Book of Jubilees 46, 47

JUBILEES 46

Yacob dies and the children of Yisrael multiply

1 And it came to pass that after Yacob died the children of Yisrael multiplied in the land of Egypt, and they became a great nation, and they were of one accord in heart, so that brother loved brother and every man helped his brother, and they increased abundantly and multiplied exceedingly, ten [2242 A.M.] weeks of years, all the days of the life of Yoseph.
2 And there was no Satan nor any evil all the days of the life of Yoseph which he lived after his father Yacob, for all the Egyptians honored the children of Yisrael all the days of the life of Yoseph.
3 And Yoseph 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 brethren and all that generation.
5 And he commanded the children of Yisrael before he died that they should carry his bones with them when they went forth from the land of Egypt.
6 And he made them swear regarding his bones, for he knew that the Egyptians would not again bring forth 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 slew him there, and pursued after 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 Yoseph died in the forty-sixth jubilee, in the sixth week, in the second year, and they buried him in the land of Egypt, and [2242 A.M.] all his brethren died after him.
9 And the king of Egypt went forth to war with the king of Canaan [2263 A.M.] in the forty-seventh jubilee, in the second week in the second year, and the children of Yisrael brought forth all the bones of the children of Yacob save the bones of Yoseph, and they buried them in the field in the double cave in the mountain.
10 And the most (of them) returned to Egypt, but a few of them remained in the mountains of Hebron, and Amram your father remained with them.
11 And the king of Canaan was victorious over the king of Egypt, and he closed the gates of Egypt.
12 And he devised an evil device against the children of Yisrael of afflicting them.
13 And he said to the people of Egypt: 'Behold the people of the children of Yisrael 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 come upon us and before they too fight against us; else they will join themselves unto our enemies and get them up out of our land, for their hearts and faces are towards 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 serve with rigour, and the more they dealt evilly with them, the more they increased and multiplied. And the people of Egypt abominated the children of Yisrael

JUBILEES 47

Pharaoh, king of Egypt kills all male babies born

1 And in the seventh week, in the seventh year, in the forty-seventh jubilee, your father went forth [2303 A.M.] from the land of Canaan, and you were born in the fourth week, in the sixth year thereof, in the [2330 A.M.] forty-eighth jubilee; this was the time of tribulation on the children of Yisrael.
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.
3 And they cast them in for seven months until the day that you were born
4 And your mother hid you for three months, and they told regarding her. And she made an ark for you, and covered it with pitch and asphalt, and placed it in the flags on the bank of the river, and she placed you in it seven days, and your mother came by night and suckled you, and by day Miriam, your sister, guarded you from the birds.
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 maidens to bring you forth, and they brought you unto 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 unto you one of the Hebrew women to nurse and suckle this babe for you?'
8 And she said (unto 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 unto the daughter of Pharaoh, and you didst become her son, and Amram your father taught you writing, and after you had completed three weeks they brought you into the royal court.
10 And you were three weeks of years at court until the time [2351-] when you didst go forth from the royal court and did see an Egyptian smiting your friend who was [2372 A.M.] of the children of Yisrael, and you did slay him and hide him in the sand.
11 And on the second day you did and two of the children of Yisrael striving together, and you did say to him who was doing the wrong: 'Why do you smite your brother?'
12 And he was angry and indignant, and said: 'Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Think you to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' And you did fear and flee on account of these words.

