The Book of Jubilees

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.

Chapter 24

Isaac at the Well of Vision, 1 (cf. Gen. xxv. 11). Esau sells his birthright,
2-7 (cf. Gen. xxv.29-34)

And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that the Lord blessed Isaac
his son, and he arose from Hebron and went and dwelt at the Well of the Vision
in the first year of the third week (2073 AM) of this jubilee, seven years.

And in the first year of the fourth week a famine began in the land, (2080
AM) besides the first famine, which had been in the days of Abraham.

And Jacob sod lentil pottage, and Esau came from the field hungry. And he
said to Jacob his brother: ‘Give me of this red pottage.’ And Jacob said to
him: ‘Sell to me thy (primogeniture, this) birthright and I will give thee bread,
and also some of this lentil pottage.’

And Esau said in his heart: ‘I shall die; of what profit to me is this birthright?

‘And he said to Jacob: ‘I give it to thee.’ And Jacob said: ‘Swear to me,
this day,’ and he sware unto him.

And Jacob gave his brother Esau bread and pottage, and he eat till he was
satisfied, and Esau despised his birthright; for this reason was Esau’s name
called Edom, on account of the red pottage which Jacob gave him for his birthright.

And Jacob became the elder, and Esau was brought down from his dignity.

And the famine was over the land, and Isaac departed to go down into Egypt
in the second year of this week, and went to the king of the Philistines to
Gerar, unto Abimelech.

And the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him: ‘Go not down into Egypt;
dwell in the land that I shall tell thee of, and sojourn in this land, and I
will be with thee and bless thee.

For to thee and to thy seed will I give all this land, and I will establish
My oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father, and I will multiply thy seed
as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all this land.

And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thy
father obeyed My voice, and kept My charge and My commandments, and My laws,
and My ordinances, and My covenant; and now obey My voice and dwell in this
land.’

And he dwelt in Gelar three weeks of years.

And Abimelech charged concerning him, (2080-2101 AM) and concerning all
that was his, saying: ‘Any man that shall touch him or aught that is his shall
surely die.’

And Isaac waxed strong among the Philistines, and he got many possessions,
oxen and sheep and camels and asses and a great household.

And he sowed in the land of the Philistines and brought in a hundred-fold,
and Isaac became exceedingly great, and the Philistines envied him.

Now all the wells which the servants of Abraham had dug during the life
of Abraham, the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham, and
filled them with earth.

And Abimelech said unto Isaac: ‘Go from us, for thou art much mightier than
we’, and Isaac departed thence in the first year of the seventh week, and sojourned
in the valleys of Gerar.

And they digged again the wells of water which the servants of Abraham,
his father, had digged, and which the Philistines had closed after the death
of Abraham his father, and he called their names as Abraham his father had named
them.

And the servants of Isaac dug a well in the valley, and found living water,
and the shepherds of Gerar strove with the shepherds of Isaac, saying: ‘The
water is ours’; and Isaac called the name of the well ‘Perversity’, because
they had been perverse with us.

And they dug a second well, and they strove for that also, and he called
its name ‘Enmity’. And he arose from thence and they digged another well, and
for that they strove not, and he called the name of it ‘Room’, and Isaac said:
‘Now the Lord hath made room for us, and we have increased in the land.’

And he went up from thence to the Well of the Oath in the first year of
the first week in the (2108 AM) forty-fourth jubilee.

And the Lord appeared to him that night, on the new moon of the first month,
and said unto him: ‘I am the God of Abraham thy father; fear not, for I am with
thee, and shall bless thee and shall surely multiply thy seed as the sand of
the earth, for the sake of Abraham my servant.’

And he built an altar there, which Abraham his father had first built, and
he called upon the name of the Lord, and he offered sacrifice to the God of
Abraham his father.

And they digged a well and they found living water.

And the servants of Isaac digged another well and did not find water, and
they went and told Isaac that they had not found water, and Isaac said: ‘I have
sworn this day to the Philistines and this thing has been announced to us.’

And he called the name of that place the Well of the Oath; for there he
had sworn to Abimelech and Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol the prefect Or his
host.

And Isaac knew that day that under constraint he had sworn to them to make
peace with them.

And Isaac on that day cursed the Philistines and said: ‘Cursed be the Philistines
unto the day of wrath and indignation from the midst of all nations; may God
make them a derision and a curse and an object of wrath and indignation in the
hands of the sinners the Gentiles and in the hands of the Kittim.

And whoever escapes the sword of the enemy and the Kittim, may the righteous
nation root out in judgment from under heaven; for they shall be the enemies
and foes of my children throughout their generations upon the earth.

And no remnant shall be left to them,
Nor one that shall be saved on the day of the wrath of judgment;
For destruction and rooting out and expulsion from the earth is the whole seed
of the Philistines (reserved),
And there shall no longer be left for these Caphtorim a name or a seed on the
earth.

For though he ascend unto heaven,
Thence shall he be brought down,

And though he make himself strong on earth,
Thence shall he be dragged forth,

And though he hide himself amongst the nations,
Even from thence shall he be rooted out;

And though he descend into Sheol,
There also shall his condemnation be great,
And there also he shall have no peace.

And if he go into captivity,
By the hands of those that seek his life shall they slay him on the way,
And neither name nor seed shall be left to him on all the earth;
For into eternal malediction shall he depart.’

And thus is it written and engraved concerning him on the heavenly tablets,
to do unto him on the day of judgment, so that he may be rooted out of the earth.