Book of Jubilees 37, 38

JUBILEES 37

The sons of Esau with Esau make war wit Yacob

1 And on the day that Yitschaq the father of Yacob and Esau died, [2162 A.M.] the sons of Esau heard that Yitschaq had given the portion of the elder to his younger son Yacob and they were very angry.
2 And they strove with their father, saying 'Why has your father given Yacob the portion of the elder and passed over you, although you are the elder and Yacob the younger?'
3 And he said to them 'Because I sold my birthright to Yacob for a small mess 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 with guile and brought my father food and drink, and my father blessed him and put me under his hand.
4 And now our father has caused us to swear, me and him, that we shall not mutually devise evil, either against his brother, and that we shall continue in love and in shalom each with his brother and not make our ways corrupt.'
5 And they said to him, 'We shall not hearken unto you to make shalom with him; for our strength is greater than his strength, and we are more powerful than he; we shall go against him and slay him, and destroy him and his sons. And if you will not go with us, we shall do hurt to you also.
6 And now hearken unto us: Let us send to Aram and Philistia and Moab and Ammon, and let us choose for ourselves chosen men who are ardent 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 lest you fall before him.'
8 And they said to him, 'This too, is exactly your mode of action from your youth until this day, and you are putting your neck under his yoke. We shall not hearken to these words.'
9 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 forth with them and lead them, else we shall slay you.'
12 And he was filled with wrath and indignation on seeing that his sons were forcing him to go before them to lead them against Yacob his brother. But afterward he remembered all the evil which lay hidden in his heart against Yacob his brother;
13 And he remembered not the oath which he had sworn to his father and to his mother that he would devise no evil all his days against Yacob his brother.
14 And notwithstanding all this, Yacob knew not 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, 'Behold your brother has come against you, to fight you, with four thousand girthed with the sword, and they carry shields and weapons'; for they loved Yacob more than Esau. So they told him; for Yacob was a more liberal and merciful man than Esau.
16 But Yacob 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, 'Noble is the comfort wherewith you have come to comfort me for my wife who has died. Is this the oath that you did swear to your father and again to your mother before they died? You have broken the oath, and on the moment that you did swear to your father were you condemned.'
18 And then Esau answered and said to him, 'Neither the children of men nor the beasts 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 slay his adversary and foe.
19 And you do hate me and my children forever. And there is no observing the tie of brotherhood with you.
20 Hear these words which I declare unto you, ‘If the boar can change its skin and make its bristles as soft as wool, Or if it can cause horns to sprout forth on its head like the horns of a stag or of a sheep, Then will I observe the tie of brotherhood with you, And if the breasts separated themselves from their mother, for you have not been a brother to me.
21 And if the wolves make shalom with the lambs so as not to devour or do them violence, And if their hearts are towards them for good, Then there shall be shalom in my heart towards you.
22 And if the lion becomes the friend of the ox and makes shalom with him, And if he is bound under one yoke with him and ploughs with him, Then will I make shalom with you.
23 And when the raven becomes white as the raza, Then know that I have loved you And shall make shalom with you, You shall be rooted out, And your sons shall be rooted out, And there shall be no shalom for you'
24 And when Yacob saw that he was (so) evilly disposed towards him with his heart, and with all his soul as to slay him, and that he had come springing like the wild boar which comes upon the spear that pierces and kills it, and recoils not from it;
25 Then he spoke to his own and to his servants that they should attack him and all his companions.

