keturah and their sons went together and dwelt from 
 Pharmon (Pharan) to the entrance of Babylon, in all the 
 land which faces toward the east opposite the desert. 12. 
 And these mingled with each other, and their name was 
 called Arabs and Ishmaelites. 
 
 Chap. XXI. i. And in the sixth year of the seventh 
 week of this jubilee Abraham called Isaac his son, and his 
 father commanded him saying : " I am gray and do not 
 know the day of my death, for I am satisfied in my days. 
 2. And behold, my son, I am one hundred and seventy- 
 five years old, and in all the days of my life I have ever 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 63 
 
 remembered the Lord and sought with all my might that 
 I might do the will of my God, and that I might walk 
 aright in all his paths. 3. My soul hated idols so ' that I 
 could be on my guard to do the will of him that created 
 me, for he is the living God, and he is holy, and he is faith- 
 ful, and he is just above all, and no evil is with' him to have 
 regard for persons and to take presents, for he is a god of 
 righteousness, and a doer of judgment over all who trans- 
 gress his commandments, and all that violate his covenant. 
 4. And thou, my son, observe his commandments and his 
 ordinance and his judgment, and walk not after the un- 
 clean and after the wooden images and after the molten 
 ones. 5. And do not eat any blood of an animal, or of a 
 beast, or of any bird that flies in the heavens. 6. And if 
 thou slaughterest, slaughter as a pure sacrifice that is 
 acceptable ; slaughter it and pour out its blood upon the 
 altar and all the fat of the sacrifice place upon the altar 
 with flour and fruit offering, mixed with oil together with 
 drink offering ; place all this together upon the altar as a 
 sacrifice of sweet savor before the Lord. 7. Like the fat 
 of the thank offering lay them upon the fire, like the fat of 
 the belly, and all the fat upon the entrails, and the two kid- 
 neys and all the fat that is upon them, and upon the thigh 
 pieces, and the liver, together with the kidneys wrapped 
 up in them ; bring this all as a sweet savor which will be 
 acceptable before the Lord together with fruit and drink 
 offerings, thou shalt bring them all together for a sweet 
 savor as the bread of the burnt offering for the Lord. 7. 
 And the meat eat on that day and on the second day, and 
 do not let the sun go down on it on the second day until 
 it is eaten and nothing shall be left over for the third day, 
 for it is not acceptable nor chosen, and it shall no longer 
 be eaten, and all who eat bring sin upon themselves. 8. For 
 thus have I found it written in the books of my forefathers, 
 in the words of Enoch and in the words-of Noah. 9. And 
 upon all thy sacrifices thou shalt put salt, and thou shalt 
 not violate the covenant of salt in all thy sacrifices before 
 
64 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 the Lord, 10. And watch all the wood of the sacrifices, 
 that thoti dost not bring sacrificing wood besides the 
 following : cypresS, fir, and almond, and pine, and fir,^ 
 and cedar, and savin, and citron, and olive, and myrrh, 
 and balsam.' 11. Of these kinds of wood lay upon the 
 altar, under the sacrifice, ha;ving examined its appearance, 
 and do not place any broken or dark wood ; hard wood 
 and unbroken, perfect, and nearly grown, and not old, tor 
 its savor is gone and there is no more savor in it, as at 
 first. 12. Besides these kinds of wood thou shaft place no 
 other kinds, for its savor has departed, and thou shalt send 
 up the smell of its savor to heaven. 13. Observe this 
 commandment and do it, my son, that thou mayest be 
 right in all thy actions. 14. And at all times be clean in 
 thy body and wash thyself with water, before thou goest 
 to sacrifice upon the altar, and wash thy hands and thy 
 feet before thou approachest the altar; and when thou 
 art done sacrificing, return and wash thy hands and thy 
 feet. 16. And let there not appear upon any one of you 
 any blood, nor upon your clothes : be on thy guard, my 
 son, guard thyself exceedingly against blood ; bury it in 
 the ground. 16. And do not eat any blood for it is the 
 soul, eat no blood whatever. 17. And do not receive any 
 present for any blood of man that it should be spilt in vain 
 without judgment, for this blood which is spilt causes sin 
 upon the earth, and it cannot be cleansed of the blood 
 except by blood being shed ; and do not receive a present 
 or any gift for the blood of man ; blood for blood ; and ye 
 shall become acceptable before the Lord God Most High, 
 and he will be the protector of good, and that thou may- 
 est bis preserved from all evil and be saved from all death. 
 
 18. I see, my son, all the deeds of the sons of men, that they 
 are sin and evil, and all their deeds are uncleanness, and re- 
 bellious and defiling,and there is no righteousness with them. 
 
 19. Guard thyself, do not go on their paths to step into their 
 footprints and do not commit the error of death before 
 
 • Cf. on these names Dillmann's Lexicon ^thiopico-Latinum. 
 
THE BOOK Of JUBILEES. 65 
 
 the Most High God, lest he hide his face from thee, and 
 return thee into the hands of thy transgression and root 
 thee out of the land, and thy seed from under heaven, and 
 thy name be destroyed and thy seed from all the earth. 
 20. Preserve thyself from all their deeds and from all 
 their uncleanness, and observe the observance of the Lord 
 Most High and do his will and do right in all things. 21. 
 And he will bless thee in all thy deeds, and will bring 
 forth from thee a plant of righteousness in all the earth, 
 in all the generations of the earth. And my name shall be 
 known; and thy name, under heaven, in all the days. 22. 
 Go; my son, in peace. May the Most High God, my God 
 and thy God, strengthen thee to do his will, and may he 
 bless all thy seed and the descendants of thy seeds to the 
 generations of eternity, with all the blessings of righteous- 
 ness, that thou mayest be a blessing on all the earth." 23. 
 And he went out from him, rejoicing happy. 
 
 Chap. XXH. i. And it happened in the first week of 
 the forty-third [fourth] jubilee, in the second year, that is 
 the year in which Abraham died, Isaac and Ishmael came 
 from the fountain of the oath that they might celebrate 
 the festival of the seven days, that is, the festival of the 
 first-fruits of the harvest, with Abraham, their father; and 
 Abraham rejoiced because his two sons came to him. 2. 
 For Isaac had much possessions in Beer-Sheba, and Isaac 
 went out to see his possessions and returned to his father. 
 3. And in these days Ishmael came to see his father, and 
 they all came together, and Isaac offered up a sacrifice as 
 a burnt offering, and brought it upon the altar which his 
 father had made at Hebron. 4. And he offered a thank 
 offering and made a feast of joy before his brother Ish- 
 mael, and Rebecca made new cakes out of new grain, and 
 she gave thereof to Jacob, her best son, that he should 
 bring to Abraham, his father, from the first-fruits of 
 the land, that he might eat and bless the Creator of all 
 before he died. 5. And Isaac, too, sent by the hand of 
 Jacob, who excelled, a thank offering to Abraham, that he 
 
66 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 should drink and eat. 6. And he ate and drank and 
 blessed the Most High God, who had created the heavens 
 , and the earth, and had made all the fat of the earth and 
 had given it to the children of men to eat and to drink and 
 that they should bless their Creator. 7. "And now I 
 humbly thank thee, my Lord, that thou hast shown to me 
 this day: behold, I am one hundred and seventy-five years 
 old and full of days, and all the days were peace. 8. The 
 sword of the hater did not overcome me in all that thou 
 hast given me and my children all the days of my life 
 until the present day. 9. My God, thy grace be over thy 
 servant and over the seed of his sons, that he may be to 
 thee a chosen nation and an inheritance from amongst all 
 the nations of the earth, from now on and to all the days 
 of the generations of ths earth unto all eternities." 10. 
 And he called Jacob and said to him : " My son Jacob, the 
 Lord of all bless thee and strengthen thee to do righteous- 
 ness and his will before him, and may he choose thee and 
 thy seed that ye may be a people for his inheritance, 
 according to his will in all the days. 11. And thou, my 
 son Jacob, come hither and kiss me." 12. And he ap- 
 proached and kissed him, and he said : " Blessed be Jacob, 
 my son, and all his children to the Lord Most High in all 
 eternities ; may the Lord give thee a seed of righteous- 
 ness from among thy sons, to sanctify him in the midst of 
 all the earth ; and may all the nations serve thee and bow 
 down to thy seed. 13. Become powerful before men, as 
 thou rulest over all the seed of the earth and among the 
 seed of Seth, when thy path and the path of thy sons is 
 just for being his holy nation. 14. May the Most High 
 God give thee all the blessings with which he blessed me 
 and with which he blessed Noah and Adam ; may they 
 rest upon the sacred head of thy seed to all the genera- 
 tions and to eternity. 15. And may the Lord preserve 
 thee clean from all unclean defilement, that thou mayest 
 be forgiven of all the sins which without knowledge thou 
 hast committed, and may he strengthen thee and bless 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 6/ 
 
 thee, and mayest thou inherit the whole earth. i6. And 
 may he renew his covenant with thee, that thou mayest 
 be to him a nation for his inheritance to all eternities, and 
 he may be to thee and to thy seed a God in reality and in 
 truth in all the days of the earth. 17. And thou, my son 
 Jacob, remember my words and observe the command- 
 ments of Abraham, thy father; withdraw from among the 
 Gentiles and do not eat with them, and do not according 
 to their actions, and be not their companion; for their 
 actions are unclean and all their ways are defiled and their 
 sacrifices an abomination. 18. They sacrifice to the dead, 
 and the evil spirits they worship, and in the graves they 
 eat, and all their doings are in vain and for naught. 19. 
 They have no heart to think and no eyes to see any of 
 their actions and when they err, saying to a piece of wood, 
 " Thou art my God," and to a stone, " Thou art my Lord 
 and my saviour," and these have no heart. 20. And thou, 
 my son Jacob, may the Most High Lord aid thee, and the 
 God of heaven bless thee and preserve thee from all their 
 uncleanness and from all their error. 21. Be thou on thy 
 guard, my son Jacob, that thou takest not a wife from 
 among all the seed of the daughters of Canaan, for all its 
 seed is to be rooted out of the land ; for on account of the 
 sin of Ham and the transgression of Canaan also all his 
 seed will be destroyed from the earth, and none will be 
 left and escape of them on the day of judgment. 22. And 
 all those that worship idols and all haters will have no 
 hope in the land of the living, for they will descend into 
 Sheol and will go unto the place of judgment, and there 
 will not be any remembrance of them on the earth; just 
 as the children of Sodom were taken away from the 
 earth, there will be taken away all those that worship idols. 
 23* Fear not, my son Jacob, and do not tremble, son of 
 Abraham ; the Most High God will protect thee from all 
 destruction, and from all the paths of error he will deliver 
 thee. 24. This house I have built for myself, that I might 
 place my name above it upon the land which is given to 
 
68 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 thee and to' thy seed forever, and that it should be ca;Ubd 
 the house of Abraham ; it is given to thee and to thy seed 
 forever, since thou wilt build up my house and virilt estab- 
 lish my name before God unto eternity, and thy seed and 
 thy name will stand in all the generations of the earth." 
 25. And he ceased speaking anJ commanding and bless- 
 ing. 26. And the two lay together on one bed, and Jacob 
 slept in the bosom of Abraham, the father of his father, 
 and his thoughts kissed him seven times, and his love and 
 his heart rejoiced over him. 26. And he blessed him with 
 his whole heart and said : " The Most High God, the God 
 of all, the Creator of all, who has led me out of Ur of the 
 Chaldees, that he might give me this land as an inheri- 
 tance to eternity and that I should establish a holy seed, 
 may the Most High be blessed to eternity." 28^ And he 
 blessed Jacob and said : " My son, who is in all my heart 
 and in all my thoughts, may I rejoice in him, and may thy 
 grace and thy mercy be extensive over him and over his 
 seed all the days. 29. And do not desert him and do not 
 neglect him from now on and to the eternity of days, and 
 may thy eyes be open over him and over his seed, that 
 thou protectest him and blessest him and sanctifiest him, 
 to be a nation for thy inheritance. 30. And bless him 
 with all thy blessings from now on and to all days to eter- 
 nity, and renew thy covenant, and be merciful with him 
 and with his seed, in all thy will to all the generations of 
 the earth." 
 
 Chap. XXHI. i. And he laid two fingers of Jacob 
 upon his eyes, and he blessed the God of gods, and he 
 covered his face and stretched out his feet and slept the 
 sleep of eternity and was gathered to his father. 2. And 
 during all this, Jacob was lying on his bosom and did not 
 know that Abraham, the father of his father, was dead. 
 3. And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and, behold, Abraham 
 was cold like ice, and he said, "Father! father! " and no 
 one answered, and he knew that Abraham was dead. 4. 
 And he arose from his bosom and ran and told' it to 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 69 
 
 Rebecca, his mother, and Rebecca went to Isaac in the 
 night and told him, and they went together and Jacob 
 with them, and a lamp was in his hand, and going they 
 found Abraham as a corpse. 5. And Isaac fell upon the 
 face of his father Abraham, and wept and; blessed him 
 and kissed him ; and the words were heard in the house of 
 Abraham, and Ishmael, his son, arose and came to his 
 father Abraham, and wept over Abraham, his father, he 
 and all the house of Abraham, and they wept exceedingly. 
 6. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the 
 double cave, near to Sarah, his wife, and they mourned 
 over him forty days, all the people of his house, Isaac and 
 Ishmael and all their children and the children of Ketu- 
 rah in their places ; and the lamentation and weeping over 
 Abraham was ended. 7. And he lived three jubilees and 
 four weeks of years, one hundred and seventy-five years, 
 and the days of his life were completed, and he was old, 
 perfect in days. 8. For the days of the lives of the first 
 fathers were nineteen jubilees, and after the flood they 
 began to decrease from nineteen jubilees, diminishing 
 ing the jubilees and becoming speedily old and satisfying 
 their days on account of the many sufferings and the 
 wickedness of their ways, with the exception of Abraham. 
 9. But Abraham was perfect in his deeds with the Lord 
 and well pleasing and in righteousness all the days of his 
 life ; and behold, he did not complete four jubilees in his 
 life until he grew old on account of wickedness, and satis- 
 fied with days. 10. And all the generations that arise 
 from then and unto the day of the great judgment age die 
 speedily before completing two jubilees. 11. And it will 
 be since their knowledge leaves them on account of their 
 old age that also all their knowledge ceases. 12. And on 
 that day if a man lives a jubilee and a half jubilee, they 
 say concerning him, " He has lived long ;" and the mass 
 of his days are sufferings and pain and trouble and no 
 peace, for punishment follows upon punishment, hostility 
 upon hostility, trouble upon trouble, wickedness upon 
 
70 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 wickedness, sickness upon sickness, and all evil judgments 
 of this kind, as sickness and inflammation and hail and 
 ice and snow and fever and suffering and becoming stiff, 
 and sterility and death and sword and captivity and all 
 the punishments and sufferings. 13. All this comes in the 
 evil generation which sins upon the earth with the un- 
 cleanness of fornication and defilement and the abomina- 
 tion of their deeds. 14. And then they will say: "The 
 days of the fathers were many, even to one thousand 
 years, and were good, and behold the days of our lives, if 
 a man has lived many, are seventy years, and if he 'is 
 strong, eighty years, and all were evil and no peace will 
 be in. this evil generation." 15. And in that genera- 
 tion the children will be about to upbraid their fathers 
 and their sires concerning the sin, and concerning the 
 injustice, and concerning the words of' their mouth, and 
 concerning the great wickedness which they do, and con- 
 cerning their deserting the ordinances which the Lord 
 had covenanted between them and him, that they should 
 observe and do all his commandments and his ordinances 
 and all his laws and not depart to the right or to the left. 
 16. For all are wicked, and every mouth speaks trans- 
 gression, and all their deeds are unclean and an abomina- 
 tion, and all their paths are contamination and uncleanness 
 and destruction. 17. Behold, the earth will be destroyed 
 on account of all their deeds, and there will be no seed of 
 wine and no oil, because all their deeds are unbelief, and 
 they all will be destroyed together, the beasts and the 
 animals and the birds and all the fish of the sea, on account 
 of the sons of men. 18. And they will contend with each 
 other, the young with the old and the old with the young ; 
 the poor with the rich, and the lowly with the great, and 
 the beggar with the prince, on account of the law and on 
 account of the covenant, for they have forgotten his com- 
 mandments and his covenant and the festivals and the 
 months and the sabbaths and the jubilees and all law. 19. 
 And they will arise with swords and murder to bring 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 71 
 
 them back to the path, but they will not return until the 
 blood of many has been spilt upon the earth, one over the 
 other. 20. And those who escape will not return on the 
 path of righteousness from their wickedness, for they all 
 will arise for a robbery for wealth, that each one may take 
 that which is his neighbors' and be called by a great 
 name, but not in reality and in truth, and the most holy 
 will be defiled in the uncleanness of the destruction of 
 their defilement. 21. And a great punishment will be 
 over the deeds of this generation from the Lord, and he 
 will give them over to the sword and to judgment and to 
 captivity and to robbery and to devouring. 22. And he 
 will awaken over them the sinners of the Gentiles, who 
 will have no mercy or grace for them, and who regard 
 the face of none, neither old nor young nor any one ; for 
 they are wicked and powerful that they act more wickedly 
 than all the children of men ; and in Israel they practise 
 violence and sin in Jacob, and the blood of many will be 
 spilt on the land ; and there will be none to gather and to 
 bury. 23. And in those days they will cry aloud and call 
 and pray that they be saved from the hands of the sinful 
 Gentiles, and there will be none to save them. 24. And 
 the heads of the children will be white with gray hair, 
 and a child of three weeks will appear as old as a man of a 
 hundred years, and their standing will be destroyed by 
 trouble and oppression. 25. And in those days the 
 children will begin to seek the laws and to seek the 
 commandments and to return to the path of righteous- 
 ness. 26. And the days will begin to increase and* grow 
 many, and the children of men generation by generation 
 and day by day, until their days approach to one thousand 
 years and to a multitude of years and days. 27. And 
 no one will be old or satisfied with days, for all will 
 be [like] children and youths. 28. And all their days will 
 be in peace, and in joy they will end them and live, and 
 there will be no satan nor any destroyer, for all their days 
 will be days of peace and healing and blessings. 29. And 
 
72 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 at that time the Lord will heal his servants, and they will 
 arise and will see great peace and vtrill cast out their ene- 
 mies; and the just shall see it and be thankful and rejoice 
 in joy to all eternity, and shall see judgment and curses 
 upon all their enemies. 30. And their bones shall rest in 
 the earth, but their spirits shall increase in joy, and they 
 shall know that the Lord is the doer of judgment, and 
 gives mercy to the hundreds and thousands and to all that 
 love him. 31. And thou, Moses, write down all these 
 words, for thus are they written, and they have raised 
 them upon the tablets of heaven to the generation of 
 eternity.' 
 
