1A record of what Benjamin commanded his sons to observe, after he had lived a hundred and twenty-five years. 2 He kissed them and said: Just as Isaac was born to Abraham in his old age, so was I born to Jacob. 3 Since my mother Rachel died giving birth to me, I had no milk, so I was nursed by her servant Bilhah. 4 Rachel had remained childless for twelve years after she bore Joseph; she prayed to the Lord with fasting for twelve days, and she conceived and bore me. 5 My father loved Rachel dearly and had prayed that he might see two sons born from her. 6 So I was called Benjamin, that is, a son of days.
2When I went into Egypt to Joseph and my brother recognized me, he said to me: What did they tell our father when they sold me? I said to him: They smeared your coat with blood and sent it, saying: See whether this is your son's coat. 2 Joseph said to me: Yes, brother. The Canaanite merchants seized me by force, and as they went on their way they hid my garment, as though a wild beast had attacked and killed me. 3 And then his associates sold me to the Ishmaelites. 4 They were not lying when they said this. 5 For he wanted to hide from me what my brothers had done. 6 He called his brothers to him and said: Do not tell our father what you did to me; tell him instead what I have told Benjamin. 7 Let your thoughts agree on this, and do not let these things reach our father's heart.
3So you also, my children, love the Lord God of heaven and earth and keep his commandments, following the example of the good and holy man Joseph. 2 Set your mind on what is good, as you know me to have done, for the one whose mind is right sees everything rightly. 3 Fear the Lord and love your neighbor; and even though the spirits of Beliar claim you, to afflict you with every evil, they will not have dominion over you, just as they did not over my brother Joseph. 4 How many men wished to kill him, yet God shielded him! For the one who fears God and loves his neighbor cannot be struck down by the spirit of Beliar, being shielded by the fear of God. 5 Nor can he be ruled by the schemes of men or beasts, for he is helped by the Lord through the love he has for his neighbor. 6 Joseph also begged our father to pray for his brothers, that the Lord would not count against them as sin whatever evil they had done to him. 7 And so Jacob cried out: My good child, you have won over the bowels of your father Jacob. 8 He embraced him and kissed him for two hours, saying: In you the prophecy of heaven will be fulfilled concerning the Lamb of God and Savior of the world, that a blameless one will be handed over for lawless men and a sinless one will die for ungodly men in the blood of the covenant, 9 for the salvation of the Gentiles and of Israel, and he will destroy Beliar and his servants.
4Do you see, then, my children, the end of the good man? Follow his compassion with a good mind, so that you also may wear crowns of glory. 2 For the good man does not have an evil eye, for he shows mercy to everyone, even to sinners. 3 Even though others scheme against him with evil intent, by doing good he overcomes evil, being shielded by God; and he loves the righteous as his own soul.[1] 4 If someone is honored, he does not envy him; if someone grows rich, he is not jealous; if someone is brave, he praises him. He commends the virtuous, shows mercy to the poor, has compassion on the weak, and sings praises to God. 5 As for the one who fears God, he protects him as with a shield; the one who loves God he helps; the one who rejects the Most High he warns and turns back; and the one who has the grace of a good spirit he loves as his own soul.
5So if you also have a good mind, then wicked men will be at peace with you, the immoral will respect you and turn to good, and the greedy will not only give up their excessive desire but even give what they coveted to those in distress. 2 If you do well, even the unclean spirits will flee from you, and the wild animals will dread you. 3 For where there is respect for good works and light in the mind, even darkness flees away. If anyone does violence to a holy man, that person repents, for the holy man is merciful to the one who insults him and keeps silent. 4 And if anyone betrays a righteous man, the righteous man prays; and though he is humbled for a little while, not long afterward he appears far more glorious, as my brother Joseph did.
6The inclination of the good man is not in the power of the deception of the spirit of Beliar, for the angel of peace guides his soul. 2 He does not gaze with passion on perishable things, nor pile up riches out of a desire for pleasure.[2] 3 He takes no delight in self-indulgence, he does not bring grief to his neighbor, he does not stuff himself with luxuries, he does not go astray through the lifting of his eyes, for the Lord is his portion. 4 The good inclination receives neither glory nor dishonor from people, and it knows no cunning, no lie, no fighting, and no insults, for the Lord dwells in him and lights up his soul, and he always rejoices toward everyone. 5 The good mind does not have two tongues, one of blessing and one of cursing, of insult and of honor, of sorrow and of joy, of calm and of confusion, of hypocrisy and of truth, of poverty and of wealth; instead it has one disposition, uncorrupted and pure, toward everyone. 6 It has no double sight or double hearing, for in everything he does, says, or sees, he knows that the Lord is watching his soul. 7 He keeps his mind clean, so that he will not be condemned by people or by God. 8 In the same way, the works of Beliar are double, and there is no integrity in them.
