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Jubilees

About this book

Abram in Canaan

Chapter 13

1 And Abram journeyed from Haran, and he took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother Haran's son, to the land of Canaan, and he came into Asshur, and proceeded to Shechem, and lived near a tall oak. 2 And he saw, and, look, the land was very pleasant from the entering of Hamath to the tall oak. 3 And the Lord said to him: 'To you and to your descendants I will give this land.' 4 And he built an altar there, and he offered on it a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 5 And he moved from there to the mountain, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and pitched his tent there. 6 And he saw and look, the land was very wide and good, and everything grew on it — vines and figs and pomegranates, oaks and holm oaks, and terebinths and olive trees, and cedars and cypresses and date trees, and all trees of the field, and there was water on the mountains. 7 And he blessed the Lord who had led him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and had brought him to this land. 8 And in the first year, in the seventh week, on the new moon of the first month, [1954] he built an altar on this mountain, and called on the name of the Lord: 'You, the eternal God, are my God.' 9 And he offered on the altar a burnt sacrifice to the Lord so that He would be with him and not abandon him all the days of his life.

The Journey to Egypt

10 And he moved from there and went toward the south, and he came to Hebron and Hebron was built at that time, and he lived there two years, and he went (from there) into the land of the south, to Bealoth, and there was a famine in the land. 11 And Abram went into Egypt in the third year of the week, and he lived in Egypt five years before his wife was torn away from him.⁠ 12 Now Tanais in Egypt was at that time built — seven years after Hebron. 13 And when Pharaoh seized Sarai, the wife of Abram, the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 14 And Abram was extremely wealthy in property in sheep, and cattle, and donkeys, and horses, and camels, and male and female servants, and in a great deal of silver and gold. And Lot also his brother's son, was wealthy. 15 And Pharaoh gave back Sarai, the wife of Abram, and he sent him out of the land of Egypt, and he journeyed to the place where he had pitched his tent at the beginning, to the place of the altar, with Ai on the east, and Bethel on the west, and he blessed the Lord his God who had brought him back in peace. 16 And in the forty-first jubilee in the third year of the first week, [1963] he returned to this place and offered on it a burnt sacrifice, and called on the name of the Lord, and said: 'You, the most high God, are my God forever and ever.' 17 And in the fourth year of this week [1964] Lot separated from him, and Lot lived in Sodom, and the men of Sodom were extremely sinful. 18 And it grieved him in his heart that his brother's son had separated from him; for he had no children. 19 In that year when Lot was taken captive, the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, in the fourth year of this week: 'Look up from the place where you are living, northward and southward, and westward and eastward. 20 For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever, and I will make your descendants as the sand of the sea: if a person can count the dust of the earth, your descendants can also be counted. 21 Get up, walk (through the land) through its length and width, and see it all; for to your descendants I will give it.' And Abram went to Hebron, and lived there.

The War of the Kings and the Tithe

22 And in this year came Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Sellasar, and Tergal, king of nations, and killed the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Sodom fled, and many fell through wounds in the valley of Siddim, by the Salt Sea. 23 And they took captive Sodom and Adam and Zeboim, and they took captive Lot also, the son of Abram's brother, and all his possessions, and they went to Dan. 24 And one who had escaped came and told Abram that his brother's son had been taken captive and (Abram) armed his household servants. 25 [After defeating the kings, Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. This became] for Abram, and for his descendants, a tenth of the first fruits to the Lord, and the Lord ordained it as an ordinance forever that they should give it to the priests who served before Him, that they should possess it forever. 26 And to this commandment there is no limit of days; for He has ordained it for the generations forever that they should give to the Lord the tenth of everything, of the seed and of the wine and of the oil and of the cattle and of the sheep. 27 And He gave (it) to His priests to eat and to drink with joy before Him. 28 And the king of Sodom came to him and bowed down before him, and said: 'Our Lord Abram, give to us the people you have rescued, but let the captured goods be yours.' 29 And Abram said to him: 'I lift up my hands to the Most High God, that from a thread to a sandal strap I shall not take anything that is yours so that you cannot say, I have made Abram rich; except what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me — Aner, Eschol, and Mamre. These shall take their portion.'

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 12:13 and Jubilees 13:11

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

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Summary

Jubilees retells the story of Abraham and Sarah’s journey to Egypt but adds a five-year gap before Sarah is taken to Pharaoh’s house. Genesis presents these events as immediate, but Jubilees changes it so the events are less sudden and shocking.

Passages

Genesis 12:13

Hebrew Bible
11 As he approached Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman. 12 When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will keep you alive. 13 So tell them you are my sister so that it may go well for me because of you and my life will be spared on account of you.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 When Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. So Abram’s wife was taken into the household of Pharaoh, 16 and he did treat Abram well on account of her. Abram received sheep and cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Jubilees 13:11

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
10 And he moved from there and went toward the south, and he came to Hebron and Hebron was built at that time, and he lived there two years, and he went (from there) into the land of the south, to Bealoth, and there was a famine in the land. 11 And Abram went into Egypt in the third year of the week, and he lived in Egypt five years before his wife was torn away from him. 12 Now Tanais in Egypt was at that time built — seven years after Hebron. 13 And when Pharaoh seized Sarai, the wife of Abram, the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

"... This journey to Egypt certainly troubled interpreters. For one thing, as the couple was preparing to cross the Egyptian border, Abraham instructed the beautiful Sarah to tell the Egyptians that she was his sister rather than his wife, lest they kill him in order to take her for themselves. "Say you are my sister," he says, "so that it may go well with me because of you, and so that my life may be spared on your account" (Genesis 12:13). These hardly sounded like heroic words! To make matters worse, the Bible records that Sarah acted on Abraham's advice and that, as a result, she was taken by Pharaoh to his palace for an unspecified period of time ... Interpreters were understandably disturbed by Abraham's apparent cowardice and subsequent silence ... Many ancient writers, in retelling the story, thus felt entitled to add in what the story had somehow left out, an account of Abraham's deep distress at these events ..."
James L. Kugel, The Bible as It Was (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), 143.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 12:13 and Jubilees 13:11

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