 Chap. XXIV. i. And it happened after the death of 
 Abraham that the Lord blessed Isaac, his son, and he 
 arose from Hebron and went and dwelt at the fountain of 
 the vision, in the first year of the third week of this jubi- 
 lee, seven years. 2. And in the first year of the fourth 
 week a famine began in the land, in addition to the first 
 famine which was in the days of Abraham. 3. And Jacob 
 cooked a mess of lentils, and Esau came from the field 
 hungry. 4. And he said to Jacob, his brother, " Give me 
 of thy mess of pulse ;" and Jacob Said to him, " Give up 
 to me thy right of first birth, and I will give thee bread 
 and also from this mess of pulse." 5. And Esau said in 
 his heart, " I shall die; what is it to me to be born first?" 
 6. And he said to Jacob, " I will give it to you." 7. And 
 Jacob said, " Swear to me this day," and he swore to him. 
 8. And Jacob gave to his brother Esau bread and the 
 mess, and he ate and was satisfied, and Esau despised his 
 right of first birth ; and from this was Esau called Edom,'' 
 on account of the mess of grain which Jacob gave him 
 for his right of first birth. 9. And Jacob became the 
 older, but Esau diminished from his greatness. 10. And 
 
 ' These somewhat crass messianic views this book has in common with 
 other and similar worJts of the same period. Cf. Enoch c. 5 et passim. 
 
 * The Ethiopic translator must have read eip^fiaTog nvpoii for nv'pjiov. iGf. 
 LXX. on Gen. Jtxv. 30. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 73 
 
 the famine was over the land, and Isaac went to go, down 
 to Egypt in the second year of this week, and he went to 
 the king of the Philistines at G6r§.r§,, to Abimelech. ii. 
 And the Lord appeared to him and said to him: " Do not 
 go down to Egypt; dwell in the land which I tell thee of: 
 be a stranger in this land, and I will be with thee and will 
 bless thee. 12. For to thee and to thy seed I will give all 
 this land, and I will confirm my oath which I swore to 
 Abraham, thy father, and I will increase thy seed like the 
 stars of the heavens, and I will give to thy seed all this 
 land. 13. And in thy seed shall be blessed all the nations 
 of the earth, because thy father hearkened unto my voice 
 and observed my words and my commandments and my 
 law and my ordinances and my covenant ; and now hear 
 my voice and dwell in this land." 14. And he dwelt at 
 Gerar three weeks of years. 15. And Abimelech com- 
 manded on his account and on account of all that was 
 his, saying : " Every man that touches him or any thing 
 that is his, shall surely die." 16. And Isaac increased in 
 Philistia, and he secured many possessions, oxen and 
 sheep and camels and asses and many possessions. 17. 
 And he sowed in the land of Philistia and he raised a 
 hundred-fold, and Isaac became exceedingly great, and 
 the Philistines were jealous of him, and all the wells which 
 the young men of Abraham had dug during the life of 
 Abraham the Philistines covered after the death of Abra- 
 ham and filled them with earth. 18. And Abimelech said 
 to Isaac : " Go from me, for thou art exceedingly greater 
 than I ;" and Isaac went in the first year of this seventh 
 week from there, and migrated to valleys of G8r§,n6n. 19. 
 And they returned and dug open the wells of water, which 
 the servants of Abraham, his father, had dug, and which 
 the Philistines had covered over after the death of Abra- 
 ham, his father, and he called their names as Abraham, his 
 father, had named them. 20. And the young men of 
 Isaac dug wells in the valley, and found living water ; and 
 the shepherds of G6rin6n quarrelled with the shepherds 
 
 *6 
 
74 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 of Isaac, saying, " This is our water," and Isaac called the 
 name of this well Contention, " because ye have contended 
 with us." 21. And they dug another well, and quarrelled 
 on its account, and Isaac called its name Narrowness. 
 22. And he arose from there, and they dug another well, 
 and did not quarrel on its account, and he called its name 
 Extension, and Isaac said, "Now the Lord has extended 
 us;" and he increased in the land. 23. And he ascended 
 from there to the well of the oath in the first year of the 
 first week in the forty-third jubilee. 24. And the Lord 
 appeared to him in this night, at the new moon of the 
 first month, and said to him: "I am the God of Abraham, 
 thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and I will bless 
 thee and increase thy seed like the sand of the sea, on 
 account of Abraham, my servant." 25. And he built' 
 an altar there where Abraham, his father, had first built 
 one, and he called upon the name of the Lord, and offered 
 sacrifices to the God of Abraham, his father. And they 
 dug a well and found living water. 26. And the young 
 men of Isaac dug another well, and did not find water, 
 and they went and told Isaac that they had not found 
 water, and Isaac said : " I have sworn this day to the Philis- 
 tines, and this is to us the affair." 27. And Isaac called 
 the name of this place The Well of the Oath, for there had 
 he sworn to Abimelech and Ak6sat, his friend, and Phik61 
 his companion. 28. And Isaac knew on that day that in 
 injustice they had sworn to them to keep the peace with 
 them. 29. And Isaac on that day cursed the Philistines, 
 and he said : " Cursed be the Philistines to the day of 
 wrath and rage above all the nations : may the Lord make 
 them an ignominy and a curse and anger and rage in the 
 hands of sinful nations, and by the hands of the Hittites 
 let him root them out. 30. And whoever escapes from 
 the sword of the enemy and from the Hittites, may the 
 people of the just root them out in judgment from under 
 heaven, for they will be enemies and haters to my children 
 in their days over the earth. 31. And may no remnant of 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 75 
 
 them be left nor may any be saved on the day of the 
 judgment of wrath, for to destruction and rooting out 
 and being destroyed from the land are all the seed of the 
 Philistines, and no remnant or name shall be left of their 
 seed over the earth. 32. For even if he had ascended to 
 heaven, they would bring him down from there ; and if 
 he is fortified upon the earth they will tear him from there ; 
 and if he hides himself among the Gentiles, they will 
 destroy him from there ; and even if he descends into 
 Sheol, there too shall his judgment be great, and no peace 
 shall be to him ; and if he go into captivity, by the hand 
 of those that seek his soul on the way he shall be killed, 
 and no name or seed shall be left him on the whole earth, 
 for he shall go into the curse of eternity." 33. And thus 
 is it written and engraved concerning him on the tablets 
 of heaven, to do to him on the day of judgment, that he 
 may be rooted out of the earth. 
 
 Chap. XXV. i. And in the second year of this week 
 in this jubilee Rebecca called Jacob her son, and spake to 
 him, saying: " My son, do not take to thyself a wife from 
 among the daughters of Canaan, like Esau, thy brother, 
 who took to himself as wives two from the seed of Canaan, 
 and they embittered my spirit with all their unclean deeds, 
 for all their deeds are fornication and shame, and there is 
 no righteousness in them, but it is evil. 2. And I, my 
 son, love thee exceedingly, and my mercy, my son, blesses 
 thee at every hour and' watch of the night ; and now, my 
 son, hear my voice, and do the will of thy mother, and do 
 not take to thyself a wife from among the daughters of 
 this land, except from the house of thy father and except 
 from the family of thy father : take to thyself a wife from 
 the house of my father, and the Most High God will bless 
 thee, and thy children will be a generation of righteous- 
 ness and thy seed holy." 3. And then spake Jacob with 
 his mother Rebecca, and said to her: "Behold, I am now 
 nine weeks of years old and know no woman : I have 
 touched none nor betrothed myself to any, nor do I think 
 
76 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 of taking to myself a wife from all the seed of the daugh- 
 ters of Canaan. 4. For I remember, O mother, the words 
 of Abraham, our father, that he commanded me not to 
 take my wife from among all the seed of the house of 
 Canaan, but from the seed of my father's house I should 
 take to myself a wife and from my relationship. 5. I have 
 heard before that daughters have been born to Laban, thy 
 brother, and upon them is my heart set to take a wife of 
 them. 6. On this account I have preserved myself in my spirit 
 not to sin nor defile myself in all my ways all the days of 
 my life, for with reference to lust and fornication my father 
 Abraham gave me many commands. 7. And with all that 
 he has commanded me these twenty-two years ray brother 
 contends with me and continually converses, saying : My 
 brother, take to wife one of the sisters of my two wives ; 
 but I am not willing to do as my brother has done. 8. I 
 swear before thee, my mother, that all the days of my life 
 I will not take to myself a wife from the seed of all the 
 daughters of Canaan, and will not act wickedly as my 
 brother has done. 9. And do not fear, mother; trust me 
 that I will do thy will, and will walk in rectitude, and my 
 paths will not be destroyed in eternity." 10. And then 
 she lifted up her face to heaven and extended the fingers 
 of her hand toward heaven, and opened her mouth and 
 blessed the Most High God, who had created heaven and 
 earth, and she gave him thanks and praise. 11. And she 
 said : " Blessed be the Lord God and blessed be his name 
 for ever and ever, who has given to me Jacob as a pure 
 son and a holy seed ; for thine he is and thine shall be his 
 seed unto all the days and in all the generations of the 
 world. 12. Bless him, O Lord, and place the blessing of 
 righteousness in my mouth that I may bless him." 13. 
 And at that hour the Holy Spirit descended into her 
 mouth, and she placed her two hands upon the head of 
 Jacob, and she said : " Blessed art thou. Lord of righteous- 
 ness and God of the worlds, and thee do all the genera- 
 tions of men praise: may he give thee, my son, the path 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. ^^ 
 
 of righteousness, and reveal to thy seed righteousness. 
 14. And may thy sons increase in thy life, and stand to the 
 number of the months of the year, and may thy sons in- 
 crease and grow more than the stars of the heavens, and 
 more than the sand of the sea increase their numbers. 15. 
 And may he give them this fruitful land, as he said he 
 would give it to Abraham and his seed after him in all the 
 days, and may they possess it to eternity. 16. And may 
 I see for thee, my son, blessed children in this life, and may 
 holy seed be all thy seed. 17. And as the spirit of thy 
 mother in her life caused thee to rest in her womb to give 
 thee birth, thus my affection blesses thee, and my breasts 
 bless thee and my mouth and my tongue praise thee. 18. 
 Increase and be poured over the earth, and thy seed be 
 perfect in all the earth in the joy of heaven and earth, and 
 may thy seed rejoice, and on the great day of peace may 
 the peace of thy name be theirs. 19. And may thy seed 
 abide to all the worlds,- and may the Most High God be 
 their God, and may the Most High God dwell with them 
 and his sanctuary be built to all the eternities. 20. He 
 that blesses thee be blessed, and all flesh that curses thee 
 in lies, may it be cursed." 21. And she kissed him and 
 said to him, "May the Lord of the world love thee as the 
 heart of thy mother, and may her affection rejoice in thee 
 and bless thee." 22. And she ceased from blessing him. 
 Chap. XXVI. i. And in the seventh year of this week 
 Isaac called Esau, his elder son, and said to him: "My 
 son, I am old, and behold my eyes are dull of seeing, and I 
 do not know the day of my death. 2. And now take thy 
 hunting weapon and thy bow and thy quiver, and go to 
 the field and hunt and catch something for me, my son, 
 and prepare me a meal such as my soul loves, and bring 
 it to me, so that I may eat and my soul bless thee before 
 I die." 3. But Rebecca heard Isaac speaking to Esau. 4. 
 And Esau went early to the field to hunt and catch some- 
 thing and bring it to his father. 5. And Rebecca called 
 Jacob, her son, and said to him : " Behold, I have heard 
 
78 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 thy father Isaac speaking with thy brother Esau, saying, 
 ' Hunt me something and prepare a. meal and bring it in to 
 me, and I will bless thee before the Lord before I die.' 6. 
 But now hear, my son, my words which I command thee : 
 Go to thy flocks and ^b ring me two good young kids, and 
 I will make a meal out of them such as he loves, and thou 
 shalt bring it in to thy father and he shall eat, that he may 
 bless thee before the Lord before he dies, and thou become 
 blessed." 7. And Jacob said to his mother Rebecca: "O 
 mother, I will not hold back any thing that my father may 
 eat and is pleasing to him ; only I fear, my mother, that 
 he will know my voice and will desire to touch me; 
 and thou knowest that I am smooth, but my brother Esau 
 is rough, and I may be before his eyes like an evil-doer, 
 and I should do a deed which he has not commanded me, 
 and he might become angry with me and I should bring a 
 curse upon myself and not a blessing." 8. And Rebecca, 
 his mother, said to him : " Upon me, my son, be thy curse ; 
 and again listen to my voice." 9. And Jacob obeyed the 
 words of his mother Rebecca, atid he went and took two 
 good and fat young kids and brought them in to his 
 mother, and his mother made a meal out of them as he 
 liked it. 10. And Rebecca took the clothing of her elder 
 son Esau, the most precious with her in the house, and 
 clothed Jacob with them, and the skins of the kids she 
 placed over his hands and upon the exposed parts of his 
 body ; and she gave the meat and the bread which' she had 
 made into the hands of her son Jacob. 1 1 . And he went in to 
 his father and said : " Behold, I am thy son ; I have done as 
 thou hast said to me : arise and sit up and eat of what 1 have 
 hunted, my father, that thy soul may bless me." 12. And 
 Isaac said to his son, " What is this, that thou hast so sud- 
 denly found it, my son? " 13. And Jacob said to him : " He 
 who has caused me to find it, thy God, is before me." 14. 
 And Isaac said : " Come hither to me, that I may touch 
 thee, ray son, if thou art my son Esau, or if not." 15. And 
 Jacob came near to Isaac his father, and he touched him. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 79 
 
 16. And he said: "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but 
 the hand is the hand of Esau ;" and he did not know him, 
 for it was a fate from heaven to remove his spirit ; and 
 Isaac did not know him, for his hands were Hke his [i. e., 
 Esau's] hands, and hairy Hke the hands of Esau, so that 
 he should bless him. 17. And he said, "Art thou my son 
 Esau?" And he said, "I am thy son." And he said: 
 "Bring hither to me, and I will eat of what thou hast 
 hunted, my son, that my soul may bless thee." 18. And 
 he brought to him the meal, and he ate ; and he brought 
 in wine, and he drank. 19. And Isaac, his father, said to 
 him : "Approach and kiss me, my son ;" and he approached 
 and kissed him. 20. And he smelt the smell of his clothes, 
 and he blessed him, and said : " Behold, the smell of my 
 son is like the smell of the field which the Lord has 
 blessed ; and may the Lord give to thee and increase thee 
 like the dew of the heaven and the dew of earth, and may 
 grain increase and oil be plenty to thee, and may the 
 nations serve thee and the peoples bow down to thee. 21. 
 Be the lord of thy brother, and may the sons of thy mother 
 bow down to thee, and may all the blessings with which 
 the Lord has blessed me and has blessed my father Abra- 
 ham be thine and thy seed's to eternity : he that curseth 
 thee shall be cursed, and he that blesseth thee shall be 
 blessed." 22. And when Isaac ended blessing his son 
 Jacob, then Jacob went out from Isaac his father to hide 
 himself. 23. But Esau, his brother, came in from hunting, 
 and he too prepared a meal and brought it in to his father, 
 and said to his father, " Arise, my father, and eat of my 
 prey, that thy soul may bless me." 24. And Isaac, his 
 father, said to him, "Who art thou?" 25. And he said to 
 him, " I am thy first-born son Esau ; I have done as thou 
 hast commanded me." 26. And Isaac was very much 
 astounded, and said: "Who was he that hunted and 
 caught something for me, and brought it in, and I ate of 
 all before thou camest in, and I blessed him ? 27. Blessed 
 shall he be and his seed to eternity." 28. And when Esau 
 
80 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 heard the words of his father Isaac he cried with a loud 
 and very bitter voice, and said to his father: "Bless me 
 too, father ! " 29. And he said to him, " Thy brother came 
 and took thy blessing." 30. [And Esau said:] "And now 
 I know why his name is called Jacob ; behold he has en- 
 snared me twice ; the first time he took my birth-right, and 
 now he takes my blessing. 31. And he said, " Hast thou 
 not a blessing left for me, my father?" 32. And Isaac 
 answered and said to Esau : " Behold, I have set him as lord 
 over thee and all his brothers, and have given them to be 
 his servants, and with much grain and oil and wine I have 
 strengthened him, and what shall I do to thee, my son?" 
 33. And Esau said to his father Isaac: " Hast thou but one 
 blessing, father? Bless also me, father." 34. And Esau 
 raised his voice and wept. And Isaac answered and said 
 to him : " Behold, from the fatness of the earth shall be 
 thy substance and from the dew of heaven above ; and 
 thou shalt live by thy sword and thou shalt serve thy 
 brother. 35. And it will happen when thou art great and 
 shalt break his yoke off thy neck, thou shalt commit a sin 
 unto death, and all thy seed shall be rooted out from under 
 heaven." 36. And Esau was wroth at Jacob on account 
 of the blessing with which his father had blessed him ; 
 and he said in his heart, " Now the days of grief may 
 come for my father, that I may kill my brother Jacob." 
 