JUBILEES 38

Yacob kills Esau

1 And after that Yahudah spoke to Yacob, his father, and said to him: 'Bend your bow, father, and send forth your arrows and cast down the adversary and slay the enemy; and may you have the power, for we shall not slay your brother, for he is such as you, and he is like you let us give him(this) honor.'
2 Then Yacob bent his bow and sent forth the arrow and struck Esau, his brother (on his right breast) and slew him.
3 And again he sent forth an arrow and struck 'Adoran the Aramaean, on the left breast, and drove him backward and slew him.
4 And then went forth the sons of Yacob, they and their servants, dividing themselves into companies on the four sides of the tower.
5 And Yahudah went forth in front, and Naphtali and Gad with him and fifty servants with him on the south side of the tower, and they slew all they found before them, and not one individual of them escaped.
6 And Levi and Dan and Asher went forth on the east side of the tower, and fifty (men) with them, and they slew the fighting men of Moab and Ammon.
7 And Reuben and Issachar and Zebulon went forth on the north side of the tower, and fifty men with them, and they slew the fighting men of the Philistines.
8 And Simeon and Benjamin and Enoch, Reuben's son, went forth on the west side of the tower, and fifty (men) with them, and they slew of Edom and of the Horites four hundred men, stout warriors; and six hundred fled, and four of the sons of Esau fled with them, and left their father lying slain, as he had fallen on the hill which is in 'Aduram.
9 And the sons of Yacob pursued after them to the mountains of Seir. And Yacob buried his brother on the hill which is in 'Aduram, and he returned to his house.
10 And the sons of Yacob 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 Yacob.
11 And they sent to their father (to inquire) whether they should make shalom with them or slay them.
12 And Yacob sent word to his sons that they should make shalom, and they made shalom with them, and placed the yoke of servitude upon them, so that they paid tribute to Yacob and to his sons always.
13 And they continued to pay tribute to Yacob until the day that he went down into Egypt.
14 And the sons of Edom have not got quit of the yoke of servitude which the twelve sons of Yacob had imposed on them until this day.
15 And these are the kings that reigned in Edom before there reigned any king over the children of Yisrael [until this day] in the land of Edom.
16 And Bela, the son of Beor, reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Danaba.
17 And Bela died, and Jobab, the son of Zara of Boser, reigned in his stead.
18 And Jobab died, and 'Asam, of the land of Teman, reigned in his stead.
19 And 'Asam died, and 'Adath, the son of Barad, who slew Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead, and the name of his city was Avith.
20 And 'Adath died, and Salman, from 'Amaseqa, reigned in his stead.
21,22 And Salman died, and Saul of Ra'aboth (by the) river, reigned in his stead. And Saul died, and Ba'elunan, the son of Achbor, reigned in his stead.
23 And Ba'elunan, the son of Achbor died, and 'Adath reigned in his stead, and the name of his wife was Maitabith, the daughter of Matarat, the daughter of Metabedza'ab.
25 These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom.

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Book of Jubilees 29

JUBILEES 29

After Rachel had borne Yoseph, Yacob leaves Laban secretly

1 And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Yoseph, that Laban went to shear his sheep; for they were distant from him a three days' journey.
2 And Yacob saw that Laban was going to shear his sheep, and Yacob called Leah and Rachel, and spoke kindly unto 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 unto 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 Yacob blessed YAHWEH the ALMIGHTY of Yitschaq his father, and the ALMIGHTY of Abraham his father's father, and he arose and mounted his wives and his children, and took all his possessions and crossed the river, and came to the land of Gilead, and Yacob hid his intention from Laban and told him not.
5 And in the seventh year of the fourth week Yacob turned his face toward Gilead in the first month, on the twenty-first thereof. [2135 A.M.] And Laban pursued after him and overtook Yacob in the mountain of Gilead in the third month, on the thirteenth thereof.
6 And YAHWEH did not suffer him to injure Yacob; for he appeared to him in a dream by night.
7 And Laban spoke to Yacob. And on the fifteenth of those days Yacob made a feast for Laban, and for all who came with him, and Yacob swore to Laban that day, and Laban also to Yacob, that neither should cross the mountain of Gilead to the other with evil purpose.
8 And he made there a heap for a witness; wherefore the name of that place is called: 'The Heap of Witness,' after this heap.
9 But before they used to call the land of Gilead the land of the Rephaim; for it was the land of the Rephaim, and the Rephaim were born (there), giants whose height was ten, nine, eight down to seven cubits.
10 And their habitation was from the land of the children of Ammon to Mount Hermon, and the seats of their kingdom were Karnaim and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, and Misur, and Beon.
11 And YAHWEH destroyed them because of the evil of their deeds; for they were very malignant, and the Amorites dwelt in their stead, wicked and sinful, and there is no people to-day which has wrought to the full all their sins, and they have no longer length of life on the earth.
12 And Yacob sent away Laban, and he departed into Mesopotamia, the land of the East, and Yacob returned to the land of Gilead.
13 And he passed over the Jabbok in the ninth month, on the eleventh thereof. 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 Yacob dwelt in tents.
14 And in the first year of the fifth week in this jubilee [2136 A.M.] he crossed the Jordan, and dwelt beyond the Jordan, and he pastured his sheep from the sea of the heap unto Bethshan, and unto Dothan and unto the forest of Akrabbim.
15 And he sent to his father Yitschaq of all his substance, clothing, and food, and meat, and drink, and milk, and butter, and cheese, and some dates of the valley.
16 And to his mother Rebecca also four times a year, between the times of the months, between ploughing and reaping, and between autumn and the rain (season) and between winter and spring, to the tower of Abraham.
17 For Yitschaq had returned from the ‘Well of the Oath’ and gone up to the tower of his father Abraham, and he dwelt there apart from his son Esau.
18 For in the days when Yacob went to Mesopotamia, Esau took to himself a wife Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, and he gathered together all the flocks of his father and his wives, and went up and dwelt on Mount Seir, and left Yitschaq his father at the ‘Well of the Oath’ alone.
19 And Yitschaq went up from the ‘Well of the Oath’ and dwelt in the tower of Abraham his father on the mountains of Hebron,
20 And thither Yacob sent all that he did send to his father and his mother from time to time, all they needed, and they blessed Yacob with all their heart and with all their soul.

