Jubilees

Moses at Sinai

1 And in the first year of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the third month, on the sixteenth day of the month, [2450] God spoke to Moses, saying: 'Come up to Me on the Mount, and I will give you two stone tablets of the Torah and of the commandment, which I have written, so that you may teach them.'⁠a 2 And Moses went up onto the mountain of God, and the glory of the Lord stayed on Mount Sinai, and a cloud covered it for six days. 3 And He called to Moses on the seventh day from within the cloud, and the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a flaming fire on the top of the mountain. 4 And Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights, and God showed him the past and the future and told him about all the divisions of time of the Torah and of the testimony.⁠b

The Covenant and Israel’s Future

5 And He said: 'Pay close attention to every word which I shall speak to you on this mountain, and write them in a book so that their descendants may know that I have not abandoned them for all the evil which they have done by breaking the covenant which I establish between Me and your children for their generations today on Mount Sinai.⁠c 6 And when all these things happen to them, they will recognize that I am more righteous than they in all their judgments and in all their curses, and they will recognize that I have been truly with them. 7 And write for yourself all these words which I declare to you today, for I know their rebellion and their stubbornness,⁠d before I bring them into the land which I promised by oath to their ancestors, to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, saying: 'To your descendants I will give a land flowing with milk and honey. 8 And they will eat and be satisfied, and they will turn to foreign gods, to (gods) which cannot rescue them from any of their troubles: and this testimony shall testify against them. 9 For they will forget all My commandments, (even) all that I command them, and they will follow the nations, and their impurity, and their shameful practices, and will serve their gods, and these will prove to them a stumbling block, trouble, suffering, and a trap. 10 And many will perish and they will be taken captive, and will fall into the hands of the enemy, because they have abandoned My ordinances and My commandments, and the festivals of My covenant, and My sabbaths, and My holy things which they have made holy for Me among them, and My tabernacle, and My sanctuary, which I have made holy for Myself in the middle of the land, so that I could put My name on it, and that it should remain (there). 11 And they will make for themselves high places and sacred groves and carved images, and they will worship, each his own (carved image), so as to go astray, and they will sacrifice their children to demons, and to everything their misguided hearts devise.⁠e 12 And I will send witnesses to them, so that I may testify against them, but they will not listen, and will kill the witnesses also, and they will persecute those who seek the Torah, and they will discard and change everything so as to do evil before My eyes. 13 And I will hide My face from them, and I will hand them over to the nations for captivity, and to be plundered and devoured, and I will remove them from the land, and I will scatter them among the nations. 14 And they will forget all My Torah and all My commandments and all My judgments, and will forget new moons, and sabbaths, and festivals, and jubilees, and ordinances. 15 And after this they will turn to Me from among the nations with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength, and I will gather them from among all the nations, and they will seek Me, so that I shall be found by them, when they seek Me with all their heart and with all their soul. 16 And I will reveal abundant peace to them with righteousness, and I will plant them as an upright plant, with all My heart and with all My soul, and they shall be a blessing and not for a curse, and they shall be the head and not the tail. 17 And I will build My sanctuary among them, and I will live with them, and I will be their God and they shall be My people in truth and righteousness. 18 And I will not abandon them or fail them; for I am the Lord their God.'

Moses Prays for Israel

19 And Moses bowed facedown and prayed, 'Lord my God, do not abandon Your people and Your inheritance, or allow them to follow their misguided hearts, and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies, the nations, so that they do not rule over them and cause them to sin against You. 20 Let Your mercy, Lord, extend over Your people, and create in them an upright spirit, and do not let the spirit of Beliar rule over them⁠f to accuse them before You, and to trap them and lead them away from all the paths of righteousness, so that they may be destroyed from Your presence. 21 But they are Your people and Your inheritance, which You have rescued with Your great power from the hands of the Egyptians: create in them a clean heart and a holy spirit, and do not let them be trapped in their sins from now on until eternity.' 22 And the Lord said to Moses: 'I know their defiance and their thoughts and their stubbornness, and they will not be obedient until they confess their own sin and the sin of their ancestors. 23 And after this they will turn to Me in all uprightness and with all (their) heart and with all (their) soul, and I will circumcise the foreskin of their heart and the foreskin of the heart of their descendants, and I will create in them a holy spirit,⁠g and I will cleanse them so that they shall not turn away from Me from that day to eternity. 24 And their souls will cling to Me and to all My commandments, and they will fulfill My commandments, and I will be their Father and they shall be My children. 25 And they all shall be called children of the living God, and every angel and every spirit shall know, yes, they shall know that these are My children, and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness, and that I love them. 26 And write down for yourself all these words which I declare to you on this mountain, the first and the last, which shall happen in all the divisions of the days in the Torah and in the testimony and in the weeks and the jubilees to eternity, until I descend and live with them throughout eternity.'

The Angel Is Commissioned

27 And He said to the angel of the presence:⁠h Dictate to Moses from the beginning of creation until My sanctuary has been built among them for all eternity. 28 And the Lord will appear in everyone's sight, and all shall know that I am the God of Israel and the Father of all the children of Jacob, and King on Mount Zion for all eternity. And Zion and Jerusalem shall be holy.' 29 And the angel of the presence who went ahead of the camp of Israel⁠i took the tablets of the divisions of the years — from the time of the creation — of the Torah and of the testimony of the weeks of the jubilees, according to the individual years, according to all the number of the jubilees [according to the individual years], from [the time of the first creation until] the new creation when the heavens and the earth shall be renewed and all their creation according to the powers of heaven,⁠j and according to all the creation of the earth, until the sanctuary of the Lord shall be made in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and all the heavenly lights be renewed for healing and for peace and for blessing for all the chosen people of Israel, and that it may be this way from that day and to all the days of the earth.⁠k

The Creation

1 And the angel of the presence spoke to Moses according to the word of the Lord,⁠a saying: Write the complete history of the creation, how in six days the Lord God finished all His works and all that He created, and kept Sabbath on the seventh day and made it holy for all ages,⁠b and appointed it as a sign for all His works. 2 For on the first day He created the heavens which are above and the earth and the waters and all the spirits which serve before him — the angels of the presence, and the angels of sanctification, and the angels [of the spirit of fire and the angels] of the spirit of the winds,⁠c and the angels of the spirit of the clouds, and of darkness, and of snow and of hail and of hoar frost,⁠d and the angels of the voices and of the thunder and of the lightning, and the angels of the spirits of cold and of heat, and of winter and of spring and of autumn and of summer and of all the spirits of his creatures which are in the heavens and on the earth, (He created) the abysses and the darkness, evening and night, and the light, dawn and day, which He has prepared in the knowledge of his heart.⁠e 3 And then we saw His works, and praised Him, and offered praise before Him for all His works; for He created seven great works on the first day. 4 And on the second day He created the vault of the sky between the waters, and the waters were divided on that day — half of them went up above and half of them went down below the vault of the sky (that was) in the middle above the surface of the whole earth. And this was the only work (God) created on the second day. 5 And on the third day He commanded the waters to move from the surface of the whole earth into one place, and the dry land to appear. 6 And the waters did so as He commanded them, and they withdrew from the surface of the earth into one place outside of this vault of the sky, and the dry land appeared. 7 And on that day He created for them all the seas according to their separate gathering places, and all the rivers, and the gatherings of the waters in the mountains and on all the earth, and all the lakes, and all the dew of the earth, and the seed which is sown, and all sprouting things, and fruit-bearing trees, and forest trees, and the garden of Eden, in Eden and all plants according to their kinds. These four great works God created on the third day.⁠f 8 And on the fourth day He created the sun and the moon and the stars, and set them in the vault of the sky, to give light on all the earth, and to rule over the day and the night, and divide the light from the darkness. 9 And God appointed the sun to be a great sign on the earth for days and for sabbaths and for months and for feasts and for years and for sabbaths of years and for jubilees and for all seasons of the years.⁠g 10 And it divides the light from the darkness [and] for prosperity, so that everything that sprouts and grows may flourish on the earth. These three kinds He made on the fourth day. 11 And on the fifth day He created great sea monsters in the depths of the waters, for these were the first things of flesh that were created by his hands, the fish and everything that moves in the waters, and everything that flies, the birds and all their kind. 12 And the sun rose above them to prosper (them), and above everything that was on the earth, everything that sprouts from the ground, and all fruit-bearing trees, and all flesh. These three kinds He created on the fifth day. 13 And on the sixth day He created all the animals of the earth, and all cattle, and everything that moves on the earth. 14 And after all this He created man, a man and a woman He created them,⁠h and gave him authority over all that is on the earth, and in the seas, and over everything that flies, and over wild animals and over cattle, and over everything that moves on the earth, and over the whole earth, and over all this He gave him authority. And these four kinds He created on the sixth day. 15 And there were altogether twenty-two kinds. 16 And He finished all his work on the sixth day⁠i — all that is in the heavens and on the earth, and in the seas and in the abysses, and in the light and in the darkness, and in everything.

The Sabbath and Israel

17 And He gave us a great sign, the Sabbath day, that we should work six days, but keep Sabbath on the seventh day from all work. 18 And all the angels of the presence, and all the angels of sanctification, these two great groups — He has commanded us to keep the Sabbath with Him in heaven and on earth. 19 And He said to us: 'Look, I will separate to Myself a people from among all the peoples, and these shall keep the Sabbath day, and I will sanctify them to Myself as My people, and will bless them; as I have sanctified the Sabbath day and do sanctify (it) to Myself, in the same way I will bless them, and they shall be My people and I will be their God. 20 And I have chosen the descendants of Jacob from among all that I have seen, and have written him down as My firstborn son,⁠j and have sanctified him to Myself forever and ever; and I will teach them the Sabbath day, so that they may keep Sabbath on it from all work.' 21 And thus He created in it a sign in accordance with which they should keep Sabbath with us on the seventh day, to eat and to drink, and to bless Him who has created all things as He has blessed and sanctified to Himself a people of His own above all peoples, and that they should keep Sabbath together with us. 22 And He caused His commands to rise as a pleasing aroma acceptable before Him all the days. 23 There (were) twenty-two leaders of humanity from Adam until him, and twenty-two kinds of work were made until the seventh day; this is blessed and holy; and the former also is blessed and holy; and the two work together for sanctification and blessing. 24 And to this (Jacob and his descendants) it was granted that they should always be the blessed and holy ones. This is the testimony and the first commandment, just as He had sanctified and blessed the Sabbath day on the seventh day. 25 He created heaven and earth and everything that He created in six days, and God made the seventh day holy, for all His works; therefore He commanded on its behalf that, whoever does any work on it shall die, and that he who defiles it shall surely die. 26 Therefore command the children of Israel to observe this day so that they may keep it holy and not do any work on it, and not to defile it, as it is holier than all other days. 27 And whoever profanes it shall surely die, and whoever does any work on it shall surely be cut off eternally, so that the children of Israel may observe this day throughout their generations, and not be cut off from the land; for it is a holy day and a blessed day. 28 And everyone who observes it and keeps Sabbath on it from all his work, will be holy and blessed throughout all days like us. 29 Tell the children of Israel the commandment of this day both that they should keep Sabbath on it, and that they should not neglect it through their misguided thinking; (and) that it is not lawful to do any work on it which is improper, to do whatever they please on it, and that they should not prepare anything on it to be eaten or drunk, and (that it is not lawful) to draw water, or bring in or take out on that day through their gates anything they carry, which they had not prepared for themselves on the sixth day in their homes. 30 And they shall not bring in nor take out from house to house on that day; for that day is more holy and blessed than any jubilee day of the jubilees; on this we kept Sabbath in the heavens before it was made known to any human being to keep Sabbath on it on the earth. 31 And the Creator of all things blessed it, but he did not sanctify all peoples and nations to keep Sabbath on it, but Israel alone: them alone he permitted to eat and drink and to keep Sabbath on it on the earth. 32 And the Creator of all things blessed this day which He had created for blessing and holiness and glory above all days. 33 This commandment and testimony was given to the children of Israel as a commandment forever to their generations.

Adam and Eve

1 And on the six days of the second week we brought, according to the word of God, to Adam all the wild animals, and all the cattle, and all the birds, and everything that moves on the earth,⁠a and everything that moves in the water, according to their kinds, and according to their types: the wild animals on the first day; the cattle on the second day; the birds on the third day; and all that which moves on the earth on the fourth day; and that which moves in the water on the fifth day. 2 And Adam named them all by their individual names, and as he called them, so was their name. 3 And on these five days Adam saw all these, male and female, according to every kind that was on the earth, but he was alone and found no helper for himself. 4 And the Lord said to us: 'It is not good that the man should be alone: let us make a helper for him.' 5 And the Lord our God caused a deep sleep to fall upon him, and he slept, and He took for the woman one rib from among his ribs, and this rib was the origin of the woman from among his ribs, and He built up the flesh in its place, and built the woman. 6 And He woke Adam out of his sleep and when he woke up he got up on the sixth day, and He brought her to him, and he knew her, and said to her: 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called [my] wife; because she was taken from her husband.' 7 Therefore man and wife shall be one and therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and cling to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

Childbirth and Purity

8 In the first week Adam was created, and the rib — his wife: in the second week He showed her to him: and for this reason the commandment was given to keep in their defilement, for a male seven days, and for a female twice seven days.⁠b 9 And after Adam had completed forty days in the land where he had been created, we brought him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it,⁠c but they brought his wife in on the eightieth day, and after this she entered into the garden of Eden. 10 And for this reason the commandment is written on the heavenly tablets concerning a woman who gives birth: 'if she bears a male, she shall remain in her impurity seven days according to the first week of days, and she shall remain thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying, and she shall not touch any holy thing, nor enter into the sanctuary, until she completes these days which (are required) in the case of a male child. 11 But in the case of a female child she shall remain in her impurity two weeks of days, according to the first two weeks, and sixty-six days in the blood of her purification, and they will be in all eighty days.' 12 And when she had completed these eighty days we brought her into the garden of Eden, for it is holier than all the earth besides and every tree that is planted in it is holy. 13 Therefore, the following rule was established for a woman who bears a male or a female child during those days: she should touch no holy thing, nor enter into the sanctuary until these days for the male or female child are completed. 14 This is the commandment and testimony which was written down for Israel, in order that they should observe (it) all the days. 15 And in the first week of the first jubilee, [1-7] Adam and his wife were in the garden of Eden for seven years cultivating and caring for it, and we gave him work and we instructed him to do everything that is needed to cultivate the ground. 16 And he cultivated (the garden), and was naked and did not know it, and was not ashamed, and he protected the garden from the birds and wild animals and cattle, and gathered its fruit, and ate, and put aside the rest for himself and for his wife [and put aside that which was being kept].

Sin and Expulsion from Eden

17 And after the completion of the seven years, which he had completed there, seven years exactly [8], and in the second month, on the seventeenth day⁠d (of the month), the serpent came and approached the woman, and the serpent said to the woman, 'Has God commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' 18 And she said to it, 'Of all the fruit of the trees of the garden God has said to us, Eat; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden God has said to us, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, so that you do not die.' 19 And the serpent said to the woman, 'You shall not surely die: for God knows that on the day you shall eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, and you will know good and evil. 20 And the woman saw the tree that it was attractive and pleasant to look at, and that its fruit was good for food,⁠e and she took of it and ate. 21 And when she had first covered her shame with fig leaves, she gave of it to Adam and he ate, and his eyes were opened, and he saw that he was naked. 22 And he took fig leaves and sewed (them) together, and made an apron for himself, and covered his shame. 23 And God cursed the serpent, and was angry with it forever. And He was angry with the woman, because she listened to the voice of the serpent, and ate; 24 and He said to her: 'I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your pains: in sorrow you shall give birth to children, and your return shall be to your husband, and he will rule over you.'⁠f 25 And to Adam also he said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat of it, the ground is cursed because of you: thorns and thistles it shall produce for you, and you shall eat your bread by the sweat of your face, until you return to the earth from where you were taken; for you are earth, and you shall return to earth.' 26 And He made for them clothes made from skins, and clothed them, and sent them out from the Garden of Eden. 27 And on that day on which Adam went out from the Garden, he offered as a pleasing aroma an offering, frankincense, galbanum, and stacte, and spices in the morning with the rising of the sun from the day when he covered his shame. 28 And on that day the mouth of all wild animals, and of cattle, and of birds, and of whatever walks, and of whatever moves, was closed, so that they could no longer speak: for they had all spoken to one another with one language and one tongue.⁠g 29 And He sent out of the Garden of Eden all flesh that was in the Garden of Eden, and all flesh was scattered according to its kinds, and according to its types to the places which had been created for them. 30 And to Adam alone He gave (the means) to cover his shame, of all the wild animals and cattle.⁠h 31 For this reason, it is prescribed on the heavenly tablets regarding all those who know the judgment of the Torah,⁠i that they should cover their shame, and should not uncover themselves as the nations uncover themselves. 32 And on the new moon of the fourth month, Adam and his wife went out from the Garden of Eden, and they lived in the land of Elda in the land of their creation. 33 And Adam named his wife Eve. 34 And they had no son until the first jubilee, [8] and after this he knew her. 35 Now he cultivated the land as he had been instructed in the Garden of Eden.

The First Generations

1 And in the third week in the second jubilee [64-70] she gave birth to Cain, and in the fourth [71-77] she gave birth to Abel, and in the fifth [78-84] she gave birth to her daughter Âwân. 2 And in the first (year) of the third jubilee [99-105], Cain killed Abel because (God) accepted the sacrifice of Abel, and did not accept the offering of Cain. 3 And he killed him in the field: and his blood cried from the ground to heaven, complaining because he had killed him. 4 And the Lord rebuked Cain because of Abel, because he had killed him, and he made him a fugitive on the earth because of the blood of his brother, and he cursed him upon the earth. 5 And on this account it is written on the heavenly tablets, 'Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor treacherously, and let all who have seen and heard say, So be it; and the man who has seen and not reported (it), let him be cursed like the other.' 6 And for this reason we announce when we come before the Lord our God all the sin which is committed in heaven and on earth, and in light and in darkness, and everywhere. 7 And Adam and his wife mourned for Abel four weeks of years, [99-127] and in the fourth year of the fifth week [130] they became joyful, and Adam knew his wife again, and she bore him a son, and he named him Seth; for he said 'GOD has raised up a another descendant to us on the earth instead of Abel; for Cain killed him.' 8 And in the sixth week [134-40] he fathered his daughter Azûrâ. 9 And Cain took Âwân his sister to be his wife and she bore him Enoch at the close of the fourth jubilee [190-196]. And in the first year of the first week of the fifth jubilee, [197] houses were built on the earth, and Cain built a city, and named it after his son Enoch. 10 And Adam knew Eve his wife and she bore nine more sons.⁠a 11 And in the fifth week of the fifth jubilee [225-31] Seth took Azûrâ his sister to be his wife, and in the fourth (year of the sixth week) [235] she bore him Enosh. 12 He began to call on the name of the Lord on the earth. 13 And in the seventh jubilee in the third week [309-15] Enosh took Nôâm his sister to be his wife, and she bore him a son in the third year of the fifth week [325], and he named him Kenan. 14 And at the close of the eighth jubilee [386-392] Kenan took Mûalêlêth his sister to be his wife, and she bore him a son in the ninth jubilee, in the first week in the third year of this week, [395] and he named him Mahalalel. 15 And in the second week of the tenth jubilee [449-55] Mahalalel married Dinah, the daughter of Barakiel the daughter of his father's brother, and she bore him a son in the third week in the sixth year, [461] and he named him Jared, for in his days the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those who are named the Watchers, that they should instruct the human beings, and that they should act justly and uprightly on the earth.⁠b 16 And in the eleventh jubilee [491-539] Jared married a woman named Baraka, the daughter of Râsûjâl, a daughter of his father's brother, in the fourth week of this jubilee, [512-18] and she bore him a son in the fifth week, in the fourth year of the jubilee [522], and he named him Enoch.

Enoch and His Writings

17 And he was the first among men that are born on earth who learned writing and knowledge and wisdom and who wrote down the signs of heaven according to the order of their months in a book, so that people might know the seasons of the years according to the order of their separate months. 18 And he was the first to write a testimony and he testified to the human beings among the generations of the earth, and recounted the weeks of the jubilees, and made known to them the days of the years, and set in order the months and recounted the Sabbaths of the years as we made (them) known to him.⁠c 19 And what was and what will be he saw in a vision of his sleep, as it will happen to the human beings throughout their generations until the day of judgment; he saw and understood everything, and wrote his testimony, and placed the testimony on earth for all the human beings and for their generations.⁠d 20 And in the twelfth jubilee, [582-88] in its seventh week, he married a woman named Edna,⁠e the daughter of Danel, the daughter of his father's brother, and in the sixth year in this week [587] she bore him a son and he named him Methuselah. 21 And he was moreover with the angels of God these six jubilees of years, and they showed him everything which is on earth and in the heavens, the rule of the sun, and he wrote down everything. 22 And he testified to the Watchers, who had sinned with the daughters of men; for these had begun to unite themselves, so as to be defiled, with the daughters of men, and Enoch testified against (them) all.⁠f 23 And he was taken from among the human beings, and we led him into the Garden of Eden⁠g in majesty and honor, and there he writes down the condemnation and judgment of the world, and all the wickedness of the human beings. 24 And on account of it (God) brought the waters of the flood upon all the land of Eden; for there he was set as a sign and so that he should testify against all the human beings, so that he should recount all the deeds of the generations until the day of condemnation. 25 And he burned the incense of the sanctuary, (even) sweet spices acceptable before the Lord on the Mount.⁠h 26 For the Lord has four places on the earth, the Garden of Eden, and the Mount of the East, and this mountain on which you are today, Mount Sinai, and Mount Zion (which) will be sanctified in the new creation for a sanctification of the earth; through it the earth will be sanctified from all (its) guilt and its impurity throughout the generations of the world. 27 And in the fourteenth jubilee [652] Methuselah married, Edna the daughter of Azrial, the daughter of his father's brother, in the third week, in the first year of this week, [652] and he fathered a son and named him Lamech. 28 And in the fifteenth jubilee in the third week [701-707] Lamech married a woman named Betenos the daughter of Baraki'il, the daughter of his father's brother, and in this week she bore him a son and he named him Noah, saying, 'This one will comfort me for my trouble and all my work, and for the ground which the Lord has cursed.'

The Deaths of Adam and Cain

29 And at the close of the nineteenth jubilee, in the seventh week in its sixth year [930], Adam died, and all his sons buried him in the land of his creation, and he was the first to be buried in the earth.⁠i 30 And he lacked seventy years of one thousand years; for one thousand years are as one day in the testimony of the heavens⁠j and therefore it was written concerning the tree of knowledge: 'On the day that you eat of it you shall die.' For this reason he did not complete the years of this day; for he died during it. 31 At the close of this jubilee Cain was killed after him in the same year; for his house fell upon him and he died inside his house, and he was killed by its stones; for with a stone he had killed Abel, and by a stone he was killed in righteous judgment.⁠k 32 For this reason it was ordained on the heavenly tablets: With the instrument with which a man kills his neighbor with the same he shall be killed; in the same way that he wounded him, in the same way they shall deal with him.'⁠l 33 And in the twenty-fifth jubilee Noah married a woman named `Emzârâ, the daughter of Râkê'êl, the daughter of his father's brother, in the first year in the fifth week [1205]: and in its third year [1207] she bore him Shem, in its fifth year [1209] she bore him Ham, and in the first year in the sixth week [1212] she bore him Japheth.

The Watchers and the Growth of Evil

1 And when the human beings began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the angels of God saw them in a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look at; and they married whichever women they chose,⁠a and they bore them sons and they were giants.⁠b 2 And lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle and wild animals and birds and everything that walks on the earth — all of them corrupted their ways and their proper order,⁠c and they began to devour each other, and lawlessness increased on the earth and everything all people imagined and thought (was) thus evil continually. 3 And God looked at the earth, and it was corrupt, and all flesh had corrupted its orders, and all that were upon the earth had done every kind of evil before His eyes. 4 And He said that He would destroy man and all flesh upon the face of the earth which He had created. 5 But Noah found grace before the eyes of the Lord. 6 And against the angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was extremely angry, and He gave orders to root them out of all their authority, and He told us to bind them in the depths of the earth, and they are bound within them, and are (kept) separate.⁠d 7 And against their sons He issued a command that they should be struck down with the sword, and be removed from under heaven. 8 And He said 'My spirit shall not always remain with human beings; for they also are flesh and their days shall be one hundred and twenty years'. 9 And He sent His sword into their midst that each should kill his neighbor, and they began to kill each other until they all fell by the sword and were destroyed from the earth. 10 And their fathers were witnesses (of their destruction), and after this they were bound in the depths of the earth forever, until the day of the great condemnation,⁠e when judgment is executed on all those who have corrupted their ways and their works before the Lord. 11 And He destroyed all from their places, and there was not one of them left whom He did not judge according to all their wickedness. 12 And he made for all his works a new and righteous nature, so that they should not sin in their whole nature forever, but should be all righteous each in his kind always.