 Chap. XXVII. i. And the words of Esau, her elder 
 son, were told to Rebecca in a dream, and Rebecca, send- 
 ing, called for Jacob, her younger son. 2. And she said 
 to him : " Behold, thy brother Esau is making his plans to 
 kill thee ; and now hear my words : arise and fliee to my 
 brother Laban and dwell with him a number of days, until 
 the anger of thy brother has turned and his anger has 
 departed from thee and he forget every thing that thou 
 hast done him, and I will send to bring thee from there." 
 3. And Jacob said: "I have no fear: if he desires to kill 
 me, I will kill him." 4. And she said to him, "Then 
 should 1 be deprived of both my sons in one day." 5. And 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 8 1 
 
 Jacob said to his mother Rebecca : " Behold, thou know- 
 est that my father is old, and I see that his eyes have be- 
 come dull, and if I leave him it will be evil in his eyes 
 that I leave him and go away from thee, and my father 
 will be angry and will curse me. I will not go ; only if 
 he sends me will I go from here." 6. And Rebecca said 
 to Jacob : " I will go in and will speak to him, and he will 
 send thee." 7. And Rebecca went in and spake to Isaac: 
 " I am aggrieved in my life on account of the two daugh- 
 ters of Heth which Esau has taken to himself as wives from 
 among the daughters of Canaan : why should I yet live ? 
 for the daughters of the land of Canaan are evil." 8. And 
 Isaac called his son Jacob, and blessed him, and admon- 
 ished him, and said to him : " Do not take to thee a wife 
 from among all the daughters of Canaan ; arise and go to 
 Mesopotamia, to the house of the father of thy mother, 
 to the house of Bethuel, and take to thee from there a wife 
 from among the daughters of Laban, the brother of thy 
 mother. And may the God of heaven bless thee and in- 
 crease and enlarge thee, and become thou a collection of na- 
 tions, and may he give the blessings of thy father Abraham 
 to thee and thy seed after thee, that thou mayest inherit 
 the land of thy pilgrimage and all the land which the Lord 
 gave to Abraham: go, my son, in peace!" 9. And Isaac 
 sent away Jacob, and he went to Mesopotamia to Laban, 
 the son of Bethuel, the Syrian, the brother of Rebecca, 
 the mother of Jacob.. 10. And it happened when Jacob 
 had arisen to go to Mesopotamia, the spirit of Rebecca 
 was sad after her son had gone, and she wept. 11. And 
 Isaac said to Rebecca : " My sister, weep not on account 
 of Jacob, my son, for he is going in peace, and in peace 
 he will return. 12. The Most High God will preserve 
 him from all evil and vi^ill be with him, for he will not 
 desert him any day of his life, for I perceive that the Lord 
 will prosper his path wherever he goes, until he returns 
 in peace to us and we see him in peace. 13. Do not fear 
 on his account, my sister, for right is his path and he is a 
 
82 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 perfect and faithful man and will not be destroyed : do not 
 weep!" 14. And Isaac comforted Rebecca on account of 
 Jacob her son, and blessed him. 15. And Jacob went 
 from The Well of the Oath that he might come to Haran in 
 the first year of the second week in the forty-fourth jubi- 
 lee, and came to L8zS. among the mountains, that is. Bethel, 
 in the beginning of the first month of this week, and he 
 came to the place at eve, and he turned off from the way 
 toward the west from the highway in this night, and slept 
 there, for the sun had set. 16. And he took one from 
 among the stones of that place and laid it under a tree, 
 and he was travelling alone, and he slept. 17. And he 
 dreamed in that night a dream, and behold, a ladder was 
 planted upon the earth, and its head reached to the 
 heaven, and behold, the angels of the Lord ascended and 
 descended on it, and behold, the Lord stood upon it. 18. 
 And the Lord spake unto Jacob and said : " I am the Lord 
 God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac: the 
 land upon which thou art sleeping I will give to thee and 
 to thy seed after thee, and thy seed shall be like the sand 
 of the sea, and thou shaft increase to the west and east 
 and south and north ; and all the countries of the nations 
 shall be blessed in thee and in thy seed. 19. And behold, 
 I will be with thee and still watch over thee in all things 
 wherever thou goest, and will bring thee back into this 
 land in peace; for I will not leave thee until I do all that 
 I have said to thee." 20. And Jacob finished his sleep, 
 and said : " Truly this place is the house of the Lord, and 
 I did not know it." 21. And he was afraid, and said: 
 " Dreadful is this place, which is nothing but the house of 
 the Lord, and this is the portal of heaven." 22. And Jacob 
 awoke early in the morning and took the stone from under 
 his head and placed it up as a pillar, as a sign of this place ; 
 and he poured oil upon its head, and called the name of 
 this place Bethel ; but its first name was L6zl, hke the 
 land. 23. And Jacob prayed a prayer to the Lord, saying: 
 " If the Lord will be with me and guard me on this path 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 83 
 
 upon which I walk, and if the Lord give me bread to eat 
 and clothes to clothe myself, and I return in peace to the 
 house of my father, then the Lord shall be my God, and 
 this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, as a sign in this 
 place, shall be a house of the Lord. 24. And all things 
 that thou givest me, of that I will give the tenth to thee, 
 my God." 
 
 Chap. XXVI IL i. And he lifted up his feet and went 
 to the land of the east, to Laban, the brother of his mother 
 Rebecca, and he was with hini and served him for Rachel, 
 his daughter one week. And in the first year of the third 
 week he said to him : " Give me my wife, for whom I have 
 served thee seven years. 2. And Laban said to Jacob, " I 
 will give thee thy wife." And Laban made a feast, and 
 took Leah, his older daughter, and gave her to Jacob as a 
 wife, and gave her Zalapha as a maid to serve her ; and 
 Jacob did not know it, for he thought she was Rachel. 3. 
 And he went in to her, and behold, it was Leah ; and 
 Jacob was angry at Laban and said to him: "Why hast 
 thou done thus ? 4. Have I not served thee for Rachel 
 and not for Leah? Why hast thou injured me ? Take thy 
 daughter and I will go; for thou hast done evil to me." 
 5. For Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, for the eyes 
 of Leah were dull, but her form was very beautiful ; but 
 Rachel had beautiful eyes and a beautiful and very at- 
 tractive form. 6. And Laban said to Jacob : " It is not Jhe 
 custom in our land to give the younger before the elder." 
 7. And it is not right to do this, for thus is it ordained 
 and written on the tablets of heaven, that no one shall 
 give his younger daughter before the older, but shall 
 give the younger after her. 8. And the man that does 
 this loads sin upon himself on this account in heaven, 
 and no one who does this is just, for it is an evil deed 
 before the Lord. 9. And thou command the children of 
 Israel that they do not this thing, and neither take nor 
 give the younger before the older has been established, 
 for it is very wicked. 10. And Laban said to Jacob: 
 
84 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 " Let the seven days of this feast pass by, and I will give 
 thee Rachel that thou mayest serve me another seven years, 
 that thou mayest herd my sheep, as thou hast done in the 
 first week." 1 1 . And on the day when the seven days of the 
 feast of Leah were passed, Laban gave Rachel to Jacob, 
 that he might serve him a second seven years, and he gave 
 Rachel Balla, the sister of Zalapha, as a maid to serve her. 
 12. And he served seven years again for Rachel, for Leah 
 had been given to him. 13. And the Lord opened the 
 womb of Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob 
 a son, and he called his name Reuben, on the fourteenth 
 of the ninth month of the first year of the third week. 
 14. But the womb of Rachel was closed, for the Lord saw 
 that Leah was hated but Rachel was beloved. 15. And 
 again Jacob went in to Leah, and she conceived and bore 
 Jacob a second son, and he called his name Simeon, on the 
 twenty-first of the tenth month and the third year of this 
 week. 16. And again Jacob went in to Leah, and she be- 
 came pregnant and bore him a third son, and he called his 
 name Levi, in the beginning of the third month, in the 
 sixth year of this week. 17. And again Jacob went in to 
 Leah, and she became pregnant and bore him a fourth 
 son, and he called his name Judah, on the fifteenth of the 
 third month in the first year of the fourth week. 18. And 
 in all this Rachel was jealous of Leah, for she did not 
 bear; and she said to Jacob, " Give me a son ! " 19. And 
 Jacob said to her, "Am I preventing fruit of the womb 
 from thee: have I left thee?" 20. And when Rachel saw 
 that Leah had borne Jacob four sons, Reuben, Simeon, 
 Levi, and Judah, then she said to him, " Go in to Balla, my 
 maid, and she will conceive and bear a son for me." 21. 
 And he went in to her, and she became pregnant and bore 
 him a son, and she called his name Dan, on the ninth of 
 the sixth month, in the sixth year of the third week. 22. 
 And again a second time he went in to Balla, and she be- 
 came pregnant and bore Jacob another son, and Rachel 
 called his name Naphtalim, in the fifth of the seventh 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 85 
 
 month of the second year of the fourth week. 23. And 
 when Leah saw that she had become sterile and did not 
 bear, she became jealous of Rachel, and she gave Zalapha, 
 her maid, to Jacob as a wife, and she became pregnant 
 and bore him a son, and she called his name Gad, on the 
 twelfth of the eighth month in the third year of the fourth 
 week. 24. And again he went in to her, and she became 
 pregnant and bore him another son, and Leah called his 
 name Asher, on the second of the eleventh month in the 
 fifth year of the fourth week. 25. And Jacob went in to 
 Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a son, and 
 she called his name Issachar, on the fourth of the fifth 
 month in the fourth year of the fourth week, and she gave 
 him to a nurse. 26. And Jacob again went in to her, and 
 she became pregnant and she bore him two [children], a 
 son and a daughter, and she called his name Zebulon and 
 the name of the daughter Dinah, on the seventh of the 
 seventh month in the sixth year of the fourth week. 27. 
 And the Lord was gracious to Rachel and opened her 
 womb, and she became pregnant and bore a son, and she 
 called his name Joseph, in the beginning of the fourth 
 month of the sixth year of this fourth week. 28. And in 
 the days when Joseph was born Jacob said to Laban: 
 " Give me my wives and my children, and I will go to my 
 father Isaac, and I will make for myself a house, for I 
 have completed the years which I have served thee for 
 thy two daughters, and I will go to the house of my 
 father." 29. And Laban said to Jacob: "Remain with 
 me for wages, and herd my folds again and receive thy 
 wages." 30. And they agreed with each other, that he 
 would give him as wages all the young sheep and 
 
 goats should be his wages. And the possessions of 
 
 Jacob increased very much, and he possessed oxen and 
 sheep and asses and camels and sons and daughters. 31. 
 And Laban and his sons were jealous of Jacob, and Laban 
 gathered his sheep away from him, and thought out evil. 
 Chap. XXIX. i. And it happened when Rachel had 
 
85 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 given birth to Joseph that Laban went out to shear his 
 sheep, for they were distant from him a journey of three 
 days. 2. And Jacob saw that Laban had gone to shear 
 his sh'eep, and he called Leah and Rachel, and spake unto 
 their hearts, that they should go with him to the land of 
 Canaan, for he told them all that he had seen in the dream, 
 and all that he [God] had spoken to him, that he should 
 return to the house of his father ; and they said to him : 
 " We will go everywhere thou goest, with thee we will 
 go." 3. And Jacob blessed the God of his father Isaac, 
 and the God of Abraham, the father of his father, and he 
 arose and prepared his wives and children, and took all 
 his possessions and crossed the river and came to the land 
 of Gilead, and Jacob hid his heart from Laban and did not 
 tell him. 4. And in the seventh year of the fourth week 
 Jacob returned to Gilead in the first month, on the twenty- 
 first ; and Laban followed after him, and found Jacob in 
 the mountains of Gilead, in the third month, on the twelfth 
 thereof. 5. And the Lord did not permit him to injure 
 Jacob, for he appeared to him in a dream by night; and 
 Laban spake to Jacob. 6. And on the fifteenth thereof, 
 on that day, Jacob made a feast to Laban and all who had 
 come with him, and Jacob swore to Laban on this day 
 and Laban to Jacob, that they would not cross for evil to 
 one another the mountains of Gilead. 7. And he made 
 there a large stone heap as a testimony ; on this account 
 the name of this place is called " The Stone Heap of Testi- 
 mony;" such is the heap. 8. But before they had called 
 the land of Gilead the land of Raphaim, for it was the 
 land of the Raphaim, and the Raphaim, or giants, were 
 born there, whose length is ten, nine, eight, and seven ells, 
 and their dwellings were from the land of the sons of 
 Ammon to Mount Hermon, and the seats of their king- 
 dom were K6r6na6m and Adril and Misur and B66n. 
 9. And the Lord slew them on account of the wickedness 
 of their deeds, for they were most terrible, and the Am- 
 morites inhabit it in their place, evil and sinful, and there 
 
THE BOOK OE JUBILEES. 8/ 
 
 is no nation to-day that has completed all their sin, and 
 therefore they have no length of life upon the earth. lo. 
 And Jacob sent Laban away, and he came into the land of 
 Mesopotamia, the land of the east, but Jacob returned to 
 the land of Gilead and crossed over the Jabbok in the 
 ninth month on the eleventh thereof, ii. And on that 
 day Esau, his brother, came to him, and they settled their 
 troubles ; and they went from here into the land of Seir, 
 but Jacob dwelt in tents. 12. And in the first year of the 
 fifth week of this jubilee he crossed the Jordan and lived 
 opposite the Jordan, that he might pasture his sheep from 
 the land of Stone Heap to Bet§.-Z6n and to D6t§,8m and to 
 Akrabll. 13. And he sent to his father Isaac of all his 
 possessions clothing and food and meat and drink and 
 milk and oil and bread of milk and of the palms of the 
 valley; and to his mother Rebecca he also sent four times 
 a year, between the times of the months, between the 
 plowing and the harvest, between the spring and the rain, 
 and between winter and summer, to the tower of Abra- 
 ham, for Isaac had returned from The Well of the Oath and 
 had gone up to the tower of his father Abraham, and he 
 dwelt there apart from his son Esau. 14. For in the days 
 when Jacob went to Mesopotamia, Esau took to himself 
 as wife Milit, the daughter of Ishmael, and collected all 
 the herds of his father and his wives and went up and 
 dwelt in the mountains of Seir, and left Isaac, his father, 
 at The Well of the Oath alone ; and Isaac went up from The 
 Well of the Oath, and dwelt in the tower of Abraham, his 
 father, on the mountains of Hebron. 15. And from here 
 Jacob sent all things which he sent to his father Isaac and 
 
 to his mother from time to time all their sorrows ; 
 
 and they blessed Jacob with all their heart atid all their 
 souls. 
 
 Chap. XXX. i. And in the first year of the sixth 
 week he went up to Salem, which is opposite the east of 
 Shechem, in peace, in the fourth month ; and there they 
 brought by force Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, into the 
 
88 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 house of Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite prince of 
 the land, and he slept .with her and defiled her, and she 
 was a small girl twelve years of age. 2. And he begged 
 her father and her brothers for her, that she should be 
 given to him as wife ; and Jacob and his sons were angry 
 on account of the men of Shechem, because they had defiled 
 their sister Dinah ; and they spoke with them for evil, and 
 intrigued against and deceived them. 3. And Simeon and 
 Levi secretly came to Shechem and inflicted punishment 
 upon all the men of Shechem, and slew all the men they 
 found in it, and did not leave a single one in it. 4. They 
 killed all in torments, because they had dishonored their 
 sister Dinah. 5. And thus ye shall not do from now on 
 and to eternity to defile a daughter of Israel, for in heaven 
 it was ordained over them as a punishment that they 
 should root out all the men of Shechem, because they 
 committed a shame on a daughter of Israel, and the Lord 
 turned them over into the hands of the sons of Jacob, that 
 they should root them out with the sword, and that they 
 should inflict punishment upon them ; and never again 
 shall it be thus in Israel, that a daughter of Isfael be de- 
 filed. 6. And if there is any man in Israel who desires to 
 give his daughter or his sister to any man who is of the 
 seed of the Gentiles, he shall surely die, and they shall 
 slay him with stones, for he has committed a sin and a 
 shame in Israel ; and his wife they shall burn with fire, 
 for she has defiled the name of the house of her father, 
 and she shall be rooted out of Israel. 7. And no fornica- 
 tion or defilement shall be found in Israel all the genera- 
 tions of the earth; for Israel is holy to the Lord, and 
 every man that defiles must surely die, and they shall slay 
 him with stones. 8. For thus is it ordained and written 
 on the tablets of heaven concerning all the seed of Israel, 
 that he who defiles must surely die, and they shall slay 
 him with stones. 9. And to this law there is no limit of 
 days and no ceasing and no forgiveness, but he shall be 
 rooted out who defiles his daughter, among all Israel, be- 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 89 
 
 cause he has given of his seed to Moloch and has sinned by 
 defiling. lo. And thou, Moses, command the children of 
 Israel and testify over them that they shall not give any of 
 their daughters to the Gentiles and that' they shall not take 
 any of the daughters of the Gentiles ; for this is accursed 
 before the Lord. ii. And on this account I have written 
 for thee in the words of the law all the deeds of Shechem 
 which they did against Dinah, and how the children of Jacob 
 conversed saying: "We will not give our daughter to an 
 uncircumcised man, for this is disgraceful to us." 12. And it 
 is disgraceful to Israel to those that give and to those that 
 receive from the Gentiles any daughters, for it is unclean and 
 accursed to Israel ; and Israel will not be clean of this u'n- 
 cleanness of him who has of the daughters of the Gentiles 
 for a wife, or who has given of his daughters to a man who 
 is of any of the seed of the Gentiles ; for there will be 
 plagues upon plagues, curse upon curse, and all punishment 
 and plauges and curses will come. 13. And if they do this 
 thing, and if they blind their eyes to those that commit un- 
 cleanness agd to those that defile the sanctuary of the Lord 
 and those that profane his holy name, then shall the whole 
 people together be punished, on account of all this unclean- 
 ness and this profaneness, and there will be no respe;ct for 
 persons, and no consideration for persons, and no taking of 
 fruits from his hands and fruit offering and burnt offering and 
 fat and incense offering as a sweet savour, that it may be 
 acceptable. 14. And every man and woman in Israel who 
 defiles the sanctuary shall be thus. 15. And on account of 
 this I have commanded thee, saying : "Testify this testimony 
 over Israel : see how it happened to the Shechemites and 
 their sons, how they were given into the hands of the two 
 sons of Jacob and they slew them in torments, and it was 
 justice to them, and it is written down for justice concerning 
 them." 
 