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Jasher, Chapter 78

1 At that time died Baal Channan son of Achbor, king of Edom, and was buried in his house in the land of Edom.
2 And after his death the children of Esau sent to the land of Edom, and took from there a man who was in Edom, whose name was Hadad, and they made him king over them in the place of Baal Channan, their king.
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3 And Hadad reigned over the children of Edom forty-eight years.
4 And when he reigned he resolved to fight against the children of Moab, to bring them under the power of the children of Esau as they were before, but he was not able, because the children of Moab heard this thing, and they rose up and hastened to elect a king over them from amongst their brethren.
5 And they afterward gathered together a great people, and sent to the children of Ammon their brethren for help to fight against Hadad king of Edom.
6 And Hadad heard the thing which the children of Moab had done, and was greatly afraid of them, and refrained from fighting against them.
7 In those days Mosheh (Moses), the son of Amram, in Midian, took Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel the Midianite, for a wife.
8 And Zipporah walked in the ways of the daughters of Yacob, she was nothing short of the righteousness of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.
9 And Zipporah conceived and bare a son and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I was a stranger in a foreign land; but he circumcised not his foreskin, at the command of Reuel his father-in-law.
10 And she conceived again and bare a son, but circumcised his foreskin, and called his name Eliezer, for Mosheh said, Because the ALMIGHTY of my fathers was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.
11 And Pharaoh king of Egypt greatly increased the labor of the children of Yisrael in those days, and continued to make his yoke heavier upon the children of Yisrael.
12 And he ordered a proclamation to be made in Egypt, saying, Give no more straw to the people to make bricks with, let them go and gather themselves straw as they can find it.
13 Also the tale of bricks which they shall make let them give each day, and diminish nothing from them, for they are idle in their work.
14 And the children of Yisrael heard this, and they mourned and sighed, and they cried unto YAHWEH on account of the bitterness of their souls.
15 And YAHWEH heard the cries of the children of Yisrael, and saw the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them.
16 And YAHWEH was jealous of his people and his inheritance, and heard their voice, and he resolved to take them out of the affliction of Egypt, to give them the land of Canaan for a possession.

