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Jubilees notes in passing that Egypt’s gates closed and Amram stayed behind at Hebron. The Dead Sea Scroll known as the Visions of Amram tells this from Amram’s perspective, adding that the closed border kept him from his wife for forty-one years.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4Q544
Visions of Amram
Dead Sea Scrolls
Qahat there to stay and to bui[ld the tombs of our fathers … many from the sons of my uncle together …] a man, and about our work it was very much un[til the dead were buried … rumour of war, frightening those returning from here to the land of Egypt …] quickly, and they did not build the tombs of their fathers. [And my father Qahat let me go … and to build and to obtain for them … from the land of Canaan …] until we build. Blank And war broke out between [Philistia and Egypt and was winning …] And they closed the b[ord]er of Egypt and it was not possible to […] forty-one years, and we could not […] between Egypt and Canaan and Philistia. Blank […] And [during al]l th[is …] she was not. Blank I, myself,[did not take] ano[ther] woman […] all: that I will return to Egypt in peace and I will see the face of my wife […] in my [vision, the vision of the dream …]
Date: 160 B.C.E. - 60 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Jubilees 46:10
Pseudepigrapha
9 Then the king of Egypt went out to fight with the king of Canaan in the forty-seventh jubilee, in the second week, during its second year [2263]. The Israelites brought out all the bones of Jacob’s sons except Joseph’s bones. They buried them in the field, in the double cave in the mountain. 10 Many returned to Egypt but a few of them remained on the mountain of Hebron. Your father Amram remained with them. 11 The king of Canaan conquered the king of Egypt and closed the gates of Egypt.
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Notes and References
... In this fragmentarily preserved text, we can read that Amram went together with his father Qahat from Egypt to Canaan "to stay and to dwell and to build" the tombs for the burial of their fathers. The reconstructed part of line 1 adds that Amram also went together with the sons of his uncle (compare 4Q545 1a-b 14). This work was interrupted by a rumor of war (thus the reconstructed part of line 2; compare 4Q545 1a-b ii 16: "rumor of war"). It is possible that Amram went back to Egypt together with the others after these rumors (4Q544 1 3: "quickly, and they did not build the tombs of their fathers"), but this is not completely certain. It is also possible that he did not go back to Egypt with the others. After a while, Amram received permission from his father to remain or to go back to Canaan (the reconstructed text of line 3 "And my father Qahat let me go" is taken from 4Q546 2 3) to finish the work ("until we build"). When he was there, war broke out between Philistea, Canaan, and Egypt, and because of this war the borders were closed (line 5) for forty-one years (line 6), during which ...
van Ruiten, Jacques T.A.G.M.
"Between Jacob's Death and Moses' Birth: The Intertextual Relationship between Genesis 50:15-Exodus 1:14 and Jubilees 46:1-16" in Hilhorst, Anthony; Puech, Emile; Tigchelaar, Eibert J.C. (ed.) Flores Florentino: Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Early Jewish Studies in Honour of Florentino Garcia Martinez
(p. 483) Brill, 2007
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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