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 32

Levi’s dream at Bethel, 1. Levi chosen to the priesthood, as the tenth son,
2-3. Jacob celebrates the feast of tabernacles and offers tithes through Levi:
also the second tithe, 4-9. Law of tithes ordained, 10-15. Jacob’s visions in
which Jacob reads on the heavenly tablets his own future and that of his descendants,
16-26. Celebrates the eighty day of feast of tabernacles, 27-9. Death of Deborah,
30. Birth of Benjamin and death of Rachel, 33-4. (Cf. Gen. xxxv.8,10, 11, 13,
16-20.)

And he abode that night at Bethel, and Levi dreamed that they had ordained
and made him the priest of the Most High God, him and his sons for ever; and
he awoke from his sleep and blessed the Lord.

And Jacob rose early in the morning, on the fourteenth of this month, and
he gave a tithe of all that came with him, both of men and cattle, both of gold
and every vessel and garment, yea, he gave tithes of all.

And in those days Rachel became pregnant with her son Benjamin. And Jacob
counted his sons from him upwards and Levi fell to the portion of the Lord,
and his father clothed him in the garments of the priesthood and filled his
hands.

And on the fifteenth of this month, he brought to the altar fourteen oxen
from amongst the cattle, and twenty-eight rams, and forty-nine sheep, and seven
lambs, and twenty-one kids of the goats as a burnt-offering on the altar of
sacrifice, well pleasing for a sweet savour before God.

This was his offering, in consequence of the vow which he had vowed that
he would give a tenth, with their fruit-offerings and their drink- offerings.

And when the fire had consumed it, he burnt incense on the fire over the
fire, and for a thank-offering two oxen and four rams and four sheep, four he-goats,
and two sheep of a year old, and two kids of the goats; and thus he did daily
for seven days.

And he and all his sons and his men were eating (this) with joy there during
seven days and blessing and thanking the Lord, who had delivered him out of
all his tribulation and had given him his vow.

And he tithed all the clean animals, and made a burnt sacrifice, but the
unclean animals he gave (not) to Levi his son, and he gave him all the souls
of the men.

And Levi discharged the priestly office at Bethel before Jacob his father
in preference to his ten brothers, and he was a priest there, and Jacob gave
his vow: thus he tithed again the tithe to the Lord and sanctified it, and it
became holy unto Him.

And for this reason it is ordained on the heavenly tablets as a law for
the tithing again the tithe to eat before the Lord from year to year, in the
place where it is chosen that His name should dwell, and to this law there is
no limit of days for ever.

This ordinance is written that it may be fulfilled from year to year in
eating the second tithe before the Lord in the place where it has been chosen,
and nothing shall remain over from it from this year to the year following.

For in its year shall the seed be eaten till the days of the gathering of
the seed of the year, and the wine till the days of the wine, and the oil till
the days of its season.

And all that is left thereof and becomes old, let it be regarded as polluted:
let it be burnt with fire, for it is unclean.

And thus let them eat it together in the sanctuary, and let them not suffer
it to become old.

And all the tithes of the oxen and sheep shall be holy unto the Lord, and
shall belong to his priests, which they will eat before Him from year to year;
for thus is it ordained and engraven regarding the tithe on the heavenly tablets.

And on the following night, on the twenty-second day of this month, Jacob
resolved to build that place, and to surround the court with a wall, and to
sanctify it and make it holy for ever, for himself and his children after him.

And the Lord appeared to him by night and blessed him and said unto him:
‘Thy name shall not be called Jacob, but Israel shall they name thy name.’

And He said unto him again: ‘I am the Lord who created the heaven and the
earth, and I will increase thee and multiply thee exceedingly, and kings shall
come forth from thee, and they shall judge everywhere wherever the foot of the
sons of men has trodden.

And I will give to thy seed all the earth which is under heaven, and they
shall judge all the nations according to their desires, and after that they
shall get possession of the whole earth and inherit it for ever.’

And He finished speaking with him, and He went up from him. and Jacob looked
till He had ascended into heaven.

And he saw in a vision of the night, and behold an angel descended from
heaven with seven tablets in his hands, and he gave them to Jacob, and he read
them and knew all that was written therein which would befall him and his sons
throughout all the ages.

And he showed him all that was written on the tablets, and said unto him:
‘Do not build this place, and do not make it an eternal sanctuary, and do not
dwell here; for this is not the place. Go to the house of Abraham thy father
and dwell with Isaac thy father until the day of the death of thy father.

For in Egypt thou shalt die in peace, and in this land thou shalt be buried
with honour in the sepulchre of thy fathers, with Abraham and Isaac.

Fear not, for as thou hast seen and read it, thus shall it all be; and do
thou write down everything as thou hast seen and read.’

And Jacob said: ‘Lord, how can I remember all that I have read and seen?
‘And he said unto him: ‘I will bring all things to thy remembrance.’

And he went up from him, and he awoke from his sleep, and he remembered
everything which he had read and seen, and he wrote down all the words which
he had read and seen.

And he celebrated there yet another day, and he sacrificed thereon according
to all that he sacrificed on the former days, and called its name ‘Addition,’
for this day was added and the former days he called ‘The Feast ‘.

And thus it was manifested that it should be, and it is written on the heavenly
tablets: wherefore it was revealed to him that he should celebrate it, and add
it to the seven days of the feast.

And its name was called ‘Addition,’ because that it was recorded amongst
the days of the feast days, according to the number of the days of the year.

And in the night, on the twenty-third of this month, Deborah Rebecca’s nurse
died, and they buried her beneath the city under the oak of the river, and he
called the name of this place, ‘The river of Deborah,’ and the oak, ‘The oak
of the mourning of Deborah.’

And Rebecca went and returned to her house to his father Isaac, and Jacob
sent by her hand rams and sheep and he-goats that she should prepare a meal
for his father such as he desired.

And he went after his mother till he came to the land of Kabratan, and he
dwelt there.

And Rachel bare a son in the night, and called his name ‘Son of my sorrow
‘; for she suffered in giving him birth: but his father called his name Benjamin,
on the eleventh of the eighth month in the first of the sixth week of this jubilee.
(2143 AM)

And Rachel died there and she was buried in the land of Ephrath, the same
is Bethlehem, and Jacob built a pillar on the grave of Rachel, on the road above
her grave.