The Lost Books of the Bible: The Great Rejected Texts Read online

  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, which are the sons of Leah. The sons of Rachel are Joseph and Benjamin. The

  sons of Bilhah are Dan and Naphtali; and the sons of Zilpah, Gad and Asher. Dinah is the daughter of Leah, the only daughter of Jacob.

  23 They came and bowed themselves to Isaac and Rebecca. When they saw them they blessed Jacob and all his sons, and Isaac rejoiced greatly, for he saw the sons of Jacob, his younger son and he blessed them.

  [Chapter 34]

  1 In the sixth year of this week of the forty-fourth jubilee Jacob sent his sons and his servants to pasture their sheep in the pastures of Shechem.

  2 The seven kings of the Amorites assembled themselves together (to fight) against them and kill them. They hid themselves under the trees, to take their cattle as booty.

  3 Jacob, Levi, Judah and Joseph were in the house with Isaac their father, for his spirit was sorrowful, and they could not leave him. Benjamin was the youngest, and for this reason he remained with his father.

  4 The king of Taphu, the king of Aresa, the king of Seragan, the king of Selo, the king of Ga’as, the king of Bethoron, the king of Ma’anisakir, and all those who dwell in these mountains and who dwell in the woods in the land of Canaan came.

  5 They announced to Jacob saying, “Look, the kings of the Amorites have surrounded your sons, and plundered their herds.”

  6 And he left his house, he and his three sons and all the servants of his father, and his own servants, and he went against them with six thousand men, who carried swords.

  7 He killed them in the pastures of Shechem, and pursued those who fled, and he killed them with the edge of the sword, and he killed Aresa and Taphu and Saregan and Selo and Amani sakir and Gaga’as, and he recovered his herds.

  8 He conquered them, and imposed tribute on them that they should pay him five fruit products of their land. He built (the cities of) Robel and Tamnatares.

  9 He returned in peace, and made peace with them, and they became his servants until the day that he and his sons went down into Egypt.

  10 In the seventh year of this week he sent Joseph from his house to the land of Shechem to learn about the welfare of his brothers. He found them in the land of Dothan.

  11 They dealt treacherously with him, and formed a plot against him to kill him, but they changed their minds and sold him to Ishmaelite merchants. They brought him down into Egypt, and they sold him to Potiphar, the eunuch of Pharaoh, the chief of the cooks and priest of the city of Elew.”

  12 The sons of Jacob slaughtered a kid, and dipped Joseph’s coat in the blood and sent it to Jacob their father on the tenth of the seventh month.

  13 They brought it to him in the evening and he mourned all that night. He became feverish with mourning for Joseph’s death, and he said, “An evil beast has devoured Joseph”. All the members of his house mourned and grieved with him that day.

  14 His sons and his daughter got up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted for his son.

  15 On that day Bilhah heard that Joseph had perished, and she died mourning him. She was living in Qafratef, and Dinah his daughter, died after Joseph had perished.

  16 There were now three reasons for Israel to mourn in one month. They buried Bilhah next to the tomb of Rachel, and Dinah his daughter. They were (all) buried there.

  17 He mourned for Joseph one year, and did not cease, for he said, “Let me go down to my grave mourning for my son.”

  18 For this reason it is ordained for the children of Israel that they should remember and mourn on the tenth of the seventh month. On that day the news came which made Jacob weep for Joseph. On this day they should make atonement for their sins for themselves with a young goat on the tenth of the seventh month, once a year, for they had grieved the sorrow of their father regarding Joseph his son.

  19 This day, once a year, has been ordained that they should grieve on it for their sins, and for all their transgressions and for all their errors, so that they might cleanse themselves.

