Jasher, Chapter 39

1 And when the sons of Yacob went from the city of Sarton, they had gone about two hundred cubits when they met the inhabitants of Tapnach coming toward them, for they went out to fight with them, because they had smitten the king of Tapnach and all his men.
2 So all that remained in the city of Tapnach came out to fight with the sons of Yacob, and they thought to retake from them the booty and the spoil which they had captured from Chazar and Sarton.
3 And the rest of the men of Tapnach fought with the sons of Yacob in that place, and the sons of Yacob smote them, and they fled before them, and they pursued them to the city of Arbelan, and they all fell before the sons of Yacob.
4 And the sons of Yacob returned and came to Tapnach, to take away the spoil of Tapnach, and when they came to Tapnach they heard that the people of Arbelan had gone out to meet them to save the spoil of their brethren, and the sons of Yacob left ten of their men in Tapnach to plunder the city, and they went out toward the people of Arbelan.
5 And the men of Arbelan went out with their wives to fight with the sons of Yacob, for their wives were experienced in battle, and they went out, about four hundred men and women.
6 And all the sons of Yacob shouted with a loud voice, and they all ran toward the inhabitants of Arbelan, and with a great and tremendous voice.
7 And the inhabitants of Arbelan heard the noise of the shouting of the sons of Yacob, and their roaring like the noise of lions and like the roaring of the sea and its waves.
8 And fear and terror possessed their hearts on account of the sons of Yacob, and they were terribly afraid of them, and they retreated and fled before them into the city, and the sons of Yacob pursued them to the gate of the city, and they came upon them in the city.
9 And the sons of Yacob fought with them in the city, and all their women were engaged in slinging against the sons of Yacob, and the combat was very severe amongst them the whole of that day till evening.
10 And the sons of Yacob could not prevail over them, and the sons of Yacob had almost perished in that battle, and the sons of Yacob cried unto YAHWEH and greatly gained strength toward evening, and the sons of Yacob smote all the inhabitants of Arbelan by the edge of the sword, men, women and little ones.
11 And also the remainder of the people who had fled from Sarton, the sons of Yacob smote them in Arbelan, and the sons of Yacob did unto Arbelan and Tapnach as they had done to Chazar and Sarton, and when the women saw that all the men were dead, they went upon the roofs of the city and smote the sons of Yacob by showering down stones like rain.
12 And the sons of Yacob hastened and came into the city and seized all the women and smote them with the edge of the sword, and the sons of Yacob captured all the spoil and booty, flocks and herds and cattle.
13 And the sons of Yacob did unto Machnaymah as they had done to Tapnach, to Chazar and to Shiloh, and they turned from there and went away.
14 And on the fifth day the sons of Yacob heard that the people of Gaash had gathered against them to battle, because they had slain their king and their captains, for there had been fourteen captains in the city of Gaash, and the sons of Yacob had slain them all in the first battle.
15 And the sons of Yacob that day girt on their weapons of war, and they marched to battle against the inhabitants of Gaash, and in Gaash there was a strong and mighty people of the people of the Amorites, and Gaash was the strongest and best fortified city of all the cities of the Amorites, and it had three walls.
16 And the sons of Yacob came to Gaash and they found the gates of the city locked, and about five hundred men standing at the top of the outer-most wall, and a people numerous as the sand upon the sea shore were in ambush for the sons of Yacob from without the city at the rear thereof.
17 And the sons of Yacob approached to open the gates of the city, and while they were drawing nigh, behold those who were in ambush at the rear of the city came forth from their places and surrounded the sons of Yacob.
18 And the sons of Yacob were enclosed between the people of Gaash, and the battle was both to their front and rear, and all the men that were upon the wall, were casting from the wall upon them, arrows and stones.
19 And Yahudah, seeing that the men of Gaash were getting too heavy for them, gave a most piercing and tremendous shriek and all the men of Gaash were terrified at the voice of Yahudah's cry, and men fell from the wall at his powerful shriek, and all those that were from without and within the city were greatly afraid of their lives.