 Chap. XXXI. i. And in the new moon of the month, 
 Jacob spoke to all the men of his house, saying: "Purify 
 yourselves and change your clothes, and arising let us go up 
 
 "7 
 
90 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 to Bethel, where I made a vow when I was fleeing from the 
 face of Esau, my brother ; because he [God] has been with 
 me, and has brought me into this land in peace. 2. And 
 remove the false gods that are in your midst. 3. And tear 
 away the false gods which are in your ears and on your 
 necks, and the idols which Rachel took from her father La- 
 ban, and which she gave all to Jacob. " 4. And he burned and 
 broke and destroyed and hid them under an oak, which was 
 in the land of Shechem. 5. And he ascended at the new 
 moon of the seventh month to Bethel. 6. And he built 
 an altar at the place where he had slept, and he erected there 
 a monument, and he sent for his father Isaac to come to him 
 to the sacrifice, and to his mother Rebecca. 7. And Isaac 
 said: "Let my son Jacob come and let me see him before 
 I die." 8. And Jacob went to Isaac his father, and to his 
 mother Rebecca, to the house of his father Abraham, and 
 he took two of his sons with him, Levi and Judah, and came 
 to his father Isaac and his mother Rebecca. 9. And Re- 
 becca came out of the tower to the front of the tower, that 
 she might kiss Jacob and to embrace him, for her spirit was 
 alive when she heard, "Behold thy son Jacob has come!" and 
 she kissed him. 10. And she saw the two sons and she 
 knew them, and said to him : 1 1. "Are these thy sons, my 
 son?" and she embraced them and kissed them and blessed 
 them, saying: "In you may the seed of Abraham be 
 honored, and may ye be a blessing over the earth!" 12. 
 And Jacob went in to his father Isaac to his chamber where 
 he slept, and his two sons with him, and he took the hand 
 of his father, and bending down kissed him, and Isaac clung 
 to the neck of Jacob his son, and wept on his neck. 13. 
 And the darkness left the eyes of Isaac, and he saw the two 
 sons of Jacob, Levi and Judah, and he said, "Are these thy 
 sons, my son? for they are like thee." 14. And he said that 
 in truth they were his sons, and "in truth thou seest that 
 they are my sons." 15. And they approached him, and 
 they turned, and he kissed them and embraced them all 
 together, 16, And the spirit of prophecy fell into his mouth, 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. ^I 
 
 and he took Levi by the right hand, and Judah by the left 
 hand. 17. A»d he turned to Levi and began to bless him 
 first, saying, "May the Lord God of all, the Lord of all 
 the worlds, bless thee and thy children in all the worlds. 18. 
 And may the Lord give thee and thy seed greatness and 
 great honor, and cause thee and thy seed to approach to him 
 from among all flesh, that they shall serve him in his sanctuary 
 like the angels of the face, and like the holy ones. that shall 
 be the seed of thy sons for honor and greatness and holiness: 
 and may he make them great in all the worlds. 19. And they 
 shall be princes and lords and leaders for all the seed of the 
 sons of Jacob : they shall speak the words of the Lord in 
 truth, and shall judge all his judgments in truth, and speak 
 my ways to Jacob, and they shall appear to Israel: may the 
 blessing of the Lord be given into their mouths, that they 
 may bless all the seed of the beloved. 20. And thy mother 
 has called thy name Levi, and in truth has she thus called 
 thee : thou shalt be very near to the Lord, and shalt have 
 a part with all the sons of Jacob : his table shall be thine, 
 and thou and thy sons shall eat thereof, and to all the 
 generations may thy table be full, and may thy food not 
 decrease to all eternity. 21. And all those that hate thee 
 shall fall before thee, and all thy enemies shall be rooted 
 out and be destroyed, but they that bless thee shall be 
 blessed, and all the nations that curse thee shall be cursed." 
 22. And to Judah he spoke: "May the Lord give thee 
 strength and power that thou mayest tread down all that 
 hate thee : be thou a prince, thou and one of thy sons over 
 the sons of Jacob. 23. May thy name and the name of thy 
 sons be one that goes and encompasses the whole earth 
 and the cities; then shall the Gentiles fear thy face, and 
 all the nations shall tremble and all the people shake. 
 24. In thee let there be help to Jacob, and in thee may 
 deliverance be found for Israel. 25. And if thou sittest 
 on the throne of the honor of thy righteousness, there shall be 
 great peace to all the seed of the sons of the beloved. 26. 
 He that blesseth thee shall be blessed, and all that hate 
 
92 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 and trouble thee, and those that curse thee, shall be rooted 
 out and be destroyed from the earth, and shall be accursed." 
 27. And turning around he kissed him again and embraced 
 him and rejoiced greatly ; for he had seen sons of Jacob, who 
 was his son in truth. 28. And he came from between his 
 feet, and fell down and prostrated himself, and he blessed 
 them, and he remained with Isaac, his father, on that night, 
 and they ate and drank with joy. .29. And he- caused the 
 two sons of Jacob to sleep, the one at his right, the other 
 at his left, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 
 30. And Jacob told his father everything during the night, 
 how the Lord had been merciful to him, and how he had 
 prospered him in all his ways and had protected him from 
 all evil. 31. And Isaac blessed the God of his father Ab- 
 raham, who had not ceased his mercy and righteousness 
 from the sons of his servant Isaac. 32. And in the morning 
 Jacob told his father Isaac of the vow he had made to the 
 Lord, and of the vision he had seen, and how he had built 
 an altar, and that everything was ready for the sacrifice be- 
 fore the Lord, as he had vowed, and that he had come to 
 place him upon an ass. 33. And Isaac said to his son 
 Jacob: "I am not able to go with thee, for I am old and 
 not able to endure the way: go, my son, in peace, for I am 
 one hundred and sixty-five years old to-day; I am not able 
 to travel. 34. Take thy mother and let her go with thee. 
 35. And I know, my son, that thou hast come on my ac- 
 count ; and may this day be blessed upon which thou hast 
 seen me alive and I have seen thee, my son. 36. Prosper, 
 and fulfil the vow which thou hast vowed, and do not delay 
 thy vow, for thou must seek the vow. 37. And now hasten 
 to fulfil thy vow; and may he be pleased who has made-all 
 things, to whom thou hast made thy vow." 38. And he 
 said to Rebecca : "Go with Jacob, thy son." 39. And Re- 
 becca went with Jacob, and Deborah with her, and they came 
 to Bethel. 40. And Jacob remembered the prayer with 
 which his father had blessed him and his two sons, Levi and 
 Judah, and he rejoiced and blessed the God of his fathers, 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 93 
 
 Abraham and Isaac. 41. And he said: "Now I know 
 that I have an eternal hope, and my sons also before the God 
 of all ; and thus it is ordained concerning the two, and they 
 have placed it as a testimony for them to eternity, upon the 
 tablets of heaven as Isaac blessed them. 
 
 Chap. XXXII. i. And he remained in that night in 
 Bethel, and Levi dreamed that they had appointed and made 
 him priest, and his sons to eternity, priests of the Most High 
 God ; and he awoke from his sleep and blessed the Lord. 
 2. And Jacob started early in the morning, on the fourteenth 
 of this month, and the tenth of all that came with him of men 
 and beasts, and gold, and all possessions and clothing. 3. 
 And in those days Rachel became pregnant with her son Ben- 
 jamin, and Jacob counted his sons from him on and upwards ; 
 and the portion of the Lord fell upon Levi, and his father 
 clothed him with the garments of the priesthood, and filled 
 his hands. 4. And on the fifteenth of this month he brought 
 to the altar fifteen oxen from among the cattle, twenty-eight 
 rams, and forty-nine sheep, and sixty lambs, and twenty-nine 
 young goats, as a burnt sacrifice on the altar, and as an ac- 
 ceptable gift for a sweet savor to the Lord God. 5. This 
 was the fulfilment of the vow he had made to give the tenth ; 
 together with their fruit and their drink offerings. 6. And 
 when the fire had consumed them, he scattered frankincense 
 over them on the fire; and for thank offering two oxen, and four 
 rams, and four sheep, and a sheep of two years, and two young 
 goats ; thus he did distributing over seven days. 7. And he 
 remained there eating, and all his sons and his men in joy 
 seven days, and he' blessed and thanked the Lord, who had 
 delivered him from all his trouble, and to whom he had fulfilled 
 his vow. 8. And he took the tenth of all the clean animals 
 and made a burnt offering ; and the unclean animals he gave 
 to his son, and the men he gave him, and Levi exercised his 
 priestly office in Bethel before Jacob, his father, in preference 
 to his ten brothers, and he was there a priest, and Jacob ful- 
 filled to him his vows : and thus he gave the tenth again to 
 the Lord, and sanctified it, and it was holy for him. 9. And 
 
94 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 on this account it is ordained on the tablets of heaven as a law 
 concerning the giving of a second tenth — to eat before the 
 Lord at. the place upon which he has chosen his name to 
 dwell year after year, and to this law there is no limit of day 
 to eternity. lO. And this ordinance is written to do it year 
 after year for eating a second tenth before the Lord in the 
 place which he has chosen, and nothing shall be left over from 
 it to the following year. ii. For in its year shall the seed be 
 eaten until the seed of the year and the wine change their 
 days to the days of wine and oil, and to the days of oil in its 
 season. 12. And all that is left thereof and which becomes 
 old, let it be considered contaminated ; burn it with fire, for 
 it is unclean. 13. And thus they shall eat together in the 
 sanctuary, and shall not let it become old. 14. And all the 
 tenth of oxen and sheep shall be holy to the Lord, and shall 
 belong to his priests, who will eat it before him from year to 
 year ; for thus is it ordained and engraven concerning the 
 tenth on the tablets of heaven. 15. And in the following 
 night, on the twenty-second day of this month, Jacob planned 
 that he would build this place and erect a wall around it, and 
 that he would sanctify it and make it holy to eternity, for 
 himself and his children after him. 16. And the Lord ap- 
 peared to him in the night, and blessed him, and said to him : 
 " Thou shalt not call thy name Jacob only, but Israel also 
 shall thy name be called. " 17. And he said to him again: 
 " I am the Lord thy God, who has created heaven and earth ; 
 and I will increase and multiply thee exceedingly, and kings 
 shall come from thee, and they shall rule over all, wherever 
 the foot of the sons of man has trod. 18. And I will give to 
 thy seed all the land under heaven, and they shall rule over 
 all the nations as they desire, and after that they will gather 
 to themselves the whole earth, and shall inherit the world." 
 19. And he completed conversing with him, and ascended 
 from there, and Jacob looked until he ascended to heaven. 20. 
 And he saw in a vision of the night, and behold an angel de- 
 scended from heaven with seven tablets in his hands, and he 
 gave them to Jacob, and he read all that was written on them. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 95 
 
 what would happen to himself and his sons in all the years. 
 21. And he showed him all things that were written on the 
 tablets, and said to him: "Do not build up this place, and 
 do not make it an eternal sanctuary, and do not dwell here, 
 for this is not the place. 22. Go to the house of Abraham, 
 thy father, and dwell there with Isaac, thy father, until the 
 day of the death of thy father. 23. For in Egypt thou shalt 
 die in peace, and in this land thou shalt be buried in honor, 
 in the grave of thy fathers, with Abraham and Isaac. 24. 
 Fear not; for as thou hast seen and read it, thus shall it all be. 
 
 25. But write thou down all as thou hast seen and read." 
 
 26. And Jacob said: "How can I remember all as I have 
 seen and read it?" 27. And he said to him : "I will recall 
 it all for thee. " 28. And he went up from there : and he 
 awoke from his sleep and remembered all that he had seen 
 and read, and he wrote down all the words that he had read 
 and that he had seen. 29. And he stayed there yet another 
 day, and sacrificed there according to all that had been or- 
 dained on former days, and called its name " addition," for 
 this day was added ; and the first day he called " the festival." 
 30. And thus it appeared that it would be, and it is written 
 on the tablets of heaven ; and on this account it was revealed 
 to him, that he should celebrate it, and that he should add it 
 to the seven days of the festival, and its name was called 
 "addition," because it comes to the seven days; and thus is 
 the festival by number of days of the year. 31. And in the 
 night of the twenty-third "of this month, Deborah, the nurse 
 of Rebecca, died, and he buried her below the city under the 
 oak of the river, and called the name of this river ' ' the river 
 of Deborah," and of the oak, " lamentation oak of Deborah. " 
 
 32. And Rebecca went and returned to her house, to Isaac, 
 his father; and Jacob sent by her rams and calves and sheep, 
 that she should prepare for his father a meal, as he loved it. 
 
 33. And he too went after his mother until he came to the 
 land of Kebratan, and he dwelt there. 34. And Rachel in 
 that night gave birth to a son, and called his name "Son of 
 my sorrow," for she suffered in giving birth; but his father 
 
g6 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 called him Benjamin, on the eleventh of the eighth month, in 
 the first year of the sixth week of this jubilee. 35. And Ra- 
 chel died there, and was buried in the land of Ephrathah, that 
 is, Bethlehem ; and Jacob erected upon the grave of Rachel a 
 column, on the road above her grave. 
 
 Chap. XXXIII. i. And Jacob went and dwelt toward the 
 north at Magdelraep. 2. And he went to his father Isaac, 
 he and Leah, his wife, on the new moon of the tenth month. 
 3. And Reuben saw Balla, the maid of Rachel, the concubine 
 of his father, while she was bathing in water at a hidden place, 
 and he loved her. 4. And he hid himself at night, and he 
 entered the house of Balla at night, and found her lying alone 
 on her bed, and sleeping, and he lay down with her. 5. And 
 she awoke, and saw, and behold, Reuben was lying with her 
 on the bed ; and slie uncovered the edge and seized him and 
 cried out, and discovered that it was Reuben, and she was 
 ashamed on his account, and let go her hand from him, and 
 he fled. 6. And she lamented on account of this thing ex- 
 ceedingly, and did not mention it to anybody. 7. And when 
 Jacob returned and sought her, she said to him: "I am not 
 clean for thee, for I have been defiled for thee, for Reuben 
 has defiled me and lay with me in the night, and I was asleep 
 and did not discover it until he uncovered the edge, and he 
 lay with me. " 8. And Jacob was very angry at Reuben that 
 he had lain with Balla, for he had uncovered the covering of his 
 father; and Jacob did not approach her any more, because 
 Reuben had defiled her, for his deed was very wicked, for it 
 is accursed before the Lord. 9. On this account it is written 
 and ordained on the tablets of heaven, that a man shall not 
 sleep with the wife of his father, and that he shall not uncover 
 the covering of his father, for this is unclean ; they must 
 surely die together, the man that lies with the wife of his 
 father, and the woman, for they do an unclean thing in the 
 land. 10. And there shall be nothing unclean before our 
 God in the nation he has chosen for himself as a kingdom. 
 II. And again it is written : "Cursed be the one that lieth 
 with the wife of his father, for he hath uncovered the shame of 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 97 
 
 his father, and all the holy ones of the Lord shall say : ' Thus 
 be it! Thus be it!'" I2. And thou, Moses, command the 
 children of Israel that they observe this word, for the punish- 
 ment is death, and it is unclean, and there is no forgiveness to 
 atone for a man that does this wicked deed, except slaying 
 and stoning him to death, or rooting him out from amongst 
 the people of our God. 13. For there shall not remain alive 
 on earth a single day any man that does this in Israel, for it is 
 accursed and unclean. 14. And let them not say that Reu- 
 ben lived and was forgiven that he had slept with the concu- 
 bine of his father, and she too, although her husband, Jacob, 
 his father, was yet alive. 15. For he had not yet fevealed 
 the ordinance and the punishment and the law in its entire 
 completeness ; for in thy days it is as a law since his days and 
 as a law to eternity, to the generation of eternity ; and there is 
 not any passing of days to this law, nor any forgiveness to him, 
 except that they both be rooted out together from the midst 
 of the people : on the day on which they do it they shall slay 
 them. 16. And thou, Moses, write it down for Israel that 
 they observe it according to these words, and let them not 
 commit a mortal sin, for the Lord our God is a judge who has 
 no regard for persons and receives no presents. 17. And tell 
 them these words of the ordinance, that they obey and pre- 
 serve them, and watch themselves, and be not destroyed and 
 rooted out of the land ; for unclean and an abomination and 
 contamination and profanation are all they that do this on the 
 earth before our God. 18. And there is no sin on earth 
 greater than fornication, which they commit on the earth, for 
 Israel is a nation holy unto God, and a nation of inheritance 
 for its God, and a nation of priesthood and royalty and a pos- 
 session, and no one shall appear thus unclean in the midst of 
 the holy people. 19. And in the third year of this sixth week 
 Jacob and all his sons went and dwelt in the house of Abra- 
 ham, near Isaac, his father, and Rebecca, his mother. 20. 
 And these are the names of the sons of Jacob : the first bore 
 Reuben, Sinieon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, the sons 
 of Leah ; and the sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin ; and 
 