  20 After Joseph perished, the sons of Jacob took to themselves wives. The name of Reuben’s wife is Ada; and the name of Simeon’s wife is Adlba’a, a Canaanite. The name of Levi’s wife is Melka, of the daughters of Aram, of the offspring of the sons of Terah. The name of Judah’s wife is Betasu’el, a Canaanite. The name of Issachar’s wife is Hezaqa, and the name of Zabulon’s wife is Ni’iman. The name of Dan’s wife is Egla. The name of Naphtali’s wife is Rasu’u, of Mesopotamia. The name of Gad’s wife is Maka. The name of Asher’s wife is Ijona. The name of Joseph’s wife is Asenath, the Egyptian. The name of Benjamin’s wife is Ijasaka.

  21 And Simeon repented, and took a second wife from Mesopotamia as his brothers had done.

  [Chapter 35]

  1 In the first year of the first week of the forty-fifth jubilee Rebecca called Jacob, her son, and commanded him regarding his father and regarding his brother, that he should honor them all the days of his life.

  2 Jacob said, “I will do everything you have commanded. I will honor them. This will be honor and greatness to me, and righteousness before the Lord.

  3 Mother, you know from the time I was born until this day, all my deeds and all that is in my heart. I always think good concerning all.

  4 Why should I not do this thing which you have commanded me, that I should honor my father and my brother?

  5 Tell me, mother, what perversity have you seen in me and I shall turn away from it, and mercy will be on me.”

  6 She said to him, “My son, in all my days I have not seen any perverseness in you, but only upright deeds. Yet, I will tell you the truth, my son, I shall die this year. I shall not survive this year in my life. I have seen the day of my death in a dream. I should not live beyond a hundred and fifty-five years. I have completed all the days that I am to live my life.”

  7 Jacob laughed at the words of his mother because his mother had said she should die. She was sitting across from him in possession of her strength, and she was still strong. She came and went (as she wished). She could see well, and her teeth were strong. No sickness had touched her all the days of her life.

  8 Jacob said to her, “If my days of life are close to yours and my strength remain with me as your strength I would be blessed, mother. You will not die. You are simply joking with me regarding your death.”

  9 She went in to Isaac and said to him, “ I make one request of you. Make Esau swear that he will not injure Jacob, nor pursue him with intent to harm him. You know Esau’s thoughts have been perverse from his youth, and there is no goodness in him. He desires to kill him after you die.

  10 You know all that he has done since the day Jacob, his brother, went to Haran until this day. He has forsaken us with his whole heart, and has done evil to us. He has stolen your flocks and carried off all your possessions while you watched.

  11 When we asked him and begged him for what was our own, he did as a man (stranger) who was taking pity on us (giving a token like one giving alms to a beggar).

  12 He is bitter against you because you blessed Jacob, your perfect and upright son. There is no evil but only goodness in Jacob. Since he came from Haran to this day he has not robbed us of anything. He always brings us everything in its season. He rejoices and blesses us with all his heart when we take his hands. He has not parted from us since he came from Haran until this day, and he remains with us continually at home honoring us.”

  13 Isaac said to her, “I also know and see the deeds of Jacob who is with us, how he honors us with all his heart. Before, I loved Esau more than Jacob because he was the first-born, but now I love Jacob more than Esau, for Esau has done many evil deeds, and there is no righteousness in him. All his ways are unrighteousness and violence.

  14 My heart is troubled because of all his deeds. Neither he nor his offspring will be exempt because they are those who will be destroyed from the earth and who will be rooted out from under heaven. He and his children have forsaken the God of Abraham and gone after his wives (w
ives’ gods) and after their uncleanness and after their error.

  15 You told me to make him swear that he will not kill Jacob his brother, but even if he swears, he will not abide by his oath. He will not do good but evil only.

  16 If he desires to kill Jacob, his brother, then into Jacob’s hands he will be given. He will not escape from Jacob’s hands.

  17 Do not be afraid for Jacob, for the guardian of Jacob is great, powerful, honored, and praised more than the guardian of Esau.”

  18 Rebecca called for Esau and he came to her, and she said to him, “I have a request of you, my son. Promise to do it, my son.”