20 And the sons of Yacob still came nigh to break the doors of the city, when the men of Gaash threw stones and arrows upon them from the top of the wall, and made them flee from the gate.
21 And the sons of Yacob returned against the men of Gaash who were with them from without the city, and they smote them terribly, as striking against gourds, and they could not stand against the sons of Yacob, for fright and terror had seized them at the shriek of Yahudah.
22 And the sons of Yacob slew all those men who were without the city, and the sons of Yacob still drew nigh to effect an entrance into the city, and to fight under the city walls, but they could not for all the inhabitants of Gaash who remained in the city had surrounded the walls of Gaash in every direction, so that the sons of Yacob were unable to approach the city to fight with them.
23 And the sons of Yacob came nigh to one corner to fight under the wall, the inhabitants of Gaash threw arrows and stones upon them like showers of rain, and they fled from under the wall.
24 And the people of Gaash who were upon the wall, seeing that the sons of Yacob could not prevail over them from under the wall, reproached the sons of Yacob in these words, saying,
25 What is the matter with you in the battle that you cannot prevail? can you then do unto the mighty city of Gaash and its inhabitants as you did to the cities of the Amorites that were not so powerful? Surely to those weak ones amongst us you did those things, and slew them in the entrance of the city, for they had no strength when they were terrified at the sound of your shouting.
26 And will you now then be able to fight in this place? Surely here you will all die, and we will avenge the cause of those cities that you have laid waste.
27 And the inhabitants of Gaash greatly reproached the sons of Yacob and reviled them with their gods, and continued to cast arrows and stones upon them from the wall.
28 And Yahudah and his brothers heard the words of the inhabitants of Gaash and their anger was greatly roused, and Yahudah was jealous of YAHWEH his ALMIGHTY in this matter, and he called out and said, O YAHWEH, help, send help to us and our brothers.
29 And he ran at a distance with all his might, with his drawn sword in his hand, and he sprang from the earth and by dint of his strength, mounted the wall, and his sword fell from his hand.
30 And Yahudah shouted upon the wall, and all the men that were upon the wall were terrified, and some of them fell from the wall into the city and died, and those who were yet upon the wall, when they saw Yahudah's strength, they were greatly afraid and fled for their lives into the city for safety.
31 And some were emboldened to fight with Yahudah upon the wall, and they came nigh to slay him when they saw there was no sword in Yahudah's hand, and they thought of casting him from the wall to his brothers, and twenty men of the city came up to assist them, and they surrounded Yahudah and they all shouted over him, and approached him with drawn swords, and they terrified Yahudah, and Yahudah cried out to his brothers from the wall.
32 And Yacob and his sons drew the bow from under the wall, and smote three of the men that were upon the top of the wall, and Yahudah continued to cry and he exclaimed, O YAHWEH help us, O YAHWEH deliver us, and he cried out with a loud voice upon the wall, and the cry was heard at a great distance.
33 And after this cry he again repeated to shout, and all the men who surrounded Yahudah on the top of the wall were terrified, and they each threw his sword from his hand at the sound of Yahudah's shouting and his tremor, and fled.
34 And Yahudah took the swords which had fallen from their hands, and Yahudah fought with them and slew twenty of their men upon the wall.
35 And about eighty men and women still ascended the wall from the city and they all surrounded Yahudah, and YAHWEH impressed the fear of Yahudah in their hearts, that they were unable to approach him.
36 And Yacob and all who were with him drew the bow from under the wall, and they slew ten men upon the wall, and they fell below the wall, before Yacob and his sons.
37 And the people upon the wall seeing that twenty of their men had fallen, they still ran toward Yahudah with drawn swords, but they could not approach him for they were greatly terrified at Yahudah's strength.