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Jasher, Chapter 68

1 And it was at that time the spirit of YAHWEH was upon Miriam the daughter of Amram the sister of Aaron, and she went forth and prophesied about the house, saying, Behold a son will be born unto us from my father and mother this time, and he will save Yisrael from the hands of Egypt.
2 And when Amram heard the words of his daughter, he went and took his wife back to the house, after he had driven her away at the time when Pharaoh ordered every male child of the house of Yacob to be thrown into the water.
3 So Amram took Jochebed his wife, three years after he had driven her away, and he came to her and she conceived.
Year 2368
4 And at the end of seven months from her conception she brought forth a son, and the whole house was filled with great light as of the light of the sun and moon at the time of their shining.
5 And when the woman saw the child that it was good and pleasing to the sight, she hid it for three months in an inner room.
6 In those days the Egyptians conspired to destroy all the Hebrews there.
7 And the Egyptian women went to Goshen where the children of Yisrael were, and they carried their young ones upon their shoulders, their babes who could not yet speak.
8 And in those days, when the women of the children of Yisrael brought forth, each woman had hidden her son from before the Egyptians, that the Egyptians might not know of their bringing forth, and might not destroy them from the land.
9 And the Egyptian women came to Goshen and their children who could not speak were upon their shoulders, and when an Egyptian woman came into the house of a Hebrew woman her babe began to cry.
10 And when it cried the child that was in the inner room answered it, so the Egyptian women went and told it at the house of Pharaoh.
11 And Pharaoh sent his officers to take the children and slay them; thus did the Egyptians to the Hebrew women all the days.
12 And it was at that time, about three months from Jochebed's concealment of her son, that the thing was known in Pharaoh's house.
13 And the woman hastened to take away her son before the officers came, and she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein, and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
14 And his sister Miriam stood afar off to know what would be done to him, and what would become of her words.
15 And YAHWEH sent forth at that time a terrible heat in the land of Egypt, which burned up the flesh of man like the sun in his circuit, and it greatly oppressed the Egyptians.
16 And all the Egyptians went down to bathe in the river, on account of the consuming heat which burned up their flesh.
17 And Bathia, the daughter of Pharaoh, went also to bathe in the river, owing to the consuming heat, and her maidens walked at the river side, and all the women of Egypt as well.
18 And Bathia lifted up her eyes to the river, and she saw the ark upon the water, and sent her maid to fetch it.
19 And she opened it and saw the child, and behold the babe wept, and she had compassion on him, and she said, This is one of the Hebrew children.
20 And all the women of Egypt walking on the river side desired to give him suck, but he would not suck, for this thing was from YAHWEH, in order to restore him to his mother's breast.
21 And Miriam his sister was at that time amongst the Egyptian women at the river side, and she saw this thing and she said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and fetch a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?
22 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go, and the young woman went and called the child's mother.
23 And Pharaoh's daughter said to Jochebed, Take this child away and suckle it for me, and I will pay you your wages, two bits of silver daily; and the woman took the child and nursed it.
24 And at the end of two years, when the child grew up, she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he was unto her as a son, and she called his name Mosheh, for she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
25 And Amram his father called his name Chabar, for he said, It was for him that he associated with his wife whom he had turned away.
26 And Jochebed his mother called his name Jekuthiel, Because, she said, I have hoped for him to the Almighty, and YAHWEH restored him unto me.
27 And Miriam his sister called him Jered, for she descended after him to the river to know what his end would be.
28 And Aaron his brother called his name Abi Zanuch, saying, My father left my mother and returned to her on his account.
29 And Kehath the father of Amram called his name Abigdor, because on his account did YAHWEH repair the breach of the house of Yacob, that they could no longer throw their male children into the water.
30 And their nurse called him Abi Socho, saying, In his tabernacle was he hidden for three months, on account of the children of Ham.
31 And all Yisrael called his name Shemaiah, son of Nethanel, for they said, In his days has YAHWEH heard their cries and rescued them from their oppressors.
32 And Mosheh was in Pharaoh's house, and was unto Bathia, Pharaoh's daughter, as a son, and Mosheh grew up amongst the king's children.