Divine Justice and Human Judgment

13 And the judgment of all is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets in righteousness — even (the judgment of) all who depart from the path which is ordained for them to walk in; and if they do not walk in it, judgment is written down for every creature and for every kind. 14 And there is nothing in heaven or on earth, or in light or in darkness, or in Sheol or in the depth, or in the place of darkness (which is not judged); and all their judgments are ordained and written and engraved. 15 In regard to all He will judge, the great according to his greatness, and the small according to his smallness, and each according to his way. 16 And He is not one who will show favoritism (to anyone), nor is He one who will accept bribes, if He says that He will execute judgment on each: if one gave everything that is on the earth, He will not accept the bribes or show favoritism (to anyone), nor accept anything from him, for He is a righteous judge. 17 [And of the children of Israel it has been written and ordained: If they turn to him in righteousness He will forgive all their transgressions and pardon all their sins. 18 It is written and ordained that He will show mercy to all who turn from all their guilt once each year.] 19 And as for all those who corrupted their ways and their thoughts before the flood, no one received favor except Noah alone; for he received favor on behalf of his sons, whom (God) saved from the waters of the flood on his account; for his heart was righteous in all his ways, according as it was commanded regarding him, and he had not departed from anything that was ordained for him.

Preparations for the Flood

20 And the Lord said that he would destroy everything which was upon the earth, both men and cattle, and wild animals, and birds of the sky, and that which moves on the earth. 21 And He commanded Noah to make himself an ark, that he might save himself from the waters of the flood. 22 And Noah made the ark in all respects as He commanded him, in the twenty-seventh jubilee of years, in the fifth week in the fifth year (on the new moon of the first month) [1307]. 23 And he entered in its sixth (year), [1308] in the second month, on the new moon of the second month, till the sixteenth; and he entered, and all that we brought to him, into the ark, and the Lord closed it from the outside on the seventeenth evening.

The Flood

24 And the Lord opened seven floodgates of heaven, And the mouths of the fountains of the great deep, seven mouths in number. 25 And the floodgates began to pour down water from the heaven forty days and forty nights, And the fountains of the deep also sent up waters, until the whole world was full of water. 26 And the waters increased upon the earth: The waters rose fifteen cubits above all the high mountains, And the ark was lifted up above the earth, And it moved upon the surface of the waters. 27 And the water covered the surface of the earth five months — one hundred and fifty days. 28 And the ark went and rested on the top of Lubar, one of the mountains of Ararat. 29 And (on the new moon) in the fourth month the fountains of the great deep were closed and the floodgates of heaven were restrained; and on the new moon of the seventh month all the mouths of the abysses of the earth were opened, and the water began to descend into the deep below. 30 And on the new moon of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen, and on the new moon of the first month the earth became visible. 31 And the waters disappeared from above the earth in the fifth week in its seventh year [1309], and on the seventeenth day in the second month the earth was dry. 32 And on its twenty-seventh (day) he opened the ark, and sent out from it wild animals, and cattle, and birds, and every moving thing.

Noah’s Sacrifice and Covenant

1 And on the new moon of the third month he went out from the ark, and built an altar on that mountain. 2 And he made atonement for the earth, and took a young goat and made atonement by its blood for all the guilt of the earth; for everything that had been on it had been destroyed, except those that were in the ark with Noah.⁠a 3 And he placed its fat on the altar, and he took an ox, and a goat, and a sheep and young goats, and salt, and a turtledove, and the young of a dove, and placed a burnt sacrifice on the altar, and poured on it an offering mixed with oil, and sprinkled wine and scattered frankincense over everything, and caused a pleasing aroma to arise, acceptable before the Lord. 4 And the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, and He made a covenant with him that there should not be a flood any more to destroy the earth; that all the days of the earth seedtime and harvest should never cease; cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night should not change their order, nor cease forever. 5 'And you, increase and multiply upon the earth, and become many upon it, and be a blessing upon it. I will inspire fear and dread of you in everything that is on earth and in the sea. 6 And look, I have given to you all animals, and all winged things, and everything that moves on the earth, and the fish in the waters, and all things for food; as the green herbs, I have given you all things to eat. 7 But flesh, with its life, with the blood, you shall not eat; for the life of all flesh is in the blood, so that your own lifeblood will not be demanded. At the hand of every man, at the hand of every (animal) I will demand the blood of man. 8 Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man. 9 And you, increase, and multiply on the earth.' 10 And Noah and his sons swore that they would not eat any blood that was in any flesh, and he made a covenant before the Lord God forever throughout all the generations of the earth in this month. 11 For this reason He spoke to you that you should make a covenant with the children of Israel in this month upon the mountain with an oath, and that you should sprinkle blood upon them⁠b because of all the words of the covenant, which the Lord made with them forever. 12 And this testimony is written concerning you that you should observe it continually, so that you should not eat on any day any blood of wild animals or birds or cattle during all the days of the earth, and the man who eats the blood of wild animals or of cattle or of birds during all the days of the earth, he and his descendants shall be rooted out of the land. 13 And command the children of Israel to eat no blood, so that their names and their descendants may be before the Lord our God continually. 14 And for this commandment there is no limit of days, for it is forever. They shall observe it throughout their generations, so that they may continue pleading on their own behalf with blood before the altar; every day and at the time of morning and evening they shall seek forgiveness on their own behalf continually before the Lord so that they may keep it and not be rooted out.

The Festival of Weeks

15 And He gave to Noah and his sons a sign that there should not again be a flood on the earth. 16 He set His bow in the cloud for a sign of the eternal covenant that there should not again be a flood on the earth to destroy it all the days of the earth. 17 For this reason it is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets, that they should celebrate the feast of weeks in this month once a year, to renew the covenant every year. 18 And this whole festival was celebrated in heaven from the day of creation until the days of Noah — twenty-six jubilees and five weeks of years [1309]: and Noah and his sons observed it for seven jubilees and one week of years, until the day of Noah's death [1659], and from the day of Noah's death his sons did away with (it) until the days of Abraham, and they ate blood. 19 But Abraham observed it, and Isaac and Jacob and his children observed it up to your days, and in your days the children of Israel forgot it until you celebrated it again on this mountain. 20 And command the children of Israel to observe this festival in all their generations for a commandment to them: one day in the year in this month they shall celebrate the festival. 21 For it is the feast of weeks and the feast of first fruits: this feast is twofold and of a double nature: according to what is written and engraved concerning it, celebrate it. 22 For I have written in the book of the first Torah, in that which I have written for you, that you should celebrate it in its season, one day in the year, and I explained to you its sacrifices that the children of Israel should remember and should celebrate it throughout their generations in this month, one day in every year.

The Four Memorial Days

23 And on the new moon of the first month, and on the new moon of the fourth month, and on the new moon of the seventh month, and on the new moon of the tenth month are the days of remembrance, and the days of the seasons in the four divisions of the year. These are written and ordained as a testimony forever. 24 And Noah ordained them for himself as feasts for the generations forever, so that they have become by this a memorial to him. 25 And on the new moon of the first month he was commanded to make for himself an ark, and on that (day) the earth became dry and he opened (the ark) and saw the earth. 26 And on the new moon of the fourth month the mouths of the depths of the abyss beneath were closed. And on the new moon of the seventh month all the mouths of the abysses of the earth were opened, and the waters began to descend into them. 27 And on the new moon of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen, and Noah was glad. 28 And for this reason he ordained them for himself as feasts for a memorial forever, and thus they are ordained. 29 And they placed them on the heavenly tablets, each had thirteen weeks; from one to another (passed) their memorial, from the first to the second, and from the second to the third, and from the third to the fourth. 30 And all the days of the commandment will be fifty-two weeks of days, and (these will make) the entire year complete. 31 Thus it is engraved and ordained on the heavenly tablets. And there is no neglecting (this commandment) for a single year or from year to year.

The Sacred Calendar

32 And command the children of Israel that they observe the years according to this count — three hundred and sixty-four days,⁠c and (these) will constitute a complete year, and they will not disturb its time from its days and from its feasts; for everything will happen in them according to their testimony, and they will not leave out any day nor disturb any feasts. 33 But if they do neglect and do not observe them according to His commandment, then they will disturb all their seasons and the years will be dislodged from this (order), [and they will disturb the seasons and the years will be dislodged] and they will neglect their ordinances. 34 And all the children of Israel will forget and will not find the path of the years, and will forget the new moons, and seasons, and sabbaths and they will go wrong as to all the order of the years. 35 For I know and from now on I will declare it to you, and it is not something I invented; for the book (lies) written before me, and on the heavenly tablets the division of days is ordained, so that they do not forget the feasts of the covenant and follow the festivals of the nations after their error and after their ignorance. 36 For there will be those who will certainly make observations of the moon — how (it) disturbs the seasons and comes in from year to year ten days too soon.⁠d 37 For this reason the years will come upon them when they will disturb (the order), and make an abominable (day) the day of testimony, and an unclean day a feast day, and they will mix up all the days, the holy with the unclean, and the unclean day with the holy; for they will go wrong as to the months and sabbaths and feasts and jubilees. 38 For this reason I command and testify to you that you may testify to them; for after your death your children will disturb (them), so that they will not make the year three hundred and sixty-four days only, and for this reason they will go wrong as to the new moons and seasons and sabbaths and festivals, and they will eat all kinds of blood with all kinds of flesh.

Noah’s Vineyard and His Family

1 And in the seventh week in its first year [1317], in this jubilee, Noah planted vines on the mountain on which the ark had rested, named Lubar, one of the Ararat Mountains, and they produced fruit in the fourth year,⁠a [1320] and he guarded their fruit, and gathered it in this year in the seventh month. 2 And he made wine from it and put it into a container, and kept it until the fifth year, [1321] until the first day, on the new moon of the first month. 3 And he celebrated with joy the day of this feast, and he made a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, one young ox and one ram, and seven sheep, each a year old, and a young goat, so that he might make atonement by it for himself and his sons. 4 And he prepared the young goat first, and placed some of its blood on the horns of the altar which he had made, and all the fat he laid on the altar where he made the burnt sacrifice, and the ox and the ram and the sheep, and he laid all their flesh upon the altar. 5 And he placed all their offerings mixed with oil upon it, and afterwards he sprinkled wine on the fire which he had previously made on the altar, and he placed incense on the altar and caused a pleasing aroma to rise acceptable before the Lord his God. 6 And he rejoiced and drank of this wine, he and his children with joy. 7 And it was evening, and he went into his tent, and being drunk he lay down and slept, and was uncovered in his tent as he slept. 8 And Ham saw Noah his father naked, and went out and told his two brothers outside. 9 And Shem took his garment and got up, he and Japheth, and they placed the garment on their shoulders and went backward and covered the shame of their father, and their faces were backward. 10 And Noah awoke from his sleep and knew all that his younger son had done to him, and he cursed his son and said: 'Cursed be Canaan; an enslaved servant he shall be to his brothers.' 11 And he blessed Shem, and said: 'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. 12 God shall enlarge Japheth, and God shall live in Shem's home, and Canaan shall be his servant.' 13 And Ham knew that his father had cursed his younger son, and he was displeased that he had cursed his son. And he left his father, he and his sons with him, Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan. 14 And he built for himself a city and named it after his wife Ne'elatama'uk. 15 And Japheth saw it, and became envious of his brother, and he too built for himself a city, and he named it after his wife 'Adataneses. 16 And Shem lived with his father Noah, and he built a city close to his father on the mountain, and he too named it after his wife Sedeqetelebab. 17 And these three cities are near Mount Lubar; Sedeqetelebab facing the mountain on its east; and Na'eltama'uk on the south; 'Adatan'eses toward the west. 18 And these are the sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad — this (son) was born two years after the flood — and Lud, and Aram. 19 The sons of Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan, Tubal and Meshech and Tiras: these are the sons of Noah.

Noah Instructs His Descendants

20 And in the twenty-eighth jubilee [1324-1372] Noah began to teach his grandsons the ordinances and commandments, and all the judgments that he knew, and he urged his sons to observe righteousness, and to cover the shame of their flesh,⁠b and to bless their Creator, and honor father and mother, and love their neighbor, and protect themselves from sexual immorality and impurity and all iniquity.⁠c 21 For because of these three things the flood came upon the earth, namely, because of the sexual immorality in which the Watchers against the commandments prescribed for them pursued sexual relations with human women, and married whichever women they chose: and they began the practice of impurity.⁠d 22 And they fathered sons, the Nephilim, and they were all unlike, and they devoured one another: and the Giants killed the Naphil, and the Naphil killed the Eljo, and the Eljo humanity, and one man another. 23 And everyone sold himself to do evil and to shed much blood, and the earth was filled with iniquity. 24 And after this they sinned against the wild animals and birds, and all that moves and walks on the earth: and much blood was shed on the earth, and all human thoughts and desires were directed toward what was worthless and evil continually. 25 And the Lord destroyed everything from the surface of the earth; because of the wickedness of their deeds, and because of the blood which they had shed on the earth He destroyed everything. 26 'And we were left, I and you, my sons, and everything that entered with us into the ark, and I see your works before me that you do not walk in righteousness: for in the path of destruction you have begun to walk, and you are separating from one another,⁠e and are envious of one another, and (so it comes) that you are not in harmony, my sons, each with his brother. 27 For I see, and the demons have begun (their) deceptions against you and against your children and now I fear on your behalf, that after my death you will shed the blood of men upon the earth, and that you, too, will be destroyed from the face of the earth. 28 For whoever sheds man's blood, and whoever eats the blood of any flesh, shall all be destroyed from the earth. 29 And there shall not be left any man that eats blood, or that sheds the blood of man on the earth, Nor shall there be left to him any offspring or descendants living under heaven; For into Sheol they shall go, And into the place of condemnation they shall descend, And into the darkness of the deep they shall all be removed by a violent death. 30 There shall be no blood seen upon you of all the blood there shall be all the days in which you have killed any wild animals or cattle or whatever flies upon the earth, and do something good for yourselves by covering that which has been shed on the face of the earth. 31 And you shall not be like him who eats with blood, but guard yourselves that none may eat blood before you: cover the blood, for in this way I have been commanded to testify to you and your children, together with all flesh. 32 And do not allow the soul to be eaten with the flesh, so that your blood, which is your life, may not be demanded from any flesh that sheds (it) on the earth. 33 For the earth will not be clean from the blood which has been shed upon it; for (only) through the blood of him that shed it the earth will be purified throughout all its generations. 34 And now, my children, listen: act justly and righteously so that you may be planted in righteousness over the face of the whole earth, and your glory lifted up before my God, who saved me from the waters of the flood. 35 And look, you will go and build for yourselves cities, and plant in them all the plants that are upon the earth, and moreover all fruit-bearing trees. 36 For three years the fruit of everything that is eaten will not be gathered: and in the fourth year its fruit will be considered holy [and they will offer the first-fruits], acceptable before the Most High God, who created heaven and earth and all things. Let them offer in abundance the first of the wine and oil (as) first-fruits on the altar of the Lord, who receives it, and what is left let the servants of the house of the Lord eat before the altar which receives (it). 37 And in the fifth year make the release so that you release it in righteousness and uprightness, and you shall be righteous, and all that you plant shall prosper.⁠f 38 For thus Enoch, the father of your father, commanded Methuselah, his son, and Methuselah his son Lamech, and Lamech commanded me all the things which his fathers commanded him. 39 And I also will give you instructions, my sons, as Enoch commanded his son in the first jubilees: while still living, the seventh in his generation, he commanded and testified to his son and to his grandsons until the day of his death.'

Noah’s Descendants

1 In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, [1373] in its beginning Arpachshad married a woman named Rasu'eja, the daughter of Susan, the daughter of Elam, and she bore him a son in the third year in this week, [1375] and he named him Kainam.⁠a 2 And the son grew, and his father taught him writing, and he went to look for a place where he could establish a city for himself. 3 And he found a writing which earlier (generations) had carved on the rock, and he read what was on it, and he copied it and sinned because of it; for it contained the teaching of the Watchers in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and stars in all the signs of heaven.⁠b 4 And he wrote it down and said nothing regarding it; for he was afraid to speak to Noah about it because he feared Noah would be angry with him because of it. 5 And in the thirtieth jubilee, [1429] in the second week, in its first year, he married a woman named Melka, the daughter of Madai, the son of Japheth, and in the fourth year [1432] he fathered a son, and named him Shelah; for he said: 'Truly I have been sent.' 6 [And in the fourth year he was born], and Shelah grew up and married a woman named Mu'ak, the daughter of Kesed, his father's brother, in the thirty-first jubilee, in the fifth week, in its first year [1499]. 7 And she bore him a son in its fifth year [1503], and he named him Eber: and he married a woman named 'Azûrâd, the daughter of Nebrod, in the thirty-second jubilee, in the seventh week, in its third year [1564]. 8 And in its sixth year [1567], she bore him a son, and he named him Peleg; for in the days when he was born the children of Noah began to divide the earth among themselves: for this reason he named him Peleg. 9 And they divided (it) secretly among themselves, and told it to Noah.⁠c

The Division of the Earth

10 And at the beginning of the thirty-third jubilee [1569] they divided the earth into three parts, for Shem and Ham and Japheth, according to the inheritance of each, in the first year in the first week, when one of us who had been sent, was with them. 11 And he called his sons, and they came close to him, they and their children, and he divided the earth into the lots, which his three sons were to take possession of, and they reached out their hands, and took the writing from the fold of their father Noah's clothing. 12 And the document assigned to Shem as his share the middle of the earth which he should take as an inheritance for himself and for his sons for the generations of eternity,⁠d from the middle of the mountain range of Rafa, from the mouth of the water from the river Tina, and his portion goes toward the west through the middle of this river, and it extends until it reaches the water of the abysses, out of which this river flows out and pours its waters into the sea Me'at, and this river flows into the great sea. And all that is toward the north is Japheth's, and all that is toward the south belongs to Shem. 13 And it extends until it reaches Karaso: this is in the middle of the tongue of land which looks toward the south. 14 And his portion extends along the great sea, and it extends in a straight line until it reaches the west of the tongue which looks toward the south: for this sea is named the tongue of the Egyptian Sea. 15 And it turns from here toward the south toward the mouth of the great sea on the shore of (its) waters, and it extends to the west to 'Afra, and it extends until it reaches the waters of the river Gihon, and to the south of the waters of Gihon, to the banks of this river. 16 And it extends toward the east, until it reaches the Garden of Eden, to the south of it, [to the south] and from the east of the whole land of Eden and of the whole east, it turns to the east and proceeds until it reaches the east of the mountain named Rafa, and it descends to the bank of the mouth of the river Tina. 17 This portion was assigned by lot for Shem and his sons, that they should possess it forever throughout his generations. 18 And Noah rejoiced that this portion was assigned for Shem and for his sons, and he remembered all that he had spoken with his mouth in prophecy; for he had said: 'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem And may the Lord live in Shem's home.' 19 And he knew that the Garden of Eden is the holy of holies, and the dwelling of the Lord,⁠e and Mount Sinai the center of the desert, and Mount Zion — the center of the navel of the earth: these three were created as holy places facing each other. 20 And he blessed the God of gods, who had put the word of the Lord into his mouth, and the Lord forevermore. 21 And he knew that a blessed portion and a blessing had come to Shem and his sons to the generations forever — the whole land of Eden and the whole land of the Red Sea, and the whole land of the east and India, and on the Red Sea and its mountains, and all the land of Bashan, and all the land of Lebanon and the islands of Kaftur, and all the mountains of Sanir and 'Amana, and the mountains of Asshur in the north, and all the land of Elam, Asshur, and Babel, and Susan and Ma'edai, and all the mountains of Ararat, and all the region beyond the sea, which is beyond the mountains of Asshur toward the north, a blessed and spacious land, and all that is in it is very good. 22 And Ham received the second portion, beyond the Gihon toward the south to the right of the Garden, and it extends toward the south and it extends to all the mountains of fire, and it extends toward the west to the sea of 'Atel and it extends toward the west until it reaches the sea of Ma'uk — that (sea) into which everything which is not destroyed descends. 23 And it extends toward the north to the limits of Gadir, and it extends to the coast of the waters of the sea to the waters of the great sea until it draws near to the river Gihon, and goes along the river Gihon until it reaches the right of the Garden of Eden. 24 And this is the land which was assigned to Ham as the portion which he was to possess forever for himself and his sons to their generations forever. 25 And Japheth received the third portion beyond the river Tina to the north of the outflow of its waters, and it extends northeast to the whole region of Gog, and to all the country east of it. 26 And it extends northward, and it extends to the mountains of Qelt toward the north, and toward the sea of Ma'uk, and it extends to the east of Gadir as far as the region of the waters of the sea. 27 And it extends until it approaches the west of Fara and it returns toward 'Aferag, and it extends eastward to the waters of the sea of Me'at. 28 And it extends to the region of the river Tina in a northeasterly direction until it approaches the boundary of its waters toward the mountain Rafa, and it turns toward the north. 29 This is the land which was assigned to Japheth and his sons as the portion of his inheritance which he should possess for himself and his sons, for their generations forever; five great islands, and a great land in the north.⁠f 30 But it is cold, and the land of Ham is hot, and the land of Shem is neither hot nor cold, but it is of blended cold and heat.

The Lands of Noah’s Grandsons

1 And Ham divided among his sons, and the first portion was assigned to Cush toward the east, and to the west of him for Mizraim, and to the west of him for Put, and to the west of him [and to the west of it] on the sea for Canaan. 2 And Shem also divided among his sons, and the first portion was assigned to Elam and his sons, to the east of the river Tigris until it approaches the east, the whole land of India, and on the Red Sea on its coast, and the waters of Dedan, and all the mountains of Mebri and Ela, and all the land of Susan and all that is on the side of Pharnak to the Red Sea and the river Tina. 3 And Asshur received the second portion, all the land of Asshur and Nineveh and Shinar and to the border of India, and it ascends and skirts the river. 4 And Arpachshad received the third portion, all the land of the region of the Chaldeans to the east of the Euphrates, bordering on the Red Sea, and all the waters of the desert close to the tongue of the sea which looks toward Egypt, all the land of Lebanon and Sanir and 'Amana to the border of the Euphrates. 5 And Aram received the fourth portion, all the land of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates to the north of the Chaldeans to the border of the mountains of Asshur and the land of 'Arara. 6 And Lud received the fifth portion, the mountains of Asshur and all that belongs to them until it reaches the Great Sea, and until it reaches the east of Asshur his brother. 7 And Japheth also divided the land of his inheritance among his sons. 8 And the first portion was assigned to Gomer to the east from the north side to the river Tina; and in the north Magog received all the inner portions of the north until it reaches to the sea of Me'at. 9 And Madai received as his portion to possess from the west of his two brothers to the islands, and to the coasts of the islands. 10 And Javan received the fourth portion every island and the islands which are toward the border of Lud. 11 And Tubal received the fifth portion in the middle of the tongue which approaches toward the border of the portion of Lud to the second tongue, to the region beyond the second tongue to the third tongue. 12 And Meshech received the sixth portion, all the region beyond the third tongue until it approaches the east of Gadir. 13 And Tiras received the seventh portion, four great islands in the middle of the sea, which reach to the portion of Ham [and the islands of Kamaturi came out by lot for the sons of Arpachshad as his inheritance].

The Oath to Respect the Boundaries

14 And thus the sons of Noah divided to their sons⁠a in the presence of Noah their father, and he bound them all by an oath,⁠b calling down a curse on everyone that sought to seize the portion which had not fallen (to him) by his lot.⁠c 15 And they all said, 'So be it; so be it ' for themselves and their sons forever throughout their generations until the day of judgment, on which the Lord God shall judge them with a sword and with fire for all the unclean wickedness of their errors, with which they have filled the earth with transgression and impurity and sexual immorality and sin.