38 And one of their mighty men whose name was Arud approached to strike Yahudah upon the head with his sword, when Yahudah hastily put his shield to his head, and the sword hit the shield, and it was split in two.
39 And this mighty man after he had struck Yahudah ran for his life, at the fear of Yahudah, and his feet slipped upon the wall and he fell amongst the sons of Yacob who were below the wall, and the sons of Yacob smote him and slew him.
40 And Yahudah's head pained him from the blow of the powerful man, and Yahudah had nearly died from it.
41 And Yahudah cried out upon the wall owing to the pain produced by the blow, when Dan heard him, and his anger burned within him, and he also rose up and went at a distance and ran and sprang from the earth and mounted the wall with his wrath-excited strength.
42 And when Dan came upon the wall near unto Yahudah all the men upon the wall fled, who had stood against Yahudah, and they went up to the second wall, and they threw arrows and stones upon Dan and Yahudah from the second wall, and endeavored to drive them from the wall.
43 And the arrows and stones struck Dan and Yahudah, and they had nearly been killed upon the wall, and wherever Dan and Yahudah fled from the wall, they were attacked with arrows and stones from the second wall.
44 And Yacob and his sons were still at the entrance of the city below the first wall, and they were not able to draw their bow against the inhabitants of the city, as they could not be seen by them, being upon the second wall.
45 And Dan and Yahudah when they could no longer bear the stones and arrows that fell upon them from the second wall, they both sprang upon the second wall near the people of the city, and when the people of the city who were upon the second wall saw that Dan and Yahudah had come to them upon the second wall, they all cried out and descended below between the walls.
46 And Yacob and his sons heard the noise of the shouting from the people of the city, and they were still at the entrance of the city, and they were anxious about Dan and Yahudah who were not seen by them, they being upon the second wall.
47 And Naphtali went up with his wrath-excited might and sprang upon the first wall to see what caused the noise of shouting which they had heard in the city, and Issachar and Zebulun drew nigh to break the doors of the city, and they opened the gates of the city and came into the city.
48 And Naphtali leaped from the first wall to the second, and came to assist his brothers, and the inhabitants of Gaash who were upon the wall, seeing that Naphtali was the third who had come up to assist his brothers, they all fled and descended into the city, and Yacob and all his sons and all their young men came into the city to them.
49 And Yahudah and Dan and Naphtali descended from the wall into the city and pursued the inhabitants of the city, and Simeon and Levi were from without the city and knew not that the gate was opened, and they went up from there to the wall and came down to their brothers into the city.
50 And the inhabitants of the city had all descended into the city, and the sons of Yacob came to them in different directions, and the battle waged against them from the front and the rear, and the sons of Yacob smote them terribly, and slew about twenty thousand of them men and women, not one of them could stand up against the sons of Yacob.
51 And the blood flowed plentifully in the city, and it was like a brook of water, and the blood flowed like a brook to the outer part of the city, and reached the desert of Bethchorin.
52 And the people of Bethchorin saw at a distance the blood flowing from the city of Gaash, and about seventy men from amongst them ran to see the blood, and they came to the place where the blood was.
53 And they followed the track of the blood and came to the wall of the city of Gaash, and they saw the blood issue from the city, and they heard the voice of crying from the inhabitants of Gaash, for it ascended unto heaven, and the blood was continuing to flow abundantly like a brook of water.
54 And all the sons of Yacob were still smiting the inhabitants of Gaash, and were engaged in slaying them till evening, about twenty thousand men and women, and the people of Chorin said, Surely this is the work of the Hebrews, for they are still carrying on war in all the cities of the Amorites.
55 And those people hastened and ran to Bethchorin, and each took his weapons of war, and they cried out to all the inhabitants of Bethchorin, who also girt on their weapons of war to go and fight with the sons of Yacob.
56 And when the sons of Yacob had done smiting the inhabitants of Gaash, they walked about the city to strip all the slain, and coming in the innermost part of the city and farther on they met three very powerful men, and there was no sword in their hand.