98 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 the sons of Balk, Dan and Naphtali ; and the sons of Zalapha, 
 Gad and Asur ; and Dinah, the daughter of Leah, the only 
 daughter of Jacob. 21. And going, they bowed down before 
 Isaac and Rebecca ; and when they saw them, they blessed 
 Jacob ai^d all his sons. 22. And Isaac rejoiced exceedingly 
 that he saw the sons of Jacob, his youngest son, and he 
 blessed them. 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. i. And in the sixth year of this week of 
 the forty-fourth jubilee, Jacob sent his sons to pasture his 
 sheep, and his servants with them to the pasture of Shechem. 
 2. And the sevea kings of the Amorites assembled themselves 
 against them to slay them, hiding themselves under the trees, 
 and to take away their cattle and their wives. 3. And Jacob 
 and Levi and Judah and Joseph were at the house where 
 Isaac their father was, for his spirit was sad, and they could 
 not leave him ; and Benjamin was the youngest, and on this 
 account remained with his father. 4. And the kings of Tapho 
 and of Azesa and Saragon and Selo and Gaez, and the king 
 of Betoron and of Manisaker came, and all those that dwell in 
 those mountains, who dwell in the woods of the land of Ca- 
 naan. 5. And they announced this to Jacob, saying: "Be- 
 hold the kings of the Amorites have surrounded thy sons in 
 order to rob their herds." 6. And he arose from his house, 
 he and his three sons and the young men of his father, and 
 went forth and went against them, eight hundred men who 
 carried swords. 7. And they slew them on the fields of She- 
 chem, and pursued those that fled and slew them with the 
 edge of the sword, and slew them at Aresa and Thapha and 
 Seragen and Selo and Amanisakero and Gagaas. 8. And 
 he collected his herds; and he was more powerful than those 
 and ordained a tax over them, that they should give him trib- 
 ute, fine fruits of iheir land, and he built Reuben and Tam- 
 natares. 9. And he returned in peace, and made peace with 
 them, and they were his servants until the day he and his 
 sons descended down to the land of Egypt. 10. And in the 
 seventh year of this week he sent Joseph to learn about the 
 safety of his brothers, from his house to Shechem, and he 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. gg 
 
 found them in the land of Dothan. ii. And they waylaid 
 him and made a plot against him to slay him ; and changing, 
 they sol<J him to Ishmaelite merchants, and they brought him 
 to Egypt, and sold him to Potiphar, the eunuch of Pharaoh, 
 the head cook, the one that sacrificed in the city of Elew. 
 12. And the sons of Jacob killed a young goat, and dipped 
 the clothes of Joseph in its blood, and sent it to their father 
 Jacob. 13. And it was on the tenth of the seventh month, 
 and they stayed all this day until the evening, and they 
 brought it to him ; and he became fevered in his grief unto 
 death, and said: " A wild beast has devoured Joseph ; " and 
 on that day all the men of his house were with him, and 
 mourned and lamented with him all the day. 14. Aiid his 
 sons and his daughter arose to comfort him, but he could not 
 be comforted on account of his son. 15. And on that day 
 Balla heard that Joseph had been killed, and she died in her 
 grief, and she was living at Kertaretef; and Dinah, his 
 daughter, died also after Joseph had been slain. 16. This 
 threefold sorrow came over Israel in one month. 17. And 
 he buried Balla opposite the grave of Rachel, and Dinah, his 
 daughter, he also buried there. 18. And he continued 
 mourning for Joseph one year, and did not cease, saying : "I 
 will descend into the grave grieving for my son." 19. And 
 on this account it is ordained for the children of Israel, that 
 they shall mourn on the tenth of the seventh month, on the 
 day when they brought the sad news concerning Joseph to 
 his father Jacob, that on it pardon should be sought by the 
 death of a young goat, on the tenth of the seventh month, 
 once a year, for their sins ; for they had grieved the heart of 
 their father on account of his son Joseph. 20. And this day 
 has been ordained that they shall lament on it over their sins, 
 and on account of all their transgressions, and on account of 
 their error, that they shall cleanse themselves on this day 
 once a year. 21. And after the death of Joseph the sons of 
 Jacob took wives to themselves : first, the name of the wife 
 of Reuben is Ada ; secondly, the name of the wife of Simeon 
 is Adiba, a Canaanite woman ; third, the name of the wife of 
 
100 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 Levi is Melka, from among the daughters of Aram, from the 
 seed of the sons of Taram ; fourth, the name of the wife of 
 Judah is Betasuel, a Canaanite woman ; fifth, the name of the 
 wife of Issachar is Jesakor Hezka ; sixth, the name of the wife 
 of Zebulun is Niiman ; seventh, the name of the wife of Dan, 
 Egla; eighth, the name of the wife of Naphtah is Rasiia, of 
 Mesopotamia ; ninth, the name of the wife of Gad is Mak ; 
 and tenth, name of the wife of Asur is Ijon ; eleventh, the 
 name of the wife of Joseph is Asneth, an Egyptian woman ; 
 twelfth, the name of the wife of Benjamin is Ijoska. 22. And 
 Simeon repented and took a second wife from Mesopotamia, 
 like his brothers. 
 
 Chap. XXXV. i. And in the first year of the first week 
 of the forty-fifth jubilee, Rebecca called her son Jacob and 
 gave him command concerning his father and concerning his 
 brother, that he should honor them all the days of the life of 
 Jacob. 2. And Jacob said : " I will do all thou commandest 
 me, for this thing will be honor and greatness to me and 
 righteousness before the Lord, that I should honor them. 3. 
 And thou, my mother, knowest me from the time I was born 
 until this day, all my deeds and everything that is in my 
 heart, that always I think good concerning all. 4. And how 
 should I not do this which thou hast commanded me, that I 
 should honor my father and my brother? 5. Tell me, my 
 mother, what perversity thou seest in me ? 6. And I am far 
 removed from him, and gentleness is in me." 7. And she said 
 to him : " My son, all my days I have not seen in thee any 
 perversity, and no depraved actions, but righteousness. 8. 
 But in truth I tell thee, my son, I will die in this year, and 
 will not get beyond this year in my life, for I saw in a dream 
 the day of my death, that I should not live beyond one hun- 
 dred and fifty-five years. 9. And behold, I have completed 
 all the days of my life which I was to live." 10. And Jacob 
 laughed at the words of his mother, because she said that she 
 would die, and she was sitting opposite him with her strength 
 upon her, without any decrease of strength, for she went in 
 and out, and saw,, and her teeth were strong, and no ailment 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. lOI 
 
 had touched her all the days of her life. 1 1. And Jacob said 
 to her : " Happy am I, my mother, if my days approach the 
 days of thy life, and my strength abide in me as thy strength ; 
 and thou wilt not die, for in vain dost thou speak with me 
 concerning thy death." 12. And she went in to Isaac, and 
 said to him : "One petition I ask of thee: let Esau swear 
 that he will not harm Jacob, and will not pei'secute him in 
 enmity, for thou knowest the thoughts of Esau, that he was 
 terrible from his youth on, and there is not gentleness in him ; 
 for he desires after thy death to kill him. 1 3. And thou know- 
 est how he has done all the days from the day when Jacob, 
 his brother, went to Haran to this day, that he has left us with 
 his whole heart, and does evil with us. 14. He has collected 
 thy flocks, and all thy possessions he robs from before thy 
 face, and when we entreated and asked for what was ours, he 
 did as a man that practises usury onus. 15. And he is bitter 
 at thee because thou didst bless that perfect and righteous son 
 Jacob ; for in him there is no evil, but goodness. 16. And 
 since he came from Haran to this day, he has not deprived us 
 of the least ; but he brings us everything in its time and al- 
 ways, and he rejoices in his whole heart when we take any- 
 thing from his hands, and he blesses us and does not separate 
 from us since he came from Haran to the present day, and he 
 lives with us ever in our house, honoring us." 17. And Isaac 
 said to her: " I know and I see the deeds of Jacob with us, 
 that with all his heart he honors us ; but I loved Esau formerly 
 more than Jacob, on account of his birth ; but now I love 
 Jacob more than Esau, because he has inci eased in evil do- 
 ings, and there is no righteousness in him, for all his ways are 
 injustice and violence, and there is no righteousness in 
 him at all. 18. And now my heart trembles concerning 
 all his deeds, and neither he nor his seed shall abide, for 
 they shall be destroyed from the earth, and they shall 
 be rooted out from under heaven ; for he has deserted the 
 God of Abraham, and goes after his women after un- 
 cleanness and after error, he and his children. 19. And 
 thou dost tell me that I shall make him swear not to kill 
 
I02 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 Jacob: even if he swears he will not keep to his oath, 
 and will not do" good but evil. 20. And if he desires to kill 
 his brother Jacob, he shall be given into the hands of Jacob 
 and shall not escape from his hands, but fall into his hands. 
 21. And thou fear not concerning Jacob, for the watchman 
 of Jacob is great and powerful, and honored and worshipped 
 above the watchman of Esau." 22, And Rebecca sent for 
 and called Esau, and he came to her, and she said to him, 
 "One prayer I have, my son, which I ask of thee, and 
 grant it, that thou mayest do what I ask of thee, my son." 
 23. And he said to her: "I will do all that thou tallest 
 me, and will not refuse any thing that thou askest." 24. 
 And she said to him : "I ask of thee that the day I die 
 thou wilt take me and bury me near the grave of Sarah, the 
 mother of thy father, ar\d that thou and thy brother Jacob 
 will love each other, and that neither will undertake evil 
 against his brother, but love him, so that ye may be pros- 
 perous, my son, and be honored in the midst of the land 
 and that an enemy may not rejoice over you, and that ye 
 may be a blessing and niercy before the eyes of all that 
 love you." 25. And he said: "I will do all that thou sayest 
 to me, and I will bury thee on the day of thy death near 
 Sarah, the mother of thy father, as thou lovest her bones, 
 that they shall be near to thy bones. 26. But 
 Jacob, my brother, I will love above all flesh, and I have 
 no other brother in all the world except him alone, and this 
 is not a great thing for me that I shall love him, for he is my 
 brother, and together we wpre sown in thy womb, and to- 
 gether we came forth from thee, and if I do not love my 
 brother, whom shall I love? 27. And I then beg of thee 
 that thou wilt exhort Jacob concerning me and concerning 
 my children, for I know th^t he will rule as king over me 
 and over my children, for on the day when my father blessed 
 him, he made him the higher and me the lower. 28. And 
 I swear to thee that I will Jove him and will not seek out evil 
 against him all the days of my life, but only good." 29. 
 And he swore to her concerning this whole matter. 30. And 
 
THK BOOK OF JUBILEES. I03 
 
 she called Jacob before the eyes of Esau, and commanded 
 him according to the words she had spoken with Esau. 31. 
 And he said, "I will do thy pleasure, promising that no evil 
 shall proceed from me and from my sons against Esau, my 
 brother, and nothing shall be shown him except love." 32. 
 And they ate and drank, she and her sons, on this day, and 
 she died, three jubilees and one week and one year old, in 
 this night, and her two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried her in 
 the cave near Sarah, the mother of their father. 
 
 Chap. XXXVI. i. In the sixth week of this year, Isaac 
 called his two sons, Esau and Jacob, and they came to him, 
 and he said to them : " My sons, I shall go the way of my 
 father into the house of eternity, where my fathers are. 2. 
 Bury me near to Abraham, my father, in the south cave in 
 the field of Ephron, the Hittite, which Abraham bought as 
 a burial place ; there bury me. 3. And this I command you, 
 my sons, that ye practise righteousness and rectitude on the 
 earth, so that the Lord may bring upon you all that the Lord 
 said that he would do to Abraham and to his seed. 4. And 
 be ye to each other as loving brothers as a man that loves 
 himself, and each seeking for his brother that which is good 
 for him, and acting together from the heart upon earth, and 
 loving each other as yourselves. 5. And concerning the 
 matter of idols, I command ye, that ye cast them away and 
 hold them in abomination, and hate them, and that ye do 
 not love them, for they are full of deception for those that 
 worship them, and for those that bow down to them. 6. 
 And remember, O my sons, the Lord God of Abraham, 
 your father, and how I too worshipped him and served him 
 in truth, that he may increase you in joy and may enlarge 
 your seed like the stars of the heaven in multitude, and 
 plant you upon the earth as a plant of righteousness, which 
 is not rooted out to all the generations of eternity. 7. And 
 now I will make you swear a great oath, for there is no oath 
 greater than the one by the glorious and honored and great 
 name of him who created the heavens and the earth and all 
 things together, that ye will fear and worship him, and that 
 
I04 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 each will love his brother in tenderness and in truth, and that 
 neither will wish evil against his brother, from now on and 
 to eternity, all the days of your life, that ye may be pros- 
 perous ill all your deeds, and be not destroyed. 8. And if 
 either of you devises evil against his brother, know from 
 now on, that every one that devises evil against his brother 
 shall fall into his hands, and shall be rooted out of the land 
 of the living, and his seed shall be destroyed from under 
 heaven. 9. And on that day of cursing and turbulence he 
 [God] will also burn with devouring fire, as he burned Sodom, 
 thus also will he burn his land and his city and all that is his, 
 and he will be erased out of the book of the discipline of 
 the sons of men, and shall not ascend into the book of life, 
 for he shall be destroyed and shall depart to the 
 eternal curse, so that for all days their punish- 
 ments may be renewed in hate and in cursing, 
 and in wrath, and in torments, and in fury, and in plagues, 
 and in sickness to eternity. 10. And 1 say and testify to 
 you, my sons, how that my judgment will come upon the 
 man who desires to do evil against his brother." 11. And 
 he divided all the possessions he had between the two on that 
 day, and lie gave the preference to him that was born first, 
 both the tower and all around it, and everything that Abra- 
 ham possessed around the well of the oath. 12. And he 
 said: "This preference shall be his who was born first." 13. 
 And Esau said: "I have sold and given my age to Jacob, to 
 him it has been given, and I will not say anything more about 
 it, not one word, for it is passed." 14. And Isaac said: 
 "May blessing rest upon you, my sons, and upon your 
 seed this day, for ye have given me rest, and my heart is not 
 sad on account of the birthright, that no strife will take place 
 concerning it. 15. The Most High Lord bless the man that 
 does righteousness, him and his seed to eternity." 16. And 
 he ended commanding them and blessing them, and they ate 
 and drank before him together ; and he rejoiced, for there 
 was a reconciliation between them, and they went out from 
 him and rested on that day and slept. 17. And Isaac slept 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 10$ 
 
 on his bed that day rejoicing, and h|e slept the sleep of eter- 
 nity, and died one hundred and eighty years old. i8. And 
 he completed twenty-five weeks and five years. 19. And his 
 two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried him. 20. And Esau went 
 to the land of Edom, to the mountains of Seir and dwelt 
 there. 21. And Jacob dwelt in the land of Hebron, in the 
 tower of the land of the pilgrimage of his father Abraham, 
 and worshipped God with his whole heart, and according to 
 the command of him who appeared to him, who had distin- 
 guished him on the day of his birth. 22. And Leah, his 
 wife, died, in the fourth year of the second week of the forty- 
 fifth jubilee, and he buried her in the double cave near to Re- 
 becca, his mother, to the left of the grave of Sarah, the 
 mother of his father. 23. And all of her sons and his sons 
 came to weep over Leah, his wife, with him, and that they 
 might comfort each other on her account, for he mourned 
 over her. 24. For he loved her exceedingly after Rachel 
 her sister died, for she was perfect and righteous in all her 
 ways and honored Jacob : and in all the days which she lived 
 with him, he did not hear from her mouth a hard word, for 
 she was gentle and upright and peaceful and honorable. 25. 
 And he remembered all her deeds which she had done in her 
 life, and mourned exceedingly, for he loved her very much 
 with all his heart and with all his soul. 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL i. And on the day of the death of Isaac, 
 the father of Jacob and Esau, when the sons of Esau heard 
 that Isaac had given the birthright to his younger son Jacob, 
 they were very angry. 2. And they quarrelled with their 
 father, saying: " Why hath thy father, although thou art the 
 elder and Jacob the younger, given to Jacob the birthright 
 and left thee behind?" 3. And he said to them: "Be- 
 cause I sold my right of first birth to Jacob for a small mess 
 of lentils, 4. And on the day that my father sent me out to 
 hunt and catch and bring something to him that he should 
 eat it and bless me, he came in deception and brought to my 
 father something to eat and to drink, and my father blessed 
 him and put me under his hand. 5. And now our father has 
 