Noah, the Demons, and Mastema

1 And in the third week of this jubilee the unclean demons began to lead astray Noah's grandchildren, and to make them go astray and destroy them. 2 And the sons of Noah came to Noah their father, and they told him concerning the demons which were leading astray and blinding and killing his grandsons. 3 And he prayed before the Lord his God, and said: 'God of the spirits of all flesh, who have shown mercy to me And have saved me and my sons from the waters of the flood, And have not caused me to perish as You did the people destined for destruction;⁠a For Your grace has been great toward me, And Your mercy to my soul has been great; Let Your grace extend over my sons, And do not let wicked spirits rule over them So that they do not destroy them from the earth. 4 But bless me and my sons, so that we may increase and multiply and fill the earth. 5 And You know how Your Watchers, the fathers of these spirits, acted in my day: and as for these spirits which are living, imprison them and hold them securely in the place of condemnation, and do not let them bring destruction on the sons of your servant, my God; for these are malicious, and created in order to destroy. 6 And do not let them rule over the spirits of the living; for You alone can rule over them. And do not let them have power over the sons of the righteous from now on and forevermore.' 7 And the Lord our God told us to bind all. 8 And the chief of the spirits, Mastema, came and said: 'Lord, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them listen to my voice, and do all that I shall say to them; for if some of them are not left to me, I shall not be able to exercise my authority as I wish on the human beings; for these are for corruption and leading astray before my judgment, for the wickedness of the human beings is great.' 9 And He said: Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation.'⁠b 10 And He commanded one of us to teach Noah all their medicines; for He knew that they would not walk in uprightness, or strive to act righteously. 11 And we did according to all His words: we bound all the malicious evil ones in the place of condemnation and we left a tenth part of them so that they might be under Satan's authority on the earth. 12 And we explained to Noah all the medicines of their diseases, together with their deceptions, how he might heal them with herbs of the earth. 13 And Noah wrote down all things in a book as we instructed him concerning every kind of medicine. Thus the evil spirits were prevented from (hurting) the sons of Noah.⁠c 14 And he gave all that he had written to Shem, his eldest son; for he loved him far more than all his sons. 15 And Noah died and joined his ancestors, and was buried on Mount Lubar in the land of Ararat. 16 He completed nine hundred and fifty years in his life, nineteen jubilees and two weeks and five years [1659]. 17 And he lived longer on earth than other human beings except Enoch because of the righteousness, in which he was perfect. For Enoch's task was ordained for a testimony to the generations of the world, so that he should recount all the deeds of generation to generation, until the day of judgment.

The Tower of Babel

18 And in the thirty-third jubilee, in the first year in the second week, Peleg married a woman named Lomna the daughter of Sina'ar, and she bore him a son in the fourth year of this week, and he named him Reu; for he said: 'Look, human beings have become evil through the wicked purpose of building for themselves a city and a tower in the land of Shinar.' 19 For they departed from the land of Ararat eastward to Shinar; for in his days they built the city and the tower, saying, 'Come, let us climb it into heaven.' 20 And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt which comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar. 21 And they built it: forty-three years they were building it; its width was 203 bricks, and the height (of a brick) was the third of one; its height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and (the extent of one wall was) thirteen stades (and of the other thirty stades). 22 And the Lord our God said to us: Look, they are one people, and (this) they begin to do, and now nothing will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech,⁠d and they may be dispersed into cities and nations, and one purpose will no longer remain with them until the day of judgment.' 23 And the Lord descended, and we descended with him to see the city and the tower which the human beings had built. 24 And he confused their language, and they no longer understood one another's speech, and they ceased then to build the city and the tower. 25 For this reason the whole land of Shinar is called Babel, because the Lord confused all human language there, and from there they were dispersed into their cities, each according to his language and his nation. 26 And the Lord sent a mighty wind against the tower and overthrew it upon the earth, and it was between Asshur and Babylon in the land of Shinar, and they named it 'Overthrow'.⁠e

Canaan Takes Land outside His Allotment

27 In the fourth week in the first year [1639] in its beginning in the thirty-fourth jubilee, they were dispersed from the land of Shinar. 28 And Ham and his sons went into the land which he was to possess, which he acquired as his portion in the land of the south. 29 And Canaan saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt, that it was very good, and he did not go into the land of his inheritance to the west (that is to) the sea, and he lived in the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward from the border of Jordan and from the border of the sea. 30 And Ham, his father, and Cush and Mizraim his brothers said to him: 'You have settled in a land which is not yours, and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if you do so, you and your sons will fall in the land and (be) cursed for rebellion; for through rebellion you have settled, and through rebellion your children will fall, and you shall be rooted out forever. 31 Do not settle in Shem's territory; for to Shem and to his sons it came by their lot. 32 Cursed are you, and cursed you shall be beyond all the sons of Noah, by the curse by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the presence of the holy judge, and in the presence of Noah our father.' 33 But he did not listen to them, and lived in the land of Lebanon from Hamath to the entering of Egypt, he and his sons to this day. 34 And for this reason that land is named Canaan. 35 And Japheth and his sons went toward the sea and lived in the land of their portion, and Madai saw the land of the sea and it did not please him, and he begged a (portion) from Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad, his wife's brother, and he lived in the land of Media, near to his wife's brother to this day. 36 And he called his home, and the home of his sons, Media, after the name of their father Madai.

The Spread of Idolatry

1 And in the thirty-fifth jubilee, in the third week, in the first year [1681] of it, Reu married a woman named 'Ôrâ, the daughter of 'Ûr, the son of Kesed, and she bore him a son, and he named him Sêrôh, in the seventh year of this week in this jubilee [1687]. 2 And the sons of Noah began to war on each other, to take captive and to kill each other, and to shed the blood of men on the earth, and to eat blood, and to build strong cities, and walls, and towers, and individuals (began) to exalt themselves above the nation, and to found the beginnings of kingdoms, and to go to war people against people, and nation against nation, and city against city, and all (began) to do evil, and to acquire weapons, and to teach their sons war, and they began to capture cities, and to sell male and female slaves. 3 And 'Ûr, the son of Kesed, built the city of 'Ara of the Chaldeans, and named it after himself and the name of his father. 4 And they made for themselves cast-metal images, and they worshipped each the idol, the cast-metal image which they had made for themselves, and they began to make carved images and impure likenesses, and malicious spirits helped and enticed (them) into committing transgression and impurity. 5 And the prince Mastema exerted himself to do all this, and he sent out other spirits, those which were placed under his authority, to do every kind of wrong and sin, and every kind of transgression, to corrupt and destroy, and to shed blood upon the earth. 6 For this reason he named Sêrôh Serug, for everyone turned to do every kind of sin and transgression. 7 And he grew up, and lived in Ur of the Chaldeans, near to the father of his wife's mother, and he worshipped idols, and he married in the thirty-sixth jubilee, in the fifth week, in the first year of it, [1744] and her name was Melka, the daughter of Kaber, the daughter of his father's brother. 8 And she bore him Nahor, in the first year of this week, and he grew and lived in Ur of the Chaldeans, and his father taught him the Chaldean arts of divination and predicting the future, according to the signs of heaven. 9 And in the thirty-seventh jubilee in the sixth week, in the first year of it, [1800] he married a woman named 'Ijaska, the daughter of Nestag of the Chaldeans. 10 And she bore him Terah in the seventh year of this week [1806]. 11 And the prince Mastema sent ravens and birds to devour the seed which was sown in the land,⁠a in order to destroy the land, and rob the human beings of their labor. Before they could plow in the seed, the ravens picked (it) from the surface of the ground. 12 And for this reason he named him Terah because the ravens and the birds left them impoverished and devoured their seed. 13 And the years began to be barren, because of the birds, and they devoured all the fruit of the trees from the trees: it was only with great effort that they could save a little of all the fruit of the earth in their days.⁠b

The Birth and Early Life of Abram

14 And in this thirty-ninth jubilee, in the second week in the first year, [1870] Terah married a woman named 'Edna, the daughter of 'Abram, the daughter of his father's sister. 15 And in the seventh year of this week [1876] she bore him a son, and he named him Abram after his mother's father; for he had died before his daughter had conceived a son. 16 And the child began to understand the errors of the earth that all went astray after carved images and after impurity, and his father taught him writing, and he was two weeks of years old, [1890] and he separated himself from his father, so that he would not worship idols with him. 17 And he began to pray to the Creator of all things that He might save him from the errors of the human beings, and that his portion should not fall into error after impurity and vileness.

Abram and the Ravens

18 And the seed time came for the sowing of seed upon the land, and they all went out together to protect their seed against the ravens, and Abram went out with those that went, and the child was fourteen years old. 19 And a cloud of ravens came to devour the seed, and Abram ran to meet them before they settled on the ground,⁠c and cried to them before they settled on the ground to devour the seed, and said, 'Do not descend: return to the place from where you came,' and they proceeded to turn back. 20 And he caused the clouds of ravens to turn back that day seventy times, and of all the ravens throughout all the land where Abram was not so much as one settled there. 21 And all who were with him throughout all the land saw him cry out, and all the ravens turn back, and his name became great in all the land of the Chaldeans. 22 And all those who wished to sow came to him that year, and he went with them until the sowing season ended: and they sowed their land, and that year they brought enough grain home and ate and were satisfied.⁠d 23 And in the first year of the fifth week [1891] Abram taught those who made implements for oxen, the woodworkers,⁠e and they made a container above the ground, facing the frame of the plow, in order to put the seed on it, and the seed fell down from it upon the share of the plow, and was hidden in the earth, and they no longer feared the ravens. 24 And in this way they made (vessels) above the ground on all the frames of the plows, and they sowed and cultivated all the land, according as Abram commanded them, and they no longer feared the birds.

Abram Challenges His Family’s Idols

1 And in the sixth week, in the seventh year of it, [1904] Abram said to Terah his father, saying, 'Father!'⁠a 2 And he said, 'Here I am, my son.' And he said, 'What help or benefit do we receive from those idols which you worship, And before which you bow yourself? 3 For there is no spirit in them, For they are lifeless forms that cannot speak, and a deception of the heart. Do not worship them:⁠b 4 Worship the God of heaven, Who causes the rain and the dew to descend on the earth And does everything upon the earth, And has created everything by His word, And all life is from before His face. 5 Why do you worship things that have no spirit in them? For they are the work of (men's) hands, And you carry them on your shoulders,⁠c And you have no help from them, But they are a great cause of shame to those who make them, And a deception of the heart to those who worship them: Do not worship them.' 6 And his father said to him, I also know it, my son, but what shall I do with a people who have made me serve before them?⁠d 7 And if I tell them the truth, they will kill me; for they cling to their idols to worship them and honor them.⁠e 8 Keep silent, my son, so that they do not kill you.' And he spoke these words to his two brothers, and they were angry with him and he kept silent. 9 And in the fortieth jubilee, in the second week, in the seventh year of it, [1925] Abram married a woman named Sarai, the daughter of his father, and she became his wife. 10 And Haran, his brother, married in the third year of the third week, [1928] and she bore him a son in the seventh year of this week, [1932] and he named him Lot. 11 And Nahor, his brother, married.

The Burning of the Idol Temple

12 And in the sixtieth year of the life of Abram, that is, in the fourth week, in the fourth year of it, [1936] Abram got up at night, and burned the house of the idols, and he burned all that was in the house and no man knew it. 13 And they got up in the night and tried to save their gods from the fire. 14 And Haran hurried to save them, but the fire flamed over him, and he was burned in the fire,⁠f and he died in Ur of the Chaldeans before Terah his father, and they buried him in Ur of the Chaldeans. 15 And Terah went out from Ur of the Chaldeans, he and his sons, to go into the land of Lebanon and into the land of Canaan, and he lived in the land of Haran, and Abram lived with Terah his father in Haran two weeks of years.

Abram Studies the Stars and Prays

16 And in the sixth week, in the fifth year of it, [1951] Abram sat up throughout the night on the new moon of the seventh month to observe the stars from the evening to the morning, in order to see what the year's rainfall would be like,⁠g and he was alone as he sat and observed. 17 And a word came into his heart and he said:⁠h All the signs of the stars, and the signs of the moon and of the sun are all in the hand of the Lord.⁠i Why do I search (them) out? 18 If He desires, He causes it to rain, morning and evening; And if He desires, He withholds it, And all things are in his hand.' 19 And he prayed that night and said, 'My God, God Most High, You alone are my God, And You and Your rule I have chosen. And You have created all things, And all things that are the work of your hands. 20 Rescue me from the hands of evil spirits who rule over the thoughts of men's hearts, And do not let them lead me astray from You, my God.⁠j And establish me and my descendants forever That we do not go astray from now on and forevermore.'

The Call to Canaan

21 And he said, 'Shall I return to Ur of the Chaldeans who want me to return to them, or am I to remain here in this place? Make the path that is right before You succeed for Your servant so that he may fulfill (it) and that I may not walk in the deceitfulness of my heart, my God.' 22 And he finished speaking and praying, and the word of the Lord was sent to him through me, saying: 'Get up from your country, and from your relatives and from the house of your father to a land which I will show you,⁠k and I shall make you a great and numerous nation. 23 And I will bless you And I will make your name great, And you shall be blessed in the earth, And in you all families of the earth shall be blessed, And I will bless them that bless you, And curse them that curse you. 24 And I will be a God to you and your son, and to your grandson, and to all your descendants: do not fear, from now on and to all generations of the earth I am your God.'

Abram Learns Hebrew

25 And the Lord God said: 'Open his mouth and his ears, so that he may hear and speak with his mouth, with the language which has been revealed';⁠l for it had ceased from the mouths of all the human beings from the day of the overthrow (of Babel). 26 And I opened his mouth, and his ears and his lips, and I began to speak with him in Hebrew in the language of creation.⁠m 27 And he took the books of his ancestors, and these were written in Hebrew, and he copied them, and he began from then on to study them, and I made known to him that which he could not (understand), and he studied them during the six rainy months. 28 And in the seventh year of the sixth week [1953] he spoke to his father and informed him, that he would leave Haran to go into the land of Canaan to see it and return to him.⁠n 29 And Terah his father said to him; Go in peace: May the eternal God make your path straight. And the Lord [(be) with you, and] protect you from all evil, And grant you grace, mercy and favor before those who see you, And may none of the human beings have power over you to harm you; Go in peace. 30 And if you see a land pleasant to your eyes to live in, then get up and take me to you and take Lot with you, the son of Haran your brother as your own son: the Lord be with you. 31 And leave Nahor your brother with me until you return in peace, and we go with you all together.'

Abram in Canaan

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.⁠a 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.'

The Covenant with Abram

1 After these things, in the fourth year of this week, on the new moon of the third month, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a dream, saying: 'Do not fear, Abram; I am your defender, and your reward will be extremely great.' 2 And he said: 'Lord, Lord, what will you give me, since I remain childless, and the son of Maseq, the son of my female servant, is the Dammasek Eliezer: he will be my heir, and to me you have given no offspring.' 3 And he said to him: 'This (man) will not be your heir, but one that will come out of your own body; he will be your heir.' 4 And He brought him outside, and said to him: 'Look toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to count them.' 5 And he looked toward heaven, and saw the stars. And He said to him: 'So your descendants shall be.' 6 And he believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness.⁠a 7 And He said to him: 'I am the Lord that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you the land of the Canaanites to possess it forever; and I will be God to you and to your descendants after you.' 8 And he said: 'Lord, Lord, how shall I know that I shall inherit (it)?' 9 And He said to him: 'Take Me a heifer of three years, and a goat of three years, and a sheep of three years, and a turtledove, and a pigeon.' 10 And he took all these in the middle of the month and he lived at the oak of Mamre, which is near Hebron. 11 And he built there an altar, and sacrificed all these; and he poured their blood upon the altar, and cut them in half, and laid them opposite each other; but he did not divide the birds. 12 And birds came down upon the pieces, and Abram drove them away, and did not allow the birds to touch them. 13 And when the sun had set, Abram fell into a trance, and then a horror of great darkness fell upon him, and it was said to Abram: 'Know for certain that your descendants shall be strangers in a land (that is) not theirs, and they shall enslave them, and oppress them four hundred years. 14 And the nation also that will enslave them I will judge, and after that they shall come out from there with great possessions. 15 And you shall go to your fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.' 17 And he awoke from his sleep, and he got up, and the sun had set; and there was a flame, and then a furnace was smoking, and a flame of fire passed between the pieces. 18 And on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: 'To your descendants I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Perizzites, and the Rephaim,⁠b the Phakorites, and the Hivites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. 19 And the day passed, and Abram offered the pieces, and the birds, and their fruit offerings, and their drink offerings, and the fire devoured them. 20 And on that day we made a covenant with Abram, according as we had covenanted with Noah in this month; and Abram renewed the festival and ordinance for himself forever.

Hagar and Ishmael

21 And Abram rejoiced, and made all these things known to Sarai his wife; and he believed that he would have offspring, but she did not bear. 22 And Sarai advised her husband Abram, and said to him: 'Go in to Hagar, my Egyptian female servant: it may be that I shall give you offspring through her.' 23 And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai his wife, and said to her, 'Do (so).' And Sarai took Hagar, her female servant, the Egyptian, and gave her to Abram, her husband, to be his wife. 24 And he went in to her, and she conceived and bore him a son, and he named him Ishmael, in the fifth year of this week [1965]; and this was the eighty-sixth year in the life of Abram.

The Covenant of Circumcision

1 And in the fifth year of the fourth week of this jubilee, [1986] in the third month, in the middle of the month, Abram celebrated the feast of the first-fruits of the grain harvest. 2 And he offered new offerings on the altar, the first-fruits of the produce, to the Lord, a heifer and a goat and a sheep on the altar as a burnt sacrifice to the Lord; their fruit offerings and their drink offerings he offered upon the altar with frankincense. 3 And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: 'I am God Almighty; walk before Me and be perfect. 4 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you greatly.' 5 And Abram bowed facedown, and God talked with him, and said: 6 'Look, My ordinance is with you, And you shall be the father of many nations. 7 You shall no longer be called Abram, But your name from now on, forever, shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of many nations. 8 And I will make you very great, And I will make you into nations, And kings shall come from you. 9 And I shall establish My covenant between Me and you, and your descendants after you, throughout their generations, for an eternal covenant, so that I may be a God to you, and to your descendants after you. 10 And I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land where you have been a temporary resident, the land of Canaan, that you may possess it forever, and I will be their God.' 11 And the Lord said to Abraham: 'And as for you, keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you: and circumcise every male among you, and circumcise your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of an eternal covenant between Me and you. 12 And you shall circumcise the child on the eighth day, every male throughout your generations, him that is born in the house, or whom you have bought with money from any foreigner, whom you have acquired who is not of your descendants. 13 He that is born in your house shall surely be circumcised, and those whom you have bought with money shall be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an eternal ordinance. 14 And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that person shall be cut off from his people, for he has broken My covenant.' 15 And God said to Abraham: 'As for Sarai your wife, she shall no longer be called Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her, and give you a son by her, and I will bless him, and he shall become a nation, and kings of nations shall descend from him.' 17 And Abraham bowed facedown, and rejoiced, and said in his heart: 'Shall a son be born to him that is a hundred years old, and shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?' 18 And Abraham said to God: 'If only Ishmael might live before you!' 19 And God said: 'Yes, and Sarah also shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him, an everlasting covenant, and for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael also I have heard you, and look, I will bless him, and make him great, and multiply him greatly, and he shall father twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you, in these days, in the next year.' 22 And He finished speaking with him, and God went up from Abraham. 23 And Abraham did according as God had said to him, and he took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and whom he had bought with his money, every male in his house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin. 24 And on the very same day Abraham was circumcised, and all the men of his house, and those born in the house, and all those, whom he had bought with money from the children of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

Circumcision and Israel’s Election

25 This commandment is for all the generations forever, and there is no cutting short of the days, and no omission of one day out of the eight days; for it is an eternal ordinance, ordained and written on the heavenly tablets. 26 And everyone that is born, the flesh of whose foreskin is not circumcised on the eighth day, does not belong to the children of the covenant which the Lord made with Abraham, but to the children of destruction; nor is there, moreover, any sign on him that he is the Lord's, but (he is destined) to be destroyed and killed from the earth, and to be rooted out of the earth, for he has broken the covenant of the Lord our God. 27 For all the angels of the presence and all the angels of sanctification have been so created from the day of their creation,⁠a and before the angels of the presence and the angels of sanctification He has sanctified Israel, that they should be with Him and with His holy angels. 28 And command the children of Israel and let them observe the sign of this covenant for their generations as an eternal ordinance, and they will not be rooted out of the land. 29 For the command is ordained for a covenant, that they should observe it forever among all the children of Israel. 30 For Ishmael and his sons and his brothers and Esau, the Lord did not bring near to Him, and he did not choose them because they are the children of Abraham, because He knew them, but He chose Israel to be His people. 31 And He sanctified it, and gathered it from among all the human beings; for there are many nations and many peoples, and all are His, and over all He has placed spirits in authority to lead them astray from Him.⁠b 32 But over Israel He did not appoint any angel or spirit, for He alone is their ruler, and He will preserve them and protect them from His angels and His spirits, and from all His powers in order that He may preserve them and bless them, and that they may be His and He may be theirs from now on forever. 33 And now I announce to you that the children of Israel will not keep true to this ordinance, and they will not circumcise their sons according to all this commandment; for in the flesh of their circumcision they will omit this circumcision of their sons, and all of them, sons of Beliar, will leave their sons uncircumcised as they were born. 34 And there will be great anger from the Lord against the children of Israel, because they have abandoned His covenant and turned aside from His word, and provoked and blasphemed, since they do not observe the ordinance of this commandment; for they have treated their members like the nations, so that they may be removed and rooted out of the land. And there will no more be pardon or forgiveness for them [so that there should be forgiveness and pardon] for all the sin of this eternal error.

The Promise of Isaac

1 And on the new moon of the fourth month we appeared to Abraham, at the oak of Mamre, and we talked with him,⁠a and we announced to him that a son would be given to him by Sarah his wife. 2 And Sarah laughed, for she heard that we had spoken these words with Abraham, and we warned her, and she became afraid, and denied that she had laughed on account of the words. 3 And we told her the name of her son, as his name is ordained and written in the heavenly tablets (i.e.) Isaac, 4 And (that) when we returned to her at a set time, she would have conceived a son.

The Judgment of Sodom

5 And in this month the Lord executed his judgments on Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Zeboim, and all the region of the Jordan, and He burned them with fire and sulfur, and destroyed them until this day, just as [look] I have declared to you all their works, that they are wicked and extremely sinful, and that they defile themselves and commit sexual immorality in their flesh, and practice impurity on the earth. 6 And, in the same way, God will execute judgment on the places where they have done according to the impurity of the Sodomites, like the judgment of Sodom. 7 But we saved Lot; for God remembered Abraham, and sent him out from the middle of the destruction. 8 And he and his daughters committed sin upon the earth, such as had not been on the earth since the days of Adam until his time; for the man lay with his daughters. 9 And, look, it was commanded and engraved concerning all his descendants, on the heavenly tablets, to remove them and root them out, and to execute judgment upon them like the judgment of Sodom, and to leave none of the man's descendants on earth on the day of condemnation. 10 And in this month Abraham moved from Hebron, and departed and lived between Kadesh and Shur in the mountains of Gerar. 11 And in the middle of the fifth month he moved from there, and lived at the Well of the Oath. 12 And in the middle of the sixth month the Lord visited Sarah and did to her as He had spoken and she conceived. 13 And she bore a son in the third month, and in the middle of the month, at the time of which the Lord had spoken to Abraham, on the festival of the first fruits of the harvest, Isaac was born. 14 And Abraham circumcised his son on the eighth day: he was the first that was circumcised according to the covenant which is ordained forever. 15 And in the sixth year of the fourth week we came to Abraham, to the Well of the Oath, and we appeared to him [as we had told Sarah that we should return to her, and she would have conceived a son. 16 And we returned in the seventh month, and found Sarah pregnant before us] and we blessed him, and we announced to him all the things which had been decreed concerning him, that he should not die until he had fathered six more sons, and should see (them) before he died; but (that) in Isaac his name and line of descendants would continue: 17 And (that) all the descendants of his sons should be other nations, and be counted with the other nations; but from the sons of Isaac one should become a holy line of descendants, and should not be counted among the other nations. 18 For he should become the portion of the Most High, and all his descendants had fallen into the possession of God, so that they should be a people belonging to the Lord for (His) possession above all nations⁠b and that they should become a kingdom and priests and a holy nation. 19 And we went our way, and we announced to Sarah all that we had told him, and they both rejoiced with very great joy.

