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 28

Jacob marries leah and Rachel, 1-10. His children by Leah and Rachel and by
their handmaids, 11-24. Jacob seeks to leave Laban, 25: but stays on at a certain
wage, 26-8. Jacob becomes rich, 29-30. (Cf. Gen. xxix.1, 17, 18, 21-35; xxx.1-13,17-22,
24, 25, 28, 32, 39, 43; xxxi.1, 2.)

And he went on his journey, and came to the land of the east, to Laban,
the brother of Rebecca, and he was with him, and served him for Rachel his daughter
one week.

And in the first year of the third week (2122 AM) he said unto him: ‘Give
me my wife, for whom I have served thee seven years ‘; and Laban said unto Jacob:
‘I will give thee thy wife.’

And Laban made a feast, and took Leah his elder daughter, and gave (her)
to Jacob as a wife, and gave her Zilpah his handmaid for an hand- maid; and
Jacob did not know, for he thought that she was Rachel.

And he went in unto her, and behold, she was Leah; and Jacob was angry with
Laban, and said unto him: ‘Why hast thou dealt thus with me? Did not I serve
thee for Rachel and not for Leah? Why hast thou wronged me?

Take thy daughter, and I will go; for thou hast done evil to me.’ For Jacob
loved Rachel more than Leah; for Leah’s eyes were weak, but her form was very
handsome; but Rachel had beautiful eyes and a beautiful and very handsome form.

And Laban said to Jacob: ‘It is not so done in our country, to give the
younger before the elder.’ And it is not right to do this; for thus it is ordained
and written in the heavenly tablets, that no one should give his younger daughter
before the elder; but the elder, one gives first and after her the younger -and
the man who does so, they set down guilt against him in heaven, and none is
righteous that does this thing, for this deed is evil before the Lord.

And command thou the children of Israel that they do not this thing; let
them neither take nor give the younger before they have given the elder, for
it is very wicked.

And Laban said to Jacob: ‘Let the seven days of the feast of this one pass
by, and I shall give thee Rachel, that thou mayst serve me another seven years,
that thou mayst pasture my sheep as thou didst in the former week.’

And on the day when the seven days of the feast of Leah had passed, Laban
gave Rachel to Jacob, that he might serve him another seven years, and he gave
to Rachel Bilhah, the sister of Zilpah, as a handmaid.

And he served yet other seven years for Rachel, for Leah had been given
to him for nothing.

And the Lord opened the womb of Leah, and she conceived and bare Jacob a
son, and he called his name Reuben, on the fourteenth day of the ninth month,
in the first year of the third week. (2122 AM)

But the womb of Rachel was closed, for the Lord saw that Leah was hated
and Rachel loved.

And again Jacob went in unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob a second
son, and he called his name Simeon, on the twenty-first of the tenth month,
and in the third year of this week. (2124 AM)

And again Jacob went in unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare him a third
son, and he called his name Levi, in the new moon of the first month in the
sixth year of this week. (2127 AM)

And again Jacob went in unto her, and she conceived, and bare him a fourth
son, and he called his name Judah, on the fifteenth of the third month, in the
first year of the fourth week. (2129 AM)

And on account of all this Rachel envied Leah, for she did not bear, and
she said to Jacob: ‘Give me children’; and Jacob said: ‘Have I withheld from
thee the fruits of thy womb? Have I forsaken thee?’

And when Rachel saw that Leah had borne four sons to Jacob, Reuben and Simeon
and Levi and Judah, she said unto him: ‘Go in unto Bilhah my handmaid, and she
will conceive, and bear a son unto me.’ (And she gave (him) Bilhah her handmaid
to wife).

And he went in unto her, and she conceived, and bare him a son, and he called
his name Dan, on the ninth of the sixth month, in the sixth year of the third
week. (2127 AM)

And Jacob went in again unto Bilhah a second time, and she conceived, and
bare Jacob another son, and Rachel called his name Napthali, on the fifth of
the seventh month, in the second year of the fourth week. (2130 AM)

And when Leah saw that she had become sterile and did not bear, she envied
Rachel, and she also gave her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob to wife, and she conceived,
and bare a son, and Leah called his name Gad, on the twelfth of the eighth month,
in the third year of the fourth week. (2131 AM)

And he went in again unto her, and she conceived, and bare him a second
son, and Leah called his name Asher, on the second of the eleventh month, in
the fifth year of the fourth week. (2133 AM)

And Jacob went in unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare a son, and she
called his name Issachar, on the fourth of the fifth month, in the fourth year
of the fourth week,(2132 AM) and she gave him to a nurse.

And Jacob went in again unto her, and she conceived, and bare two (children),
a son and a daughter, and she called the name of the son Zabulon, and the name
of the daughter Dinah, in the seventh of the seventh month, in the sixth year
of the fourth week. (2134 AM)

And the Lord was gracious to Rachel, and opened her womb, and she conceived,
and bare a son, and she called his name Joseph, on the new moon of the fourth
month, in the sixth year in this fourth week. (2134 AM)

And in the days when Joseph was born, Jacob said to Laban: ‘Give me my wives
and sons, and let me go to my father Isaac, and let me make me an house; for
I have completed the years in which I have served thee for thy two daughters,
and I will go to the house of my father.’

And Laban said to Jacob: ‘Tarry with me for thy wages, and pasture my flock
for me again, and take thy wages.’

And they agreed with one another that he should give him as his wages those
of the lambs and kids which were born black and spotted and white, (these) were
to be his wages.

And all the sheep brought forth spotted and speckled and black, variously
marked, and they brought forth again lambs like themselves, and all that were
spotted were Jacob’s and those which were not were Laban’s.

And Jacob’s possessions multiplied exceedingly, and he possessed oxen and
sheep and asses and camels, and menservants and maid-servants.

And Laban and his sons envied Jacob, and Laban took back his sheep from
him, and he observed him with evil intent.