 - *8 
 
I06 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 made us swear, me and him, that we will not jdevise any evil 
 one against his brother, and that each will continue in love 
 and in peace with his brother, and will not destroy our ways." 
 6. And they said to him : " We will not listen to thee to keep 
 peace with him, for our strength exceeds his strength, and 
 we are more powerful than he. 7. We will go out against 
 him, and will slay him, and destroy his children ; and if thou 
 dost not go out with us, we will do thee harm also. 8. Listen 
 now to us: We will send to Aram and to Philistia and to 
 Moab and to Ammon, and we will pick out for ourselves 
 chosen men who are prepared for battle, and we will go 
 against him and will battle with him, and we will root him 
 out of the land, before he has taken, root and is strong." 9. 
 And their father said to them : "Ye shall not go and make 
 war upon him, that ye may not fall before him. " 10. And they 
 said to him : "This is as thou hast done from thy yOuth on 
 to the present day, and thou hast brought thy neck under his 
 yoke. II. We will not listen to these words." And they 
 sent to Aram and to Aduram to the associates of their fatfier, 
 and they hired with themselves one thousand fightifig men 
 and chosen warriors. 12. And there came to- fhem from 
 Moab and from the children of Ammon those that were hired, 
 one thousand chosen men, and from Philistia one' thousand 
 chosen warriors, and from Edom and the Horites one thou- 
 sand chosen fighters, and from the? Hittites strong fighting 
 men. 13. And they said to tfteir father: "Go out, lead 
 them, and if not, we will kifl thee." 14. And he was filled 
 with anger aQd wrath. asf the time when he saw his sons that 
 they were forcing him to go before them to lead them against 
 Jacob, his brother. 15. And then he remem.bered all the 
 evil which had been hidden- m his heart against his brother 
 Jacob, and did not remember the oath which he had sworn to 
 his father and his mother, that he would not devise any evil 
 all his days against his brother Jacob. 16. And in all this 
 time Jacob did not know that they were coming against him 
 for battle, but he was lamenting over Leah, his wife, until 
 they approached him very near to the tower, four thousand 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. I07 
 
 warlike, powerful, and chosen fighters. 17. And the men of 
 Hebron sent to him saying: " Behold thy brother is coming 
 against thee to fight with thee with four thousand heavily 
 girded men, and they carry shields and weapons ; " for they 
 loved Jacob more than Esau, and told it to him, for Jacob was 
 a more gracious and mild man than Esau. 18. But Jacob did 
 not believe it until he approached very near the tower, ig. 
 And he fastened the gates of the tower and stood upon the 
 top of the tower, and spoke with his brother Esau and said: 
 " Hast thou come to me bringing me a good consolation on 
 account of my wife who has died ? 20. Is this the oath which 
 thou hast sworn to thy father and thy mother twice before 
 they died ? 21. Thou hast violated the oath, and on account 
 of what thou hast sworn to thy father, thou shalt be judged." 
 22. And then Esau answered and said to him : "There is not 
 to the sons of men and to the animals of the earth any oath 
 of trust which they swear to them unto eternity; but on that 
 morning yet they devise evil against each other, so that one 
 may kill his hater and his enemy. 23. And thou too dost 
 hate me and my children to eternity, and there is no broth- 
 erly dealing with thee. 24. Hear these my words which I 
 announce to thee : If one can change the bristles of the swine 
 and change them into wool, and if horns will come out of its 
 head like the horns of the deer and rams, then I will maintain 
 brotherly relations with thee. 25. And if the breasts are 
 separated from the mother — for wast not thou to me a brother 
 — and if the wolves make peace with the lambs, so that they 
 do not devour and rob them ; and if their hearts incline to do- 
 ing each other good, then will there be peace in my heart to- 
 ward thee. 26. And when the lion becomes the friend of the 
 ox, and when he is put into one yoke with him and plows with 
 him, then I will make peace with thee. 27. And when the 
 raven becomes white like the rice bird, then I will know that 
 I love thee and will make peace with thee. Thou shalt be 
 rooted out and thy sons shall be rooted out, and there shall 
 be no peace." 28. And then Jacob saw that his heart was 
 evil against him, and that from his whole soul he would slay 
 
I08 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 him, and he had come springing like a wild animal which 
 comes against the spear that pierces it through and kills it, and 
 it does not depart from it. 29. And then he said to his sons 
 and to his servants that they should attack him and all his 
 companions. 
 
 Chap. XXXVIII. i. And after that Judah spoke to his 
 father Jacob and said to him : ' ' Bend thy bow, father, and 
 send forth thy arrow and cast down thy hater and slay thy 
 enemy: and mayest thou have the power, for we will not slay 
 thy brother, for to thee and with thee and to us it will be ah 
 honor." 2. And immediately Jacob bent the bow and sent 
 forth his arrow, and cast down his brother Esau, and slew 
 him. 3. And again he sent forth his arrow and hit Adoran, 
 the Aramaean, on the left breast, and drove him back and 
 killed him. 4. And then the sons of Jacob and their servants 
 came out breaking forth from the four sides of the tower. 
 5. Out came completely Judah, and Naphtali and Gad with 
 him, and fifty young men with him out of the north side of 
 the tower, and killed all that they found before them, and 
 none escaped ofthose, not one. 6. And Levi and Dan and Asher 
 came out from the east side of the tower, and fifty with them, 
 and they slew the warriors of Moab and Ammon. 7. And 
 Reuben and Issachar and Zebulun came out of the south side 
 of the tower, and fifty with them, and they killed the fighters 
 of Philistia. 8. And Simeon and Benjamin and Enoch, the 
 son of Reuben, came out of the west side of the tower, and 
 fifty with them, and killed of those of Edom and Choran four 
 hundred powerful men, and seven hundred escaped, and four 
 of the sons of Esau fled with them, and left their father behind 
 dead, as he had fallen on the hill which is [called] Adiiram. 
 9. And the sons of Jacob pursued after them to the moun- 
 tains of Seir. And Jacob buried his brother on the hill which 
 is [called] Adiiram, and returned to his house. 10. And the 
 sons of Jacob overcame the sons of Esau in the mountains of 
 Seir, and made them bend their necks, so that they became 
 the servants of the sons of Jacob ; and they sent word to their 
 father inquiring if they should make peace with them, or if 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. IO9 
 
 they should kill them. ii. And Jacob sent word to his sons 
 that they should make peace; and they made peace with 
 them, and they placed the yoke of servitude upon them that 
 they should pay tribute to Jacob and his sons all the days. 
 12. And they continued to pay tribute to Jacob until the day 
 when Jacob descended to the land of Egypt, and the sons of 
 Esau did not cease from the yoke of servitude which the 
 twelve sons of Jacob had imposed upon them, until the pres- 
 ent day. 13. And these are the kings which ruled over 
 Edom before a king ruled over the children of Israel, until the 
 present day in the land of Edom ; and Balak, the son of Beor, 
 was king, and the name of his city was Dinaba. 14. And 
 Balak died, and Jobab, the son of Zara, of Bezor, ruled in his 
 stead. 15. And Jobab died, and Adat, the son of Barad, 
 who slew the Mediarites on the field of Moab, was king in his 
 place, and the name of his city was Amot. 16. And Adat 
 died and Salman, of Amalek, was king in his stead. 17. And 
 Salman died and Saul, of the river Robaet, was king in his 
 stead. 18. And Saul died, and Beialiinan, the son of Akbiir, 
 was king in his stead. 19. And Beulunan died, and Adat 
 was king in his stead, and the name of his wife was Matilat, 
 the daughter of Matrit, the daughter of Metbed Zaab. 20_ 
 These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom. 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. i. And Jacob dwelt in the land of the 
 pilgrimage of his father, the land of Canaan. 2. These are 
 the generations of Jacob : When Joseph was seventeen years 
 old they took him down into Egypt, and sold him to Poti- 
 phar, the eunuch of Pharaoh, the head of the cooks. 3. And 
 he set Joseph over his whole house : and the blessing of the 
 Lord was in the house of the Egyptian on account of Joseph, 
 and all that he did the Lord prospered. 4. And the Egyptian 
 left in Joseph's hands all that was before him, for he saw that 
 the Lord was with him, and that everything he did the Lord 
 prospered. 5. But Joseph was beautiful to look at and very 
 attractive in form, and the wife of his master lifted up her 
 eyes and saw Joseph. 6. And she loved him and entreated 
 him to lie with her. 7. But he did not give over his soul; 
 
no THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 but remembered the Lord and the words which his father 
 Jacob had read from among the words of Abraham, that no 
 one among men should commit fornication with the wife of 
 another, and with a woman who has a husband, and that as a 
 punishment for this one death has been established in the 
 heavens before the Mos't High God, and the sin on account 
 of it will be inscribed on the books which are in eternity, all 
 the days, before the Lord. 8. And Joseph remembered these 
 words, and was not willing to lie with her. g. And she en. 
 treated him one year, and he refused, and would not listen, 
 lo. But she embraced him and seized him in the house in or- 
 der to force him to lie with her, and locked the doors of the 
 house ; but he tore Jiimself out of her hands and left his gar- 
 ment in her hand, and broke the lock, and fled without away 
 from her presence. 1 1. And the woman saw that he would 
 not lie with her, and she lied before her lord, saying : " Thy 
 Hebrew servant, whom thou lovest, sought to do me violence 
 that he might lie with me, and it happened that when I raised 
 my voice, he fled and left his garment in my hand, when I had 
 seized him, and broke the lock." 12. And the Egyptian saw 
 the garment of Joseph and the broken lock, and he obeyed 
 the words of his wife, and cast Joseph into prison, into the 
 place where the prisoners stayed whom the king had caused 
 to be imprisoned. 13. And there he was in the prison, and 
 the Lord gave Joseph grace in the eyes of the head of the 
 prison guards, and good will before him, for he saw that the 
 Lord was with him, and all that he did the Lord prospered. 
 14. And he left all things to him, and the head of the prison 
 guards looked to nothing, for all things that Joseph did the 
 Lord perfected. 15. And he remained there two years. 16. 
 And in those days Pharaoh was angry with two of his eunuchs, 
 the chief of the butlers and chief of the bakers, and he cast 
 them into prison, into the house of the chief of the cooks, the 
 prison where Joseph was held. 17. Arid the chief of the 
 prison guards ordered Joseph to serve them, and he served 
 them before him. 18. And both of them dreamed a dream, 
 the- chief of the butlers and the chief of the bakers, and they 
 
THE' BOOK OF JUBILEES. Ill 
 
 told it to Joseph. 19. And as he explained to them, thus it 
 happened to them ; and the chief of the butlers Pharaoh put 
 back into his ofifice, and the chief of the bakers he killed, as 
 Joseph had explained to them. 20. And the chief of the but- 
 lers forgot Joseph in the prison, although he had informed 
 him what would become of him, and did not remember to in- 
 form Pharaoh as Joseph had told him, for he forgot. 
 
 Chap. XL. i. And in those days Pharaoh dreamed two 
 dreams in one night, concerning the matter of a famine which 
 would come over all the land ; and he awoke from his dream 
 and called all the dream interpreters that were in Egypt, and 
 the sorcerers, and told them both his dreams, and they were 
 not able to understand them. 2. And then the chief of the 
 butlers recalled Joseph to memory, and spoke concerning him 
 to the king ; and he brought him out of prison and narrated 
 his two dreams before him. 3. And bespoke before Pharaoh 
 that his two dreams were one, and he said : "Seven years will 
 come of plenty over all the land of Egypt, and after that, seven 
 years of famine, such as has not been upon the whole earth. 
 4. And now, O Pharaoh, establish throughout all the land of 
 Egypt storehouses that grain may be gathered into them from 
 city to city, in the days of the years of plenty, so that there 
 may be grain for the seven years of famine, and that the land 
 be not destroyed on account of the famine, for it will be very 
 severe." 5. And the Lord gave Joseph grace and good will 
 before the eyes of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said to his servants : 
 " We shall not be able to find a wise and intelligent man like 
 this man, for the spirit of the Lord is upon him." 6. And he 
 appointed him the second over the whole kingdom, and made 
 him prince over all Egypt ; and caused him to ride upon the 
 second chariot of Pharaoh, and clothed him with byssus gar- 
 ments, and put a golden chain around his neck, and pro- 
 claimed before him, saying : " El El wa abrir." And he put 
 [a ring] upon his hand, and made him master of his whole 
 house, and made him great, and said to him : "I will not be 
 greater than thee except in regard to the thronedom." 7. 
 And Joseph was lord in all the land of Egypt, and all the 
 
112 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 princes of Pharaoh loved him, and all the servants and all 
 those that did the offices of the king, for he walked in recti- 
 tude and without pride and haughtiness of heart, and did not 
 regard persons nor take bribes, but in rectitude he judged 
 over all the peoples of the land. 8. And the land of Egypt 
 was governed peacefully before Pharaoh on account of Joseph, 
 for the Lord was with hirh, and gave him grace and good will 
 over all his race, before all who knew him and heard reports 
 concerning him ; and the kingdom of Pharaoh was in a right 
 condition, without any enemy or evil. 9. And the king called 
 the name of Joseph, Sephnetiphanz, and gave the daughtei 
 of Potiphar as a wife to Joseph, the daughter of the one that 
 sacrifices at Heliopolis, the chief of the cooks. 10. And on 
 the day that Joseph stood before Pharaoh he was thirty years 
 old, when he stood before the face of Pharaoh. 11. And in 
 that year Isaac died. 12. And it happened as Joseph had 
 said concerning the explanation of the two dreams, and there 
 were seven years of plenty, and the land of Egypt was full of 
 fruit, for one measure eighteen measures. 13. And Joseph 
 gathered food from city to city, until they were full of grain, 
 until they were not able to count and measure it on account 
 of multitude. 
 
 Chap. XLI. i. And in the forty-fifth jubilee, in the sec- 
 ond week and in the second year, Judah took a wife for Er, 
 his first-born, from among the daughters of Aram, and her 
 name was Tamar. 2. And he hated her and did not lie 
 with her, because his mother was from among the daughters 
 of Canaan, and he desired to take a wife to himself from the 
 relatives of his mother, but his father Judah would not per- 
 mit him. 3. And this his first-born was wicked, and the 
 Lord slew him. 4. And Judah said to his son Onan: "Go 
 in to the wife of thy brother, and make her thy wife and 
 raise up seed for thy brother." 5. And Onan knew that the 
 seed would not be his, but rather his brother's, and he went 
 to the house of the wife of his brother, and poured 
 the seed upon the ground, and was wicked before the eyes 
 of the Lord, arid he slew him. 6. And Judah' said to 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. II3 
 
 Tamar, his daughter-in-law, "Abide in the house of thy 
 father as a widow until my son Shelah has grown, and I will 
 -give thee to him for a wife." 7. And he grew up; but 
 BedsGel, the wife of Judah, would not permit her son Shelah 
 to marry her. 8. And Bedsiiel, the wife of Judah, died in 
 the fifth year of this week. 9. And in the sixth year thereof 
 Judah went up to shear his sheep at Timnath. 10. And she 
 laid aside her widow's garments and clothed herself with a 
 vail, and beautified herself, and sat down at the gate on the 
 way to Timnath. 11. And when Judah came, he found her, 
 and thought her a harlot, and said to her: "I will go in to 
 thee." 12. And she said to him, "Come in," and he came 
 in unto her. 13. And she said to him, "Give me my pay." 
 14. And he said to her, "I have nothing in my hand except 
 my ring on my finger and my bracelet and my staff, which is 
 in my hand." 15. And she said to him, "Give me these 
 until thou sendest me my pay." 16. And he said to her, "I 
 will send thee a young kid;" and he gave them to her. 17. 
 And she conceived from him ; and Judah went to his sheep, 
 but she went to the house of her father. 18. And Judah 
 sent a young kid through a shepherd of Adullam, and he did 
 not find her, and asked the people of the place, saying, 
 "Where is the harlot which was here ?" 19. And they said, 
 "There has been no harlot here, and there is no harlot among 
 us.'' 20. And he returned and told him that he had not 
 found her, and said, "I asked the people of the place and 
 they said to me that there was no harlot there." 21. And 
 he said, "Arise, let us go that we do not become a laughing 
 stock." 22. And when three months were over she learned 
 that she was pregnant, and they told Judah, saying, "Behold, 
 thy daughter-in-law Tamar has conceived by whoredom.'' 
 23. And Judah went to the house of her father, and said to 
 her father and mother and brothers: "Bring her out that she 
 be burned, for she has done an unclean thing in Israel. 24. 
 And it happened when they brought her out to burn her, 
 she sent to her father-in-law the ring and the bracelets and 
 the staff, saying, "Dost thou recognize whose these are. 
 
I 14 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES.' 
 
 for from him have I conceived ?" 25. And Judah recognized 
 them and saidj "Tamar is more just than 1.^' 26. And they 
 did not burn her. 27. And on this account she was not 
 given to Shelah ; and he did not again approach her. 28. 
 And after that she gave birth to two male children, Pharez 
 and Zarah, in the seventh year of this second, week. 29. 
 And three more completed the seven years of fruitfulness of 
 which Joseph had said to Pharoah. 30. And Judah knew 
 than it was an evil deed which he had done, for he had lain 
 with_ his daughter-in-law, and regarded it as a sin before his 
 eyes, and he knew that he had sinned and erred, because he 
 had uncovered the skirt of his son. 31. And he began to 
 lament it and ask for mercy before the Lord on account of 
 his sin. 32. And he told him in a dream, that it would be 
 forgiven him, because he begged exceedingly for mercy and 
 lamented, and did not repeat it. -33. And he obtained for- 
 giveness, for he turned from his sin and ignorance, for it was 
 a great transgression before the Lord our God ; and , every 
 one that does thus, and lies with his daughter-in-law shall be 
 burned with fire, that he may burn therein, for it is unclean- 
 ness and defilement upon them : with fire they shall be 
 burnt. 34. And thou, Moses, command the children of 
 Israel, that there be no uncleanness among them, for every 
 one that lieth with his mother-in-law or his daughter-in-law 
 does an unclean thing: with fire shall be burnt the man who 
 lies with her, and the woman also, and he [God] shall remove 
 the anger and punishment from Israel. 35. But to Judah 
 he said that because his two sons did not lie with her, on 
 that account his seed stands ■ for a second generation, and 
 should not be rooted out ; for in the innocence of his eyes 
 he had gone and sought punishment, namely, according to 
 the judgment of Abraham which he commanded his children, 
 that Judah should be burned with fire. 
 