The Festival of Tabernacles

20 And he built there an altar to the Lord who had rescued him, and who was making him rejoice in the land where he lived as a foreigner, and he celebrated a festival of joy in this month seven days, near the altar which he had built at the Well of the Oath.⁠c 21 And he built booths for himself and for his servants on this festival, and he was the first to celebrate the feast of tabernacles on the earth. 22 And during these seven days he brought each day to the altar a burnt offering to the Lord, two oxen, two rams, seven sheep, one male goat, for a sin offering, so that he might atone by it for himself and for his descendants. 23 And, as a thank-offering, seven rams, seven young goats, seven sheep, and seven male goats, and their fruit offerings and their drink offerings; and he burned all the fat of it on the altar, a chosen offering to the Lord for a pleasing aroma. 24 And morning and evening he burned fragrant substances, frankincense and galbanum, and stacte, and nard, and myrrh, and spice, and costum; all these seven he offered, crushed, mixed together in equal parts (and) pure. 25 And he celebrated this feast during seven days, rejoicing with all his heart and with all his soul, he and all those who were in his house, and there was no foreigner with him, nor any that was uncircumcised. 26 And he blessed his Creator who had created him in his generation, for He had created him according to His good pleasure; for He knew and perceived that from him would arise the plant of righteousness for the eternal generations, and from him holy descendants, so that they should become like Him who had made all things. 27 And he blessed and rejoiced, and he named this festival the festival of the Lord, a joy acceptable to the Most High God. 28 And we blessed him forever, and all his descendants after him throughout all the generations of the earth, because he celebrated this festival in its season, according to the testimony of the heavenly tablets. 29 For this reason it is ordained on the heavenly tablets concerning Israel, that they shall celebrate the feast of tabernacles seven days with joy, in the seventh month, acceptable before the Lord — a statute forever throughout their generations every year. 30 And to this there is no limit of days; for it is ordained forever regarding Israel that they should celebrate it and live in shelters, and set wreaths upon their heads, and take leafy branches, and willows from the stream. 31 And Abraham took branches of palm trees, and the fruit of fine trees, and every day going around the altar with the branches seven times [a day] in the morning, he praised and gave thanks to his God for all things in joy.

The Departure of Hagar and Ishmael

1 And in the first year of the fifth week Isaac was weaned in this jubilee, [1989] and Abraham made a great banquet in the third month, on the day his son Isaac was weaned. 2 And Ishmael, the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, was in the presence of Abraham, his father, in his place, and Abraham rejoiced and blessed God because he had seen his sons and had not died childless. 3 And he remembered the words which He had spoken to him on the day on which Lot had separated from him, and he rejoiced because the Lord had given him descendants upon the earth to inherit the earth, and he wholeheartedly blessed the Creator of all things. 4 And Sarah saw Ishmael playing and dancing,⁠a and Abraham rejoicing with great joy, and she became jealous of Ishmael and said to Abraham, 'Send away this enslaved woman and her son; for the son of this enslaved woman will not be heir with my son, Isaac.' 5 And this deeply distressed Abraham, because of his female servant and because of his son, that he should drive them from him. 6 And God said to Abraham 'Do not be distressed, because of the child and because of the enslaved woman; in all that Sarah has said to you, listen to her words and do (them); for in Isaac your name and line of descendants shall continue. 7 But as for the son of this enslaved woman I will make him a great nation, because he is of your descendants.' 8 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a waterskin of water, and placed them on the shoulders of Hagar and the child, and sent her away. 9 And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba, and the water in the waterskin ran out, and the child became thirsty, and was not able to go on, and fell down. 10 And his mother took him and placed him under an olive tree, and went and sat down opposite him, at the distance of a bowshot; for she said, 'May I not see the death of my child,' and as she sat she wept. 11 And an angel of God, one of the holy ones, said to her, 'Why do you weep, Hagar? Get up, take the child, and hold him in your hand; for God has heard your voice, and has seen the child.' 12 And she opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled her waterskin with water, and she gave her child water to drink, and she got up and went toward the wilderness of Paran. 13 And the child grew and became an archer, and God was with him, and his mother found him a wife from among the daughters of Egypt. 14 And she bore him a son, and he named him Nebaioth; for she said, 'The Lord was near to me when I called upon him.'

Mastema Challenges Abraham’s Faithfulness

15 And in the seventh week, in the first year of it, [2003] in the first month in this jubilee, on the twelfth of this month, there were voices in heaven regarding Abraham, that he was faithful in all that He told him,⁠b and that he loved the Lord, and that in every affliction he was faithful. 16 And the prince Mastema came and said before God,⁠c 'Look, Abraham loves Isaac his son, and he delights in him above all things else; tell him to offer him as a burnt-offering on the altar, and You will see if he will do this command, and You will know if he is faithful in everything in which You test him.⁠d 17 And the Lord knew that Abraham was faithful in all his afflictions;⁠e for He had tested him through his country and with famine,⁠f and had tested him with the wealth of kings, and had tested him again through his wife, when she was torn (from him), and with circumcision; and had tested him through Ishmael and Hagar, his female servant, when he sent them away. 18 And in everything in which He had tested him, he was found faithful, and his soul was not impatient, and he was not slow to act; for he was faithful and a lover of the Lord.

The Binding of Isaac

1 And God said to him, 'Abraham, Abraham'; and he said, Here I am.' 2 And he said, Take your beloved son whom you love, (even) Isaac,⁠a and go to the high country, and offer him on one of the mountains which I will point out to you.' 3 And he rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took his two young men with him, and Isaac his son, and split the wood of the burnt offering, and he went to the place on the third day, and he saw the place far off. 4 And he came to a well of water, and he said to his young men, 'Stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy shall go (over there), and when we have worshipped we shall return to you.' 5 And he took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife, and they went both of them together to that place. 6 And Isaac said to his father, 'Father;' and he said, 'Here I am, my son.' And he said to him, 'Here are the fire, and the knife, and the wood; but where is the sheep for the burnt-offering, father?' 7 And he said, 'God will provide for himself a sheep for a burnt-offering, my son.' And he came close to the place of the mountain of God. 8 And he built an altar, and he placed the wood on the altar, and bound Isaac his son, and placed him on the wood which was upon the altar, and reached out his hand to take the knife to kill Isaac his son. 9 And I stood before him, and before the prince Mastema, and the Lord said, 'Tell him not to lay his hand on the boy, nor to do anything to him, for I have shown that he fears the Lord.' 10 And I called to him from heaven, and said to him: 'Abraham, Abraham;' and he was terrified and said: 'Here I am.' 11 And I said to him: 'Do not lay your hand upon the boy, neither do anything to him; for now I have shown that you fear the Lord, and have not withheld your son, your firstborn son, from me.' 12 And the prince Mastema was put to shame; and Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by his horns, and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it for a burnt-offering in place of his son. 13 And Abraham called that place 'The Lord has seen', so that it is said in the mountain the Lord has seen: that is Mount Zion. 14 And the Lord called Abraham by his name a second time from heaven, as he caused us to appear to speak to him in the name of the Lord. 15 And he said: 'By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, Because you have done this thing, And have not withheld your son, your beloved son, from Me, That in blessing I will bless you, And in multiplying I will multiply your descendants As the stars of heaven, And as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall inherit the cities of their enemies, 16 And in your descendants all nations of the earth shall be blessed; Because you have obeyed My voice, And I have shown to all that you are faithful to Me in all that I have said to you:⁠b Go in peace.'

The Return and the Commemorative Festival

17 And Abraham went to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham lived by the Well of the Oath [2010]. 18 And he celebrated this festival every year, seven days with joy, and he called it the festival of the Lord according to the seven days during which he went and returned in peace. 19 And accordingly it has been ordained and written on the heavenly tablets regarding Israel and its descendants that they should observe this festival seven days with the joy of festival.

The Death and Burial of Sarah

1 And in the first year of the first week in the forty-second jubilee, Abraham returned and lived opposite Hebron, that is Kiriath Arba, two weeks of years. 2 And in the first year of the third week of this jubilee Sarah's life came to an end, and she died in Hebron. 3 And Abraham went to mourn over her and bury her, and we tested him [to see] if his spirit remained patient and he did not speak angrily; and he was found patient in this, and was not disturbed. 4 For in patience of spirit he spoke with the children of Heth, so that they should give him a place in which to bury his dead. 5 And the Lord gave him grace before all who saw him, and he gently pleaded with the sons of Heth, and they gave him the land of the double cave opposite Mamre, that is Hebron,⁠a for four hundred pieces of silver. 6 And they urged him saying, We shall give it to you for nothing; but he would not take it from their hands for nothing, for he gave the price of the place, the money in full, and he bowed down before them twice, and after this he buried his dead in the double cave. 7 And all the days of the life of Sarah were one hundred and twenty-seven years, that is, two jubilees and four weeks and one year: these are the days of the years of the life of Sarah. 8 This is the tenth test through which Abraham was tested, and he was found faithful, patient in spirit.⁠b 9 And he did not say a single word regarding the report in the land that God had said that He would give it to him and to his descendants after him, and he begged a place there to bury his dead; for he was found faithful, and was recorded on the heavenly tablets as the friend of God.⁠c 10 And in the fourth year of it [2027] he took a wife for his son Isaac and her name was Rebekah [the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham] the sister of Laban and daughter of Bethuel; and Bethuel was the son of Melca, who was the wife of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. 11 And Abraham married a third wife named Keturah, from among the daughters of his household servants, for Hagar had died before Sarah. 12 And she bore him six sons, Zimram, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah, in the two weeks of years.

Jacob, Esau, and Abraham’s Blessing

13 And in the sixth week, in the second year of it [2046], Rebekah bore to Isaac two sons, Jacob and Esau, and Jacob was a smooth and upright man, and Esau was fierce, a man of the field, and hairy, and Jacob lived in tents. 14 And the youths grew, and Jacob learned to write;⁠d but Esau did not learn, for he was a man of the field and a hunter,⁠e and he learned war, and all his deeds were fierce. 15 And Abraham loved Jacob, but Isaac loved Esau. 16 And Abraham saw the deeds of Esau, and he knew that in Jacob his name and line of descendants would continue; and he called Rebekah and gave instructions regarding Jacob, for he knew that she (too) loved Jacob much more than Esau. 17 And he said to her: My daughter, watch over my son Jacob, For he shall be in my place on the earth, And for a blessing among human beings, And for the glory of all the descendants of Shem. 18 For I know that the Lord will choose him to be a people for possession to Himself, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. 19 And look, Isaac my son loves Esau more than Jacob, but I see that you truly love Jacob. 20 Be even kinder to him, And let your eyes be upon him in love; For he shall be a blessing to us on the earth from now on to all generations of the earth. 21 Let your hands be strong And let your heart rejoice in your son Jacob; For I have loved him far beyond all my sons. He shall be blessed forever, And his descendants shall fill the whole earth. 22 If a person can count the sand of the earth, His descendants can also be counted. 23 And all the blessings with which the Lord has blessed me and my descendants shall belong to Jacob and his descendants always. 24 And in his descendants my name shall be blessed, and the name of my ancestors, Shem, and Noah, and Enoch, and Mahalalel, and Enosh, and Seth, and Adam. 25 And these shall serve To lay the foundations of the heaven, And to strengthen the earth, And to renew all the heavenly lights which are in the vault of the sky. 26 And he called Jacob in the presence of Rebekah his mother, and kissed him, and blessed him, and said: 27 'Jacob, my beloved son, whom my soul loves, may God bless you from above the vault of the sky, and may He give you all the blessings with which He blessed Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, and Shem; and all the things of which He told me, and all the things which He promised to give me, may he cause to cling to you and to your descendants forever, according to the days of heaven above the earth. 28 And the Spirits of Mastema shall not rule over you or over your descendants to turn you from the Lord, who is your God from now on forever. 29 And may the Lord God be a father to you and you the firstborn son, and to the people always. Go in peace, my son.' 30 And they both went out together from Abraham. 31 And Rebekah loved Jacob, with all her heart and with all her soul, very much more than Esau; but Isaac loved Esau much more than Jacob.

Abraham Instructs His Descendants

1 And in the forty-second jubilee, in the first year of the seventh week [2052], Abraham called Ishmael, and his twelve sons, and Isaac and his two sons, and the six sons of Keturah, and their sons. 2 And he commanded them that they should observe the way of the Lord; that they should act righteously,⁠a and each love his neighbor, and act in this way among all men;⁠b that they should each behave toward them with justice and righteousness on the earth. 3 That they should circumcise their sons, according to the covenant which He had made with them, and not deviate to the right or the left of all the paths which the Lord had commanded us; and that we should keep ourselves from all sexual immorality and impurity, [and renounce from among us all sexual immorality and impurity]. 4 And if any woman or young woman commits sexual immorality among you, burn her with fire⁠c and do not let them commit sexual immorality with her after their eyes and their heart; and do not let them marry women from the daughters of Canaan; for the descendants of Canaan will be rooted out of the land. 5 And he told them of the judgment of the giants, and the judgment of the Sodomites,⁠d how they had been judged on account of their wickedness, and had died on account of their sexual immorality, and impurity, and mutual corruption through sexual immorality. 6 'And guard yourselves from all sexual immorality and impurity, And from all pollution of sin, So that you do not make our name a curse, And your whole life an object of scorn, And all your sons to be destroyed by the sword, And you become cursed like Sodom, And all your remnant as the sons of Gomorrah. 7 I implore you, my sons, love the God of heaven And cling to all His commandments. And do not follow their idols and their impure practices, 8 And do not make for yourselves cast-metal or carved gods; For they are worthless, And there is no spirit in them; For they are work of (men's) hands, And all who trust in them, trust in nothing. 9 Do not serve them, nor worship them, But serve the most high God, and worship Him continually: And hope for His face always, And act uprightly and righteously before Him, So that He may be pleased with you and grant you His mercy, And send rain upon you morning and evening, And bless all your works which you have done upon the earth, And bless your bread and your water, And bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, And the herds of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep. 10 And you will be a blessing on the earth, And all nations of the earth will desire you, And bless your sons in my name, So that they may be blessed as I am. 11 And he gave to Ishmael and to his sons, and to the sons of Keturah, gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, and he gave everything to Isaac his son. 12 And Ishmael and his sons, and the sons of Keturah and their sons, went together and lived from Paran to the entrance to Babylon in all the land which is toward the East facing the desert. 13 And these mixed with each other, and their name was called Arabs, and Ishmaelites.

Abraham Instructs Isaac

1 And in the sixth year of the seventh week of this jubilee [2057] Abraham called Isaac his son, and commanded him: saying, 'I have become old, and do not know the day of my death, and have lived a full life. 2 And look, I am one hundred and seventy-two years old, and throughout all the days of my life I have remembered the Lord, and sought with all my heart to do His will, and to walk uprightly in all His ways. 3 My soul has hated idols, and I have despised those that served them, and I have given my heart and spirit so that I might carefully do the will of Him who created me. 4 For He is the living God, and He is holy and faithful, and He is righteous beyond all, and He shows no favoritism (to people) and accepts no bribes; for God is righteous, and executes judgment on all those who transgress His commandments and despise His covenant. 5 And you, my son, observe His commandments and His ordinances and His judgments, and do not follow the abominations and after the carved images and after the cast-metal images.

Rules for Sacrifice and Purity

6 And eat no blood at all of animals or cattle, or of any bird which flies in the heaven. 7 And if you slaughter an acceptable burnt offering or peace offering, slaughter it, and splash its blood upon the altar, and offer all the meat of the offering on the altar with fine flour and the grain offering mixed with oil, with its drink offering — offer them all together on the altar of burnt offering; it is a pleasing aroma before the Lord. 8 And when you offer the fat of the sacrifice of thank offerings on the fire which is upon the altar, remove the fat on the belly, and all the fat on the inner parts and the two kidneys, and all the fat that is upon them, and upon the loins and the lobe of the liver together with the kidneys. 9 And offer all these for a pleasing aroma acceptable before the Lord, with its grain offering and with its drink-offering, for a pleasing aroma, the bread of the offering to the Lord. 10 And eat its meat on that day and on the second day, and do not let the sun on the second day go down upon it until it is eaten, and let nothing be left over for the third day; for it is not acceptable [for it is not approved] and let it no longer be eaten, and all who eat of it will bring sin upon themselves; for thus I have found it written in the books of my ancestors, and in the words of Enoch, and in the words of Noah. 11 And on all your offerings you shall scatter salt, and do not let the salt of the covenant be lacking in all your offerings before the Lord. 12 And as regards the wood of the sacrifices, be careful not to bring (other) wood for the altar in addition to these: cypress, bay, almond, fir, pine, cedar, savin, fig, olive, myrrh, laurel, aspalathus.⁠a 13 And place these kinds of wood on the altar under the sacrifice, such as have been tested by their appearance, and do not lay (on it) any split or dark wood, (but) hard and clean, without fault, a sound and new growth; and do not lay (on it) old wood, [for its fragrance is gone] for there is no longer fragrance in it as before. 14 Besides these kinds of wood there are no others that you shall place (on the altar), for the fragrance is dispersed, and the smell of its fragrance does not go up to heaven. 15 Observe this commandment and do it, my son, so that you may be upright in all your deeds. 16 And at all times be clean in your body, and wash yourself with water before you approach to offer on the altar, and wash your hands and your feet before you come close to the altar; and when you are done sacrificing, wash your hands and your feet again. 17 And let no blood appear upon you nor upon your clothes; be on your guard, my son, against blood, be on your guard very carefully; cover it with dust. 18 And do not eat any blood for it is the soul; eat no blood whatever. 19 And accept no payment for human blood that is shed without punishment or judgment; for it is the blood that is shed that causes the earth to sin, and the earth cannot be cleansed from human blood except by the blood of him who shed it. 20 And accept no present or gift for human blood: blood for blood, that you may be accepted before the Lord, the Most High God; for He is the defender of the good: and that you may be preserved from all evil, and that He may save you from every kind of pestilence.

A Call to Avoid Sin

21 I see, my son, That all the works of the human beings are sin and wickedness, And all their deeds are impurity and an abomination and a pollution, And there is no righteousness with them. 22 Be careful not to walk in their ways And tread in their paths, And commit a sin punishable by death⁠b before the Most High God. Otherwise He will [hide His face from you And] give you back into the hands of your transgression, And root you out of the land, and your descendants likewise from under heaven, And your name and your memory shall perish from the whole earth. 23 Turn away from all their deeds and all their impurity, And observe the ordinance of the Most High God, And do His will and be upright in all things. 24 And He will bless you in all your deeds, And will raise up from you a plant of righteousness through all the earth, throughout all generations of the earth, And He will not let my name and your name disappear under heaven forever. 25 Go, my son in peace. May the Most High God, my God and your God, strengthen you to do His will, And may He bless all your descendants and the rest of your descendants for the generations forever, with all righteous blessings, So that you may be a blessing on all the earth.' 26 And he went out from him rejoicing.

Abraham’s Last Festival

1 And in the first week in the forty-third jubilee, in the second year, that is, the year in which Abraham died, Isaac and Ishmael came from the Well of the Oath to celebrate the feast of weeks — that is, the feast of the first fruits of the harvest — to Abraham, their father, and Abraham rejoiced because his two sons had come. 2 For Isaac had many possessions in Beersheba, and Isaac used to go and see his possessions and to return to his father. 3 And in those days Ishmael came to see his father, and they both came together, and Isaac offered a sacrifice for a burnt offering, and presented it on the altar of his father which he had made in Hebron. 4 And he offered a thank offering and made a feast of joy before Ishmael, his brother: and Rebekah made new cakes from the new grain, and gave them to Jacob, her son, to take them to Abraham, his father, from the first fruits of the land, so that he might eat and bless the Creator of all things before he died. 5 And Isaac, too, sent to Abraham through Jacob an excellent thank offering, so that he might eat and drink. 6 And he ate and drank, and blessed the Most High God, Who has created heaven and earth, Who has made all the fat things of the earth, And given them to the human beings So that they might eat and drink and bless their Creator. 7 'And now I give thanks to You, my God, because You have caused me to see this day: look, I am one hundred and seventy-five years, an old man and having lived a full life, and all my days have been peace to me. 8 The sword of the adversary has not overcome me in all that You have given me and my children all the days of my life until this day. 9 My God, may Your mercy and Your peace be upon Your servant, and upon the descendants of his sons, so that they may be to You a chosen nation and an inheritance from among all the nations of the earth from now on to all the days of the generations of the earth, to all the ages.'⁠a 10 And he called Jacob and said: 'My son Jacob, may the God of all bless you and strengthen you to do righteousness, and His will before Him, and may He choose you and your descendants so that you may become a people for His inheritance according to His will always. And you, my son, Jacob, come close and kiss me.' 11 And he came close and kissed him, and he said: 'Blessed be my son Jacob And all the sons of God Most High, to all the ages: May God give to you righteous descendants; And may He sanctify some of your sons in the midst of the whole earth; May nations serve you, And all the nations bow themselves before your descendants. 12 Be strong in the presence of men, And exercise authority over all the descendants of Seth. Then your ways and the ways of your sons will be justified, So that they shall become a holy nation. 13 May the Most High God give you all the blessings With which He has blessed me And with which He blessed Noah and Adam; May they rest on the sacred head of your descendants from generation to generation forever. 14 And may He cleanse you from all unrighteousness and impurity, That you may be forgiven all the transgressions which you have committed ignorantly. And may He strengthen you, And bless you. And may you inherit the whole earth, 15 And may He renew His covenant with you. That you may be to Him a nation for His inheritance for all the ages, And that He may be to you and to your descendants a God in truth and righteousness throughout all the days of the earth.

Abraham’s Commands to Jacob

16 And you, my son Jacob, remember my words, And observe the commandments of Abraham, your father: Separate yourself from the nations, And do not eat with them: And do not act according to their works, And do not become their associate; For their works are unclean, And all their ways are a Pollution and an abomination and impurity.⁠b 17 They offer their sacrifices to the dead And they worship evil spirits, And they eat over the graves, And all their works are worthless and empty. 18 They have no mind to understand And their eyes do not see what their works are, And how they err in saying to a piece of wood: 'You are my God,' And to a stone: 'You are my Lord and you are the one who rescues me.' [And they have no understanding.] 19 And as for you, my son Jacob, May the Most High God help you And the God of heaven bless you And remove you from their impurity and from all their error. 20 Beware, my son Jacob, of taking a wife from any descendants of the daughters of Canaan; For all his descendants are to be rooted out of the earth. 21 For, because of the transgression of Ham, Canaan erred, And all his descendants shall be destroyed from off the earth and all who remain of them, And none descended from him shall be saved on the day of judgment. 22 And as for all the worshippers of idols and the profane There shall be no hope for them in the land of the living; And there shall be no remembrance of them on the earth; For they shall descend into Sheol, And they shall go into the place of condemnation, As the children of Sodom were taken away from the earth So all those who worship idols will be destroyed. 23 Do not fear, my son Jacob, And do not be dismayed, son of Abraham: May the Most High God preserve you from destruction, And may he rescue you from all the paths of error. 24 I have built this house for myself so that I might put my name upon it in the earth: [it is given to you and to your descendants forever], and it will be named the house of Abraham; it is given to you and to your descendants forever; for you will build my house and establish my name before God forever: your descendants and your name will stand throughout all generations of the earth.' 25 And he ceased commanding him and blessing him. 26 And the two lay together on one bed, and Jacob slept against the chest of his grandfather Abraham and he kissed him seven times, and his affection and his heart rejoiced over him. 27 And he blessed him with all his heart and said: 'The Most High God, the God of all, and Creator of all, who brought me out from Ur of the Chaldeans so that He might give me this land to inherit it forever, and so that I might establish holy descendants — blessed be the Most High forever.' 28 And he blessed Jacob and said: 'My son, over whom with all my heart and my affection I rejoice, may Your grace and Your mercy extend over him and upon his descendants always. 29 And do not abandon him, nor count him as nothing from now on to the days of eternity, and may Your eyes be opened upon him and upon his descendants, so that You may preserve him, and bless him, and may sanctify him as a nation for Your inheritance; 30 And bless him with all Your blessings from now on to all the days of eternity, and renew Your covenant and Your grace with him and with his descendants according to all Your good pleasure to all the generations of the earth.'