57 And the sons of Yacob came up to the place where they were, and the powerful men ran away, and one of them had taken Zebulun, who he saw was a young lad and of short stature, and with his might dashed him to the ground.
58 And Yacob ran to him with his sword and Yacob smote him below his loins with the sword, and cut him in two, and the body fell upon Zebulun.
59 And the second one approached and seized Yacob to fell him to the ground, and Yacob turned to him and shouted to him, while Simeon and Levi ran and smote him on the hips with the sword and felled him to the ground.
60 And the powerful man rose up from the ground with wrath-excited might, and Yahudah came to him before he had gained his footing, and struck him upon the head with the sword, and his head was split and he died.
61 And the third powerful man, seeing that his companions were killed, ran from before the sons of Yacob, and the sons of Yacob pursued him in the city; and while the powerful man was fleeing he found one of the swords of the inhabitants of the city, and he picked it up and turned to the sons of Yacob and fought them with that sword.
62 And the powerful man ran to Yahudah to strike him upon the head with the sword, and there was no shield in the hand of Yahudah; and while he was aiming to strike him, Naphtali hastily took his shield and put it to Yahudah's head, and the sword of the powerful man hit the shield of Naphtali and Yahudah escaped the sword.
63 And Simeon and Levi ran upon the powerful man with their swords and struck at him forcibly with their swords, and the two swords entered the body of the powerful man and divided it in two, length-wise.
64 And the sons of Yacob smote the three mighty men at that time, together with all the inhabitants of Gaash, and the day was about to decline.
65 And the sons of Yacob walked about Gaash and took all the spoil of the city, even the little ones and women they did not suffer to live, and the sons of Yacob did unto Gaash as they had done to Sarton and Shiloh.

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Jasher, Chapter 38

1 And Ihuri king of Shiloh came up to assist Elon, and he approached Yacob, when Yacob drew his bow that was in his hand and with an arrow struck Ihuri which caused his death.
2 And when Ihuri king of Shiloh was dead, the four remaining kings fled from their station with the rest of the captains, and they endeavored to retreat, saying, We have no more strength with the Hebrews after their having killed the three kings and their captains who were more powerful than we are.
3 And when the sons of Yacob saw that the remaining kings had removed from their station, they pursued them, and Yacob also came from the heap of Shechem from the place where he was standing, and they went after the kings and they approached them with their servants.
4 And the kings and the captains with the rest of their armies, seeing that the sons of Yacob approached them, were afraid of their lives and fled till they reached the city of Chazar.
5 And the sons of Yacob pursued them to the gate of the city of Chazar, and they smote a great smiting amongst the kings and their armies, about four thousand men, and while they were smiting the army of the kings, Yacob was occupied with his bow confining himself to smiting the kings, and he slew them all.
6 And he slew Parathon king of Chazar at the gate of the city of Chazar, and he afterward smote Susi king of Sarton, and Laban king of Bethchorin, and Shabir king of Machnaymah, and he slew them all with arrows, an arrow to each of them, and they died.
7 And the sons of Yacob seeing that all the kings were dead and that they were broken up and retreating, continued to carry on the battle with the armies of the kings opposite the gate of Chazar, and they still smote about four hundred of their men.
8 And three men of the servants of Yacob fell in that battle, and when Yahudah saw that three of his servants had died, it grieved him greatly, and his anger burned within him against the Amorites.
9 And all the men that remained of the armies of the kings were greatly afraid of their lives, and they ran and broke the gate of the walls of the city of Chazar, and they all entered the city for safety.
10 And they concealed themselves in the midst of the city of Chazar, for the city of Chazar was very large and extensive, and when all these armies had entered the city, the sons of Yacob ran after them to the city.