 Chap. XLII. i. And in the first year of the third week 
 of the forty-fifth jubilee, the famine began to come into the 
 land, and rain refused to be given to the earth; for none fell. 
 2. And the earth was unfruitful, and in the land of Egypt 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. II5 
 
 alone there was food, for Joseph had gathered that he might 
 give them food, and Joseph had gathered the seed of the 
 earth in the seven years of fruitfulness and had guarded it. 
 3. And the Egyptians came to Joseph that he should give 
 them food, and he opened the storehouses where the grain 
 was in the first year, and he sold it to the people of the land 
 for gold. 4. And Jacob heard that there was food in the 
 land of Egypt, and he sent ten sons, that they should go 
 for him to Egypt, but Benjamin he did not send. 5. And 
 they came, together with those that went there. 6. And 
 Joseph knew them, but they did not know him ; and he spoke 
 with and asked them, and said to them: "Are ye not spies 
 and have come to examine the traces of the land?" 7. And 
 he locked them in. 8. And then again he released them 
 and incarcerated Simeon alone, and his nine brothers he sent 
 away. 9. And he filled their sacks with grain, and he placed 
 their gold in their sacks, and they did not know it. 10. 
 And he commanded them that they should bring their 
 youngest brother, for they had told him that their father was 
 yet living and also their youngest brother. 11. And they 
 went up from the land of Egypt, and came to the land of 
 Canaan, and told their father all that had happened to them, 
 and how the prince of the land had spoken with them and 
 had seized Simeon until they should bring Benjamin. 12. 
 And Jacob said, "Ye have robbed me of my children : Joseph 
 is no miore, Simeon is no more, and ye will also take Ben- 
 jamin; your wickedness is upon you." 13. And he said: 
 "My son shall not go with you; it is possible that he will 
 become sick ; for their mother has given birth to two sons, 
 one is destroyed and this one ye will take. 14. He might 
 take a fever on the road, and ye will bring my gray hairs in 
 sorrow into death." 15. For he saw that all their gold was 
 returned in their packages, and on this account he feared to 
 send him. 16. But the famine increased and became strong 
 in the land of Canaan, and in all the lands, except in the 
 land of Egypt, for many of the sons of Egypt had gathered 
 their seeds for food when they saw that Joseph was collect- 
 
Il6 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 ing the seed and placing it into the storehouses, and preserv- 
 ing it for the years of famine, and the men of Egypt fed 
 themselves in the first year of their famine. 17. And when 
 Israel saw that the famine was very powerful in the land, and 
 that there was no deliverance, he said to his sons: "Go, re- 
 turn, and bring us food that we die not." 18. And they 
 said: "We will not go: unless our youngest brother goes with 
 us we will not go." 19. And Israel saw that if he would 
 not send, him with them all would be destroyed on account 
 of the famine. 20. And Reuben said: "Give him to me 
 into my hand, and if I, do not return him to thee, slay my 
 two sons in place of his soul." 21. And he said, "He shall 
 not go with thee." 22. And Judah approached and said to 
 him: "Send him with me; and if I do not bring him back 
 to thee, I shall be a transgressor before thee all the days of 
 my life." 23. And he sent him with them in the second 
 year of this week and in the new moon of the month, and 
 they came to the land of Egypt with all those that went, and 
 presents in their hands ; and stacte and nuts and pistachio and 
 pure honey. 24. And they came and stood before Joseph, 
 and he saw his brother Benjamin, and knew him, and said 
 to them: "Is this your youngest brother?" 25. And they 
 said to him: "Yea, it is he. " 26. And he said, "The Lord 
 be merciful to thee, my son." 27. And he sent them into 
 his house, and brought out Simeon to them and made them 
 3. feast, and they brought to him what they had brought in 
 their hands. 28. And they ate before him, and he gave 
 them all a portion, and increased the portion of Benjamin 
 over the portion of the others seven times, and they ate 
 and drank, and arose and remained with their asses. 29. 
 And Joseph thought out a plan how he could learn their 
 thoughts, whether their thoughts were peace among each 
 other; and he said to the man who was over his house: "Fill 
 all their sacks with food, but their gold return to them in 
 the midst of their receptacle, and my goblet out of which I 
 drink put into the sack of the youngest, the silver goblet, 
 and send them away." 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 11/ 
 
 Chap. XLIII. i. And he did as Joseph had told him, 
 and filled all their sacks for them with food, but their gold he 
 put into their sacks, and the goblet he put into the sack of 
 Benjamin. 2. And early in the morning they departed. 3. 
 And it happened when they had gone from there that Joseph 
 said to the man : " Follow them, run and upbraid them, say- 
 ing : ' For good ye have returned evil, and have stolen the silver 
 cup out of which my master drinks.' And bring back to me 
 their youngest brother, quickly before that I go to my official 
 work." 4. And he ran after them and said to them accord- 
 ing to these words. 5. And they said to him : " Far be it 
 from thy servants to do this thing : we have not stolen out of 
 the house of thy lord any utensil, and the gold which we 
 found the first time in our sacks, we, thy servants, have 
 brought back out of the land of Canaan. 6. How then would 
 we steal any utensil : behold, here we are, and our sacks ; 
 search, and wherever thou findest the cup in the sack of any 
 man among us, he shall be killed, but we and our asses will 
 serve thy lord." 7. And he said to them: " Not thus, the 
 man with whom I find it, him alone will I take as a servant, 
 but ye shall return in peace to your houses. 8. And when 
 he searched in their vessels, beginning with the oldest and 
 ending with the youngest, it was found in the sack of Benja- 
 min, the youngest. 9. And they were terrified and rent their 
 clothes, and loaded their asses and returned to the city and 
 came to the house of Joseph, and all fell down before him 
 upon their faces on the ground. 10. And Joseph said to 
 them: " Ye have done evil ; " and they said to him : "What 
 shall we say, and with what shall we defend ourselves that our 
 Lord has found the gqilt of his servants ? 11. Behold, we are 
 thy servants, O our Jord, together with our asses." 12. 
 And Joseph said to tliem : "I, too, fear the Lord, and ye 
 shall go to your houses, but your youngest brother shall be 
 my servant, for ye have done evil : do ye not know that one 
 like me who drinks out of his cup values it? 13. And ye have 
 stolen it." 14. And Judah said: "For us, my lord, let me 
 speak a word into the ear of my lord : his mother has borne 
 
Il8 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 thy servant, our father, two sons; one has left and was lost, 
 and no one found him, and this one alone is left from his 
 mother ; and thy servant, our father, loves him and his soul 
 cleaves to his soul, and it will happen when we return to thy 
 servant, our father, and if the young man is not with us, he 
 will die, and our father will sink away through grief unto 
 death. 15. But I will become a servant to my lord in the 
 place of the boy ; but let the youth go with his brothers, for 
 I have given promise for him to thy servant, our father ; and 
 if thou dost not return him, then thy servant will be guilty to 
 our father all the days. " 16. And Joseph saw the heart of 
 all that they were friendly to each other and well disposed, 
 and he was not able to restrain himself, and he said that he 
 was Joseph, and conversed with them in the Hebrew tongue, 
 and he fell upon their neck and wept ; but they had not known 
 him, and began to weep. 17. And he said to them : "Do 
 not weep over me ; but hasten and bring my father to me, 
 that I may see him before I die, and the eyes of my brother 
 Benjamin while I see. 18. For, behold, this is the second 
 year of the famine, and there are yet five years without any 
 harvest or fruit of trees or any plants. 19. Hasten ye to come 
 down with your households, so that ye be not destroyed by 
 the famine, and do not grieve yourselves on account of your- 
 selves, and on account of your possessions, for the Lord has 
 sent me before you as a provider, that many people might 
 live. 20. And tell my father that I am .yet alive. 21. But 
 ye, behold, see me, that the Lord has set me as a father to 
 Pharaoh, and that I should rule in his house and over all the 
 land of Egypt. 22. And tell my father of all my honor and 
 all the measure which the Lord has given me of wealth and 
 of honor." 23. And at the command of Pharaoh, he gave 
 them wagons and provisions for the road and gave them all 
 colored garments and silver. 24. And to their father, Pha- 
 raoh sent garments and silver and ten asses that carried grain 
 and he sent them away. 25. And they went up and an- 
 nounced to their father that Joseph was alive, and that he was 
 measuring out grain to all the nations of the earth, and that 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. I IQ 
 
 he was lord of all the land of Egypt. 26^ And their father 
 did not believe it, for he was terrified in his thoughts, but when 
 he saw the wagons which Joseph Ifad sent, his spirit revived 
 and lived, and he said: " It I's a great thing for me that Jo- 
 seph lives : I will go dtwn to see him before I die." 
 
 Chap. XLIV. i. And Israel arose from Haran, from his 
 house, at the new moon of the third month, and came by the 
 way of the well of the oath, and offered a sacrifice to the God 
 of bis father Isaac, on the seventh of this month, and Jacob 
 remembered the dream which he had dreamed at Bethel, and 
 he feared to descend down to Egypt. 2. And while he was 
 thinking that he would send word to Joseph that he should 
 come to him, and that he would not go down, he remained 
 there seven days, if he might see a vision, whether he should 
 remain or go down. 3. And he celebrated the harvest festi- 
 val of first fruits with old grain, for there was not a handful 
 of seed in all the land of Canaan, for it was unfruitful for all 
 the animals and beasts and birds, and also human beings. 4. 
 And on the sixteenth thereof the Lord appeared to him and 
 said to him: " Jacob, Jacob ! " 5. And he said: "Here I 
 am." 6. And he said to him : " I am the God of thy fathers 
 Abraham and Isaac : fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will 
 make thee into a great people. 7. I will go down with thee 
 and I will bring thee back into this land that thou be buried 
 here, and Joseph shall lay his hands upon thy eyes : fear not 
 to go down to Egypt." 8. And he arose, and his sons and 
 his sons' sons, and they placed their father and their vessels 
 upon the wagons. 9. And Israel started from the well of the 
 oath on the sixteenth of third month, and went to the land of 
 Egypt. 10. And Israel sent before him to Joseph, his son 
 Judah, that he should examine the land of Goshen, for there 
 Joseph had told his brothers that they should come, that they 
 should dwell there, that they might be near him ; and this 
 was good in the land of Egypt and near to him, for them all 
 and for their animals. 11. And these are the names of the 
 sons of Jacob who went into Egypt with Jacob their father ; 
 Reuben, the first-born of Israel : and these are the names of 
 
I20 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES., 
 
 his sons : Enoch and .Phalus and Ezerom and Charami, five : 
 Simeon and his sons, and these are the names of his sons: 
 Ijamoel and Ijamen and Amet and Ijakim and Saar and 
 Samel, the son of the Sephanite ; seven : Levi and his sons ; 
 and these are the names of his sons, Gedson and Kaat and 
 Merari, four: Judah and his sons ; and these are the names of 
 his sons : Selem and Phaliis and Zara, four : Issachar and his 
 sons ; and these are the names of his sons : Tola and Phua 
 and Ijaseb and Samarom, five : Zebulun and his sons, and 
 these are the names of his sons : Azor and Elon and Ijaliael, 
 four. 12. And these are the sons of Jacob and their sons 
 whom Leah had borne to Jacob in Mesopotamia, six, and one 
 sister to them, Dinah ; and all the souls whom Leah had 
 borne and their sons, who went with their father Jacob to 
 Egypt, were twenty-nine, and Jacob, their father, with them, 
 it thus was thirty. 13. And the sons of Zalapha, the hand- 
 maid of Leah, the wife of Jacob, whom she bore to Jacob : 
 Gad and Asher. 14. And these are the names of their sons 
 who went with them to Egypt ; the sons of Gad : Zephjon and 
 Agati and Somi and Asohen . . . and Aroli and Arodi; eight. 
 15. And the sons of Asher: Ijamua and Jesua and Barja and 
 Sara, their sister, seven. 16. And all the souls are fourteen, 
 and all of Leah were forty-four. 17. And the sons of Rachel, 
 the wife of Jacob, were Joseph and Benjamin;'*\j8. And to 
 Joseph were born in Egypt before his father came to Egypt, 
 whom Asnet bore him, the daughter of Potiphar, the sacri- 
 ficer of Heliopolis, Manasseh and Ephraim, three. 19. The 
 sons of Benjamin are Bala and Bachor and Esabel, Zuel and 
 Neman and Abdlji and Rae and Sanaim and Aphem and 
 Gaom, eleven. 20. And all the souls of Rachel were four- 
 teen. 21. And the sons of Bila, the handmaid of Rachel, the 
 wife of Jacob, were Dan and Naphtali. 22. And these are 
 the names of their sons who went with them to Egypt ; the 
 sons of Dan are Chusi and Samon and Asudi and Ijak and 
 Salamon, six. 23. And they died in Egypt in the year in 
 which they went down, and there was left to Dan only Chusi. 
 24. And these are the names of the sons of Naphtali : Ijasiel 
 
THK BOOK OF JUBILEES. 121 
 
 and Guhani and Asaar and Suloni and Eme, six ; and Erne 
 died in Egypt, who was born after the year of the famine. 
 25. And all the souls of Rachel were twenty-six. 26. And 
 all the souls of Jacob, that went with him to Egypt, were 
 seventy souls ; but his children and his childrens' children, all 
 together were seventy-five, but five died in Egypt, who were 
 not married and had no children ; and in the land of Canaan 
 two sons of Judah died, Er and Onan, and had no children. 
 27. And the sons of Israel buried those tha,t were destroyed, 
 and these were counted among the seventy peoples. 
 
 Chap. XLV. i. And Israel went to the land of Egypt 
 unto the land of Goshen at the new moon of fourth month 
 of the second year of the third week of the forty-fifth 
 jubilee. 2. And Joseph went to meet his father Jacob in 
 the land of Goshen, and he fell upon the neck of his father 
 and wept. 3. And Israel said to Joseph : " I would die now 
 after I have seen thee. 4. And now may the Lord God of 
 Abraham and Isaac be blessed, who has not withdrawn his 
 mercy and kindness from his servant Jacob : It is a great 
 thing to me that I have seen thy face in my life, for true is 
 the vision which I saw in Bethel, blessed be the Lord 
 God to all eternity, and blessed be his name." 5. And 
 Joseph and his brothers ate bread before their father and 
 drank wine; and Jacob rejoiced exceedingly much, for he 
 saw that Joseph ate with his brothers and drank before him ; 
 and he blessed the Creator of all, who had preserved for him 
 his twelve sons. 6. And Joseph gave his father and his 
 brothers as a present that they should dwell in the land of 
 Goshen and in Ramasitino, and their whole territory, that 
 they should rule it before Pharaoh. 7. And Israel and his 
 sons dwelt in the land of Goshen, the best part of the land 
 of Egypt: but Israel was one hundred and thirty years old 
 when he came into Egypt. 8. And Joseph gave provisions 
 to his father and brothers, and their possessions as much as 
 supporJ:ed them for the seven years, of famine. 9. And the 
 land of Egypt suffered on account of the famine, and Joseph 
 gat-ljered in all the land of Egypt to Pharaoh for food, both 
 
 *9 
 
122 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES^ 
 
 the people and their cattle, and Pharaoh possessed every- 
 thing. ID. And the years of the famine were completed, 
 and Joseph gave to the people that were in the land of 
 Egypt seed and food to sow in the eighth year, for the river 
 had overflowed into all the land of Egypt. 1 1 . For in the 
 seven yeafS of the famine it had watered only a few spots 
 along the bank of the river, but now it overflowed ; and the 
 Egyptians sowed upon their land and it produced much grain 
 in that year. 12. And this was the first year of the fourth 
 week of the thirty-fifth jubilee. 13. And Joseph took of 
 the grain which they sowed the fifth part for the king, and 
 the fourth he left them for food and for sowing : and Joseph 
 made it a law for the land of Egypt unto this day. 14. And 
 Israel lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and all 
 the days which he lived were three jubilees, one hundred and 
 forty-seven years. 15. And he died in the fourth year of the 
 fifth week of the forty-fifth jubilee. 16. And Israel blessed 
 his sons before he died, and told them everything as it would 
 happen to them in the land of Egypt, and what would come 
 upon them in the latter days, and everything he made known 
 to them, and blessed them ^nd gave Joseph two portions in 
 the land. 17. And he slept with his fathers and was buried 
 in the double cave in the land of Canaan beside Abraham, 
 his father, in the grave which he had dug for himself, in the 
 double cave, in the land of Hebron. 18. And he gave all 
 his books and the books of his fathers to his son Levi, that 
 he should guard them and renew them for the sons of Israel 
 to this day. 
 