The Death of Abraham

1 And he placed two fingers of Jacob on his eyes, and he blessed the God of gods, and he covered his face and stretched out his feet and slept the sleep of eternity, and joined his ancestors. 2 And despite all this Jacob was lying against his chest, and did not know that Abraham, his grandfather, was dead. 3 And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and Abraham was cold as ice, and he said 'Father, father'; but no one answered, and he knew that he was dead. 4 And he got up from his chest and ran and told Rebekah, his mother; and Rebekah went to Isaac in the night, and told him; and they went together, and Jacob with them, and a lamp was in his hand, and when they had gone in they found Abraham lying dead. 5 And Isaac fell on the face of his father and wept and kissed him. 6 And the voices were heard in the house of Abraham, and Ishmael his son got up, and went to Abraham his father, and wept over Abraham his father, he and all the house of Abraham, and they wept bitterly. 7 And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the double cave, near Sarah his wife, and they wept for him forty days, all the men of his house, and Isaac and Ishmael, and all their sons, and all the sons of Keturah in their places; and the days of weeping for Abraham were ended.

The Decline of Human Life Spans

8 And he lived three jubilees and four weeks of years, one hundred and seventy-five years, and completed the days of his life, being old and having lived a full life.⁠a 9 For the lifespans of the ancestors were nineteen jubilees; and after the Flood they began to grow less than nineteen jubilees, and to decrease in jubilees, and to grow old quickly, and to be full of their days because of many troubles and the wickedness of their ways, with the exception of Abraham. 10 For Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord, and well-pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life; and look, he did not complete four jubilees in his life, when he had grown old because of the wickedness, and was at the end of his life. 11 And all the generations which shall arise from this time until the day of the great judgment shall grow old quickly, before they complete two jubilees, and their knowledge shall leave them because of their old age [and all their knowledge shall disappear]. 12 And in those days, if a man lives a jubilee and a half of years, they shall say regarding him: 'He has lived long, and the greater part of his days are pain and sorrow and trouble, and there is no peace: 13 For calamity follows on calamity, and wound on wound, and trouble on trouble, and bad news on bad news, and illness on illness, and all evil judgments such as these, one with another,⁠b illness and overthrow, and snow and frost and ice, and fever, and chills, and lethargy, and famine, and death, and sword, and captivity, and all kinds of calamities and pains.'⁠c 14 And all these shall come on an evil generation, which transgresses on the earth: their works are impurity and sexual immorality, and pollution and abominations. 15 Then they shall say: 'The days of the ancestors were many (even), to a thousand years, and were good; but look, the days of our life, if a man has lived many, are seventy years, and, if he is strong, eighty years, and those evil, and there is no peace in the days of this evil generation.'⁠d 16 And in that generation the sons shall convict their fathers and their elders of sin and unrighteousness, and of the words of their mouth and the great wickednesses which they perpetrate, and concerning their abandoning the covenant which the Lord made between them and Him, that they should observe and do all His commandments and His ordinances and all His instructions, without departing either to the right or the left. 17 For all have done evil, and every mouth speaks iniquity and all their works are an impurity and an abomination, and all their ways are pollution, impurity and destruction. 18 Look, the earth shall be destroyed on account of all their works, and there shall be no seed of the vine, and no oil; for their works are altogether faithless, and they shall all perish together, wild animals and cattle and birds, and all the fish of the sea, on account of the human beings. 19 And they shall fight with one another, the young with the old, and the old with the young, the poor with the rich, the lowly with the great, and the beggar with the prince, on account of the Torah and the covenant; for they have forgotten commandment, and covenant, and feasts, and months, and Sabbaths, and jubilees, and all judgments. 20 And they shall stand with bows and swords and war to turn them back into the way; but they shall not return until much blood has been shed on the earth, one by another. 21 And those who have escaped shall not return from their wickedness to the way of righteousness, but they shall all exalt themselves to deceit and wealth, that they may each take all that is his neighbor's, and they shall name the great name, but not in truth and not in righteousness, and they shall defile the holy of holies with their impurity and the corruption of their pollution. 22 And a great punishment shall come upon the deeds of this generation from the Lord, and He will give them over to the sword and to judgment and to captivity, and to be plundered and devoured. 23 And He will wake up against them the sinners of the nations, who have neither mercy nor compassion,⁠e and who shall show favoritism to no one, neither old nor young, nor anyone, for they are more wicked and strong to do evil than all the human beings. And they shall use violence against Israel and transgression against Jacob, And much blood shall be shed upon the earth, And there shall be none to gather and none to bury. 24 In those days they shall cry aloud, And call and pray that they may be saved from the hand of the sinners, the nations; But none shall be saved. 25 And the heads of the children shall be white with gray hair, And a child of three weeks shall appear old like a man of one hundred years, And their stature shall be destroyed by trouble and oppression.

Return to the Torah and Renewed Life

26 And in those days the children shall begin to study the Torah, And to seek the commandments, And to return to the path of righteousness. 27 And the days shall begin to grow many and increase among those human beings Until their days approach to one thousand years. And to a greater number of years than (before) was the number of the days. 28 And there shall be no old man Nor one who has reached the end of his life, For all shall be (as) children and youths.⁠f 29 And they shall complete all their days and live in peace and in joy, And there shall be no Satan nor any evil destroyer; For all their days shall be days of blessing and healing.⁠g 30 And at that time the Lord will heal His servants, And they shall rise up and see great peace, And drive out their adversaries. And the righteous shall see and be thankful, And rejoice with joy forever and ever,⁠h And shall see all their judgments and all their curses on their enemies.⁠i 31 And their bones shall rest in the earth, And their spirits shall have much joy, And they shall know that it is the Lord who executes judgment, And shows mercy to hundreds and thousands and to all that love Him⁠j 32 And you, Moses, write down these words; for thus they are written, and they record (them) on the heavenly tablets for a testimony for the generations forever.

Isaac and the Philistines

1 And after the death of Abraham, the Lord blessed Isaac his son, and he set out from Hebron and went and lived at the Well of the Vision in the first year of the third week [2073] of this jubilee, seven years. 2 And in the first year of the fourth week [2080] a famine began in the land, besides the first famine, which had been in the days of Abraham.

Jacob Gains the Birthright

3 And Jacob cooked lentil stew, and Esau came from the field hungry. And he said to Jacob his brother: 'Give me of this red stew.' And Jacob said to him: 'Sell to me your [status as firstborn, this] birthright and I will give you bread, and also some of this lentil stew.' 4 And Esau said in his heart: 'I shall die; what good to me is this birthright?' And he said to Jacob: 'I give it to you.' 5 And Jacob said: 'Swear to me, today,' and he swore to him. 6 And Jacob gave his brother Esau bread and stew, and he ate until he was satisfied, and Esau despised his birthright; for this reason Esau's name was called Edom, on account of the red stew which Jacob gave him for his birthright. 7 And Jacob became the elder, and Esau lost his privileged position.

Isaac in Gerar

8 And the famine was over the land, and Isaac departed to go down into Egypt in the second year of this week, and went to the king of the Philistines to Gerar, to Abimelech. 9 And the Lord appeared to him and said to him: 'Do not go down into Egypt; live in the land that I shall tell you of, and live as a foreigner in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. 10 For to you and to your descendants I will give all this land, and I will establish My oath which I swore to Abraham your father, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give to your descendants all this land. 11 And in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because your father obeyed My voice, and kept My instructions and My commandments, and My instructions, and My ordinances, and My covenant;⁠a and now obey My voice and live in this land.' 12 And he lived in Gerar three weeks of years. 13 And Abimelech gave orders concerning him, and concerning all that was his [2080-2101], saying: 'Any man that shall touch him or anything that is his shall surely die.'⁠b 14 And Isaac grew strong among the Philistines, and he got many possessions, oxen and sheep and camels and donkeys and a great household. 15 And he sowed in the land of the Philistines and brought in a hundred-fold, and Isaac became extremely great, and the Philistines envied him. 16 Now all the wells which the servants of Abraham had dug during the life of Abraham, the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham, and filled them with earth. 17 And Abimelech said to Isaac: 'Go from us, for you are much mightier than we', and Isaac departed from there in the first year of the seventh week, and stayed in the valleys of Gerar. 18 And they dug again the wells of water which the servants of Abraham, his father, had dug, and which the Philistines had closed after the death of Abraham his father, and he called their names as Abraham his father had named them. 19 And the servants of Isaac dug a well in the valley, and found flowing water, and the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with the shepherds of Isaac, saying: 'The water is ours'; and Isaac named the well 'Perversity', because they had been perverse with us. 20 And they dug a second well, and they quarreled for that also, and he named it 'Enmity'. And he set out from there and they dug another well, and for that they did not quarrel, and he named it 'Room', and Isaac said: 'Now the Lord has made room for us, and we have increased in the land.' 21 And he went up from there to the Well of the Oath in the first year of the first week in the forty-fourth jubilee [2108]. 22 And the Lord appeared to him that night, on the new moon of the first month, and said to him: 'I am the God of Abraham your father; do not fear, for I am with you, and shall bless you and shall surely multiply your descendants as the sand of the earth, for the sake of Abraham my servant.' 23 And he built an altar there, which Abraham his father had first built, and he called upon the name of the Lord, and he offered sacrifice to the God of Abraham his father.

Isaac’s Oath and Curse

24 And they dug a well and they found flowing water. 25 And the servants of Isaac dug another well and did not find water, and they went and told Isaac that they had not found water, and Isaac said: 'I have sworn today to the Philistines and this thing has been announced to us.' 26 And he named that place the Well of the Oath; for there he had sworn to Abimelech and Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol the commander of his army. 27 And Isaac knew that day that under pressure he had sworn to them to make peace with them. 28 And Isaac on that day cursed the Philistines and said: 'Cursed be the Philistines to the day of anger and indignation from the midst of all nations; may God make them an object of ridicule and a curse and an object of anger and indignation in the hands of the sinners the nations and in the hands of the Kittim. 29 And whoever escapes the sword of the enemy and the Kittim, may the righteous nation root out in judgment from under heaven; for they shall be the enemies and adversaries of my children throughout their generations upon the earth. 30 And no remnant shall be left to them, Nor one that shall be saved on the day of the anger of judgment; For all the descendants of the Philistines are (reserved) for destruction and rooting out and expulsion from the earth, And there shall no longer be left for these Caphtorim a name or any descendants on the earth. 31 For though he climbs to heaven, From there he shall be brought down, And though he make himself strong on earth, From there he shall be dragged out, And though he hides himself among the nations, Even from there he shall be rooted out; And though he descends into Sheol, There also his condemnation shall be great, And there also he shall have no peace. 32 And if he goes into captivity, By the hands of those that seek his life they shall kill him on the way, And neither name nor descendants shall be left to him on all the earth; For he shall depart into an eternal curse.' 33 And thus it is written and engraved concerning him on the heavenly tablets, to do to him on the day of judgment, so that he may be rooted out of the earth.

Rebekah Advises Jacob about Marriage

1 And in the second year of this week in this jubilee [2109], Rebekah called Jacob her son, and spoke to him, saying: 'My son, do not marry a woman from among the daughters of Canaan, as Esau, your brother, who married two women from among the daughters of Canaan, and they have made me bitter⁠a with all their unclean deeds: for all their deeds are sexual immorality and lust, and there is no righteousness with them, for (their deeds) are evil. 2 And I, my son, love you deeply, and my heart and my affection bless you every hour of the day and period of the night. 3 And now, my son, listen to my voice, and do the will of your mother, and do not marry a woman from among the daughters of this land, but only of the house of my father, and of my father's relatives. You shall marry a woman from among the house of my father, and the Most High God will bless you, and your children shall be a righteous generation and holy descendants.' 4 And then Jacob spoke to Rebekah, his mother, and said to her: 'Look, mother, I am nine weeks of years old, and I neither know nor have I touched any woman, nor have I become engaged to any, nor even think of marrying a woman from among the daughters of Canaan. 5 For I remember, mother, the words of Abraham, our father, for he commanded me not to take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, but to marry a woman from the descendants of my father's house and from my relatives. 6 I have heard before that daughters have been born to Laban, your brother, and I have set my heart on them to take a wife from among them. 7 And for this reason I have guarded myself in my spirit against sinning or being corrupted in all my ways throughout all the days of my life; for with regard to lust and sexual immorality, Abraham, my father, gave me many commands. 8 And, despite all that he has commanded me, these twenty-two years my brother has argued with me, and spoken frequently to me and said: 'My brother, take as a wife a sister of my two wives'; but I refuse to do as he has done. 9 I swear before you, mother, that all the days of my life I will not marry a woman from among the daughters of the descendants of Canaan, and I will not act wickedly as my brother Esau has done. 10 Do not fear, mother; be assured that I shall do your will and walk in uprightness, and not corrupt my ways forever.'

Rebekah Blesses Jacob

11 And then she looked up to heaven and extended the fingers of her hands, and opened her mouth and blessed the Most High God, who had created the heaven and the earth, and she gave Him thanks and praise. 12 And she said: 'Blessed be the Lord God, and may His holy name be blessed forever and ever, who has given me Jacob as a pure son and holy offspring; for he is Yours, and his descendants shall be Yours continually and throughout all the generations forevermore. 13 Bless him, Lord, and place in my mouth the blessing of righteousness, so that I may bless him.' 14 And at that hour, when the spirit of righteousness descended into her mouth, she placed both her hands on the head of Jacob, and said: 15 Blessed are You, Lord of righteousness and God of the ages And may He bless you beyond all the generations of men. May He give you, my Son, the path of righteousness, And reveal righteousness to your descendants. 16 And may He make your sons many during your life, And may they arise according to the number of the months of the year. And may their sons become many and great beyond the stars of heaven, And their numbers be more than the sand of the sea. 17 And may He give them this good land — as He said He would give it to Abraham and to his descendants after him always. And may they hold it as a possession forever. 18 And may I see (born) to you, my son, blessed children during my life, And may all your descendants be blessed and holy. 19 And as you have refreshed your mother's spirit during her life, The womb of her that bore you blesses you thus, [My affection] and my breasts bless you And my mouth and my tongue praise you greatly. 20 Increase and spread over the earth, And may your descendants be perfect in the joy of heaven and earth forever; And may your descendants rejoice, And on the great day of peace may they have peace. 21 And may your name and your descendants endure to all the ages, And may the Most High God be their God, And may the God of righteousness live with them, And may His sanctuary be built by them to all the ages. 22 Blessed be he that blesses you, And everyone who curses you falsely, may it be cursed.' 23 And she kissed him, and said to him; 'May the Lord of the world love you As the heart of your mother and her affection rejoice in you and bless you.' And she ceased from blessing.

Jacob Receives Isaac’s Blessing

1 And in the seventh year of this week [2114] Isaac called Esau, his elder Son, and said to him: ' I am old, my son, and my eyesight has become weak, and I do not know the day of my death. 2 And now take your hunting weapons your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt and catch me (venison), my son, and make me savory food, such as my soul loves, and bring it to me so that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.' 3 But Rebekah heard Isaac speaking to Esau. 4 And Esau went out early to the field to hunt and catch and bring home to his father. 5 And Rebekah called Jacob, her son, and said to him: 'Look, I heard Isaac, your father, speak to Esau, your brother, saying: "Hunt for me, and make me savory food, and bring (it) to me so that I may eat and bless you before the Lord before I die." 6 And now, my son, obey my voice in that which I command you: Go to your flock and bring me two good young goats, and I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves, and you shall bring (it) to your father so that he may eat and bless you before the Lord before he dies, and so that you may be blessed.' 7 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother: 'Mother, I shall not withhold anything which my father would eat, and which would please him: only I fear, my mother, that he will recognize my voice and wish to touch me. 8 And you know that I am smooth, and Esau, my brother, is hairy, and I shall appear to him as an evildoer, and shall do a deed which he had not commanded me, and he will be angry with me, and I shall bring upon myself a curse, and not a blessing.' 9 And Rebekah, his mother, said to him: 'Let your curse fall on me, my son, only obey my voice.' 10 And Jacob obeyed the voice of Rebekah, his mother, and went and fetched two good and fat young goats, and brought them to his mother, and his mother made them savory food such as he loved. 11 And Rebekah took the fine clothing of Esau, her elder son, which was with her in the house, and she clothed Jacob, her younger son, (with them), and she put the skins of the young goats upon his hands and on the exposed parts of his neck. 12 And she gave the food and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. 13 And Jacob went in to his father and said: 'I am your son: I have done according as you told me: get up and sit and eat of that which I have caught, father, so that your soul may bless me.' 14 And Isaac said to his son: 'How have you found so quickly, my son? 15 And Jacob said: 'Because the Lord your God caused me to find.' 16 And Isaac said to him: 'Come near, so that I may feel you, my son, if you are my son Esau or not.' 17 And Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, and he felt him and said: 18 'The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau,' and he did not recognize him, because it was an arrangement from heaven to remove his power of perception⁠a and Isaac did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's, so that he blessed him. 19 And he said: 'Are you my son Esau?' and he said: 'I am your son': and he said, 'Bring near to me so that I may eat of that which you have caught, my son, so that my soul may bless you.' 20 And he brought near to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank. 21 And Isaac, his father, said to him: 'Come near and kiss me, my son. And he came near and kissed him. 22 And he smelled the smell of his clothing, and he blessed him and said: 'Look, the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed. 23 And may the Lord give you of the dew of heaven And of the dew of the earth, and plenty of grain and oil: Let nations serve you, And peoples bow down to you. 24 Be lord over your brothers, And let your mother's sons bow down to you; And may all the blessings with which the Lord has blessed me and blessed Abraham, my father; Be given to you and to your descendants forever: Cursed be he that curses you, And blessed be he that blesses you.' 25 And as soon as Isaac had finished blessing his son Jacob, and Jacob had gone out from Isaac his father he hid himself and Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting. 26 And he also made savory food, and brought (it) to his father, and said to his father: 'Let my father get up, and eat of my venison so that your soul may bless me.' 27 And Isaac, his father, said to him: 'Who are you?' And he said to him: 'I am your firstborn, your son Esau: I have done as you have commanded me.' 28 And Isaac was deeply shocked, and said: 'Who is he that has hunted and caught and brought (it) to me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him: (and) he shall be blessed, and all his descendants forever.' 29 And when Esau heard the words of his father Isaac, he cried with an extremely loud and bitter cry, and said to his father: 'Bless me, (even) me also, father.' 30 And he said to him: 'Your brother came deceitfully, and has taken away your blessing.' And he said: 'Now I know why his name is named Jacob: look, he has displaced me these two times: he took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing.' 31 And he said: 'Have you not reserved a blessing for me, father?' and Isaac answered and said to Esau: 'Look, I have made him your lord, And I have given all his brothers to him for servants, And I have strengthened him with plenty of grain and wine and oil: And what now shall I do for you, my son?' 32 And Esau said to Isaac, his father: 'Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, (even) me also, father: ' And Esau wept aloud. 33 And Isaac answered and said to him: 'Look, your home shall be far from the dew of the earth, And far from the dew of heaven from above. 34 And by your sword you will live, And you will serve your brother. And when you become great and shake his yoke off your neck, You shall commit a sin fully deserving death, And your descendants shall be rooted out from under heaven.'⁠b 35 And Esau kept threatening Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and he said in his heart: 'May the days of mourning for my father now come, so that I may kill my brother Jacob.'

Jacob Leaves Home

1 And the words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah in a dream, and Rebekah sent and called Jacob her younger son, 2 and said to him: 'Look, Esau your brother will take vengeance on you so as to kill you. 3 Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice, and get up and flee to Laban, my brother, to Haran, and stay with him a few days until your brother's anger turns away, and he removes his anger from you, and forgets all that you have done; then I will send and bring you back from there.' 4 And Jacob said: 'I am not afraid; if he wishes to kill me, I will kill him.' 5 But she said to him: 'Do not let me be deprived of both my sons on one day.' 6 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother: 'Look, you know that my father has become old, and does not see because his eyesight is weak, and if I leave him he will think it wrong, because I leave him and go away from you, and my father will be angry, and will curse me. I will not go; when he sends me, then only I will go.' 7 And Rebekah said to Jacob: 'I will go in and speak to him, and he will send you away.' 8 And Rebekah went in and said to Isaac: 'I loathe my life because of the two daughters of Heth, whom Esau has taken as wives; and if Jacob takes a wife from among the daughters of the land such as these, what reason would I have to go on living, for the daughters of Canaan are evil.' 9 And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and instructed him and said to him: 10 'Do not marry a woman from among any of the daughters of Canaan; get up and go to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and marry a woman there from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. 11 And may God Almighty bless you and increase and multiply you so that you may become a company of nations, and give you the blessings of my father Abraham, to you and to your descendants after you, so that you may inherit the land where you live as foreigners and all the land which God gave to Abraham: go, my son, in peace.' 12 And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Mesopotamia, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's mother. 13 And after Jacob had set out to go to Mesopotamia, Rebekah grieved for her son, and she wept. 14 And Isaac said to Rebekah: 'My sister, do not weep on account of Jacob, my son; for he goes in peace, and in peace he will return. 15 The Most High God will preserve him from all evil, and will be with him; for He will not abandon him all his days; 16 For I know that his ways will be prospered in all things wherever he goes, until he returns in peace to us, and we see him in peace. 17 Do not fear on his account, my sister, for he is on the upright path and he is a perfect man: and he is faithful and will not perish. Do not weep.' 18 And Isaac comforted Rebekah on account of her son Jacob, and blessed him.

The Revelation at Bethel

19 And Jacob went from the Well of the Oath to go to Haran on the first year of the second week in the forty-fourth jubilee, and he came to Luz on the mountains, that is, Bethel, on the new moon of the first month of this week, [2115] and he came to the place at evening and turned from the way to the west of the road that night: and he slept there; for the sun had set. 20 And he took one of the stones of that place and laid it at his head under the tree, and he was journeying alone, and he slept. 21 And he dreamed that night, and he saw a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and the angels of the Lord were going up and down on it: and the Lord stood upon it.⁠a 22 And he spoke to Jacob and said: 'I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac; the land on which you are sleeping, I will give it to you, and to your descendants after you. 23 And your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall increase to the west and to the east, to the north and the south, and in you and in your descendants all the families of the nations shall be blessed. 24 And look, I will be with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back into this land in peace; for I will not leave you until I do everything that I told you of.' 25 And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said, 'Truly this place is the house of the Lord, and I did not know it.' And he was afraid and said: 'This place, which is none other than the house of God, is awe-inspiring, and this is the gate of heaven.'⁠b 26 And Jacob got up early in the morning, and took the stone which he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar for a sign, and he poured oil upon the top of it. And he named that place Bethel; but the name of the place was Luz at first. 27 And Jacob made a vow to the Lord, saying: 'If the Lord will be with me, and will keep me on the journey I am taking, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I return to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone which I have set up as a pillar for a sign in this place, shall be the Lord's house, and of all that You give me, I shall give the tenth to You, my God.'

Jacob’s Marriages

1 And he went on his journey, and came to the land of the east, to Laban, the brother of Rebekah, and he was with him, and served him for Rachel his daughter one week. 2 And in the first year of the third week [2122] he said to him: 'Give me my wife, for whom I have served you seven years'; and Laban said to Jacob: 'I will give you your wife.' 3 And Laban made a feast, and took Leah his elder daughter, and gave (her) to Jacob as a wife, and gave her Zilpah his female servant as a female servant; and Jacob did not know, for he thought that she was Rachel. 4 And he went in to her, and look, she was Leah; and Jacob was angry with Laban, and said to him: 'Why have you treated me this way? Did I not serve you for Rachel and not for Leah? Why have you wronged me? Take your daughter, and I will go; for you have done evil to me.' 5 For Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah; for Leah's eyes were weak,⁠a but her form was very handsome; but Rachel had beautiful eyes and a beautiful and very handsome form. 6 And Laban said to Jacob: 'That is not how things are done in our country, to give the younger before the elder.' And it is not right to do this; for thus it is ordained and written in the heavenly tablets, that no one should give his younger daughter before the elder; but one gives the older daughter first and the younger afterward — and the man who does so, his guilt is recorded in heaven, and none is righteous that does this thing, for this deed is evil before the Lord. 7 And command the children of Israel that they not do this thing; let them neither take nor give the younger before they have given the elder, for it is very wicked. 8 And Laban said to Jacob: 'Let the seven days of the feast of this one pass by, and I shall give you Rachel, so that you may serve me another seven years, so that you may pasture my sheep as you did in the former week.' 9 And on the day when the seven days of the feast of Leah had passed, Laban gave Rachel to Jacob, so that he might serve him another seven years, and he gave to Rachel Bilhah, the sister of Zilpah, as a female servant. 10 And he served yet another seven years for Rachel, for Leah had been given to him for nothing.