11 And four mighty men, experienced in battle, went forth from the city and stood against the entrance of the city, with drawn swords and spears in their hands, and they placed themselves opposite the sons of Yacob, and would not suffer them to enter the city.
12 And Naphtali ran and came between them and with his sword smote two of them, and cut off their heads at one stroke.
13 And he turned to the other two, and behold they had fled, and he pursued them, overtook them, smote them and slew them.
14 And the sons of Yacob came to the city and saw, and behold there was another wall to the city, and they sought for the gate of the wall and could not find it, and Yahudah sprang upon the top of the wall, and Simeon and Levi followed him, and they all three descended from the wall into the city.
15 And Simeon and Levi slew all the men who ran for safety into the city, and also the inhabitants of the city with their wives and little ones, they slew with the edge of the sword, and the cries of the city ascended up to heaven.
16 And Dan and Naphtali sprang upon the wall to see what caused the noise of lamentation, for the sons of Yacob felt anxious about their brothers, and they heard the inhabitants of the city speaking with weeping and supplications, saying, Take all that we possess in the city and go away, only do not put us to death.
17 And when Yahudah, Simeon, and Levi had ceased smiting the inhabitants of the city, they ascended the wall and called to Dan and Naphtali, who were upon the wall, and to the rest of their brothers, and Simeon and Levi informed them of the entrance into the city, and all the sons of Yacob came to fetch the spoil.
18 And the sons of Yacob took the spoil of the city of Chazar, the flocks and herds, and the property, and they took all that could be captured, and went away that day from the city.
19 And on the next day the sons of Yacob went to Sarton, for they heard that the men of Sarton who had remained in the city were assembling to fight with them for having slain their king, and Sarton was a very high and fortified city, and it had a deep rampart surrounding the city.
20 And the pillar of the rampart was about fifty cubits and its breadth forty cubits, and there was no place for a man to enter the city on account of the rampart, and the sons of Yacob saw the rampart of the city, and they sought an entrance in it but could not find it.
21 For the entrance to the city was at the rear, and every man that wished to come into the city came by that road and went around the whole city, and he afterwards entered the city.
22 And the sons of Yacob seeing they could not find the way into the city, their anger was kindled greatly, and the inhabitants of the city seeing that the sons of Yacob were coming to them were greatly afraid of them, for they had heard of their strength and what they had done to Chazar.
23 And the inhabitants of the city of Sarton could not go out toward the sons of Yacob after having assembled in the city to fight against them, lest they might thereby get into the city, but when they saw that they were coming toward them, they were greatly afraid of them, for they had heard of their strength and what they had done to Chazar.
24 So the inhabitants of Sarton speedily took away the bridge of the road of the city, from its place, before the sons of Yacob came, and they brought it into the city.
25 And the sons of Yacob came and sought the way into the city, and could not find it and the inhabitants of the city went up to the top of the wall, and saw, and behold the sons of Yacob were seeking an entrance into the city.
26 And the inhabitants of the city reproached the sons of Yacob from the top of the wall, and they cursed them, and the sons of Yacob heard the reproaches, and they were greatly incensed, and their anger burned within them.
27 And the sons of Yacob were provoked at them, and they all rose and sprang over the rampart with the force of their strength, and through their might passed the forty cubits' breadth of the rampart.
28 And when they had passed the rampart they stood under the wall of the city, and they found all the gates of the city enclosed with iron doors. 29 And the sons of Yacob came near to break open the doors of the gates of the city, and the inhabitants did not let them, for from the top of the wall they were casting stones and arrows upon them.
30 And the number of the people that were upon the wall was about four hundred men, and when the sons of Yacob saw that the men of the city would not let them open the gates of the city, they sprang and ascended the top of the wall, and Yahudah went up first to the east part of the city.
31 And Gad and Asher went up after him to the west corner of the city, and Simeon and Levi to the north, and Dan and Reuben to the south.