 Chap. XLVI. i. And it happened after the death of Jacob 
 that the children of Israel increased in the land of Egypt. 2. 
 And they became a great people, and they were all united in 
 their hearts, so that each loved his brother and every man 
 assisted his brother, and they increased and multiplied and 
 increased very much. 3. And ten weeks of years were all 
 the days of the life of Joseph which he lived after his father, 
 and he was no enemy or anything wicked in all the days of 
 the life of Joseph which he lived after his father Jacob, for all 
 
tHe book of jubileks. 123 
 
 the Egyptians honored the sons of Jacob during all the (lays 
 of the life of Joseph. 4. And Joseph died when he wa^ one 
 hundred and ten years old : seventeen years he lived iq the 
 land of Canaan and ten years he was a servant, and three years 
 he was in prison, and eighty years he was under the \img 
 ruling all the land of Egypt. 5. And all his brothers djed, 
 and all that generation. 6. And he commanded the children 
 of Israel, before he died, that they should carry up his bones 
 when they would go out of the land of Egypt. 7. And he 
 made them swear concerning his bones, for he knew that the 
 Egyptians would not again bring out his bones and bury thipm 
 in the land of Canaan, for Memkeron, the king of Canaan, 
 while he was dwelling in the land of Asur, was fighting in the 
 valley with the king of Egypt and killed him there a^nd 
 pursued the Egyptians to the gates of Eromon. 8. But }ie 
 \yas unable to enter, for a second new kincj ruled over Egypt, 
 and he was more powerful than he ; and he returned to the 
 land of Canaan, and the gates of Egypt were locked and no 
 one entered Egypt. 9. And Joseph died in the forty-sixth 
 jubilee, in the sixth week, in the second year ; and they bqrjed 
 him in the land of Egypt, and all his brothers died after him. 
 10. And the king of Egypt went out to fight with the king of 
 Canaan in the forty-seventh jubilee, in the second week, in 
 the second year thereof; and the children of Israel brought 
 out the bones of all the sons of Jacob except the bones of 
 Joseph, and buried them in the fields, in the double caves in 
 the mountains. 11. And the most returned to Egypt, and a 
 few of them remained behind in the mountains of Hebron, 
 and thy father Anbaram [Amram] remained with them. 12. 
 And the king of Canaan overcame the king of Egypt and 
 locked the portals of Egypt. 13. And he devised an evil plan 
 against the children of Israel that he would torment them, 
 and he said to the men of Egypt : "Behold, the people of the 
 children have increased and multiplied more than we ; behold, 
 we will plot against them before they become too many, and 
 will torment them with slavery, before a murder comes over 
 us and before these become our enemies ; if not, these will 
 
1^4 THE EiOOK GF JUBILEE^. 
 
 unite with the ertetny arid will depart out of our land, for their' 
 faces and hearts are toward the land of Canaan." 14. And 
 he set over them work-overseers that they should torment 
 them with slave work. 15. And they commanded them, and 
 tliey built strong cities for Pharaoh, Pithorh and Ramses, and 
 they built all the walls and sides which had fallen in in the 
 cities of Egypt. 16. And they oppressed them with service, 
 but as milch as they abused them so much they increased and 
 so much they multipHed. 17. And the men of Egypt 
 considered the children of Israel unclean. 
 
 Chap. XLVII. i. And in the seventh week, in the seventh 
 year, in the forty-seventh jubilee, thy father came from the 
 land of Canaan, and thou wast born in the fourth week, in 
 the sixth year, in the forty-eighth jubilee, which are the days 
 of the persecution over the sons of Israel. 2. And King 
 Pharaoh, of Egypt, issued a command concerning them, that 
 they should throw all their children, every male, into the 
 river. 3. And they threw them in seven months, until the 
 day when thou wast born : but thy mother hid thee three 
 months ; and they told about her. 4. And she made for thee 
 an ark, and covered it with pitch and asphalt, and laid it in 
 the grass, on the bank of the river, and placed thee into it 
 seven days ; and thy mother came in the night and nursed 
 thee, and during the days thy sister Miriam protected thee 
 from the wild animals. 5. And in those days Tarmiith, the 
 daughter of Pharaoh, came to bathe in the river, and she 
 heard thy voice crying, and she told her Hebrew maidens that 
 they should bring thee out ; and they brought thee to them. 
 
 6. And they took thee out of the ark, and she pitied thee. 
 
 7. And thy sister said : " Shall 1 go and call for thee one of 
 the Hebrew women, who shall raise and nurse this child for 
 thee?" 8. And she said : "Go." 9. And she went and 
 called thy mother Jokabed, and she gave her wages, and she 
 raised thee. 10. And when thou didst grow, they brought 
 thee to the house of Pharaoh, and thou . becamest his son ; 
 and Anbaram, thy father, taught thee writing. 11. And 
 when thou didst complete three weeks, he brought thee to 
 
THfi BOOK OF JUBILEfiS. ISJ 
 
 the royal court. 12. And thou wast in the court three wefeks 
 of years, until the day when thou didst go out of the royal 
 c6Urt, and didst see the Egyptian as he Xvas beating thy friend 
 from among the children of Israel. 13. And thou slewest him 
 and hid him in the sand, and on the following day thou 
 foundest two of the children of Israel quarrelling, and didst 
 say to the more powerful : ' ' Why dost thou beat thy brother ?" 
 14. And he became angry and wroth, and said: "Who has 
 set thee a ruler and prince over us ? 15. Dost thou desire to 
 kill me, as thou didst kill the Egyptian yesterday?" 16. And 
 thou didst fear and flee on account of these words. 
 
 Ghap. XLVIII. I. And in the sixth year of the third 
 week of the forty-ninth jubilee, thou didst go and dwell here 
 five weeks and one year, and didst return to Egypt in the 
 second week, in the second year, in the fiftieth jubilee. 
 
 2. And thou knowest what he spoke to thee at Mt. Sinai, 
 and what the prince Mastema desired to do with thee, as thou 
 returnest to Egypt, on the way, at the feast of tabernacles. 
 
 3. Did he not with all his power seek to kill thee, and to save 
 the Egyptians out of thy hand, when thou sawest that thou 
 weft sent to deliver judgments and vengeance over the Egyp- 
 tians? 4. And I delivered thee out of his hands, and thou 
 didst the signs and wonders for which I had sent thee to do 
 in Egypt over Pharaoh and over all his house and over his 
 servants arid over his people. 5. And the Lord inflicted a 
 great vengeance upon them for Israel's sake, and beat them 
 and killed them through blood and frogs and flies and dog 
 flies and breaking-out skin-diseases, and also their animals 
 by death, and through hail, by which he destroyed every- 
 thittg that grew for them ; and through grasshoppers, who ate 
 the rest that had been left by the hail, and through dark- 
 ness ; and also the first-born of man and animals ; and on all 
 their idols the Lord took vengeance and burned them with 
 fire. 6. And everything was sent through thy hand, that 
 thou shouldst do it before it was done, and thou didst tell it 
 to the king of Egypt and before all of his servants and be- 
 fore his people. 7. Arid everything took place according to 
 
126 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 thy words : ten great and terrible judgments came over the 
 land of Egypt, that they might take vengeance for Israel. 
 And all the deeds of the Lord concerning Israel and accord- 
 ing to his ordinance which he covenanted with Abraham, 
 that he would take vengeance upon them, according as they 
 had served the Egyptians in oppression. 8. And the prince 
 Mastema placed himself against thee, and endeavored to 
 throw thee into the hand of Pharaoh and aided the sorcerers 
 of the Egyptians, and stood by them, and they performed 
 them before thee : the evils, however, we permitted them to 
 perform, but their remedies we did not suffer them to per- 
 form by their hands. 9. And the Lord struck them with 
 a dire pox, and they were not able to withstand, for we de- 
 stroyed them so that they could not do a single sign. 10. 
 And amid all the signs and wonders, the prince Mastema 
 was not ashamed, until he became powerful and cried to the 
 Egyptians that they should pursue after thee with all the 
 power of the Egyptians, with their wagons and with their 
 horses and with all the masses of the people of Egypt. 1 1 . And 
 I stood between the Egyptians and thee, and between them 
 and Israel, and I saved the Israelites out of their hands 
 and out of the hands of the Egyptians. 12. And the Lord 
 led them through the middle of the sea, as if it were dry 
 land. 13. And all the people he caused to come out to 
 pursue Israel, the Lord our God cast into the midst of the 
 sea, into the depths of the abysses, instead of the children 
 of Israel, because the people of Egypt had thrown their 
 children by the hundreds into, the river: vengeance was taken 
 upon them and one thousand powerful men, and those that 
 were strong, perished on account of one suckling babe which 
 they had cast into the river from amongst thy people. 14. 
 And on the fourteenth day, and on the fifteenth day, and on 
 the sixteenth day, and on the seventeenth day, and on the 
 eighteenth day, the prince Mastema was bound and chained 
 behind the children of Israel, so that he could not accuse the 
 children of Israel. 15. But on the nineteenth day we 
 let him loose, so that he could help the Egyptians,, and that 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 127 
 
 they could pursue the children of Israel ; and he made hard 
 their hearts and strengthened them and he became powerful 
 according to the Lord our God, so that he could smite the 
 Egyptians and hurl them into the sea. i6. And on the 
 fifteenth day we bound him, so that he could not accuse the 
 children of Israel on the day when they asked for the utensils 
 and clothing from the men of Egypt, utensils of silver and 
 utensils of gold and utensils of iron, in order to despoil the 
 Egyptians for having served him a service in oppression : and 
 we did not cause the children of Israel to go out of Egypt 
 empty handed. 
 
 Chap. XLIX. i. Remember the command which the Lord 
 commanded thee concerning the Pascah, that thou shalt keep 
 it in its time, on the fourteenth of the first month, that thou 
 shalt kill it before the evening come, and that they shall eat it 
 during the night, on the evening of the fifteenth, from the 
 time of the setting of the sun, for this is the first day of the 
 festival and the first Pascah. 2. But ye were engaged in 
 eating the Pascah in Egypt while all the powers of Mastema 
 were sent forth in Egypt to destroy all the first-born in the 
 land of Egypt, from the first-born, of Pharaoh to the first-born 
 of the captive servant maid in the mill, and down to the 
 the animals. 3. And this is the sign which the Lord gave 
 them : In every house at whose portals they had thrown 
 the blood of a year old sheep, into this house they did not 
 enter to kill those that were locked in it, so that all who were 
 in the house were saved, because the sign of blood was upon 
 the portals. 4. And the powers of the Lord did everything 
 as the Lord commanded them, and they passed by all the 
 sons of Israel, and no plague came over them to destroy any 
 soul from their midst, neither of beast nor of man, not even a 
 dog. And the plague was in. Egypt exceedingly great, and 
 there was no house in Egypt in which there was no dead body 
 and weeping and lamentation. 5. And all Israel was engaged 
 in eating the meat of the Pascah and drinking wine, and they 
 lauded and thanked and blessed the Lord God of their fathers, 
 and were prepared to go out from under the yoke of Egypt 
 
128 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 and from under its slavery. 6. But thou, remember this day all 
 the days of thy life, once in the year, on its day, according to all 
 the law thereof, and thou shalt not change the day for another 
 day, or the month for another month. /. For it is an ordi- 
 nance of eternity, which is engraven on the tablets of heaven 
 concerning the children of Israel, that they shall observe e^ch 
 year by year the festivals ; once a year, in all their generations, 
 and it has no limit of days, for it is ordained for eternity. 
 8. And a man, if he is pure and does not come to observe in 
 its time the day, to bring an offering which is acceptable be- 
 fore the Lord on the day of the festival, and to eat and to 
 drink before the Lord, on the day of his . festival, that man 
 shall be rooted out, if he is pure and near, because he has not 
 brought the offering to the Lord in its time, and that man 
 places a sin upon himself Let the children of Israel, who 
 will yet come, observe the Pascah on the day of its time, on 
 the fourteenth of the first month, between the evenings, in 
 the third part of the day to the third part of the night; for 
 two parts of the day are given to the light and the third to the 
 evening ; this it is that the Lord has commanded that thou 
 shalt observe it between the evenings. 9. And it shall not 
 take place in the morning, at any time of daylight, but only 
 at the limits of the evenings; and they shall eat it, in the time 
 of evening until the third rtight, and whatever is left of all the 
 meat on the third night, they shall again burn in the, fire. 
 10. And they shall not cook it in water and shall not eat it 
 raw, but carefully roasted on the fire and broiled on the fire; 
 its head together with the intestines they shall roast, and its 
 feet, and shall not break any bone within it, for none of the 
 children of Israel shall have any bone broken. 11. On this 
 account the Lord has commanded the children of Israel to ob- 
 serve the Pascah on the day of its time, and that no bone in 
 it shall be broken, for it is a festival and a day commanded, 
 and there must be no change from it from one day to another, 
 or from one month to another, but on the day shall its festi- 
 val be observed. 12. But thou, command the children of 
 Israel that they should observe the Pascah on its days in all 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES, 1 29 
 
 the years, once each year, on the day of its fixed time, and 
 that it shall become a memorial before the Lord which is ac- 
 ceptable, and that no plague come over them to kill them and 
 to scourge them in that year. 13. If they observe the Pascah 
 in its time in everything as they have been commanded, then 
 it is not allowed them to eat it outside of the sanctuary of the 
 Lord, and all the people of the assembly of Israel shall ob- 
 serve it in its time. 14, Every man who is twenty years and 
 above who comes on that day shall eat it in the sanctuary of 
 your God before the Lord, for thus it is written and ordained 
 that they shall eat it in the sanctuary of the Lord. 15. And 
 when the children of Israel come into the land which they 
 shall possess, into the land of Canaan, and plant the tent of 
 the Lord in the midst of the land, within one of their hosts, 
 until the time when the sanctuary of the Lord shall have been 
 built in the land, then they shall come and observe the Pascah 
 in the midst of the tent of the Lord, and shall sacrifice it be- 
 fore the Lord from year to year. 16. And in the days when 
 a house shall have been built in the name of the Lord in the 
 land of their inheritance, they shall go there and slay the 
 Pascah in the evening, as the sun goes down, in the third part 
 of the day. 17. And they shall place the blood on the founda- 
 tion of the altar, and the fat they shall lay upon the fire upon the 
 altar, and shall eat flesh thereof that has been roasted at the 
 fire, in the court of the sanctuary in the name of the Lord. 
 18. And they must not observe the Pascah in their cities and 
 in all their districts, but only before the tent of the Lord or 
 before his house, where his name dwells, so that ye do not 
 trespass against the Lord. 19. But thou, Moses, command 
 the children of Israel, that they shall observe the ordinance of 
 the Pascah as it has been commanded to thee, that they shall 
 observe the day year by year, and its day and the festival of 
 the unleavened bread, that they shall eat unleavened bread 
 seven days, so that they observe its festival, that they bring an 
 offering day by day in these seven days of the Pascah before 
 the Lord on the altar of your God. 20. For this festival ye 
 observed with trembling when ye went out of Egypt until ye 
 
130 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. 
 
 had gone through the sea into the desert of Sur, for on the 
 shore of the sea ye completed it. 
 
 Chap. L. i. And after this law I made known to thee the 
 days of Sabbaths in the desert Sinai, which is between Elam 
 and Sinai. 2. And I told you concerning the Sabbaths of the 
 earth on Mt. Sinai, and concerning the years of jubilees with 
 the Sabbaths ; and also the year I mentioned to you ; but the 
 year thereof we did not tell you, until thou comest into the land 
 which ye shall possess ; and ye shall make the land also 
 observe the Sabbaths for those dwelling in it, and the years 
 of jubilees shall learn. 3. Concerning this I have ordained 
 for thee the weeks of years and the jubilees, from the days of 
 Adam to this day: forty-nine [jubilees] and one week and 
 two years ; and yet forty years are before for learning the 
 commandments of the Lord, until ye cross the border of the 
 land of Canaan, crossing the Jordan on the western side, and 
 jubilees will pass by until Israel shall be cleansed from all 
 fornication and guilt and uncleanness and contamination and 
 sin and transgression, and shall dwell in all the land in safety, 
 and no Satan and no evil one will injure him, and the land 
 will be cleansed from that time on and to eternity. 4. And, 
 behold, the command of the Sabbaths I have written down for 
 thee, and all the judgments of its laws. 5. Six days thou shalt 
 do work, and on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, 
 your God ; ye shall not do any work on it, neither ye, nor 
 your children, nor your male servants, nor your maid servants, 
 nor any of your beasts, nor your stranger who is with you. 6. 
 The man that does any work on it shall die, and every man 
 who desecrates this day, who lies with a wife, and who says 
 that he will do something on it, that he will make a trip on 
 it, or concerning all buying and selling, and who draws water 
 on it which he did not prepare for himself on the sixth day 
 and whoever takes up a burden to carry it out of his tent or 
 out of his house, he shall die. 7. Ye shall not do any work 
 on the Sabbath which ye have not prepared for yourselves on 
 the sixth day, to eat or to drink or to rest or to keep Sabbath 
 from all your work on that day, and to bless the Lord your 
 
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. I3I 
 
 God, who has given it to you as a festival day; and a holy day 
 it shall be, and a day of the holy kingdom, for all Israel this 
 day, among your days, in all the days. 8. For great is the 
 honor which the Lord has given to Israel to eat and to drink 
 and to be satisfied on this festival day, after resting on this 
 ■day from all the work of the children of men, except burning 
 frankincense and bringing offerings and sacrifices before the 
 Lord on the days and the Sabbaths. 9. This work alone shall 
 be done on the Sabbath days, in the sanctuary of the Lord 
 your God, so that these shall appear over Israel as a constant 
 atonement, day by day, as a memorial, which is acceptable 
 before the Lord and received forever, day by day, as I have 
 commanded thee. 10. And every man who does any work 
 on this day, or makes a journey, or works his land, be it in 
 the house or at any other place, and whoever lights a fire or 
 rides upon any beast, or travels by ship upon the sea, and 
 everyone that strikes or kills anything, or kills an animal or a 
 bird, and who catches an animal and bird and fish, and who con- 
 tends or engages in war on the Sabbath day, the man that does 
 any of these things on the Sabbath day, shall die, so that the 
 children of Israel shall observe the Sabbaths, according to the 
 command of the Sabbath of the land, as it is written on the 
 tablets of heaven, which he gave into my hands, that I should 
 write for thee the laws of the times, and the different times in 
 the division of their days.