The Births of Jacob’s Children

11 And the Lord opened the womb of Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a son, and he named him Reuben, on the fourteenth day of the ninth month, in the first year of the third week [2122]. 12 But the womb of Rachel was closed, for the Lord saw that Leah was hated and Rachel loved. 13 And again Jacob went in to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a second son, and he named him Simeon, on the twenty-first of the tenth month, and in the third year of this week [2124]. 14 And again Jacob went in to Leah, and she conceived, and bore him a third son, and he named him Levi, in the new moon of the first month in the sixth year of this week [2127]. 15 And again Jacob went in to her, and she conceived, and bore him a fourth son, and he named him Judah, on the fifteenth of the third month, in the first year of the fourth week [2129]. 16 And on account of all this Rachel envied Leah, for she did not bear, and she said to Jacob: 'Give me children'; and Jacob said: 'Have I withheld from you the fruits of your womb? Have I abandoned you?' 17 And when Rachel saw that Leah had borne four sons to Jacob, Reuben and Simeon and Levi and Judah, she said to him: 'Go in to Bilhah my female servant, and she will conceive, and bear a son to me.' (And she gave (him) Bilhah her female servant as a wife). 18 And he went in to her, and she conceived, and bore him a son, and he named him Dan, on the ninth of the sixth month, in the sixth year of the third week [2127]. 19 And Jacob went in again to Bilhah a second time, and she conceived, and bore Jacob another son, and Rachel named him Naphtali, on the fifth of the seventh month, in the second year of the fourth week [2130]. 20 And when Leah saw that she had become unable to conceive and did not bear, she envied Rachel, and she also gave her female servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife, and she conceived, and bore a son, and Leah named him Gad, on the twelfth of the eighth month, in the third year of the fourth week [2131]. 21 And he went in again to her, and she conceived, and bore him a second son, and Leah named him Asher, on the second of the eleventh month, in the fifth year of the fourth week [2133]. 22 And Jacob went in to Leah, and she conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Issachar,⁠b on the fourth of the fifth month, in the fourth year of the fourth week,[2132] and she gave him to a nurse. 23 And Jacob went in again to her, and she conceived, and bore two (children), a son and a daughter, and she named the son Zebulun, and the name of the daughter Dinah, in the seventh of the seventh month, in the sixth year of the fourth week [2134]. 24 And the Lord was gracious to Rachel, and opened her womb, and she conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Joseph, on the new moon of the fourth month, in the sixth year in this fourth week [2134].

Jacob’s Work for Laban

25 And in the days when Joseph was born, Jacob said to Laban: 'Give me my wives and sons, and let me go to my father Isaac, and let me establish a household of my own; for I have completed the years in which I have served you for your two daughters, and I will go to the house of my father.' 26 And Laban said to Jacob: 'Stay with me for your wages, and pasture my flock for me again, and take your wages.' 27 And they agreed with one another that he should give him as his wages those of the lambs and young goats which were born black and spotted and white, (these) were to be his wages. 28 And all the sheep gave birth to spotted and speckled and black, variously marked, and they gave birth to again lambs like themselves, and all that were spotted were Jacob's and those which were not were Laban's. 29 And Jacob's possessions multiplied greatly, and he possessed oxen and sheep and donkeys and camels, and male and female servants. 30 And Laban and his sons envied Jacob, and Laban took back his sheep from him, and he observed him with evil intent.

Jacob Leaves Laban

1 And when Rachel had borne Joseph, Laban went to shear his sheep; for they were distant from him a three days' journey. 2 And Jacob saw that Laban was going to shear his sheep, and Jacob called Leah and Rachel, and spoke kindly to them that they should come with him to the land of Canaan. 3 For he told them how he had seen everything in a dream, even all that He had spoken to him that he should return to his father's house, and they said: 'To every place where you go we will go with you.' 4 And Jacob blessed the God of Isaac his father, and the God of Abraham his grandfather, and he set out and helped his wives and children mount, and took all his possessions and crossed the river, and came to the land of Gilead, and Jacob hid his intention from Laban and did not tell him. 5 And in the seventh year of the fourth week Jacob turned (his face) toward Gilead in the first month, on the twenty-first of it [2135]. And Laban pursued after him and overtook Jacob in the mountain of Gilead in the third month, on the thirteenth of it. 6 And the Lord did not allow him to injure Jacob; for he appeared to him in a dream by night. And Laban spoke to Jacob. 7 And on the fifteenth of those days Jacob made a feast for Laban, and for all who came with him, and Jacob swore to Laban that day, and Laban also to Jacob, that neither should cross the mountain of Gilead to the other with evil purpose. 8 And he made there a heap for a witness; therefore the name of that place is called: 'The Heap of Witness,' after this heap. 9 But previously they called the land of Gilead the land of the Rephaim; for it was the land of the Rephaim,⁠a and the Rephaim were born (there), giants whose height was ten, nine, eight down to seven cubits.⁠b 10 And their territory was from the land of the children of Ammon to Mount Hermon, and their royal capitals were Karnaim and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, and Misur, and Beon.⁠c 11 And the Lord destroyed them because of the evil of their deeds; for they were very wicked,⁠d and the Amorites lived in their place, wicked and sinful, and there is no people today which has committed to the full all their sins, and they have no longer a long life on the earth.

Jacob Meets Esau and Returns to His Parents

12 And Jacob sent away Laban, and he departed into Mesopotamia, the land of the East, and Jacob returned to the land of Gilead. 13 And he crossed the Jabbok in the ninth month, on the eleventh of it. And on that day Esau, his brother, came to him, and he was reconciled to him, and departed from him to the land of Seir, but Jacob lived in tents. 14 And in the first year of the fifth week in this jubilee [2136] he crossed the Jordan, and lived beyond the Jordan, and he pastured his sheep from the sea of the heap to Bethshan, and to Dothan and to the forest of Akrabbim. 15 And he sent to his father Isaac of all his possessions, clothing, and food, and meat, and drink, and milk, and butter, and cheese, and some dates of the valley. 16 And to his mother Rebekah also four times a year, between the times of the months, between plowing and reaping, and between autumn and the rain (season) and between winter and spring, to the tower of Abraham. 17 For Isaac had returned from the Well of the Oath and gone up to the tower of his father Abraham, and he lived there apart from his son Esau. 18 For in the days when Jacob went to Mesopotamia, Esau married Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, and he gathered together all the flocks of his father and his wives, and went up and lived on Mount Seir, and left Isaac his father at the Well of the Oath alone. 19 And Isaac went up from the Well of the Oath and lived in the tower of Abraham his father on the mountains of Hebron, 20 And Jacob sent there all that he sent to his father and his mother from time to time, all they needed, and they blessed Jacob with all their heart and with all their soul.

Dinah and Shechem

1 And in the first year of the sixth week [2143] he went up to Salem, to the east of Shechem, in peace,⁠a in the fourth month. 2 And there they carried off Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, into the house of Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite, the prince of the land, and he lay with her and defiled her, and she was a little girl, a child of twelve years. 3 And he implored his father and her brothers that she might be given to him as a wife. And Jacob and his sons were angry because of the men of Shechem; for they had defiled Dinah, their sister, and they spoke to them with evil intent and dealt deceitfully with them and tricked them. 4 And Simeon and Levi came unexpectedly to Shechem and executed judgment on all the men of Shechem, and killed all the men whom they found in it, and did not leave a single one remaining in it: they killed all in torments because they had dishonored their sister Dinah. 5 And thus let it never again be done from now on that a daughter of Israel be defiled; for judgment is ordained in heaven against them that they should destroy with the sword all the men of the Shechemites because they had done a shameful thing in Israel. 6 And the Lord delivered them into the hands of the sons of Jacob so that they might exterminate them with the sword and execute judgment upon them, and so that it might not happen again in Israel that a virgin of Israel should be defiled. 7 And if there is any man who wishes in Israel to give his daughter or his sister to any man who is of the descendants of the nations he shall surely die, and they shall stone him with stones; for he has done a shameful thing in Israel; and they shall burn the woman with fire, because she has dishonored the name of the house of her father,⁠b and she shall be rooted out of Israel. 8 And let no adulteress and no impurity be found in Israel throughout all the days of the generations of the earth; for Israel is holy to the Lord, and every man who has defiled (it) shall surely die: they shall stone him with stones. 9 For thus it has been ordained and written in the heavenly tablets regarding all the descendants of Israel: he who defiles (it) shall surely die, and he shall be stoned with stones. 10 And to this commandment there is no limit of days, and no pardon, nor any atonement: but the man who has defiled his daughter shall be rooted out in the midst of all Israel, because he has given of his descendants to Moloch,⁠c and acted irreverently so as to defile it.

The Prohibition of Intermarriage

11 And you, Moses, command the children of Israel and urge them not to give their daughters to the nations, and not to take for their sons any of the daughters of the nations, for this is abominable before the Lord. 12 For this reason I have written for you in the words of the Torah all the deeds of the Shechemites, which they did against Dinah, and how the sons of Jacob spoke, saying: 'We will not give our daughter to a man who is uncircumcised; for that would be a disgrace to us.' 13 And it is a disgrace to Israel, to those who give, and to those that take the daughters of the nations; for this is unclean and abominable to Israel. 14 And Israel will not be free from this impurity if it has a wife of the daughters of the nations, or has given any of its daughters to a man who is of any of the nations. 15 For there will be plague upon plague, and curse upon curse, and every judgment and plague and curse will come upon him: if he does this thing, or hides his eyes from those who commit impurity, or those who defile the sanctuary of the Lord, or those who profane His holy name, (then) the whole nation together will be judged for all the impurity and profanation of this man. 16 And there will be no favoritism [and no preferential treatment] and no accepting from him of fruits and offerings and burnt-offerings and fat, nor the fragrance of pleasing aroma, so as to accept it: and so let it be with every man or woman in Israel who defiles the sanctuary.

Levi and the Priesthood

17 For this reason I have commanded you, saying: 'Testify this testimony to Israel: see how the Shechemites fared and their sons: how they were delivered into the hands of two sons of Jacob, and they killed them under tortures, and it was (counted) to them for righteousness, and it is written down to them for righteousness. 18 And the descendants of Levi were chosen for the priesthood, and to be Levites, so that they might serve before the Lord, as we, continually, and that Levi and his sons may be blessed forever; for he was zealous to execute righteousness and judgment and vengeance on all those who rose against Israel. 19 And so they inscribe as a testimony in his favor on the heavenly tablets blessing and righteousness before the God of all:⁠d 20 And we remember the righteousness which the man fulfilled during his life, at all periods of the year; until a thousand generations they will record it, and it will come to him and to his descendants after him, and he has been recorded on the heavenly tablets as a friend and a righteous man. 21 All this account I have written for you, and have commanded you to say to the children of Israel, that they should not commit sin nor transgress the ordinances nor break the covenant which has been ordained for them, (but) that they should fulfill it and be recorded as friends. 22 But if they transgress and practice impurity in every way, they will be recorded on the heavenly tablets as adversaries, and they will be destroyed out of the book of life,⁠e and they will be recorded in the book of those who will be destroyed and with those who will be rooted out of the earth. 23 And on the day when the sons of Jacob killed Shechem a writing was recorded in their favor in heaven that they had executed righteousness and uprightness and vengeance on the sinners, and it was written for a blessing. 24 And they brought Dinah, their sister, out of the house of Shechem, and they took captive everything that was in Shechem, their sheep and their oxen and their donkeys, and all their wealth, and all their flocks, and brought them all to Jacob their father. 25 And he reproached them because they had put the city to the sword for he feared those who lived in the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 26 And the dread of the Lord was upon all the cities which are around Shechem, and they did not rise to pursue the sons of Jacob; for terror had fallen upon them.

Jacob Returns to Bethel and His Parents

1 And on the new moon of the month Jacob spoke to all the people of his house, saying: 'Purify yourselves and change your clothes, and let us set out and go up to Bethel, where I made a vow to Him on the day when I fled from Esau my brother, because he has been with me and brought me into this land in peace, and put away the foreign gods that are among you.' 2 And they gave up the foreign gods and that which was in their ears and which was on their necks and the idols which Rachel stole from Laban her father she gave entirely to Jacob. And he burned and broke them to pieces and destroyed them, and hid them under an oak which is in the land of Shechem. 3 And he went up on the new moon of the seventh month to Bethel. And he built an altar at the place where he had slept, and he set up a pillar there, and he sent word to his father Isaac to come to him to his sacrifice, and to his mother Rebekah. 4 And Isaac said: 'Let my son Jacob come, and let me see him before I die.' 5 And Jacob went to his father Isaac and to his mother Rebekah, to the house of his father Abraham, and he took two of his sons with him, Levi and Judah, and he came to his father Isaac and to his mother Rebekah. 6 And Rebekah came out from the tower to the front of it to kiss Jacob and embrace him; for her spirit had revived when she heard: 'Look, Jacob your son has come'; and she kissed him. 7 And she saw his two sons, and she recognized them, and said to him: 'Are these your sons, my son?' and she embraced them and kissed them, and blessed them, saying: 'In you the descendants of Abraham shall become renowned, and you shall prove a blessing on the earth.'

Isaac Blesses Levi and Judah

8 And Jacob went in to Isaac his father, to the room where he lay, and his two sons were with him, and he took the hand of his father, and bending down he kissed him, and Isaac clung to his son Jacob's neck and wept on it. 9 And the darkness left the eyes of Isaac, and he saw the two sons of Jacob, Levi, and Judah, and he said: 'Are these your sons, my son? for they are like you.' 10 And he said to him that they were truly his sons: 'And you have truly seen that they are truly my sons'. 11 And they came near to him, and he turned and kissed them and embraced them both together. 12 And the spirit of prophecy came down into his mouth, and he took Levi by his right hand and Judah by his left.⁠a 13 And he turned to Levi first, and began to bless him first, and said to him: May the God of all, the very Lord of all the ages, bless you and your children throughout all the ages. 14 And may the Lord give to you and to your descendants greatness and great glory, and cause you and your descendants, from among all flesh, to approach Him to serve in His sanctuary as the angels of the presence and as the holy ones.⁠b (Even) as they, the descendants of your sons shall be for glory and greatness and holiness, and may He make them great to all the ages. 15 And they shall be judges and princes, and chiefs of all the descendants of the sons of Jacob; They shall speak the word of the Lord in righteousness, And they shall judge all His judgments in righteousness. And they shall declare My ways to Jacob And My paths to Israel.⁠c The blessing of the Lord shall be given in their mouths⁠d To bless all the descendants of the beloved. 16 Your mother has called your name Levi, And justly she has called your name; You shall be joined to the Lord And be the companion of all the sons of Jacob; Let His table be yours, And may you and your sons eat of it; And may your table be full to all generations, And your food not fail to all the ages. 17 And let all who hate you fall down before you, And let all your adversaries be rooted out and perish; And blessed be he that blesses you, And cursed be every nation that curses you.' 18 And to Judah he said: 'May the Lord give you strength and power To trample all that hate you; You shall be a prince, you and one of your sons, over the sons of Jacob;⁠e May your name and the name of your sons spread throughout every land and region. Then the nations shall fear you, And all the nations shall tremble [And all the peoples shall tremble]. 19 In you shall be the help of Jacob, And in you be found the salvation of Israel. 20 And when you sit on the throne of honor of your righteousness There shall be great peace for all the descendants of the sons of the beloved; Blessed be he that blesses you, And all that hate you and afflict you and curse you Shall be rooted out and destroyed from the earth and be cursed.' 21 And turning he kissed him again and embraced him, and rejoiced greatly; for he had seen the sons of Jacob his son in person. 22 And he went out from between his feet and fell down and bowed down to him, and he blessed them and rested there with Isaac his father that night, and they ate and drank with joy. 23 And he made the two sons of Jacob sleep, the one on his right hand and the other on his left, and it was counted to him for righteousness. 24 And Jacob told his father everything during the night, how the Lord had shown him great mercy, and how he had prospered (him in) all his ways, and protected him from all evil. 25 And Isaac blessed the God of his father Abraham, who had not withdrawn his mercy and his righteousness from the sons of his servant Isaac. 26 And in the morning Jacob told his father Isaac the vow which he had vowed to the Lord, and the vision which he had seen, and that he had built an altar, and that everything was ready for the sacrifice to be made before the Lord as he had vowed, and that he had come to set him on a donkey. 27 And Isaac said to Jacob his son: 'I am not able to go with you; for I am old and not able to endure the journey: go, my son, in peace; for I am one hundred and sixty-five years today; I am no longer able to journey; set your mother (on a donkey) and let her go with you. 28 And I know, my son, that you have come on my account, and may this day be blessed on which you have seen me alive, and I also have seen you, my son. 29 May you prosper and fulfill the vow which you have vowed; and do not put off your vow; for you shall be called to account concerning the vow; now therefore hurry to fulfill it, and may He be pleased who has made all things, to whom you have vowed the vow.' 30 And he said to Rebekah: 'Go with Jacob your son'; and Rebekah went with Jacob her son, and Deborah with her, and they came to Bethel. 31 And Jacob remembered the prayer with which his father had blessed him and his two sons, Levi and Judah, and he rejoiced and blessed the God of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac. 32 And he said: 'Now I know that I have an eternal hope, and my sons also, before the God of all'; and thus it is ordained concerning the two; and they record it as an eternal testimony to them on the heavenly tablets how Isaac blessed them.

Levi’s Dream and Jacob’s Tithes

1 And he stayed that night at Bethel, and Levi dreamed that they had ordained and made him the priest of the Most High God, him and his sons forever; and he awoke from his sleep and blessed the Lord. 2 And Jacob rose early in the morning, on the fourteenth of this month, and he gave a tithe of all that came with him, both of men and cattle, both of gold and every container and item of clothing, indeed, he gave tithes of all. 3 And in those days Rachel became pregnant with her son Benjamin. And Jacob counted his sons from him upwards and Levi fell to the portion of the Lord,⁠a and his father clothed him in the priestly robes and filled his hands.⁠b 4 And on the fifteenth of this month, he brought to the altar fourteen oxen from among the cattle, and twenty-eight rams, and forty-nine sheep, and seven lambs, and twenty-one young goats as a burnt-offering on the altar of sacrifice, well pleasing for a pleasing aroma before God. 5 This was his offering, because of the vow which he had vowed that he would give a tenth, with their fruit-offerings and their drink-offerings. 6 And when the fire had consumed it, he burned incense on the fire over the fire, and for a thank-offering two oxen and four rams and four sheep, four male goats, and two sheep of a year old, and two young goats; and thus he did daily for seven days. 7 And he and all his sons and his men were eating (this) with joy there during seven days and blessing and thanking the Lord, who had rescued him from all his troubles and had given him his vow. 8 And he tithed all the clean animals, and made a burnt sacrifice, but the unclean animals he gave (not) to Levi his son, and he gave him all the people. 9 And Levi performed the priest's duties at Bethel before Jacob his father rather than his ten brothers, and he was a priest there, and Jacob gave his vow: thus he tithed again the tithe to the Lord and sanctified it, and it became holy to Him.⁠c

The Commandment on Tithes

10 And for this reason it is ordained on the heavenly tablets as a commandment for the tithing again the tithe to eat before the Lord from year to year, in the place where it is chosen that His name should reside, and to this commandment there is no limit of days forever. 11 This ordinance is written that it may be fulfilled from year to year in eating the second tithe before the Lord in the place where it has been chosen, and nothing shall remain over from it from this year to the year following. 12 For in its year the seed shall be eaten until the days of the gathering of the seed of the year, and the wine until the days of the wine, and the oil until the days of its season. 13 And all that is left of it and becomes old, let it be regarded as polluted: let it be burned with fire, for it is unclean. 14 And thus let them eat it together in the sanctuary, and do not let them allow it to become old. 15 And all the tithes of the oxen and sheep shall be holy to the Lord, and shall belong to his priests, which they will eat before Him from year to year; for thus it is ordained and engraved regarding the tithe on the heavenly tablets.

Revelations to Jacob at Bethel

16 And on the following night, on the twenty-second day of this month, Jacob resolved to build that place, and to surround the court with a wall, and to sanctify it and make it holy forever, for himself and his children after him. 17 And the Lord appeared to him by night and blessed him and said to him: 'Your name shall not be called Jacob, but you shall be named Israel.' 18 And He said to him again: 'I am the Lord who created the heaven and the earth, and I will increase you and multiply you greatly, and kings shall descend from you, and they shall judge everywhere wherever human beings have set foot. 19 And I will give to your descendants all the earth which is under heaven, and they shall judge all the nations according to their desires, and after that they shall get possession of the whole earth and inherit it forever.' 20 And He finished speaking with him, and He went up from him, and Jacob looked until He had gone up into heaven. 21 And he saw in a vision of the night, and he saw an angel coming down from heaven with seven tablets in his hands, and he gave them to Jacob, and he read them and knew all that was written in them which would happen to him and his sons throughout all the ages. 22 And he showed him all that was written on the tablets, and said to him: 'Do not build this place, and do not make it an eternal sanctuary, and do not live here; for this is not the place. Go to the house of Abraham your father and live with Isaac your father until the day of the death of your father. 23 For in Egypt you shall die in peace, and in this land you shall be buried with honor in the tomb of your ancestors, with Abraham and Isaac. 24 Do not fear, for as you have seen and read it, thus it shall all be; and write down everything as you have seen and read.' 25 And Jacob said: 'Lord, how can I remember all that I have read and seen?' And he said to him: 'I will remind you of everything.' 26 And he went up from him, and he awoke from his sleep, and he remembered everything which he had read and seen, and he wrote down all the words which he had read and seen. 27 And he celebrated there yet another day,⁠d and he sacrificed on it according to all that he sacrificed on the earlier days, and named it 'Addition,' for this day was added and the earlier days he called 'The Feast '. 28 And thus it was made known that it should be, and it is written on the heavenly tablets: therefore it was revealed to him that he should celebrate it, and add it to the seven days of the feast. 29 And its name was called 'Addition,' because it was recorded among the days of the feast days, according to the number of the days of the year.

The Departure from Bethel

30 And in the night, on the twenty-third of this month, Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and they buried her beneath the city under the oak of the river, and he named this place, 'The river of Deborah,' and the oak, 'The oak of the mourning of Deborah.' 31 And Rebekah went and returned to her house to his father Isaac, and Jacob sent with her rams and sheep and male goats so that she could prepare a meal for his father such as he desired. 32 And he went after his mother until he came to the land of Kabratan, and he lived there. 33 And Rachel bore a son in the night, and named him 'Son of my sorrow '; for she suffered in giving him birth: but his father named him Benjamin, on the eleventh of the eighth month in the first of the sixth week of this jubilee [2143]. 34 And Rachel died there and she was buried in the land of Ephrath, that is Bethlehem, and Jacob built a pillar on the grave of Rachel, on the road above her grave.

Reuben and Bilhah

1 And Jacob went and lived to the south of Magdaladra'ef. And he went to his father Isaac, he and Leah his wife, on the new moon of the tenth month. 2 And Reuben saw Bilhah, Rachel's female servant, the concubine of his father, bathing in water in a secret place, and he loved her.⁠a 3 And he hid himself at night, and he entered the house of Bilhah [at night], and he found her sleeping alone on a bed in her house. 4 And he lay with her, and she awoke and saw, and Reuben was lying with her in the bed, and she uncovered the border of her covering and seized him, and cried out, and discovered that it was Reuben. 5 And she was ashamed because of him, and released her hand from him, and he fled. 6 And she lamented because of this thing bitterly, and did not tell it to anyone. 7 And when Jacob returned and sought her, she said to him: 'I am not clean for you, for I have been defiled as regards you; for Reuben has defiled me, and has slept with me in the night, and I was asleep, and did not realize until he uncovered my skirt and slept with me.' 8 And Jacob was extremely angry with Reuben because he had slept with Bilhah, because he had uncovered his father's skirt. 9 And Jacob did not approach her again because Reuben had defiled her. And as for any man who uncovers his father's skirt his deed is extremely wicked, for he is abominable before the Lord.