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Jasher, Chapter 19

1 And the cities of Sodom had four judges to four cities, and these were their names, Serak in the city of Sodom, Sharkad in Gomorrah, Zabnac in Admah, and Menon in Zeboyim. 2 And Eliezer Abraham's servant applied to them different names, and he converted Serak to Shakra, Sharkad to Shakrura, Zebnac to Kezobim, and Menon to Matzlodin.
3 And by desire of their four judges the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had beds erected in the streets of the cities, and if a man came to these places they laid hold of him and brought him to one of their beds, and by force made him to lie in them.
4 And as he lay down, three men would stand at his head and three at his feet, and measure him by the length of the bed, and if the man was less than the bed these six men would stretch him at each end, and when he cried out to them they would not answer him.
5 And if he was longer than the bed they would draw together the two sides of the bed at each end, until the man had reached the gates of death.
6 And if he continued to cry out to them, they would answer him, saying, Thus shall it be done to a man that comes into our land.
7 And when men heard all these things that the people of the cities of Sodom did, they refrained from coming there.
8 And when a poor man came to their land they would give him silver and gold, and cause a proclamation in the whole city not to give him a morsel of bread to eat, and if the stranger should remain there some days, and die from hunger, not having been able to obtain a morsel of bread, then at his death all the people of the city would come and take their silver and gold which they had given to him.
9 And those that could recognize the silver or gold which they had given him took it back, and at his death they also stripped him of his garments, and they would fight about them, and he that prevailed over his neighbor took them.
10 They would after that carry him and bury him under some of the shrubs in the deserts; so they did all the days to any one that came to them and died in their land. 11 And in the course of time Sarah sent Eliezer to Sodom, to see Lot and inquire after his welfare.
12 And Eliezer went to Sodom, and he met a man of Sodom fighting with a stranger, and the man of Sodom stripped the poor man of all his clothes and went away.
13 And this poor man cried to Eliezer and supplicated his favor on account of what the man of Sodom had done to him.
14 And he said to him, Why dost you act thus to the poor man who came to your land?
15 And the man of Sodom answered Eliezer, saying, Is this man your brother, or have the people of Sodom made you a judge this day, that you speak about this man?
16 And Eliezer strove with the man of Sodom on account of the poor man, and when Eliezer approached to recover the poor man's clothes from the man of Sodom, he hastened and with a stone smote Eliezer in the forehead.
17 And the blood flowed copiously from Eliezer's forehead, and when the man saw the blood he caught hold of Eliezer, saying, Give me my hire for having rid you of this bad blood that was in your forehead, for such is the custom and the law in our land.
18 And Eliezer said to him, You hast wounded me and require me to pay you your hire; and Eliezer would not hearken to the words of the man of Sodom. 19 And the man laid hold of Eliezer and brought him to Shakra the judge of Sodom for judgment.
20 And the man spoke to the judge, saying, I beseech you my lord, thus has this man done, for I smote him with a stone that the blood flowed from his forehead, and he is unwilling to give me my hire.
21 And the judge said to Eliezer, This man speaks truth to you, give him his hire, for this is the custom in our land; and Eliezer heard the words of the judge, and he lifted up a stone and smote the judge, and the stone struck on his forehead, and the blood flowed copiously from the forehead of the judge, and Eliezer said, If this then is the custom in your land give you unto this man what I should have given him, for this has been your decision, you didst decree it.
22 And Eliezer left the man of Sodom with the judge, and he went away.
23 And when the kings of Elam had made war with the kings of Sodom, the kings of Elam captured all the property of Sodom, and they took Lot captive, with his property, and when it was told to Abraham he went and made war with the kings of Elam, and he recovered from their hands all the property of Lot as well as the property of Sodom.
24 At that time the wife of Lot bare him a daughter, and he called her name Paltith, saying, Because YAHWEH had delivered him and his whole household from the kings of Elam; and Paltith daughter of Lot grew up, and one of the men of Sodom took her for a wife.
25 And a poor man came into the city to seek a maintenance, and he remained in the city some days, and all the people of Sodom caused a proclamation of their custom not to give this man a morsel of bread to eat, until he dropped dead upon the earth, and they did so.
26 And Paltith the daughter of Lot saw this man lying in the streets starved with hunger, and no one would give him any thing to keep him alive, and he was just upon the point of death.
27 And her soul was filled with pity on account of the man, and she fed him secretly with bread for many days, and the soul of this man was revived.
28 For when she went forth to fetch water she would put the bread in the water pitcher, and when she came to the place where the poor man was, she took the bread from the pitcher and gave it him to eat; so she did many days.
29 And all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah wondered how this man could bear starvation for so many days.