  19 He said, “I will do everything that you say to me, and I will not refuse your request.”

  20 She said to him, “I ask you that the day I die, you will take me in and bury me near Sarah, your father’s mother, and that you and Jacob will love each other and that neither will desire evil against the other, but (have) mutual love only. Do this so you will prosper, my son, and be honored in the all of the land, and no enemy will rejoice over you. You will be a blessing and a mercy in the eyes of all those that love you.”

  21 He said, “I will do all that you have told me. I shall bury you on the day you die near Sarah, my father’s mother, as you have desired that her bones may be near your bones.

  22 Jacob, my brother, I shall love above all flesh. I have only one brother in all the earth but him. It is only what is expected of me. It is no great thing if I love him, for he is my brother, and we were sown together in your body, and together came we out from your womb. If I do not love my brother, whom shall I love?

  23 I beg you to exhort Jacob concerning me and concerning my sons, for I know that he will assuredly be king over me and my sons, for on the day my father blessed him he made him the higher and me the lower.

  24 I swear to you that I shall love him, and not desire evil against him all the days of my life but good only.”

  25 And he swore to her regarding all this matter. While Esau was there, she called Jacob and gave him her orders according to the words that she had spoken to Esau.

  26 He said, “I shall do your pleasure, believe me that no evil will proceed from me or from my sons against Esau. I shall be first in nothing except in love only.”

  27 She and her sons ate and drank that night, and she died, three jubilees and one week and one year old on that night. Her two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried her in the double cave near Sarah, their father’s mother.

  [Chapter 36]

  1 In the sixth year of this week Isaac called his two sons Esau and Jacob, and they came to him, and he said to them, “My sons, I am going the way of my fathers, to the eternal house where my fathers are.

  2 Bury me near Abraham my father, in the double cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, where Abraham purchased a sepulcher to bury in. Bury me in the sepulcher I dug for myself.

  3 I command you, my sons, to practice righteousness and uprightness on the earth, so that the Lord may do to you what he said he would do to Abraham and to his offspring.

  4 Love one another. Love your brothers as a man who loves his own soul. Let each seek how he may benefit his brother, and act together on the earth. Let them love each other as their own souls.

  5 I command and warn you to reject idols. Hate them, and do not love them. They are fully deceptive to those that worship them and for those that bow down to them.

  6 Remember the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and how I worshipped Him and served Him in righteousness and in joy, that God might multiply you and increase your offspring as the multitude of stars in heaven, and establish you on the earth as the plant of righteousness, which will not be rooted out to all the generations forever.

  7 And now I shall make you swear a great oath, for there is no oath which is greater than that which is by the name glorious, honored, great, splendid, wonderful and mighty, which created the heavens and the earth and all things together, that you will fear Him and worship Him.

  8 Each will love his brother with affection and righteousness. Neither will desire to do evil against his brother from now on forever all the days of your life so that you may prosper in all your deeds and not be destroyed.

  9 If either of you plans evil against his brother, know that he that plans evil shall fall into his brother’s hand, and shall be rooted out of the land of the living, and his offspring shall be destroyed from under heaven.

  10 But on that day there will be turbulence, curses, wrath, anger, and will He burn his land and his city and all that is his with a devouring fire like the fire He sent to burn Sodom and he shall be blotted out of the book of the discipline of the children of men, and he will not be recorded in the book of life. He shall be added in the book of destruction. He shall depart into eternal curses. Their condemnation may be always renewed in hate and in curses and in wrath and in torment and in anger and in plagues and in disease forever.

  11 My sons, this, I say and testify to you, will be the result according to the judgment which shall come on the man who wishes to injure his brother.”

  12 Then he divided all his possessions between the two on that day, and he gave the larger portion to him that was the first-born, and the tower and all that was around it, and all that Abraham possessed at the Well of the Oath.