32 And the men who were on the top of the wall, the inhabitants of the city, seeing that the sons of Yacob were coming up to them, they all fled from the wall, descended into the city, and concealed themselves in the midst of the city.
33 And Issachar and Naphtali that remained under the wall approached and broke the gates of the city, and kindled a fire at the gates of the city, that the iron melted, and all the sons of Yacob came into the city, they and all their men, and they fought with the inhabitants of the city of Sarton, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and no man stood up before them.
34 And about two hundred men fled from the city, and they all went and hid themselves in a certain tower in the city, and Yahudah pursued them to the tower and he broke down the tower, which fell upon the men, and they all died.
35 And the sons of Yacob went up the road of the roof of that tower, and they saw, and behold there was another strong and high tower at a distance in the city, and the top of it reached to heaven, and the sons of Yacob hastened and descended, and went with all their men to that tower, and found it filled with about three hundred men, women and little ones.
36 And the sons of Yacob smote a great smiting amongst those men in the tower and they ran away and fled from them.
37 And Simeon and Levi pursued them, when twelve mighty and valiant men came out to them from the place where they had concealed themselves.
38 And those twelve men maintained a strong battle against Simeon and Levi, and Simeon and Levi could not prevail over them, and those valiant men broke the shields of Simeon and Levi, and one of them struck at Levi's head with his sword, when Levi hastily placed his hand to his head, for he was afraid of the sword, and the sword struck Levi's hand, and it wanted but little to the hand of Levi being cut off.
39 And Levi seized the sword of the valiant man in his hand, and took it forcibly from the man, and with it he struck at the head of the powerful man, and he severed his head.
40 And eleven men approached to fight with Levi, for they saw that one of them was killed, and the sons of Yacob fought, but the sons of Yacob could not prevail over them, for those men were very powerful.
41 And the sons of Yacob seeing that they could not prevail over them, Simeon gave a loud and tremendous shriek, and the eleven powerful men were stunned at the voice of Simeon's shrieking.
42 And Yahudah at a distance knew the voice of Simeon's shouting, and Naphtali and Yahudah ran with their shields to Simeon and Levi, and found them fighting with those powerful men, unable to prevail over them as their shields were broken.
43 And Naphtali saw that the shields of Simeon and Levi were broken, and he took two shields from his servants and brought them to Simeon and Levi.
44 And Simeon, Levi and Yahudah on that day fought all three against the eleven mighty men until the time of sunset, but they could not prevail over them.
45 And this was told unto Yacob, and he was sorely grieved, and he prayed unto YAHWEH, and he and Naphtali his son went against these mighty men.
46 And Yacob approached and drew his bow, and came nigh unto the mighty men, and slew three of their men with the bow, and the remaining eight turned back, and behold, the war waged against them in the front and rear, and they were greatly afraid of their lives, and could not stand before the sons of Yacob, and they fled from before them.
47 And in their flight they met Dan and Asher coming toward them, and they suddenly fell upon them, and fought with them, and slew two of them, and Yahudah and his brothers pursued them, and smote the remainder of them, and slew them.
48 And all the sons of Yacob returned and walked about the city, searching if they could find any men, and they found about twenty young men in a cave in the city, and Gad and Asher smote them all, and Dan and Naphtali lighted upon the rest of the men who had fled and escaped from the second tower, and they smote them all.
49 And the sons of Yacob smote all the inhabitants of the city of Sarton, but the women and little ones they left in the city and did not slay them.
50 And all the inhabitants of the city of Sarton were powerful men, one of them would pursue a thousand, and two of them would not flee from ten thousand of the rest of men.
51 And the sons of Yacob slew all the inhabitants of the city of Sarton with the edge of the sword, that no man stood up against them, and they left the women in the city.
52 And the sons of Yacob took all the spoil of the city, and captured what they desired, and they took flocks and herds and property from the city, and the sons of Yacob did unto Sarton and its inhabitants as they had done to Chazar and its inhabitants, and they turned and went away.

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