The Commandment and Reuben’s Pardon

10 For this reason it is written and ordained on the heavenly tablets that a man should not lie with his father's wife, and should not uncover his father's skirt, for this is unclean: they shall surely die together, the man who lies with his father's wife and the woman also, for they have committed impurity on the earth. 11 And there shall be nothing unclean before our God in the nation which He has chosen for Himself as a possession. 12 And again, it is written a second time: 'Cursed be he who lies with the wife of his father, for he has uncovered his father's shame'; and all the holy ones of the Lord said 'So be it; so be it.' 13 And you, Moses, command the children of Israel that they observe this word; for it (entails) a punishment of death; and it is unclean, and there is no atonement forever to atone for the man who has committed this, but he is to be put to death and killed, and stoned with stones, and rooted out from the midst of the people of our God. 14 For it is permitted to no man who does so in Israel to remain alive a single day on the earth, for he is abominable and unclean. 15 And do not let them say: Reuben was granted life and forgiveness after he had slept with his father's concubine, and she also, though she had a husband, and her husband Jacob, his father, was still alive. 16 For until that time there had not been revealed the ordinance and judgment and commandment in its completeness for all, but in your days (it has been revealed) as a commandment of seasons and of days, and an everlasting commandment for the everlasting generations. 17 And for this commandment there is no end to its duration, and no atonement for it, but they must both be rooted out in the midst of the nation: on the day on which they committed it they shall kill them. 18 And you, Moses, write (it) down for Israel that they may observe it, and do according to these words, and not commit a sin leading to death; for the Lord our God is judge, who shows no favoritism and does not accept bribes. 19 And tell them these words of the covenant, that they may hear and observe, and be on their guard with respect to them, and not be destroyed and rooted out of the land; for all they who commit it on the earth before our God are an impurity, and an abomination, and a contamination, and a pollution. 20 And there is no greater sin than the sexual immorality which they commit on earth; for Israel is a holy nation to the Lord its God, and a nation of inheritance, and a priestly and royal nation and for (His own) possession; and no such impurity shall appear in the midst of the holy nation. 21 And in the third year of this sixth week [2145] Jacob and all his sons went and lived in the house of Abraham, near Isaac his father and Rebekah his mother. 22 And these were the names of the sons of Jacob: the firstborn Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, the sons of Leah; and the sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin; and the sons of Bilhah, Dan and Naphtali; and the sons of Zilpah, Gad and Asher; and Dinah, the daughter of Leah, the only daughter of Jacob. 23 And they came and bowed themselves to Isaac and Rebekah, and when they saw them they blessed Jacob and all his sons, and Isaac rejoiced greatly, for he saw the sons of Jacob, his younger son and he blessed them.

War with the Amorite Kings

1 And in the sixth year of this week of this forty-fourth jubilee [2148] Jacob sent his sons to pasture their sheep, and his servants with them to the pastures of Shechem. 2 And the seven kings of the Amorites assembled themselves together against them, to kill them, hiding themselves under the trees, and to take their cattle as captured goods. 3 And Jacob and Levi and Judah and Joseph were in the house with Isaac their father; for his spirit was sorrowful, and they could not leave him: and Benjamin was the youngest, and for this reason remained with his father. 4 And the king[s] of Taphu and the king[s] of 'Aresa, and the king[s] of Seragan, and the king[s] of Selo, and the king[s] of Ga'as, and the king of Bethoron, and the king of Ma'anisakir, and all those who live in these mountains (and) who live in the woods in the land of Canaan came. 5 And they announced this to Jacob saying: 'Look, the kings of the Amorites have surrounded your sons, and plundered their herds.' 6 And he set out from his house, he and his three sons and all the servants of his father, and his own servants, and he went against them with six thousand men, who carried swords. 7 And he killed them in the pastures of Shechem, and pursued those who fled, and he killed them with the edge of the sword, and he killed 'Aresa and Taphu and Saregan and Selo and 'Amanisakir and Ga[ga]'as, and he recovered his herds. 8 And he prevailed over them, and imposed tribute on them so that they would pay him tribute, five fruit products of their land, and he built Robel and Tamnatares. 9 And he returned in peace, and made peace with them, and they became his servants, until the day that he and his sons went down into Egypt.

Joseph Is Sold and Jacob Mourns

10 And in the seventh year of this week [2149] he sent Joseph to learn about the welfare of his brothers from his house to the land of Shechem, and he found them in the land of Dothan. 11 And they dealt treacherously with him, and formed a plot against him to kill him, but changing their minds, they sold him to Ishmaelite merchants, and they brought him down into Egypt, and they sold him to Potiphar, the eunuch of Pharaoh, the chief of the cooks, priest of the city of 'Elew. 12 And the sons of Jacob slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the coat of Joseph in the blood, and sent (it) to Jacob their father on the tenth of the seventh month. 13 And he mourned all that night, for they had brought it to him in the evening, and he became feverish with mourning for his death, and he said: 'A vicious wild animal has devoured Joseph'; and all the members of his house [mourned with him that day, and they] were grieving and mourning with him all that day. 14 And his sons and his daughter rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted for his son. 15 And on that day Bilhah heard that Joseph had perished, and she died mourning him, and she was living in Qafratef, and Dinah also, his daughter, died after Joseph had perished. And there came these three mournings upon Israel in one month. 16 And they buried Bilhah opposite the tomb of Rachel, and Dinah also, his daughter, they buried there. 17 And he mourned for Joseph one year, and did not cease, for he said 'Let me go down to the grave mourning for my son'.

The Day of Atonement

18 For this reason it is ordained for the children of Israel that they should afflict themselves on the tenth of the seventh month — on the day that the news which made him weep for Joseph came to Jacob his father — that they should make atonement for themselves on it with a young goat on the tenth of the seventh month, once a year, for their sins;⁠a for they had grieved the affection of their father regarding Joseph his son. 19 And this day has been ordained that they should grieve on it for their sins, and for all their transgressions and for all their errors, so that they might cleanse themselves on that day once a year. 20 And after Joseph perished, the sons of Jacob took wives for themselves. The name of Reuben's wife is 'Ada; and the name of Simeon's wife is 'Adlba'a, a Canaanite; and the name of Levi's wife is Melka, of the daughters of Aram, of the descendants of the sons of Terah; and the name of Judah's wife, Betasu'el, a Canaanite; and the name of Issachar's wife, Hezaqa: and the name of Zebulun's wife, Ni'iman; and the name of Dan's wife, 'Egla; and the name of Naphtali's wife, Rasu'u, of Mesopotamia; and the name of Gad's wife, Maka; and the name of Asher's wife, 'Ijona; and the name of Joseph's wife, Asenath, the Egyptian; and the name of Benjamin's wife, 'Ijasaka. 21 And Simeon repented, and took a second wife from Mesopotamia as his brothers.

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.

Isaac’s Last Instructions

1 And in the sixth year of this week [2162] Isaac called his two sons Esau and Jacob, and they came to him, and he said to them: 'My sons, I am going the way of my ancestors, to the eternal house where my ancestors are. 2 So bury me near Abraham my father, in the double cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, where Abraham purchased a tomb to bury in; in the tomb which I dug for myself, bury me there. 3 And this I command you, my sons, that you practice righteousness and uprightness on the earth, so that the Lord may bring upon you all that the Lord said that he would do to Abraham and to his descendants. 4 And love one another as brothers, my sons, as a man who loves his own soul, and let each look for ways to benefit his brother, and act together on the earth; and let them love each other as their own souls.⁠a 5 And concerning the question of idols, I command and instruct you to reject them and hate them, and do not love them, for they are full of deception for those that worship them and for those that bow down to them. 6 Remember, my sons, the Lord God of Abraham your father, and how I too worshipped Him and served Him in righteousness and in joy, so that He might multiply you and increase your descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and establish you on the earth as the plant of righteousness which will not be rooted out to all the generations forever. 7 And now I shall make you swear a great oath⁠b — for there is no oath which is greater than it by the name glorious and honored and great and splendid and wonderful and mighty, which created the heavens and the earth and all things together — that you will fear Him and worship Him.⁠c 8 And that each will love his brother with affection and righteousness, and that neither will desire evil against his brother from now on forever all the days of your life so that you may prosper in all your deeds and not be destroyed. 9 And if either of you devises evil against his brother, know that from now on everyone that devises evil against his fellow shall fall into his hand, and shall be rooted out of the land of the living, and his descendants shall be destroyed from under heaven. 10 But on the day of turmoil and cursing and indignation and anger, with flaming devouring fire as He burned Sodom, He will likewise burn his land and his city and all that is his, and he shall be blotted out of the book of the discipline of the human beings, and not be recorded in the book of life, but in that which is appointed to destruction, and he shall depart into an eternal curse; so that their condemnation may be always renewed in hate and in cursing and in anger and in torment and in indignation and in plagues and in disease forever. 11 I say and testify to you, my sons, according to the judgment which shall come upon the man who wishes to injure his brother. 12 And he divided all his possessions between the two on that day and he gave the larger portion to him that was the firstborn, and the tower and all that was about it, and all that Abraham possessed at the Well of the Oath. 13 And he said: 'This larger portion I will give to the firstborn.' 14 And Esau said, 'I have sold to Jacob and given my birthright to Jacob; to him let it be given, and I have not a single word to say regarding it, for it is his.' 15 And Isaac said, May a blessing rest upon you, my sons, and upon your descendants today, for you have given me rest, and my heart is not pained concerning the birthright, for fear that you might do evil on account of it. 16 May the Most High God bless the man that acts righteously, him and his descendants forever.' 17 And he finished instructing them and blessing them, and they ate and drank together before him, and he rejoiced because there was one mind between them, and they went out from him and rested that day and slept. 18 And Isaac slept on his bed that day rejoicing; and he slept the eternal sleep, and died one hundred and eighty years old. He completed twenty-five weeks and five years; and his two sons Esau and Jacob buried him. 19 And Esau went to the land of Edom, to the mountains of Seir, and lived there. 20 And Jacob lived in the mountains of Hebron, in the land of Canaan, in the tower in the land of his father Abraham, and he worshipped the Lord with all his heart and according to the visible commands according as He had divided the days of his generations.

The Death of Leah

21 And Leah his wife died in the fourth year of the second week of the forty-fifth jubilee, [2167] and he buried her in the double cave near Rebekah his mother to the left of the grave of Sarah, his father's mother 22 and all her sons and his sons came to mourn over Leah his wife with him and to comfort him regarding her, for he was lamenting her for he loved her deeply after Rachel her sister died; 23 for she was perfect and upright in all her ways and honored Jacob, and all the days that she lived with him he did not hear from her mouth a harsh word, for she was gentle and peaceable and upright and honorable. 24 And he remembered all her deeds which she had done during her life and he lamented her deeply; for he loved her with all his heart and with all his soul.

Esau’s Sons Plan War

1 And on the day that Isaac the father of Jacob and Esau died, [2162] the sons of Esau heard that Isaac had given the portion of the elder to his younger son Jacob and they were very angry. 2 And they argued with their father, saying 'Why has your father given Jacob the portion of the elder and passed over you, although you are the elder and Jacob the younger?' 3 And he said to them, 'Because I sold my birthright to Jacob for a small serving of lentils, and on the day my father sent me to hunt and catch and bring him something that he should eat and bless me, he came deceitfully and brought my father food and drink, and my father blessed him and placed me under his authority. 4 And now our father has caused us to swear, me and him, that we shall not devise evil against one another, and that we shall continue in love and in peace each with his brother and not make our ways corrupt.' 5 And they said to him, 'We shall not listen to you to make peace with him; for our strength is greater than his strength, and we are more powerful than he; we shall go against him and kill him, and destroy him and his sons.⁠a And if you will not go with us, we shall do harm to you also. 6 And now listen to us: Let us send to Aram and Philistia and Moab and Ammon, and let us choose for ourselves chosen men who are eager for battle, and let us go against him and do battle with him, and let us exterminate him from the earth before he grows strong.' 7 And their father said to them, 'Do not go and do not make war with him so that you do not fall before him.' 8 And they said to him, 'This too, is exactly how you have acted from your youth until today, and you are putting your neck under his yoke. 9 We shall not listen to these words.' And they sent to Aram, and to 'Aduram to the friend of their father, and they hired along with them one thousand fighting men, chosen men of war. 10 And there came to them from Moab and from the children of Ammon, those who were hired, one thousand chosen men, and from Philistia, one thousand chosen men of war, and from Edom and from the Horites one thousand chosen fighting men, and from the Kittim mighty men of war. 11 And they said to their father: Go out with them and lead them, else we shall kill you.' 12 And he was filled with anger and indignation on seeing that his sons were forcing him to go before (them) to lead them against Jacob his brother. 13 But afterward he remembered all the evil which lay hidden in his heart against Jacob his brother; and he did not remember the oath which he had sworn to his father and to his mother that he would devise no evil all his days against Jacob his brother.

The Attack on Jacob

14 And despite all this, Jacob did not know that they were coming against him to battle, and he was mourning for Leah, his wife, until they approached very near to the tower with four thousand warriors and chosen men of war. 15 And the men of Hebron sent to him saying, 'Look, your brother has come against you, to fight you, with four thousand armed with the sword, and they carry shields and weapons'; for they loved Jacob more than Esau. So they told him; for Jacob was a more generous and merciful man than Esau. 16 But Jacob would not believe until they came very near to the tower. 17 And he closed the gates of the tower; and he stood on the battlements and spoke to his brother Esau and said, 'The comfort with which you have come to comfort me for my wife who has died is noble. Is this the oath that you swore to your father and again to your mother before they died? You have broken the oath, and at the moment that you swore to your father you were condemned.' 18 And then Esau answered and said to him, 'Neither the human beings nor the serpents of the earth have any oath of righteousness which in swearing they have sworn (an oath valid) forever; but every day they devise evil one against another, and how each may kill his adversary and enemy. 19 And you hate me and my children forever. And there is no observing the tie of brotherhood with you. 20 Hear these words which I declare to you, If the boar can change its skin and make its bristles as soft as wool, Or if it can cause horns to grow on its head like the horns of a stag or of a sheep, Then I will observe the tie of brotherhood with you. The breasts have been separated from their mother, for you have not been a brother to me. 21 And if the wolves make peace with the lambs so as not to devour or do them violence, And if their hearts are toward them for good, Then there shall be peace in my heart toward you 22 And if the lion becomes the friend and trusted companion of the ox and makes peace with him And if he is bound under one yoke with him and plows with him, Then I will make peace with you. 23 And when the raven becomes white as the raza, Then know that I have loved you And shall make peace with you. You shall be rooted out, And your sons shall be rooted out, And there shall be no peace for you' 24 And when Jacob saw that he was (so) intent on harming him with his heart, and with all his soul as to kill him, and that he had come springing like the wild boar which comes upon the spear that pierces and kills it, and does not recoil from it; 25 then he spoke to his own and to his servants that they should attack him and all his companions.

The War between Jacob and Esau

1 And after that Judah spoke to Jacob, his father, and said to him: 'Bend your bow, father, and shoot your arrow and cast down the adversary and kill the enemy; and may you have the power, for we shall not kill your brother, for he is your brother, and in our eyes he is like you in honor.' 2 Then Jacob bent his bow and shot the arrow and struck Esau, his brother (on his right breast) and killed him. 3 And again he shot an arrow and struck 'Adoran the Aramaean, on the left breast, and drove him backward and killed him. 4 And then the sons of Jacob went out, they and their servants, dividing themselves into groups on the four sides of the tower. 5 And Judah went out in front, and Naphtali and Gad with him and fifty servants with him on the south side of the tower, and they killed all they found before them, and not one individual of them escaped. 6 And Levi and Dan and Asher went out on the east side of the tower, and fifty (men) with them, and they killed the fighting men of Moab and Ammon. 7 And Reuben and Issachar and Zebulun went out on the north side of the tower, and fifty men with them, and they killed the fighting men of the Philistines. 8 And Simeon and Benjamin and Enoch, Reuben's son, went out on the west side of the tower, and fifty (men) with them, and they killed of Edom and of the Horites four hundred men, strong warriors; and six hundred fled, and four of the sons of Esau fled with them, and left their father lying dead, as he had fallen on the hill which is in 'Aduram. 9 And the sons of Jacob pursued them to the mountains of Seir. And Jacob buried his brother on the hill which is in 'Aduram, and he returned to his house. 10 And the sons of Jacob pressed hard upon the sons of Esau in the mountains of Seir, and bowed their necks so that they became servants of the sons of Jacob. 11 And they sent to their father (to inquire) whether they should make peace with them or kill them. 12 And Jacob sent word to his sons that they should make peace, and they made peace with them, and placed the yoke of servitude upon them, so that they paid tribute to Jacob and to his sons always. 13 And they continued to pay tribute to Jacob until the day that he went down into Egypt. 14 And the sons of Edom have not got free of the yoke of servitude which the twelve sons of Jacob had imposed on them to this day.

The Kings of Edom

15 And these are the kings that reigned in Edom⁠a before any king reigned over the children of Israel [until this day] in the land of Edom. 16 And Balaq, the son of Beor, reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Danaba. 17 And Balaq died, and Jobab, the son of Zara of Boser, reigned in his place. 18 And Jobab died, and 'Asam, of the land of Teman, reigned in his place. 19 And 'Asam died, and 'Adath, the son of Barad, who struck down Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his place, and the name of his city was Avith. 20 And 'Adath died, and Salman, from 'Amaseqa, reigned in his place. 21 And Salman died, and Saul of Ra'aboth (by the) river, reigned in his place. 22 And Saul died, and Ba'elunan, the son of Achbor, reigned in his place. 23 And Ba'elunan, the son of Achbor died, and 'Adath reigned in his place, and the name of his wife was Maitabith, the daughter of Matarat, the daughter of Metabedza'ab. 24 These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom.

Joseph in Potiphar’s House

1 And Jacob lived in the land where his father had lived as a foreigner in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. 2 And Joseph was seventeen years old when they took him down into the land of Egypt, and Potiphar, a eunuch of Pharaoh, the chief cook bought him. 3 And he set Joseph over all his house and the blessing of the Lord came upon the house of the Egyptian on account of Joseph, and the Lord prospered him in all that he did. 4 And the Egyptian committed everything into the hands of Joseph; for he saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord prospered him in all that he did.

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

5 And Joseph's appearance was handsome [and his appearance was very beautiful], and his master's wife looked up and saw Joseph, and she loved him and begged him to lie with her. 6 But he did not surrender his soul, and he remembered the Lord and the words which Jacob, his father, used to read from among the words of Abraham,⁠a that no man should commit adultery with a woman who has a husband; that for him the punishment of death has been ordained in the heavens before the Most High God,⁠b and the sin will be recorded against him in the eternal books continually before the Lord. 7 And Joseph remembered these words and refused to lie with her. 8 And she begged him for a year, but he refused and would not listen. 9 But she embraced him and held him tightly in the house in order to force him to lie with her, and closed the doors of the house and held him tightly; but he left his clothing in her hands and broke through the door and fled outside from her presence. 10 And the woman saw that he would not lie with her, and she slandered him in the presence of his master, saying 'Your Hebrew servant, whom you love, tried to force me so that he might lie with me; and when I cried out he fled and left his clothing in my hands when I held him, and he broke through the door.' 11 And the Egyptian saw the clothing of Joseph and the broken door, and heard the words of his wife, and threw Joseph into prison into the place where the prisoners were kept whom the king imprisoned.

Joseph in Prison

12 And he was there in the prison; and the Lord gave Joseph favor in the sight of the chief of the prison guards and compassion before him, for he saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper. 13 And he committed all things into his hands, and the chief of the prison guards knew of nothing that was with him, for Joseph did everything, and the Lord perfected it. And he remained there two years.

Joseph Interprets Two Dreams

14 And in those days Pharaoh, king of Egypt was angry against his two eunuchs, against the chief cupbearer, and against the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the chief cook, in the prison where Joseph was kept. 15 And the chief of the prison guards appointed Joseph to serve them; and he served before them. 16 And they both dreamed a dream, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and they told it to Joseph. 17 And as he interpreted to them so it happened to them, and Pharaoh restored the chief cupbearer to his office and he killed the (chief) baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 18 But the chief cupbearer forgot Joseph in the prison, although he had informed him what would happen to him, and did not remember to inform Pharaoh how Joseph had told him, for he forgot.

Pharaoh’s Dreams and Joseph’s Appointment

1 And in those days Pharaoh dreamed two dreams in one night concerning a famine which was to be in all the land, and he awoke from his sleep and called all the interpreters of dreams that were in Egypt, and magicians, and told them his two dreams, and they were not able to explain (them). 2 And then the chief cupbearer remembered Joseph and spoke of him to the king, and he brought him out from the prison, and he told his two dreams before him. 3 And he said before Pharaoh that his two dreams were one, and he said to him: 'Seven years shall come (in which there shall be) plenty over all the land of Egypt, and after that seven years of famine, such a famine as has not been in all the land. 4 And now let Pharaoh appoint overseers in all the land of Egypt, and let them store up food in every city throughout the days of the years of plenty, and there will be food for the seven years of famine, and the land will not perish through the famine, for it will be very severe.' 5 And the Lord gave Joseph favor and mercy in the eyes of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said to his servants: 'We shall not find such a wise and discerning man as this man, for the spirit of the Lord is with him.' 6 And he appointed him the second in all his kingdom and gave him authority over all Egypt, and caused him to ride in the second chariot of Pharaoh. 7 And he clothed him with fine linen clothes, and he put a gold chain upon his neck, and (a herald) proclaimed before him ' 'El 'El wa 'Abirer,' and placed a ring on his hand and made him ruler over all his house, and exalted him, and said to him: 'Only on the throne shall I be greater than you.' 8 And Joseph ruled over all the land of Egypt, and all the princes of Pharaoh, and all his servants, and all who did the king's business loved him, for he walked in uprightness, for he was without pride and arrogance, and he showed no favoritism, and did not accept bribes, but he judged in uprightness all the people of the land.⁠a 9 And the land of Egypt was at peace before Pharaoh because of Joseph, for the Lord was with him, and gave him favor and mercy for all his generations before all those who knew him and those who heard concerning him, and Pharaoh's kingdom was well ordered, and there was no Satan and no evil person (in it).⁠b 10 And the king called Joseph's name Sephantiphans, and gave Joseph as wife the daughter of Potiphar, the daughter of the priest of Heliopolis,⁠c the chief cook. 11 And on the day that Joseph stood before Pharaoh he was thirty years old [when he stood before Pharaoh]. 12 And in that year Isaac died. And as Joseph had said in the interpretation of his two dreams, according as he had said it, there were seven years of plenty over all the land of Egypt, and the land of Egypt abundantly produced, one measure (producing) eighteen hundred measures. 13 And Joseph gathered food into every city until they were full of grain until they could no longer count and measure it because there was so much.

Judah and Tamar

1 And in the forty-fifth jubilee, in the second week, (and) in the second year, [2165] Judah took for his firstborn Er, a wife from the daughters of Aram, named Tamar.⁠a 2 But he hated her, and did not lie with her, because his mother was of the daughters of Canaan, and he wished to marry a woman from among the relatives of his mother, but Judah, his father, would not permit him. 3 And this Er, the firstborn of Judah, was wicked, and the Lord killed him. 4 And Judah said to Onan, his brother 'Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her, and produce offspring for your brother.' 5 And Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, (but) his brother's only, and he went into the house of his brother's wife, and spilled his semen on the ground, and he was wicked in the eyes of the Lord, and He killed him. 6 And Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law: 'Remain in your father's house as a widow until Shelah my son is grown up, and I shall give you to him as wife.' 7 And he grew up; but Bedsu'el, the wife of Judah, did not permit her son Shelah to marry. And Bedsu'el, the wife of Judah, died in the fifth year of this week [2168]. 8 And in the sixth year Judah went up to shear his sheep at Timnah [2169]. And they told Tamar: 'Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.' 9 And she took off her widow's clothes, and put on a veil, and dressed herself up, and sat in the gate adjoining the way to Timnah. 10 And as Judah was going along he found her, and thought her to be a prostitute, and he said to her: 'Let me come in to you'; and she said to him: 'Come in,' and he went in. 11 And she said to him: 'Give me my payment'; and he said to her: 'I have nothing in my hand except my ring that is on my finger, and my necklace, and my staff which is in my hand.' 12 And she said to him: 'Give them to me until you send me my payment', and he said to her: 'I will send you a young goat'; and he gave them to her, and he went in to her, and she conceived by him. 13 And Judah went to his sheep, and she went to her father's house. 14 And Judah sent a young goat with his shepherd, an Adullamite, and he did not find her; and he asked the people of the place, saying: 'Where is the prostitute who was here?' And they said to him: 'There is no prostitute here with us.' 15 And he returned and informed him, and said to him that he had not found her: 'I asked the people of the place, and they said to me: "There is no prostitute here." ' And he said: 'Let her keep (them) so that we do not become a laughingstock.' 16 And when she had completed three months, it became clear that she was pregnant, and they told Judah, saying: 'Look, Tamar, your daughter-in-law, is pregnant by prostitution.' 17 And Judah went to the house of her father, and said to her father and her brothers: 'Bring her out, and let them burn her, for she has committed impurity in Israel.' 18 And when they brought her out to burn her, she sent to her father-in-law the ring and the necklace, and the staff, saying: 'Identify whose these are, for by him I am pregnant.' 19 And Judah acknowledged, and said: 'Tamar is more righteous than I am. 20 And therefore do not let them burn her.' And for that reason she was not given to Shelah, and he did not again approach her. 21 And after that she bore two sons, Perez and Zerah, in the seventh year of this second week [2170]. 22 And then the seven years of fruitfulness came to an end, of which Joseph spoke to Pharaoh.

