The Book Of Jubilees Chapter 35

Rebecca commanded Yacob regarding his father Yitschaq

1 And in the first year of the first week of the forty-fifth jubilee [2157 A.M.] Rebecca called Yacob, her son, and commanded him regarding his father and regarding his brother, that he should honor them all the days of his life.

2 And Yacob said: 'I will do everything as you have commanded me; for this thing will be honor and greatness to me, and righteousness before YAHWEH, that I should honor them.

3 And you too, mother, know from the time I was born until this day, all my deeds and all that is in my heart, that I always think good concerning all.

4 And how should I not do this thing which you have commanded me, that I should honor my father and my brother!

5 Tell me, mother, what perversity have you seen in me and I shall turn away from it, and mercy will be upon me.'

6 And she said to him: 'My son, I have not seen in you all my days any perverse but (only) upright deeds. And yet I will tell you the truth, my son: I shall die this year, and I shall not survive this year in my life; for I have seen in a dream the day of my death, that I should not live beyond a hundred and fifty-five years: and behold I have completed all the days of my life which I am to live.'

7 And Yacob laughed at the words of his mother, because his mother had said to him that she should die; and she was sitting opposite to him in possession of her strength, and she was not infirm in her strength; for she went in and out and saw, and her teeth were strong, and no ailment had touched her all the days of her life.

8 And Yacob said to her: 'Blessed am I, mother, if my days approach the days of your life, and my strength remain with me thus as your strength: and you will not die, for you are jesting idly with me regarding your death.'

9 And she went in to Yitschaq and said to him: 'One petition I make unto you: make Esau swear that he will not injure Yacob, nor pursue him with enmity; for you know Esau's thoughts that they are perverse from his youth, and there is no goodness in him; for he desires after your death to kill him.

10 And you know all that he has done since the day Yacob his brother went to Haran until this day: how he has forsaken us with his whole heart, and has done evil to us; your flocks he has taken to himself, and carried off all your possessions from before your face.

11 And when we implored and besought him for what was our own, he did as a man who was taking pity on us.

12 And he is bitter against you because you did bless Yacob your perfect and upright son; for there is no evil but only goodness in him, and since he came from Haran unto this day he has not robbed us of aught, for he brings us everything in its season always, and rejoices with all his heart when we take at his hands and he blesses us, and has not departed from us since he came from Haran until this day, and he remains with us continually at home honoring us.'

13 And Yitschaq said to her: 'I, too, know and see the deeds of Yacob who is with us, how that with all his heart he honors us; but I loved Esau formerly more than Yacob, because he was the firstborn; but now I love Yacob more than Esau, for he has done manifold evil deeds, and there is no righteousness in him, for all his ways are unrighteousness and violence, and there is no righteousness around him.

14 And now my heart is troubled because of all his deeds, and neither he nor his seed is to be saved, for they are those who will be destroyed from the earth and who will be rooted out from under heaven, for he has forsaken YAHWEH the ALMIGHTY of Abraham and gone after his wives and after their uncleanness and after their error, he and his children.

15 And you do bid me make him swear that he will not slay Yacob his brother; even if he swear he will not abide by his oath, and he will not do good but evil only.

16 But if he desires to slay Yacob, his brother, into Yacob's hands will he be given, and he will not escape from his hands, for he will descend into his hands.

17 And fear you not on account of Yacob; for the guardian of Yacob is great and powerful and honored, and praised more than the guardian of Esau.'

18 And Rebecca sent and called Esau and he came to her, and she said to him: 'I have a petition, my son, to make to you, and do you promise to do it, my son.'

19 And he said: 'I will do everything that you say to me, and I will not refuse your petition.'

20 And she said to him: 'I ask you that the day I die, you will take me in and bury me near Sarah, your father's mother, and that you and Yacob will love each other and that neither will desire evil against the other, but mutual love only, and (so) you will prosper, my sons, and be honored in the midst of the land, and no enemy will rejoice over you, and you will be a blessing and a mercy in the eyes of all those that love you.'

21 And he said: 'I will do all that you have told me, and I shall bury you on the day you die near Sarah, my father's mother, as you have desired that her bones may be near your bones.

22 And Yacob, my brother, also, I shall love above all flesh; for I have not a brother in all the earth but him only: and this is no great merit for me if I love him; for he is my brother, and we were sown together in your body, and together came we forth from your womb, and if I do not love my brother, whom shall I love?

23 And I, myself, beg you to exhort Yacob concerning me and concerning my sons, for I know that he will assuredly be king over me and my sons, for on the day my father blessed him he made him the higher and me the lower.

24 And I swear unto you that I shall love him, and not desire evil against him all the days of my life but good only.'

25 And he swore unto her regarding all this matter. And she called Yacob before the eyes of Esau, and gave him commandment according to the words which she had spoken to Esau.

26 And he said: 'I shall do your pleasure; believe me that no evil will proceed from me or from my sons against Esau, and I shall be first in naught save in love only.'

27 And they eat and drank, she and her sons that night, and she died, three jubilees and one week and one year old, on that night, and her two sons, Esau and Yacob, buried her in the double cave near Sarah, their father's mother.