Rebekah’s Last Instructions

1 And in the first year of the first week of the forty-fifth jubilee [2157] Rebekah called Jacob, her son, and commanded him regarding his father and regarding his brother, that he should honor them all the days of his life. 2 And Jacob said: 'I will do everything as you have commanded me; for this thing will be honor and greatness to me, and righteousness before the Lord, that I should honor them. 3 And you too, mother, know from the time I was born until this day, all my deeds and all that is in my heart, that I always think good concerning all. 4 And how should I not do this thing which you have commanded me, that I should honor my father and my brother! 5 Tell me, mother, what wrongdoing have you seen in me and I shall turn away from it, and mercy will be upon me.' 6 And she said to him: 'My son, I have not seen in you all my days any perverse but (only) upright deeds. And yet I will tell you the truth, my son: I shall die this year, and I shall not survive this year in my life; for I have seen in a dream the day of my death, that I should not live beyond a hundred and fifty-five years: and look, I have completed all the days of my life which I am to live.' 7 And Jacob laughed at the words of his mother, because his mother had said to him that she should die; and she was sitting opposite to him still strong, and she was not physically weak; for she went in and out and saw, and her teeth were strong, and no ailment had touched her all the days of her life. 8 And Jacob said to her: 'Blessed am I, mother, if my days approach the days of your life, and my strength remains with me as yours has: and you will not die, for you are joking with me regarding your death.' 9 And she went in to Isaac and said to him: 'I make one request to you: make Esau swear that he will not injure Jacob, nor pursue him with enmity; for you know Esau's thoughts that they are perverse from his youth, and there is no goodness in him; for he desires after your death to kill him. 10 And you know all that he has done since the day Jacob his brother went to Haran until this day: how he has abandoned us with his whole heart, and has done evil to us; he has taken your flocks to himself, and carried off all your possessions from your presence. 11 And when we pleaded with and begged him for what was our own, he did as a man who was taking pity on us. 12 And he is bitter against you because you blessed Jacob your perfect and upright son; for there is no evil but only goodness in him, and since he came from Haran to this day he has not robbed us of anything, for he brings us everything in its season always, and rejoices with all his heart when we take from him and he blesses us, and has not left us since he came from Haran until this day, and he remains with us continually at home honoring us.' 13 And Isaac said to her: 'I, too, know and see the deeds of Jacob who is with us, how with all his heart he honors us and carries out our wishes; but I loved Esau more than Jacob, because he was the firstborn; but now I love Jacob more than Esau, for he has done many evil deeds,⁠a and there is no righteousness in him, for all his ways are unrighteousness and violence, [and there is no righteousness around him.] 14 And now my heart is troubled because of all his deeds, and neither he nor his descendants are to be saved, for they are those who will be destroyed from the earth and who will be rooted out from under heaven,⁠b for he has abandoned the God of Abraham and gone after his wives and after their impurity and after their error, he and his children. 15 And you ask me to make him swear that he will not kill Jacob his brother; even if he swears he will not keep his oath, and he will not do good but evil only. 16 But if he desires to kill Jacob, his brother, he will be given into Jacob's hands, and he will not escape from his hands, [for he will descend into his hands.] 17 And do not fear on account of Jacob; for the guardian of Jacob is great and powerful and honored, and praised more than the guardian of Esau. For like dust before [...] all the guardians of Esau [...]'⁠c

Rebekah’s Instructions to Esau

18 And Rebekah sent and called Esau and he came to her, and she said to him: 'I have a request, my son, to make to you, and promise to do it, my son.' 19 And he said: 'I will do everything that you say to me, and I will not refuse your request.' 20 And she said to him: 'I ask you that the day I die, you will take me in and bury me near Sarah, your father's mother, and that you and Jacob will love each other and that neither will desire evil against the other, but mutual love only,⁠d and (so) you will prosper, my sons, and be honored in the midst of the land, and no enemy will rejoice over you, and you will be a blessing and a mercy in the eyes of all those that love you.' 21 And he said: 'I will do all that you have told me, and I shall bury you on the day you die near Sarah, my father's mother, as you have desired that her bones may be near your bones. 22 And I shall also love Jacob, my brother, above all flesh; for I have not a brother in all the earth but him only: and this is no great merit for me if I love him; for he is my brother, and we were sown together in your body, and together we came from your womb, and if I do not love my brother, whom shall I love? 23 And I, myself, beg you to urge Jacob concerning me and concerning my sons, for I know that he will certainly be king over me and my sons, for on the day my father blessed him he made him the higher and me the lower. 24 And I swear to you that I shall love him, and not desire evil against him all the days of my life but good only.' And he swore to her regarding all this matter. 25 And she called Jacob in Esau's presence, and gave him instructions according to the words which she had spoken to Esau. 26 And he said: 'I shall do as you wish; believe me that no evil will proceed from me or from my sons against Esau, and I shall be first in nothing except in love only.' 27 And they ate and drank, she and her sons that night, and she died,⁠e three jubilees and one week and one year old, on that night, and her two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried her in the double cave near Sarah, their father's mother.