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 65

1 And it came to pass after these things, that all the counsellors of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all the elders of Egypt assembled and came before the king and bowed down to the ground, and they sat before him.
2 And the counsellors and elders of Egypt spoke unto the king, saying,
3 Behold the people of the children of Yisrael is greater and mightier than we are, and you know all the evil which they did to us in the road when we returned from battle.
4 And you hast also seen their strong power, for this power is unto them from their fathers, for but a few men stood up against a people numerous as the sand, and smote them at the edge of the sword, and of themselves not one has fallen, so that if they had been numerous they would then have utterly destroyed them.
5 Now therefore give us counsel what to do with them, until we gradually destroy them from amongst us, lest they become too numerous for us in the land.
6 For if the children of Yisrael should increase in the land, they will become an obstacle to us, and if any war should happen to take place, they with their great strength will join our enemy against us, and fight against us, destroy us from the land and go away from it.
7 So the king answered the elders of Egypt and said unto them, This is the plan advised against Yisrael, from which we will not depart,
8 Behold in the land are Pithom and Rameses, cities unfortified against battle, it behooves you and us to build them, and to fortify them.
9 Now therefore go you also and act cunningly toward them, and proclaim a voice in Egypt and in Goshen at the command of the king, saying,
10 All ye men of Egypt, Goshen, Pathros and all their inhabitants! the king has commanded us to build Pithom and Rameses, and to fortify them for battle; who amongst you of all Egypt, of the children of Yisrael and of all the inhabitants of the cities, are willing to build with us, shall each have his wages given to him daily at the king's order; so go you first and do cunningly, and gather yourselves and come to Pithom and Rameses to build.
11 And while you are building, cause a proclamation of this kind to be made throughout Egypt every day at the command of the king.
12 And when some of the children of Yisrael shall come to build with you, you shall give them their wages daily for a few days.
13 And after they shall have built with you for their daily hire, drag yourselves away from them daily one by one in secret, and then you shall rise up and become their task-masters and officers, and you shall leave them afterward to build without wages, and should they refuse, then force them with all your might to build.
14 And if you do this it will be well with us to strengthen our land against the children of Yisrael, for on account of the fatigue of the building and the work, the children of Yisrael will decrease, because you will deprive them from their wives day by day.
15 And all the elders of Egypt heard the counsel of the king, and the counsel seemed good in their eyes and in the eyes of the servants of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all Egypt, and they did according to the word of the king.
16 And all the servants went away from the king, and they caused a proclamation to be made in all Egypt, in Tachpanches and in Goshen, and in all the cities which surrounded Egypt, saying,
17 You have seen what the children of Esau and Ishmael did to us, who came to war against us and wished to destroy us.
18 Now therefore the king commanded us to fortify the land, to build the cities Pithom and Rameses, and to fortify them for battle, if they should again come against us.
19 Whosoever of you from all Egypt and from the children of Yisrael will come to build with us, he shall have his daily wages given by the king, as his command is unto us.
20 And when Egypt and all the children of Yisrael heard all that the servants of Pharaoh had spoken, there came from the Egyptians, and the children of Yisrael to build with the servants of Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses, but none of the children of Levi came with their brethren to build.
21 And all the servants of Pharaoh and his princes came at first with deceit to build with all Yisrael as daily hired laborers, and they gave to Yisrael their daily hire at the beginning.
22 And the servants of Pharaoh built with all Yisrael, and were employed in that work with Yisrael for a month.
23 And at the end of the month, all the servants of Pharaoh began to withdraw secretly from the people of Yisrael daily.
24 And Yisrael went on with the work at that time, but they then received their daily hire, because some of the men of Egypt were yet carrying on the work with Yisrael at that time; therefore the Egyptians gave Yisrael their hire in those days, in order that they, the Egyptians their fellow-workmen, might also take the pay for their labor.
25 And at the end of a year and four months all the Egyptians had withdrawn from the children of Yisrael, so that the children of Yisrael were left alone engaged in the work.
26 And after all the Egyptians had withdrawn from the children of Yisrael they returned and became oppressors and officers over them, and some of them stood over the children of Yisrael as task masters, to receive from them all that they gave them for the pay of their labor.
27 And the Egyptians did in this manner to the children of Yisrael day by day, in order to afflict in their work.
28 And all the children of Yisrael were alone engaged in the labor, and the Egyptians refrained from giving any pay to the children of Yisrael from that time forward.
29 And when some of the men of Yisrael refused to work on account of the wages not being given to them, then the exactors and the servants of Pharaoh oppressed them and smote them with heavy blows, and made them return by force, to labor with their brethren; thus did all the Egyptians unto the children of Yisrael all the days.
30 And all the children of Yisrael were greatly afraid of the Egyptians in this matter, and all the children of Yisrael returned and worked alone without pay.
31 And the children of Yisrael built Pithom and Rameses, and all the children of Yisrael did the work, some making bricks, and some building, and the children of Yisrael built and fortified all the land of Egypt and its walls, and the children of Yisrael were engaged in work for many years, until the time came when YAHWEH remembered them and brought them out of Egypt.
32 But the children of Levi were not employed in the work with their brethren of Yisrael, from the beginning unto the day of their going forth from Egypt.
33 For all the children of Levi knew that the Egyptians had spoken all these words with deceit to the Yisraelites, therefore the children of Levi refrained from approaching to the work with their brethren.
34 And the Egyptians did not direct their attention to make the children of Levi work afterward, since they had not been with their brethren at the beginning, therefore the Egyptians left them alone.
35 And the hands of the men of Egypt were directed with continued severity against the children of Yisrael in that work, and the Egyptians made the children of Yisrael work with rigor.
36 And the Egyptians embittered the lives of the children of Yisrael with hard work, in mortar and bricks, and also in all manner of work in the field.
37 And the children of Yisrael called Melol the king of Egypt "Meror, king of Egypt," because in his days the Egyptians had embittered their lives with all manner of work.
38 And all the work wherein the Egyptians made the children of Yisrael labor, they exacted with rigor, in order to afflict the children of Yisrael, but the more they afflicted them, the more they increased and grew, and the Egyptians were grieved because of the children of Yisrael.

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