Warfare of the Amorite kings against Jacob and his sons, 1-9. Jacob sends Joseph to visit his
brethren, 10. Joseph sold and carried down into Egypt, 11-12 (cf. Gen. xxxvii.14, 17, 18, 25,
32-6). Deaths of Bilhah and Dinah, 15. Jacob mourns for Joseph, 13, 14, 17. Institution
of Day of Atonement on day when news of Joseph's death arrived, 18-19. Wives of Jacob's
son's, 20-1.
[Chapter 34]
- And in the sixth year of this week of this forty-fourth jubilee [2148 A.M.] Jacob sent his
sons to pasture their
sheep, and his servants with them to the pastures of Shechem.
- And the seven kings of
the Amorites assembled themselves together against them, to slay them, hiding themselves under
the trees, and
to take their cattle as a prey.
- And Jacob and Levi and Judah and Joseph were in the
house with Isaac their father; for his spirit was sorrowful, and they could not leave him: and
Benjamin was
the youngest, and for this reason remained with his father.
- And there came the king[s]
of Taphu and the king[s] of 'Aresa, and the king[s] of Seragan, and the king[s] of Selo, and the
king[s] of Ga'as, and the king of Bethoron, and the king of Ma'anisakir, and all those who dwell in
these
mountains (and) who dwell in the woods in the land of Canaan.
- And they announced
this to Jacob saying: 'Behold, the kings of the Amorites have surrounded thy sons, and plundered
their herds.'
- And he arose from 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.
- And he
slew them in the pastures of Shechem, and pursued those who fled, and he slew them with the
edge of the sword, and he slew 'Aresa and Taphu and Saregan and Selo and 'Amani-
sakir and Ga[ga]'as, and he recovered his herds.
- And he prevailed over them, and
imposed tribute on them that they should pay him tribute, five fruit products of their land, and he
built Robel
and Tamnatares.
- And 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.
- And in the seventh
year of this week [2149 A.M.] he sent Joseph to learn about the welfare of his brothers from his
house to the land of Shechem,
and he found them in the land of Dothan.
- And they dealt treacherously with him, and
formed a plot against him to slay him, but changing their minds, they sold him to Ishmaelite
merchants, and they brought him down into Egypt, and they sold him to Potiphar, the eunuch of
Pharaoh, the
chief of the cooks, priest of the city of 'Elew.
- And the sons of Jacob slaughtered a kid,
and dipped the coat of Joseph in the blood, and sent (it) to Jacob their father on the tenth of the
seventh month.
- And he mourned all that night, for they had brought it to him in the evening, and he
became feverish with mourning for his death, and he said: 'An evil beast hath devoured Joseph';
and all the members of his house [mourned with him that day, and they] were grieving and
mourning with
him all that day.
- And his sons and his daughter rose up to comfort him, but he refused
to be
comforted for his son.
- And on that day Bilhah heard that Joseph had perished, and she
died mourning him, and she was living in Qafratef, and Dinah also, his daughter, died after Joseph
had
perished.
- And there came these three mournings upon Israel in one month. And they
buried
Bilhah over against the tomb of Rachel, and Dinah also. his daughter, they buried
there.
- And he mourned for Joseph one year, and did not cease, for he said 'Let me go down to
the grave mourning
for my son'.
- For this reason it is ordained for the children of Israel that they should
afflict themselves on the tenth of the seventh month -on the day that the news which made him
weep for Joseph came to Jacob his father- that they should make atonement for themselves
thereon with a young goat on the tenth of the seventh month, once a year, for their sins; for they
had grieved the
affection of their father regarding Joseph his son.
- And this day has been ordained that
they should grieve thereon for their sins, and for all their transgressions and for all their errors, so
that they
might cleanse themselves on that day once a year.
- And after Joseph perished, the sons
of Jacob took unto themselves wives. The name of Reuben's wife is 'Ada; and the name of
Simeon's wife is 'Adlba'a, a Canaanite; and the name of Levi's wife is Melka, of the daughters of
Aram, of the seed of the sons of Terah; and the name of Judah's wife, Betasu'el, a Canaanite; and
the name of Issachar's wife, Hezaqa: and the name of Zabulon's wife, Ni'iman; and the name of
Dan's wife, 'Egla; and the name of Naphtali's wife, Rasu'u, of Mesopotamia; and the name of
Gad's wife, Maka; and the name of Asher's wife, 'Ijona; and the name of Joseph's wife, Asenath,
the Egyptian; and the name
of Benjamin's wife, 'Ijasaka.
- And Simeon repented, and took a second wife from
Mesopotamia as his brothers.
Chapter: 1 | 2 | 3 |
4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 |
38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 |
44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 |
50
From The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament
by R.H. Charles, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913
Scanned and Edited by Joshua Williams, Northwest Nazarene College