  13 He said, “This larger portion I will give to the first-born.”

  14 Esau said, “I have sold and relinquished my birthright to Jacob. Let it be given to him. I have nothing to say regarding it, for it is his.”

  15 Isaac said, “May a blessing rest on you, my sons, and on your offspring this day. You have given me rest, and my heart is not pained concerning the birthright, or that you should work wickedness because of it.

  16 May the Most High God bless the man and his offspring forever that does righteousness.”

  17 He stopped commanding them and blessing them, and they ate and drank together in front of him, and he rejoiced because there was one mind between them, and they went out from him and rested that day and slept.

  18 Isaac slept on his bed that day rejoicing. He slept the eternal sleep, and died one hundred and eighty years old. He lived twenty-five weeks and five years; and his two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried him.

  19 After that Esau went to the land of Edom, to the mountains of Seir, and lived there.

  20 Jacob lived in the mountains of Hebron, in the high place of the land in which his father Abraham had journeyed. He worshipped the Lord with all his heart. He had divided the days of his generations according to the commands he had seen.

  21 Leah, his wife, died in the fourth year of the second week of the forty-fifth jubilee, and he buried her in the double cave near Rebecca his mother to the left of the grave of Sarah, his father’s mother. All her sons and his sons came to mourn over Leah, his wife, with him and to comfort him regarding her. He was lamenting her for he loved her greatly after Rachel, her sister, died. She was perfect and upright in all her ways and she honored Jacob. All the days that she lived with him he did not hear from her mouth a harsh word, for she was gentle, peaceable, upright and honorable.

  22 And he remembered all the deeds she had done during her life and he lamented her greatly. He loved her with all his heart and with all his soul.

  [Chapter 37]

  1 On the day that Isaac, the father of Jacob and Esau died, the sons of Esau heard that Isaac had given the elder’s portion to his younger son, Jacob, and they were very angry.

  2 They argued with their father, saying, “Why has your father given Jacob the portion of the elder and passed you over even though you are the elder and Jacob the younger?”

  3 He said to them, “Because I sold my birthright to Jacob for a small portion of lentils (lentil soup), and on the day my father sent me to hunt, catch, and bring him something that he should eat and bless me, Jacob came with deceit and brought my father food and drink. My father blessed him and put me under his hand.

  4 Now our father has caused Jacob and me to swear that we shall no
t devise evil plans against his brother (each other), and that we shall continue in love and in peace each with his brother and not make our ways corrupt.”

  5 They said to him, “We shall not listen to you to make peace with him. We are stronger than him and we are more powerful than he is. We shall depose him and kill him, and destroy him and his sons. If you will not go with us, we shall hurt you also.

  6 Listen! Let us send to Aram, Philistia, Moab, and Ammon. Let us take chosen men who are trained in battle, and let us go against him and do battle with him. Let us exterminate him from the earth before he grows strong.”

  7 Their father said to them, “Do not go and do not make war with him or you shall fall before him.”

  8 They said to him, “This is how you have acted from your youth until this day. You have continued to put your neck under his yoke. We shall not listen to these words.”

  9 Then they sent to Aram, and to Aduram to the friend of their father, and they also hired one thousand 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 warriors, and from Edom and from the Horites one thousand chosen warriors, and from the Kittim mighty warriors.

  11 They said to their father, “Go out with them and lead them or else we shall kill you.”

  12 And he was filled with boiling anger on seeing that his sons were forcing him to go before them to lead them against Jacob, his brother.

  13 But afterward he remembered all the evil that lay hidden in his heart against Jacob his brother, and he did not remember the oath he had sworn to his father and to his mother that he would plan no evil against Jacob, his brother, all his days.

  14 Because Jacob was in mourning for his wife Leah, he did not know they were coming to battle against him until they approached the tower with four thousand soldiers and chosen warriors. The men of Hebron sent to him saying, “Look your brother has come against you to fight. He has with him four thousand men carrying swords, shields, and weapons.” They told him this because they loved Jacob more than Esau.