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Jasher, Chapter 67

1 There was a man in the land of Egypt of the seed of Levi, whose name was Amram, the son of Kehath, the son of Levi, the son of Yisrael.
2 And this man went and took a wife, namely Jochebed the daughter of Levi his father's sister, and she was one hundred and twenty-six years old, and he came unto her.
Year 2363
3 And the woman conceived and bare a daughter, and she called her name Miriam, because in those days the Egyptians had embittered the lives of the children of Yisrael.
Year 2365
4 And she conceived again and bare a son and she called his name Aaron, for in the days of her conception, Pharaoh began to spill the blood of the male children of Yisrael.
Year 2367
5 In those days died Zepho the son of Eliphaz, son of Esau, king of Chittim, and Janeas reigned in his stead.
6 And the time that Zepho reigned over the children of Chittim was fifty years, and he died and was buried in the city of Nabna in the land of Chittim.
7 And Janeas, one of the mighty men of the children of Chittim, reigned after him and he reigned fifty years.
8 And it was after the death of the king of Chittim that Balaam the son of Beor fled from the land of Chittim, and he went and came to Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 And Pharaoh received him with great honor, for he had heard of his wisdom, and he gave him presents and made him for a counsellor, and aggrandized him.
10 And Balaam dwelt in Egypt, in honor with all the nobles of the king, and the nobles exalted him, because they all coveted to learn his wisdom.
Year 2368
11 And in the hundred and thirtieth year of Yisrael's going down to Egypt, Pharaoh dreamed that he was sitting upon his kingly throne, and lifted up his eyes and saw an old man standing before him, and there were scales in the hands of the old man, such scales as are used by merchants.
12 And the old man took the scales and hung them before Pharaoh.
13 And the old man took all the elders of Egypt and all its nobles and great men, and he tied them together and put them in one scale.
14 And he took a milk kid and put it into the other scale, and the kid preponderated over all.
15 And Pharaoh was astonished at this dreadful vision, why the kid should preponderate over all, and Pharaoh awoke and behold it was a dream.
16 And Pharaoh rose up early in the morning and called all his servants and related to them the dream, and the men were greatly afraid.
17 And the king said to all his wise men, Interpret I pray you the dream which I dreamed, that I may know it.
18 And Balaam the son of Beor answered the king and said unto him, This means nothing else but a great evil that will spring up against Egypt in the latter days.
19 For a son will be born to Yisrael who will destroy all Egypt and its inhabitants, and bring forth the Yisraelites from Egypt with a mighty hand.
20 Now therefore, O king, take counsel upon this matter, that you may destroy the hope of the children of Yisrael and their expectation, before this evil arise against Egypt.
21 And the king said unto Balaam, And what shall we do unto Yisrael? surely after a certain manner did we at first counsel against them and could not prevail over them.
22 Now therefore give you also advice against them by which we may prevail over them.
23 And Balaam answered the king, saying, Send now and call your two counsellors, and we will see what their advice is upon this matter and afterward your servant will speak.
24 And the king sent and called his two counsellors Reuel the Midianite and Job the Uzite, and they came and sat before the king.
25 And the king said to them, Behold you have both heard the dream which I have dreamed, and the interpretation thereof; now therefore give counsel and know and see what is to be done to the children of Yisrael, whereby we may prevail over them, before their evil shall spring up against us.
26 And Reuel the Midianite answered the king and said, May the king live, may the king live forever.
27 If it seem good to the king, let him desist from the Hebrews and leave them, and let him not stretch forth his hand against them.
28 For these are they whom YAHWEH chose in days of old, and took as the lot of his inheritance from amongst all the nations of the earth and the kings of the earth; and who is there that stretched his hand against them with impunity, of whom their ALMIGHTY was not avenged?
29 Surely you know that when Abraham went down to Egypt, Pharaoh, the former king of Egypt, saw Sarah his wife, and took her for a wife, because Abraham said, She is my sister, for he was afraid, lest the men of Egypt should slay him on account of his wife.
30 And when the king of Egypt had taken Sarah then YAHWEH smote him and his household with heavy plagues, until he restored unto Abraham his wife Sarah, then was he healed.
31 And Abimelech the Gerarite, king of the Philistines, YAHWEH punished on account of Sarah wife of Abraham, in stopping up every womb from man to beast.
32 When their ALMIGHTY came to Abimelech in the dream of night and terrified him in order that he might restore to Abraham Sarah whom he had taken, and afterward all the people of Gerar were punished on account of Sarah, and Abraham prayed to YAHWEH for them, and he was entreated of him, and he healed them.
33 And Abimelech feared all this evil that came upon him and his people, and he returned to Abraham his wife Sarah, and gave him with her many gifts.
34 He did so also to Yitschaq when he had driven him from Gerar, and YAHWEH had done wonderful things to him, that all the water courses of Gerar were dried up, and their productive trees did not bring forth.
