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Jubilees

About this book

Moses Returns to Egypt

Chapter 48

1 And in the sixth year of the third week of the forty-ninth jubilee [2372] you departed and lived in the land of Midian, five weeks and one year. And you returned into Egypt in the second week in the second year in the fiftieth jubilee. 2 And you yourself know what He spoke to you on Mount Sinai [2410], and what prince Mastema desired to do with you when you were returning into Egypt on the way when you met him at the place where you stayed.⁠ 3 Did he not with all his power seek to kill you and rescue the Egyptians from your power when he saw that you were sent to execute judgment and vengeance on the Egyptians?

The Ten Plagues

4 And I rescued you from his power, and you performed the signs and wonders which you were sent to perform in Egypt against Pharaoh, and against all his house, and against his servants and his people. 5 And the Lord executed a great vengeance on them for Israel's sake, and struck them through (the plagues of) blood and frogs, lice and dog-flies, and severe boils breaking out in blisters; and their cattle by death; and by hailstones, by which He destroyed everything that grew for them; and by locusts which devoured the rest which had been left by the hail, and by darkness; and by the death of the firstborn of men and animals, and on all their idols the Lord took vengeance and burned them with fire. 6 And everything was sent through your hand, so that you should declare (these things) before they were done, and you spoke with the king of Egypt before all his servants and before his people. 7 And everything took place according to your words; ten great and terrible judgments came on the land of Egypt so that you might execute vengeance on it for Israel. 8 And the Lord did everything for Israel's sake, and according to His covenant, which he had ordained with Abraham that He would take vengeance on them as they had brought them by force into slavery.

The Defeat of Mastema and Egypt

9 And the prince Mastema stood up against you, and sought to hand you over to Pharaoh, and he helped the Egyptian sorcerers,⁠ 10 and they stood up and performed before you the evils; indeed we permitted them to work, but we did not allow the remedies to be performed by their hands. 11 And the Lord struck them with severe sores, and they were not able to stand, for we destroyed them so that they could not perform a single sign. 12 And despite all (these) signs and wonders the prince Mastema was not put to shame because he took courage and cried to the Egyptians to pursue you with all the powers of the Egyptians, with their chariots, and with their horses, and with all the armies of the peoples of Egypt. 13 And I stood between the Egyptians and Israel, and we rescued Israel from his power, and out of the hand of his people, and the Lord brought them through the middle of the sea as if it were dry land. 14 And all the peoples whom he brought to pursue Israel, the Lord our God threw them into the middle of the sea, into the depths of the abyss beneath the children of Israel, even as the people of Egypt had cast their children into the river.⁠ He took vengeance on 1,000,000 of them, and one thousand strong and energetic men were destroyed on account of one nursing infant of the children of your people which they had thrown into the river.⁠ 15 And on the fourteenth day and on the fifteenth and on the sixteenth and on the seventeenth and on the eighteenth the prince Mastema was bound and imprisoned behind the children of Israel so that he might not accuse them.⁠ 16 And on the nineteenth we let them loose so that they might help the Egyptians and pursue the children of Israel. 17 And he hardened their hearts and made them stubborn, and the plan was devised by the Lord our God so that He might strike the Egyptians and cast them into the sea. 18 And on the fourteenth we bound him so that he might not accuse the children of Israel on the day when they asked the Egyptians for containers and clothes, containers of silver, and containers of gold, and containers of bronze, in order to strip the possessions of the Egyptians in return for the slavery in which they had forced them to serve. 19 And we did not lead out the children of Israel from Egypt empty-handed.

Texts in conversation

Compare Jubilees 48:15 and Jubilees 49:2

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

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Summary

In Jubilees, the adversary Mastema’s role changes. In chapter 48, he is bound for five days to prevent him from stopping Israel’s escape from Egypt. In chapter 49, however, his forces carry out the final plague, acting as agents of divine judgment.

Passages

Jubilees 48:15

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
14 And all the peoples whom he brought to pursue Israel, the Lord our God threw them into the middle of the sea, into the depths of the abyss beneath the children of Israel, even as the people of Egypt had cast their children into the river. He took vengeance on 1,000,000 of them, and one thousand strong and energetic men were destroyed on account of one nursing infant of the children of your people which they had thrown into the river. 15 And on the fourteenth day and on the fifteenth and on the sixteenth and on the seventeenth and on the eighteenth the prince Mastema was bound and imprisoned behind the children of Israel so that he might not accuse them. 16 And on the nineteenth we let them loose so that they might help the Egyptians and pursue the children of Israel.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

Jubilees 49:2

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
1 Remember the commandment which the Lord commanded you concerning the passover, that you should celebrate it in its season on the fourteenth of the first month, that you should kill it before it is evening, and that they should eat it by night on the evening of the fifteenth from the time of the setting of the sun. 2 For on this night — the beginning of the festival and the beginning of the joy — you were eating the passover in Egypt, when all the powers of Mastema had been let loose to kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive female servant in the mill, and to the cattle. 3 And this is the sign which the Lord gave them: Into every house on the lintels of which they saw the blood of a lamb of the first year, into (that) house they should not enter to kill, but should pass by (it), so that all those should be saved that were in the house because the sign of the blood was on its lintels.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

"... As often in the book, the narrator speaks of the role of “the angel Mastema,” the Satan-like figure who leads the forces of evil. Here, Mastema tries to kill Moses, then, failing that, seeks to aid Pharaoh’s magicians in combating the ten plagues, and still later urges the Egyptians to pursue the departing Israelites - in short, Mastema does everything he can to foil God’s plan to free the Israelites. He actually has to be held in restraints for five days, “bound and locked up” (Jubilees 48:15), to prevent him from succeeding. By contrast, in chapter 49 - largely taken up with detailing the laws of Passover and full of the “terminology of the Heavenly Tablets”—the narrator suddenly reminds Moses of what happened on the fateful night that inaugurated the exodus ... Here, there is a clear about-face: instead of trying to frustrate God’s plans, Mastema’s legions actually become God’s agents, carrying out the tenth plague instead of opposing it ..."
James L. Kugel, A Walk through Jubilees: Studies in the Book of Jubilees and the World of Its Creation (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 229.

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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Jubilees 48:15 and Jubilees 49:2

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