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Jubilees

About this book

Sabbaths, Weeks, and Jubilees

Chapter 50

1 And after this commandment I made known to you the days of the Sabbaths in the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai. 2 And I told you of the Sabbaths of the land on Mount Sinai, and I told you of the jubilee years in the sabbaths of years: but I have not told you the year of it until you enter the land which you are to possess. 3 And the land also shall keep its sabbaths while they live on it, and they shall know the jubilee year. 4 Therefore I have ordained for you the year-weeks and the years and the jubilees: there are forty-nine jubilees⁠ from the days of Adam until today,⁠ and one week and two years [2410]: and there are yet forty years to come (lit. 'distant') for learning the commandments of the Lord, until they cross into the land of Canaan, crossing the Jordan to the west [2450]. 5 And the jubilees shall pass by, until Israel is cleansed from all guilt of sexual immorality, and impurity, and pollution, and sin, and error, and lives securely in all the land, and there shall be no more a Satan or any evil one, and the land shall be clean from that time forevermore.

The Sabbath Commandments

6 And here is the commandment regarding the Sabbaths — I have written (them) down for you — and all the judgments of its commandments. 7 Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no kind of work, you and your sons, and your male and female servants, and all your cattle and the resident foreigner also who is with you. 8 And the man that does any work on it shall die: whoever desecrates that day, whoever lies with (his) wife, or whoever says he will do something on it, that he will set out on a journey on it in regard to any buying or selling: and whoever draws water on it which he had not prepared for himself on the sixth day, and whoever takes up any burden to carry it out of his tent or out of his house shall die. 9 You shall do no work whatever on the Sabbath day except what you have prepared for yourselves on the sixth day, so as to eat, and drink, and rest, and keep Sabbath from all work on that day, and to bless the Lord your God, who has given you a day of festival and a holy day: and this day is a day of the holy kingdom for all Israel among their days forever. 10 For the honor is great which the Lord has given to Israel that they should eat and drink and be satisfied on this festival day, and rest on it from all labor which belongs to the labor of the human beings except burning frankincense and bringing offerings and sacrifices before the Lord for days and for Sabbaths. 11 This work alone shall be done on the Sabbath-days in the sanctuary of the Lord your God; so that they may atone for Israel with sacrifice continually from day to day for a memorial well-pleasing before the Lord, and that He may receive them always from day to day just as you have been commanded. 12 And every man who does any work on it, or goes on a journey, or cultivates (his) farm, whether in his house or any other place, and whoever lights a fire, or rides on any animal, or travels by ship on the sea, and whoever strikes or kills anything, or slaughters an animal or a bird, or whoever catches an animal or a bird or a fish, or whoever fasts or makes war on the Sabbaths:⁠ 13 The man who does any of these things on the Sabbath shall die, so that the children of Israel shall observe the Sabbaths according to the commandments regarding the Sabbaths of the land, as it is written in the tablets, which He gave into my hands so that I should write out for you the commandments of the seasons, and the seasons according to the division of their days. With this the account of the division of the days is completed.

Texts in conversation

Compare Jubilees 50:12 and 1 Maccabees 2:39

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · Deuterocanon

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Summary

Jubilees bans fighting on the Sabbath and groups it with travel and labor, requiring death for those who disobey. This debate appears in 1 Maccabees, where some refuse to fight yet others decide to defend themselves on the Sabbath.

Passages

Jubilees 50:12

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
11 This work alone shall be done on the Sabbath-days in the sanctuary of the Lord your God; so that they may atone for Israel with sacrifice continually from day to day for a memorial well-pleasing before the Lord, and that He may receive them always from day to day just as you have been commanded. 12 And every man who does any work on it, or goes on a journey, or cultivates (his) farm, whether in his house or any other place, and whoever lights a fire, or rides on any animal, or travels by ship on the sea, and whoever strikes or kills anything, or slaughters an animal or a bird, or whoever catches an animal or a bird or a fish, or whoever fasts or makes war on the Sabbaths: 13 The man who does any of these things on the Sabbath shall die, so that the children of Israel shall observe the Sabbaths according to the commandments regarding the Sabbaths of the land, as it is written in the tablets, which He gave into my hands so that I should write out for you the commandments of the seasons, and the seasons according to the division of their days. With this the account of the division of the days is completed.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

1 Maccabees 2:39

Deuterocanon
36 They didn’t answer them. They didn’t cast a stone at them, or block their secret places, 37 saying, “Let’s all die in our innocence. Heaven and earth testify for us, that you put us to death unjustly.” 38 So they attacked them on the Sabbath, and they died—they, their wives, their children, and their livestock—in number a thousand souls of men. 39 When Mattathias and his friends found out about it, they mourned over them exceedingly. 40 One said to another, “If we all do as our kindred have done, and don’t fight against the Gentiles for our lives and our ordinances, they will quickly destroy us from off the earth.” 41 So they decided that day, saying, “Whoever comes against us to battle on the Sabbath day, let’s fight against him, and we will in no way all die, as our kindred died in the secret places.”
134–63 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Maccabees

References

"... Especially important is the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a key topic of debate in late Second Temple Judaism. Jubilees portrays the patriarchs as having obeyed the Torah, despite the anachronism. In his testamentary speech (chaps. 20-23). 'Abraham warns his sons to practice circumcision, renounce fornication and uncleanness, refrain from marriage with Canaanite women, avoid idolatry, eat no blood, and perform washings before and after sacrifice' (Collins 1998, 80). Nudity is an issue in Jubilees (3:31), something that would be of concern during the Hellenistic Reform. In 50:12, making war is forbidden on the Sabbath. This also was an issue during the Maccabean revolt (1 Macc. 2:3941). Jubilees dates to the Hasmonean period ..."
Frederick James Murphy, Apocalypticism in the Bible and Its World: A Comprehensive Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 166.

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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  • I'd love to have an Ethiopian Bible

    Petronia Mullings, October 25, 2024

Jubilees 50:12 and 1 Maccabees 2:39

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