30 And they said to each other, This can only be that he eats and drinks, for no man can bear starvation for so many days or live as this man has, without even his countenance changing; and three men concealed themselves in a place where the poor man was stationed, to know who it was that brought him bread to eat. 31 And Paltith daughter of Lot went forth that day to fetch water, and she put bread into her pitcher of water, and she went to draw water by the poor man's place, and she took out the bread from the pitcher and gave it to the poor man and he ate it.
32 And the three men saw what Paltith did to the poor man, and they said to her, It is you then who hast supported him, and therefore has he not starved, nor changed in appearance nor died like the rest.
33 And the three men went out of the place in which they were concealed, and they seized Paltith and the bread which was in the poor man's hand.
34 And they took Paltith and brought her before their judges, and they said to them, Thus did she do, and it is she who supplied the poor man with bread, therefore did he not die all this time; now therefore declare to us the punishment due to this woman for having transgressed our law.
35 And the people of Sodom and Gomorrah assembled and kindled a fire in the street of the city, and they took the woman and cast her into the fire and she was burned to ashes.
36 And in the city of Admah there was a woman to whom they did the like.
37 For a traveler came into the city of Admah to abide there all night, with the intention of going home in the morning, and he sat opposite the door of the house of the young woman's father, to remain there, as the sun had set when be had reached that place; and the young woman saw him sitting by the door of the house.
38 And he asked her for a drink of water and she said to him, Who are you? and he said to her, I was this day going on the road, and reached here when the sun set, so I will abide here all night, and in the morning I will arise early and continue my journey.
39 And the young woman went into the house and fetched the man bread and water to eat and drink.
40 And this affair became known to the people of Admah, and they assembled and brought the young woman before the judges, that they should judge her for this act.
41 And the judge said, The judgment of death must pass upon this woman because she transgressed our law, and this therefore is the decision concerning her.
42 And the people of those cities assembled and brought out the young woman, and anointed her with honey from head to foot, as the judge had decreed, and they placed her before a swarm of bees which were then in their hives, and the bees flew upon her and stung her that her whole body was swelled.
43 And the young woman cried out on account of the bees, but no one took notice of her or pitied her, and her cries ascended to heaven.
44 And YAHWEH was provoked at this and at all the works of the cities of Sodom, for they had abundance of food, and had tranquility amongst them, and still would not sustain the poor and the needy, and in those days their evil doings and sins became great before YAHWEH.
45 And YAHWEH sent for two of the heavenly messengers that had come to Abraham's house, to destroy Sodom and its cities.
46 And the heavenly messengers rose up from the door of Abraham's tent, after they had eaten and drunk, and they reached Sodom in the evening, and Lot was then sitting in the gate of Sodom, and when he saw them he rose to meet them, and he bowed down to the ground.
47 And he pressed them greatly and brought them into his house, and he gave them victuals which they ate, and they abode all night in his house.
48 And the heavenly messengers said to Lot, Arise, go forth from this place, you and all belonging to you, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of this city, for YAHWEH will destroy this place.
49 And the heavenly messengers laid hold upon the hand of Lot and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hands of his children, and all belonging to him, and they brought him forth and set him without the cities.
50 And they said to Lot, Escape for your life, and he fled and all belonging to him.
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51 Then YAHWEH rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah and upon all these cities brimstone and fire from YAHWEH out of heaven.
52 And he overthrew these cities, all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground; and Ado the wife of Lot looked back to see the destruction of the cities, for her compassion was moved on account of her daughters who remained in Sodom, for they did not go with her.
53 And when she looked back she became a pillar of salt, and it is yet in that place unto this day.
54 And the oxen which stood in that place daily licked up the salt to the extremities of their feet, and in the morning it would spring forth afresh, and they again licked it up unto this day.
55 And Lot and two of his daughters that remained with him fled and escaped to the cave of Adullam, and they remained there for some time.
56 And Abraham rose up early in the morning to see what had been done to the cities of Sodom; and he looked and beheld the smoke of the cities going up like the smoke of a furnace.
57 And Lot and his two daughters remained in the cave, and they made their father drink wine, and they lay with him, for they said there was no man upon earth that could raise up seed from them, for they thought that the whole earth was destroyed.
58 And they both lay with their father, and they conceived and bare sons, and the first born called the name of her son Moab, saying, From my father did I conceive him; he is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
59 And the younger also called her son Benami; he is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
60 And after this Lot and his two daughters went away from there, and he dwelt on the other side of the Yardan with his two daughters and their sons, and the sons of Lot grew up, and they went and took themselves wives from the land of Canaan, and they begat children and they were fruitful and multiplied.

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