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 27

Rebecca alarmed at Esau’s threats prevails on Isaac to send Jacob to Mesopotamia,
1-12. Isaac comforts Rebecca on the departure of Jacob, 13-18. Jacob’s dream and
vow at Bethel, 19-27. (Cf. Gen. xxviii.)

And the words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebecca in a dream, and
Rebecca sent and called Jacob her younger son,

and said unto him: ‘Behold Esau thy brother will take vengeance on thee
so as to kill thee.

Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise and flee thou to Laban,
my brother, to Haran, and tarry with him a few days until thy brother’s anger
turns away, and he remove his anger from thee, and forget all that thou hast
done; then I will send and fetch thee from thence.’

And Jacob said: ‘I am not afraid; if he wishes to kill me, I will kill him.’

But she said unto him: ‘Let me not be bereft of both my sons on one day.’

And Jacob said to Rebecca his mother: ‘Behold, thou knowest that my father
has become old, and does not see because his eyes are dull, and if I leave him
it will be evil in his eyes, because I leave him and go away from you, and my
father will be angry, and will curse me. I will not go; when he sends me, then
only will I go.’

And Rebecca said to Jacob: ‘I will go in and speak to him, and he will send
thee away.’

And Rebecca went in and said to Isaac: ‘I loathe my life because of the
two daughters of Heth, whom Esau has taken him as wives; and if Jacob take a
wife from among the daughters of the land such as these, for what purpose do
I further live, for the daughters of Canaan are evil.’

And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and admonished him and said unto
him: ‘Do not take thee a wife of any of the daughters of Canaan;

arise and go to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother’s father,
and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother’s brother.

And God Almighty bless thee and increase and multiply thee that thou mayest
become a company of nations, and give thee the blessings of my father Abraham,
to thee and to thy seed after thee, that thou mayest inherit the land of thy
sojournings and all the land which God gave to Abraham: go, my son, in peace.’

And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Mesopotamia, to Laban the son
of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebecca, Jacob’s mother.

And it came to pass after Jacob had arisen to go to Mesopotamia that the
spirit of Rebecca was grieved after her son, and she wept.

And Isaac said to Rebecca: ‘My sister, weep not on account of Jacob, my
son; for he goeth in peace, and in peace will he return.

The Most High God will preserve him from all evil, and will be with him;
for He will not forsake him all his days;

For I know that his ways will be prospered in all things wherever he goes,
until he return in peace to us, and we see him in peace.

Fear not on his account, my sister, for he is on the upright path and he
is a perfect man: and he is faithful and will not perish. Weep not.’

And Isaac comforted Rebecca on account of her son Jacob, and blessed him.

And Jacob went from the Well of the Oath to go to Haran on the first year
of the second week in the forty-fourth jubilee, and he came to Luz on the mountains,
that is, Bethel, on the new moon of the first month of this week, (2115 AM)
and he came to the place at even and turned from the way to the west of the
road that night: and he slept there; for the sun had set.

And he took one of the stones of that place and laid

And he dreamt that night, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the
top of it reached to heaven, and behold, the angels of the Lord ascended and
descended on it: and behold, the Lord stood upon it.

And he spake to Jacob and said: ‘I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father,
and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou art sleeping, to thee will I give
it, and to thy seed after thee.

And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt increase
to the west and to the east, to the north and the south, and in thee and in
thy seed shall all the families of the nations be blessed.

And behold, I will be with thee, and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest,
and I will bring thee again into this land in peace; for I will not leave thee
until I do everything that I told thee of.’

And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said, ‘Truly this place is the house
of the Lord, and I knew it not.’ And he was afraid and said: ‘Dreadful is this
place which is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’

And Jacob arose early in the morning, and took the stone which he had put
under his head and set it up as a pillar for a sign, and he poured oil upon
the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of
the place was Luz at the first.

And Jacob vowed a vow unto the Lord, saying: ‘If the Lord will be with me,
and will keep me in this way that I go, and give me bread to eat and raiment
to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the
Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set up as a pillar for a sign in
this place, shall be the Lord’s house, and of all that thou givest me, I shall
give the tenth to thee, my God.’