Judah’s Pardon and the Commandment for Israel

23 And Judah acknowledged that the deed which he had done was evil, for he had slept with his daughter-in-law, and he considered it hateful, and he acknowledged that he had transgressed and gone astray, for he had uncovered the skirt of his son, and he began to lament and to plead before the Lord because of his transgression. 24 And we told him in a dream that it was forgiven him because he pleaded earnestly, and lamented, and did not again commit it. 25 And he received forgiveness because he turned from his sin and from his ignorance, for he transgressed greatly before our God; and everyone that acts this way, everyone who lies with his mother-in-law, let them burn him with fire that he may burn in it, for there is impurity and pollution upon them, with fire let them burn them. 26 And command the children of Israel that there be no impurity among them, for everyone who lies with his daughter-in-law or with his mother-in-law has committed impurity; with fire let them burn the man who has slept with her, and likewise the woman, and He will turn away anger and punishment from Israel. 27 And to Judah we said that his two sons had not slept with her, and for this reason his descendants were established for a second generation, and would not be rooted out. 28 For with sincere intent he had gone and sought for punishment, namely, according to the judgment of Abraham, which he had commanded his sons, Judah had sought to burn her with fire.

The Famine Begins

1 And in the first year of the third week of the forty-fifth jubilee [2171] the famine began to come into the land, and the rain was withheld from the earth, for none whatever fell. 2 And the earth grew barren, but in the land of Egypt there was food, for Joseph had gathered the grain of the land in the seven years of plenty and had preserved it. 3 And the Egyptians came to Joseph so that he might give them food, and he opened the storehouses where the grain was of the first year, and he sold it to the people of the land for gold.

The Brothers’ First Journey to Egypt

4 Now the famine was very severe in the land of Canaan, and Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt, and he sent his ten sons that they should obtain food for him in Egypt; but he did not send Benjamin, and the ten sons of Jacob arrived in Egypt among those that went (there). 5 And Joseph recognized them, but they did not recognize him, and he spoke to them and questioned them, and he said to them: 'Are you not spies and have you not come to explore the approaches of the land?'⁠a And he put them in custody. 6 And after that he set them free again, and detained Simeon alone and sent off his nine brothers. 7 And he filled their sacks with grain, and he put their gold in their sacks,⁠b and they did not know. 8 And he commanded them to bring their younger brother, for they had told him their father was living and their younger brother. 9 And they went up from the land of Egypt and they came to the land of Canaan; and they told their father all that had happened to them, and how the ruler of the country had spoken roughly to them, and had seized Simeon until they should bring Benjamin. 10 And Jacob said: 'You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is gone and Simeon is gone too, and you will take Benjamin away. On me has your wickedness come.⁠c 11 'And he said: 'My son will not go down with you for fear that he might fall sick; for their mother gave birth to two sons, and one has perished, and this one also you will take from me. If perhaps he developed a fever on the road, you would bring down my old age with sorrow to death.' 12 For he saw that their money had been returned to every man in his sack, and for this reason he feared to send him. 13 And the famine increased and became severe in the land of Canaan, and in all lands except in the land of Egypt, for many of the children of the Egyptians had stored up their grain for food from the time when they saw Joseph gathering grain together and putting it in storehouses and preserving it for the years of famine. 14 And the people of Egypt fed themselves on it during the first year of their famine.

Benjamin and the Second Journey

15 But when Israel saw that the famine was very severe in the land, and that there was no escape, he said to his sons: 'Go again, and obtain food for us so that we do not die.' 16 And they said: 'We shall not go; unless our youngest brother goes with us, we shall not go.' 17 And Israel saw that if he did not send him with them, they should all perish because of the famine 18 And Reuben said: 'Give him into my hand, and if I do not bring him back to you, kill my two sons in his place.' 19 And he said to him: 'He shall not go with you.' And Judah came near and said: 'Send him with me, and if I do not bring him back to you, let me bear the blame before you all the days of my life.' 20 And he sent him with them in the second year of this week on the first day of the month [2172], and they came to the land of Egypt with all those who went, and (they had) presents in their hands, stacte and almonds and terebinth nuts and pure honey. 21 And they went and stood before Joseph, and he saw Benjamin his brother, and he knew him, and said to them: 'Is this your youngest brother?' And they said to him: 'It is he.' And he said: 'The Lord be gracious to you, my son!' 22 And he sent him into his house and he brought out Simeon to them and he made a feast for them, and they presented to him the gift which they had brought in their hands. 23 And they ate before him and he gave them all a portion, but the portion of Benjamin was seven times larger than that of any of theirs. 24 And they ate and drank and got up and remained with their donkeys. 25 And Joseph devised a plan by which he might learn whether their intentions toward one another were peaceful, and he said to the steward who was over his house: 'Fill all their sacks with food, and return their money to them into their containers, and my cup, the silver cup out of which I drink, put it in the sack of the youngest, and send them away.'

Joseph Tests His Brothers

1 And he did as Joseph had told him, and filled all their sacks for them with food and put their money in their sacks, and put the cup in Benjamin's sack. 2 And early in the morning they departed, and when they had gone from there, Joseph said to the steward of his house: 'Pursue them, run and seize them, saying, "You have repaid my good with evil; you have stolen from me the silver cup out of which my lord drinks."⁠a And bring back to me their youngest brother, and bring (him) quickly before I go out to my seat of judgment.' 3 And he ran after them and said to them according to these words. 4 And they said to him: 'God forbid that your servants should do this thing, and steal from the house of your lord any utensil, and the money also which we found in our sacks the first time, we your servants brought back from the land of Canaan. 5 How then should we steal any utensil? Here we are, and search our sacks, and wherever you find the cup in the sack of any man among us, let him be killed, and we and our donkeys will serve your lord.' 6 And he said to them: 'Not so, the man with whom I find, I shall take only him as a servant, and you shall return in peace to your house.' 7 And as he was searching in their containers, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest, it was found in Benjamin's sack. 8 And they tore their clothes, and loaded their donkeys, and returned to the city and came to the house of Joseph, and they all bowed themselves on their faces to the ground before him. 9 And Joseph said to them: 'You have done evil.' And they said: 'What shall we say and how shall we defend ourselves? Our lord has discovered the transgression of his servants; look, we are the servants of our lord, and our donkeys also. 10 'And Joseph said to them: 'I too fear the Lord; as for you, go to your homes and let your brother be my servant, for you have done evil. Do you not know that a man delights in his cup as I with this cup? And yet you have stolen it from me.' 11 And Judah said: 'My lord, let your servant,⁠b please, speak a word in my lord's ear: your servant's mother bore two brothers to our father: one went away and was lost, and has not been found, and he alone is left of his mother, and your servant our father loves him, and his life also is bound up with the life of this (boy). 12 And when we go to your servant our father, and the boy is not with us, he will die, and we shall bring down our father with sorrow to death. 13 Now rather let me, your servant, remain instead of the boy as an enslaved servant to my lord, and let the boy go with his brothers, for I guaranteed his safety to your servant our father, and if I do not bring him back, your servant will bear the blame to our father forever.'

Joseph Reveals His Identity

14 And Joseph saw that they were all united in goodwill toward one another, and he could not hold back, and he told them that he was Joseph. 15 And he spoke with them in Hebrew and fell on their neck and wept. But they did not know him and they began to weep. 16 And he said to them: 'Do not weep over me, but hurry and bring my father to me; and you see that it is my mouth that speaks and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see. 17 For this is the second year of the famine, and there are still five years without harvest or fruit of trees or plowing. 18 Come down quickly, you and your households, so that you do not perish through the famine, and do not be grieved for your possessions, for the Lord sent me before you to set things in order that many people might live. 19 And tell my father that I am still alive, and you, look, you see that the Lord has made me as a father to Pharaoh, and ruler over his house and over all the land of Egypt. 20 And tell my father of all my glory, and all the riches and glory that the Lord has given me.' 21 And by the command of the mouth of Pharaoh he gave them chariots and provisions for the way, and he gave them all multicolored clothing and silver. 22 And to their father he sent clothing and silver and ten donkeys which carried grain, and he sent them away. 23 And they went up and told their father that Joseph was alive, and was measuring out grain to all the nations of the earth, and that he was ruler over all the land of Egypt. 24 And their father did not believe it, for he was too stunned to believe;⁠c but when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent, the life of his spirit revived, and he said: 'It is enough for me if Joseph lives; I will go down and see him before I die.'

Jacob and His Family Travel to Egypt

1 And Israel took his journey from his house in Hebron on the new moon of the third month, and he went on the way of the Well of the Oath, and he offered a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac on the seventh of this month. 2 And Jacob remembered the dream that he had seen at Bethel, and he feared to go down into Egypt.⁠a 3 And while he was thinking of sending word to Joseph to come to him, and that he would not go down, he remained there seven days, in case he might see a vision as to whether he should remain or go down. 4 And he celebrated the harvest festival of the first-fruits with old grain, for in all the land of Canaan there was not a handful of seed [in the land], for the famine was over all the wild animals and cattle and birds, and also over man. 5 And on the sixteenth the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, 'Jacob, Jacob'; and he said, 'Here I am.' And He said to him: 'I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham and Isaac; do not fear to go down into Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. 6 I will go down with you, and I will bring you up (again), and in this land you shall be buried, and Joseph shall put his hands upon your eyes. 7 Do not fear; go down into Egypt.' And his sons rose up, and his grandsons, and they placed their father and their possessions upon wagons. 8 And Israel rose up from the Well of the Oath on the sixteenth of this third month, and he went to the land of Egypt. 9 And Israel sent Judah ahead of him to his son Joseph to examine the Land of Goshen, for Joseph had told his brothers that they should come and live there so that they might be near him. 10 And this was the finest (land) in the land of Egypt, and near to him, for all (of them) and also for the cattle.

The Family Who Went to Egypt

11 And these are the names of the sons of Jacob who went into Egypt with Jacob their father. 12 Reuben, the Firstborn of Israel; and these are the names of his sons: Enoch, and Pallu, and Hezron and Carmi — five. 13 Simeon and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul, the son of the Zephathite woman — seven. 14 Levi and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari — four. 15 Judah and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Shelah, and Perez, and Zerah — four. 16 Issachar and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Tola, and Puah, and Jashub, and Shimron — five. 17 Zebulun and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel — four. 18 And these are the sons of Jacob and their sons whom Leah bore to Jacob in Mesopotamia, six, and their one sister, Dinah and all the people of the sons of Leah, and their sons, who went with Jacob their father into Egypt, were twenty-nine, and Jacob their father being with them, they were thirty. 19 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's female servant, the wife of Jacob, who bore to Jacob Gad and Asher. 20 And these are the names of their sons who went with him into Egypt. The sons of Gad: Ziphion, and Haggi, and Shuni, and Ezbon, and Eri, and Areli, and Arodi — eight. 21 And the sons of Asher: Imnah, and Ishvah, and Ishvi, and Beriah, and Serah, their one sister — six. 22 All the people were fourteen, and all those of Leah were forty-four. 23 And the sons of Rachel, the wife of Jacob: Joseph and Benjamin. 24 And there were born to Joseph in Egypt before his father came into Egypt, those whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphar, priest of Heliopolis bore to him, Manasseh, and Ephraim — three. 25 And the sons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, and Ehi, and Rosh, and Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard — eleven. 26 And all the people of Rachel were fourteen. 27 And the sons of Bilhah, the female servant of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, whom she bore to Jacob, were Dan and Naphtali. 28 And these are the names of their sons who went with them into Egypt. And the sons of Dan were Hushim, and Samon, and Asudi, and 'Ijaka, and Salomon — six. 29 And they died the year in which they entered into Egypt, and there was left to Dan Hushim alone. 30 And these are the names of the sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, and Guni and Jezer, and Shallum, and 'Iv. 31 And 'Iv, who was born after the years of famine, died in Egypt. 32 And all the people of Rachel were twenty-six. 33 And all the people of Jacob which went into Egypt were seventy people.⁠b These are his children and his children's children, in all seventy, but five died in Egypt before Joseph, and had no children. 34 And in the land of Canaan two sons of Judah died, Er and Onan, and they had no children, and the children of Israel buried those who perished, and they were counted among the seventy nations.⁠c

Jacob and Joseph Are Reunited

1 And Israel went into the country of Egypt, into the land of Goshen, on the new moon of the fourth [2172] month, in the second year of the third week of the forty-fifth jubilee. 2 And Joseph went to meet his father Jacob, to the land of Goshen, and he fell on his father's neck and wept. 3 And Israel said to Joseph: 'Now let me die since I have seen you, and now may the Lord God of Israel be blessed the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac who has not withheld His mercy and His grace from His servant Jacob. 4 It is enough for me that I have seen your face while I am still alive; yes, the vision which I saw at Bethel is true. Blessed be the Lord my God forever and ever, and blessed be His name.' 5 And Joseph and his brothers ate bread before their father and drank wine, and Jacob rejoiced with very great joy because he saw Joseph eating with his brothers and drinking before him, and he blessed the Creator of all things who had preserved him, and had preserved for him his twelve sons. 6 And Joseph had given to his father and to his brothers as a gift the right to live in the land of Goshen and in Rameses and all the region around, which he ruled over before Pharaoh. And Israel and his sons lived in the land of Goshen, the best part of the land of Egypt and Israel was one hundred and thirty years old when he came into Egypt. 7 And Joseph fed his father and his brothers and also their possessions with bread as much as they needed for the seven years of the famine. 8 And the land of Egypt suffered because of the famine, and Joseph acquired all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh in return for food, and he got possession of the people and their cattle and everything for Pharaoh. 9 And the years of the famine came to an end, and Joseph gave to the people in the land seed and food so that they might sow (the land) in the eighth year, for the river had overflowed all the land of Egypt. 10 For in the seven years of the famine it had (not) overflowed and had irrigated only a few places on the banks of the river, but now it overflowed and the Egyptians sowed the land, and it bore much grain that year. 11 And this was the first year of the fourth week of the forty-fifth jubilee [2178]. 12 And Joseph took of the grain of the harvest the fifth part for the king and left four parts for them for food and for seed, and Joseph made it an ordinance for the land of Egypt to this day.

Jacob’s Final Instructions and Death

13 And Israel lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and all the days which he lived were three jubilees, one hundred and forty-seven years, and he died in the fourth [2188] year of the fifth week of the forty-fifth jubilee. 14 And Israel blessed his sons before he died and told them everything that would happen to them in the land of Egypt; and he made known to them what would come upon them in the last days,⁠a and blessed them and gave to Joseph two portions in the land. 15 And he died and joined his ancestors, and he was buried in the double cave in the land of Canaan, near Abraham his father in the grave which he dug for himself in the double cave in the land of Hebron. 16 And he gave all his books and the books of his ancestors to Levi his son⁠b so that he might preserve them and renew them for his children to this day.

Israel’s Life in Egypt

1 And after Jacob died the children of Israel multiplied in the land of Egypt, and they became a great nation, and they were united in heart, so that brother loved brother and every man helped his brother, and they increased abundantly and multiplied greatly, ten weeks of years, all the days of the life of Joseph [2242]. 2 And there was no Satan nor any evil all the days of the life of Joseph which he lived after his father Jacob, for all the Egyptians honored the children of Israel all the days of the life of Joseph. 3 And Joseph died being a hundred and ten years old; seventeen years he lived in the land of Canaan, and ten years he was a servant, and three years in prison, and eighty years he was under the king, ruling all the land of Egypt. 4 And he died and all his brothers and all that generation. 5 And he commanded the children of Israel before he died that they should carry his bones with them when they went out from the land of Egypt.⁠a 6 And he made them swear regarding his bones, for he knew that the Egyptians would not again bring out and bury him in the land of Canaan, for Makamaron, king of Canaan, while dwelling in the land of Assyria, fought in the valley with the king of Egypt and killed him there,⁠b and pursued the Egyptians to the gates of 'Ermon. 7 But he was not able to enter, for another, a new king, had become king of Egypt, and he was stronger than he, and he returned to the land of Canaan, and the gates of Egypt were closed, and none went out and none came into Egypt. 8 And Joseph died in the forty-sixth jubilee, in the sixth week, in the second year [2242], and they buried him in the land of Egypt, and all his brothers died after him. 9 And the king of Egypt went out to war with the king of Canaan in the forty-seventh jubilee, in the second week in the second year [2263], and the children of Israel brought out all the bones of the children of Jacob except the bones of Joseph, and they buried them in the field in the double cave in the mountain.⁠c 10 And most (of them) returned to Egypt, but a few of them remained in the mountains of Hebron, and Amram your father remained with them.⁠d 11 And the king of Canaan was victorious over the king of Egypt, and he closed the gates of Egypt.

The Beginning of Egyptian Oppression

12 And he devised an evil plan to oppress the children of Israel and he said to the people of Egypt: 13 'Look, the people of the children of Israel have increased and multiplied more than we. Come and let us deal wisely with them before they become too many, and let us afflict them with slavery before war comes upon us and before they too fight against us; else they will join themselves to our enemies and go up out of our land, for their hearts and faces are toward the land of Canaan.' 14 And he set over them taskmasters to afflict them with slavery; and they built strong cities for Pharaoh, Pithom, and Raamses and they built all the walls and all the fortifications which had fallen in the cities of Egypt. 15 And they made them work harshly, and the more they mistreated them, the more they increased and multiplied. 16 And the people of Egypt detested the children of Israel

The Birth and Rescue of Moses

1 And in the seventh week, in the seventh year, in the forty-seventh jubilee [2303], your father went out from the land of Canaan, and you were born in the fourth week, in the sixth year of it, in the forty-eighth jubilee [2330]; this was the time of oppression of the children of Israel. 2 And Pharaoh, king of Egypt, issued a command regarding them that they should cast all their male children which were born into the river.⁠a 3 And they cast them in for seven months until the day that you were born. And your mother hid you for three months, and she was reported. 4 And she made an ark for you, and covered it with pitch and asphalt, and placed it in the reeds on the bank of the river, and she placed you in it seven days, and your mother came by night and nursed you, and by day Miriam, your sister, guarded you from the birds.⁠b 5 And in those days Tharmuth, the daughter of Pharaoh, came to bathe in the river, and she heard your voice crying, and she told her female attendants to bring you out, and they brought you to her. 6 And she took you out of the ark, and she had compassion on you. 7 And your sister said to her: 'Shall I go and call for you one of the Hebrew women to care for and breastfeed this baby for you?' 8 And she said to her: 'Go.' And she went and called your mother Jochebed, and she gave her wages, and she nursed you. 9 And afterwards, when you were grown up, they brought you to the daughter of Pharaoh, and you became her son, and Amram your father taught you writing,⁠c and after you had completed three weeks they brought you into the royal court. 10 And you were three weeks of years at court [2351-2372] until the time when you went out from the royal court and saw an Egyptian striking your friend who was of the children of Israel, and you killed him and hid him in the sand.

Moses Flees from Egypt

11 And on the second day you found two of the children of Israel fighting with one another, and you said to him who was doing the wrong: 'Why do you strike your brother?' 12 And he was angry and indignant, and said: 'Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you think to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' And you feared and fled on account of these words.

Moses Returns to Egypt

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.⁠a 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,⁠b 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.⁠c 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.⁠d 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.⁠e 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.

The First Passover

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 firstborn⁠a 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.⁠b 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. 4 And the powers of the Lord did everything just as the Lord commanded them, and they passed by all the children of Israel, and the plague did not come upon them to destroy from among them any living being either of cattle, or man, or dog.⁠c 5 And the plague was very severe in Egypt, and there was no house in Egypt where there was not one dead, and weeping and lamentation. 6 And all Israel was eating the flesh of the Passover lamb, and drinking the wine, and was praising, and blessing, and giving thanks to the Lord God of their ancestors, and was ready to go out from under the yoke of Egypt, and from the evil slavery.

The Time for Celebrating Passover

7 And remember this day all the days of your life, and observe it from year to year all the days of your life, once a year, on its day, according to all the commandments of it, and do not postpone (it) from day to day, or from month to month. 8 For it is an eternal ordinance, and engraved on the heavenly tablets regarding all the children of Israel that they should observe it every year on its day once a year, throughout all their generations; and there is no limit of days, for this is ordained forever. 9 And the man who is free from impurity, and does not come to observe it on its appointed day, so as to bring an acceptable offering before the Lord, and to eat and to drink before the Lord on the day of its festival, that man who is clean and nearby shall be cut off: because he did not offer the offering of the Lord in its appointed season, he shall take the guilt upon himself. 10 Let the children of Israel come and observe the passover on the day of its fixed time, on the fourteenth day of the first month, between the evenings, from the third part of the day to the third part of the night, for two portions of the day are given to the light, and a third part to the evening. 11 This is that which the Lord commanded you that you should observe it between the evenings. 12 And it is not permissible to slaughter it during any period of the light, but during the period bordering on the evening, and let them eat it at the time of the evening, until the third part of the night, and whatever is left over of all its flesh from the third part of the night and onwards, let them burn it with fire. 13 And they shall not cook it with water, nor shall they eat it raw, but roast on the fire: they shall eat it carefully, they shall roast its head with its entrails and its feet with fire, and not break any bone of it; for of the children of Israel no bone shall be crushed. 14 For this reason the Lord commanded the children of Israel to observe the passover on the day of its fixed time, and they shall not break a bone of it; for it is a festival day, and a day commanded, and there may be no passing over from day to day, and month to month, but on the day of its festival let it be observed. 15 And command the children of Israel to observe the passover throughout their days, every year, once a year on the day of its fixed time, and it shall come for a memorial well pleasing before the Lord, and no plague shall come upon them to kill or to strike in that year in which they celebrate the passover in its season in every respect according to His command.⁠d

The Place for Celebrating Passover

16 And they shall not eat it outside the sanctuary of the Lord, but before the sanctuary of the Lord, and all the people of the congregation of Israel shall celebrate it in its appointed season. 17 And every man who has come upon its day shall eat it in the sanctuary of your God before the Lord from twenty years old and upward; for thus it is written and ordained that they should eat it in the sanctuary of the Lord. 18 And when the children of Israel come into the land which they are to possess, into the land of Canaan, and set up the tabernacle of the Lord in the midst of the land in one of their tribes until the sanctuary of the Lord has been built in the land, let them come and celebrate the passover in the midst of the tabernacle of the Lord, and let them slaughter it before the Lord from year to year. 19 And in the days when the house has been built in the name of the Lord in the land of their inheritance, they shall go there and slaughter the passover in the evening, at sunset, at the third part of the day. 20 And they shall offer its blood on the threshold of the altar, and shall place its fat on the fire which is upon the altar, and they shall eat its flesh roasted with fire in the court of the house which has been sanctified in the name of the Lord. 21 And they may not celebrate the passover in their cities, nor in any place except before the tabernacle of the Lord, or before His house where His name has resided; and they shall not go astray from the Lord.

The Festival of Unleavened Bread

22 And you, Moses, command the children of Israel to observe the ordinances of the passover, as it was commanded to you; declare to them every year and the day of its days, and the festival of unleavened bread, that they should eat unleavened bread seven days, (and) that they should observe its festival, and that they bring an offering every day during those seven days of joy before the Lord on the altar of your God. 23 For you celebrated this festival with haste when you went out from Egypt until you entered into the wilderness of Shur; for on the shore of the sea you completed it.

Sabbaths, Weeks, and Jubilees

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 jubilees⁠a from the days of Adam until today,⁠b 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:⁠c 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.