35 Until Abimelech of Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Pichol the captain of his host, went to him and they bent and bowed down before him to the ground.
36 And they requested of him to supplicate for them, and he prayed to YAHWEH for them, and YAHWEH was entreated of him and he healed them.
37 Yacob also, the plain man, was delivered through his integrity from the hand of his brother Esau, and the hand of Laban the Syrian his mother's brother, who had sought his life; likewise from the hand of all the kings of Canaan who had come together against him and his children to destroy them, and YAHWEH delivered them out of their hands, that they turned upon them and smote them, for who had ever stretched forth his hand against them with impunity?
38 Surely Pharaoh the former, your father's father, raised Yoseph the son of Yacob above all the princes of the land of Egypt, when he saw his wisdom, for through his wisdom he rescued all the inhabitants of the land from the famine.
39 After which he ordered Yacob and his children to come down to Egypt, in order that through their virtue, the land of Egypt and the land of Goshen might be delivered from the famine.
40 Now therefore if it seem good in your eyes, cease from destroying the children of Yisrael, but if it be not your will that they shall dwell in Egypt, send them forth from here, that they may go to the land of Canaan, the land where their ancestors sojourned.
41 And when Pharaoh heard the words of Jethro he was very angry with him, so that he rose with shame from the king's presence, and went to Midian, his land, and took Yoseph's stick with him.
42 And the king said to Job the Uzite, What say you Job, and what is your advice respecting the Hebrews?
43 So Job said to the king, Behold all the inhabitants of the land are in your power, let the king do as it seems good in his eyes.
44 And the king said unto Balaam, What dost you say, Balaam, speak your word that we may hear it.
45 And Balaam said to the king, Of all that the king has counselled against the Hebrews will they be delivered, and the king will not be able to prevail over them with any counsel.
46 For if you think to lessen them by the flaming fire, you canst not prevail over them, for surely their ALMIGHTY delivered Abraham their father from Ur of the Chaldeans; and if you think to destroy them with a sword, surely Yitschaq their father was delivered from it, and a ram was placed in his stead.
47 And if with hard and rigorous labor you think to lessen them, you wilt not prevail even in this, for their father Yacob served Laban in all manner of hard work, and prospered.
48 Now therefore, O King, hear my words, for this is the counsel which is counselled against them, by which you wilt prevail over them, and from which you shouldst not depart.
49 If it please the king let him order all their children which shall be born from this day forward, to be thrown into the water, for by this canst you wipe away their name, for none of them, nor of their fathers, were tried in this manner.
50 And the king heard the words of Balaam, and the thing pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Balaam.
51 And the king ordered a proclamation to be issued and a law to be made throughout the land of Egypt, saying, Every male child born to the Hebrews from this day forward shall be thrown into the water.
52 And Pharaoh called unto all his servants, saying, Go now and seek throughout the land of Goshen where the children of Yisrael are, and see that every son born to the Hebrews shall be cast into the river, but every daughter you shall let live.
53 And when the children of Yisrael heard this thing which Pharaoh had commanded, to cast their male children into the river, some of the people separated from their wives and others adhered to them.
54 And from that day forward, when the time of delivery arrived to those women of Yisrael who had remained with their husbands, they went to the field to bring forth there, and they brought forth in the field, and left their children upon the field and returned home.
55 And YAHWEH who had sworn to their ancestors to multiply them, sent one of his ministering heavenly messengers which are in heaven to wash each child in water, to anoint and swathe it and to put into its hands two smooth stones from one of which it sucked milk and from the other honey, and he caused its hair to grow to its knees, by which it might cover itself; to comfort it and to cleave to it, through his compassion for it.
56 And when YAHWEH had compassion over them and had desired to multiply them upon the face of the land, he ordered his earth to receive them to be preserved therein till the time of their growing up, after which the earth opened its mouth and vomited them forth and they sprouted forth from the city like the herb of the earth, and the grass of the forest, and they returned each to his family and to his father's house, and they remained with them.
57 And the babes of the children of Yisrael were upon the earth like the herb of the field, through YAHWEH's free unmerited pardon and favor to them.
58 And when all the Egyptians saw this thing, they went forth, each to his field with his yoke of oxen and his ploughshare, and they ploughed it up as one ploughs the earth at seed time.
59 And when they ploughed they were unable to hurt the infants of the children of Yisrael, so the people increased and waxed exceedingly.
60 And Pharaoh ordered his officers daily to go to Goshen to seek for the babes of the children of Yisrael.
61 And when they had sought and found one, they took it from its mother's bosom by force, and threw it into the river, but the female child they left with its mother; thus did the Egyptians do to the Yisraelites all the days.

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