The Book Of Jubilees Chapter 48

Mosheh returns from Midian to Egypt

1 And in the sixth year of the third week of the forty-ninth jubilee you did depart and dwell (in [2372 A.M.] the land of Midian, five weeks and one year. And you did return into Egypt in the second week in the second year in the fiftieth jubilee.

2 And you yourself know what He spoke to you on [2410 A.M.] Mount Sinai, and what prince Mastema desired to do with you when you were returning into Egypt.

3 Did he not with all his power seek to slay you and deliver the Egyptians out of your hand when he saw that you were sent to execute judgment and vengeance on the Egyptians?

4 And I delivered you out of his hand, and you didst perform the signs and wonders which you were sent to perform in Egypt against Pharaoh, and against all his house, and against his servants and his people.

5 And YAHWEH executed a great vengeance on them for Yisrael's sake, and smote them through (the plagues of) blood and frogs, lice and dog-flies, and malignant boils breaking forth in blains; and their cattle by death; and by hail-stones, thereby He destroyed everything that grew for them; and by locusts which devoured the residue which had been left by the hail, and by darkness; and (by the death) of the first-born of men and animals, and on all their idols YAHWEH took vengeance and burned them with fire.

6 And everything was sent through your hand, that you should declare (these things) before they were done, and you did speak with the king of Egypt before all his servants and before his people.

7 And everything took place according to your words; ten great and terrible judgments came on the land of Egypt that you might execute vengeance on it for Yisrael.

8 And YAHWEH did everything for Yisrael's sake, and according to His covenant, which he had ordained with Abraham that He would take vengeance on them as they had brought them by force into bondage.

9 And the prince Mastema stood up against you, and sought to cast you into the hands of Pharaoh, and he helped the Egyptian sorcerers,

10 And they stood up and wrought before you the evils indeed we permitted them to work, but the remedies we did not allow to be wrought by their hands.

11 And YAHWEH smote them with malignant ulcers, and they were not able to stand, for we destroyed them so that they could not perform a single sign.

12 And notwithstanding all (these) signs and wonders the prince Mastema was not put to shame because he took courage and cried to the Egyptians to pursue after you with all the powers of the Egyptians, with their chariots, and with their horses, and with all the hosts of the peoples of Egypt.

13 And I stood between the Egyptians and Yisrael, and we delivered Yisrael out of his hand, and out of the hand of his people, and YAHWEH brought them through the midst of the sea as if it were dry land.

14 And all the peoples whom he brought to pursue after Yisrael, YAHWEH our Sovereign Ruler cast them into the midst of the sea, into the depths of the abyss beneath the children of Yisrael, even as the people of Egypt had cast their children into the river He took vengeance on 1,000,000 of them, and one thousand strong and energetic men were destroyed on account of one suckling of the children of your people which they had thrown into the river.

15 And on the fourteenth day and on the fifteenth and on the sixteenth and on the seventeenth and on the eighteenth the prince Mastema was bound and imprisoned behind the children of Yisrael that he might not accuse them.

16 And on the nineteenth we let them loose that they might help the Egyptians and pursue the children of Yisrael.

17 And he hardened their hearts and made them stubborn, and the device was devised by YAHWEH our Sovereign Ruler that He might smite the Egyptians and cast them into the sea.

18 And on the fourteenth we bound him that he might not accuse the children of Yisrael on the day when they asked the Egyptians for vessels and garments, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of bronze, in order to despoil the Egyptians in return for the bondage in which they had forced them to serve.

19 And we did not lead forth the children of Yisrael from Egypt empty handed.