7So, my children, I tell you: flee the malice of Beliar, for he gives a sword to those who obey him. 2 And the sword is the mother of seven evils. 3 First the mind conceives evil through Beliar, and the first result is bloodshed; second, ruin; third, tribulation; fourth, exile; fifth, famine; sixth, panic; seventh, destruction. 4 So Cain too was handed over by God to seven punishments, for every hundred years the Lord brought one plague upon him. 5 When he was two hundred years old he began to suffer, and in the nine-hundredth year he was destroyed. 6 Because of his brother Abel he was judged with all these evils, but Lamech with seventy times seven. 7 For those who are like Cain in envy and hatred of their brothers will always be punished with the same judgment.
8So you, my children, flee from evildoing, envy, and hatred of your brothers, and hold fast to goodness and love. 2 The one who has a pure mind in love does not look at a woman with sexual immorality in view, for he has no defilement in his heart, because the Spirit of God rests on him. 3 For just as the sun is not defiled by shining on dung and mire, but instead dries them up and drives away the foul smell, so the pure mind, though surrounded by the defilements of the earth, cleanses them rather than being defiled itself.
9I also believe, from the words of Enoch the righteous, that there will be wrongdoing among you: that you will commit sexual immorality like the sexual immorality of Sodom and will perish, all but a few, and will renew shameful deeds with women; and the kingdom of the Lord will not be among you, for he will take it away at once. 2 Nevertheless the temple of God will be in your portion, and the last temple will be more glorious than the first. 3 The twelve tribes will be gathered together there, and all the Gentiles, until the Most High sends out his salvation in the coming of an only-begotten prophet. 4 He will enter the first temple, and there the Lord will be treated with outrage, and he will be lifted up on a tree. 5 The veil of the temple will be torn, and the Spirit of God will pass on to the Gentiles like fire poured out. 6 He will ascend from Hades and pass from earth into heaven. 7 And I know how lowly he will be on earth, and how glorious in heaven.
10When Joseph was in Egypt, I longed to see his form and the look of his face; and through the prayers of my father Jacob I saw him, while awake in the daytime, his whole form exactly as he was. 2 When he had said these things, he said to them: Know then, my children, that I am dying. 3 So practice truth and righteousness, each of you toward his neighbor, and uphold sound judgment, and keep the law of the Lord and his commandments. 4 For these things I leave you in place of an inheritance. 5 So you also must give them to your children as an everlasting possession, for so did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 For they gave us all these things as an inheritance, saying: Keep the commandments of God until the Lord reveals his salvation to all the Gentiles. 7 Then you will see Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob rising at the right hand in gladness. 8 Then we also will rise, each one over his tribe, worshiping the King of heaven, who appeared on earth in the form of a man in humility. 9 And all who believe in him on the earth will rejoice with him. 10 Then all people will rise, some to glory and some to shame. 11 The Lord will judge Israel first, for their unrighteousness, for when he appeared as God in the flesh to deliver them, they did not believe him. 12 Then he will judge all the Gentiles, all those who did not believe him when he appeared on earth. 13 He will convict Israel through the chosen ones of the Gentiles, just as he rebuked Esau through the Midianites, who deceived their brothers so that they fell into sexual immorality and idolatry and were alienated from God; and so they became children in the portion of those who fear the Lord. 14 So if you, my children, walk in holiness according to the commandments of the Lord, you will again dwell securely with me, and all Israel will be gathered to the Lord.
11I will no longer be called a savage wolf because of your violence, but a worker of the Lord, distributing food to those who do what is good. 2 In the latter times one beloved of the Lord will rise up from my offspring, hearing his voice on the earth and doing the good pleasure of his will, enlightening all the Gentiles with new knowledge, the light of knowledge, bursting in upon Israel for salvation and snatching away from them like a wolf, and giving to the assembly of the Gentiles. 3 Until the end of the age he will be in the assemblies of the Gentiles and among their rulers, like a strain of music in everyone's mouth. 4 He will be recorded in the holy books, both his work and his word, and he will be a chosen one of God forever. 5 Through them he will go back and forth, as my father Jacob did, saying: He will make up what is lacking in your tribe.
12When he had finished speaking, he said: I command you, my children, carry my bones up out of Egypt and bury me at Hebron, near my fathers. 2 So Benjamin died at the age of a hundred and twenty-five, at a good old age, and they placed him in a coffin. 3 In the ninety-first year after the children of Israel entered Egypt, they and their brothers secretly brought up the bones of their fathers during the Canaanite war, and they buried them in Hebron, at the feet of their fathers. 4 Then they returned from the land of Canaan and lived in Egypt until the day of their departure from the land of Egypt.