1
Judah, the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. He is the giant, athlete, warrior; he recounts heroic deeds. He runs so fast that he can outstrip a hind.
THE copy of the words of Judah, what things he spoke to his sons before he died.
2They gathered themselves together, therefore, and came to him, and he said to them: Hearken, my children, to Judah your father.
3I was the fourth son born to my father Jacob; and Leah my mother named me Judah, saying, I give thanks to the Lord,
because He has given me a fourth son also.
4I was swift in my youth, and obedient to my father in everything.
5And I honored my mother and my mother's sister.
6And it happened, when I became a man, that my father blessed me, saying, You shall be a king, prospering in all things.
7And the Lord showed me favor in all my works both in the field and in the house.
8I Know that I raced a hind, and caught it, and prepared the meat for my father, and he ate.
9And the roes I used to master in the chase, and overtake all that was in the plains.
10A wild mare I overtook, and caught it and tamed it.
11I killed a lion and plucked a kid out of its mouth.
12I took a bear by its paw and hurled it down the cliff, and it was crushed.
13I outran the wild boar, and seizing it as I ran, I tore it in sunder.
14A leopard in Hebron leaped upon my dog, and I caught it by the tail, and hurled it on the rocks, and it was broken in twain
15I found a wild ox feeding in the fields, and seizing it by the horns, and whirling it round and stunning it, I cast it from me and killed it.
16And when the two kings of the Canaanites came sheathed, in armor against our flocks, and much people with them, single handed I rushed upon the king of Hazor, and struck him on the greaves and dragged him down, and so I killed him.
17And the other, the king of Tappuah, as he sat upon his horse, I killed, and so I scattered all his people.
18Achor, the king, a man of giant stature, I found, hurling javelins before and behind as he sat on horseback. And I took up a stone of sixty pounds weight, and hurled it and struck his horse, and killed it.
19And I fought with this other for two hours; and I clung his shield in twain, and I chopped off his feet, and killed him.
20And as I was stripping off his breastplate, behold nine men his companions began to fight with me,
21And I wound my garment on my hand; and I slung stones at them, and killed four of them, and the rest fled.
22And Jacob my father killed Beelesath, king of all the kings, a giant in strength, twelve cubits high.
23And fear fell upon them, and they ceased warring against us.
24Therefore my father was free from anxiety in the wars when I was with my brethren.
25For he saw in a vision concerning me that an angel of might followed me everywhere, that I should not be overcome.
26And in the south there came upon us a greater war than that in Shechem. And I joined in battle array with my brethren, and pursued a thousand men, and killed of them two hundred men and four kings.
27And I went up upon the wall, and I killed four mighty men.
28And so we captured Hazor, and took all the spoil.
29And the next day we departed to Aretan, a city strong and walled and inaccessible, threatening us with death.
30But I and Gad approached on the east side of the city, and Reuben and Levi on the west.
31And those who were upon the wall, thinking that we were alone, were drawn down against us.
32And so my brothers secretly climbed up the wall on
both sides by stakes, and entered the city, while the men knew it not.
33And we took it with the edge of the sword.
34And as for those who had taken refuge in the tower, we set fire to the tower and took both it and, them.
35And as we were departing the men of Tappuah seized our spoil, and seeing this we fought with them.
36And we killed them. all and recovered our spoil.
37And when I was at the waters of Kozeba, the men of Jobel came against us to battle.
38And we fought with them and routed them; and their allies from Shiloh we killed, and we did not leave them power to come in against us.
39And the men of Makir came upon us the fifth day, to seize our spoil. And we attacked them and overcame them in fierce battle: for there was a host of mighty men among them, and we killed them before they had gone up the ascent.
40And when we came to their city their women rolled upon us stones from the brow of the hill on which the city stood.
41And I and Simeon had ourselves behind the town, and seized upon the heights, and destroyed this city also.
42And the next day it was told us that the king of the city of Gaash with. a mighty host was coming against us.
43I, therefore, and Dan feigned ourselves to be Amorites, and as allies went into their city.
44And in the depth of night our brethren came and we opened to them the gates; and we
destroyed all the men and their substance, and we took for a prey all that was theirs, and their three walls we cast down.
45And we drew near to Thamna, where was all the substance of the hostile kings.
46Then being insulted by them, I was therefore wroth, and rushed against them to the summit; and they kept slinging against me stones and darts.
47And had not Dan my brother aided me, they would have slain me.
48We came upon them, therefore, with wrath, and they all fled; and passing by another way, they fought my father, and he made peace with them.
49And we did to them no hurt, and they became tributary to us, and we restored to them their spoil.
50And I built Thamna, and my father built Pabael.
51I was twenty years old when this war befell. And the Canaanites feared me and my brethren.
52And I had much cattle, and I had for chief herdsman lIram the Adullamite.
53And when I went to him I saw Parsaba, king of Adullam; and he spoke to us, and he made us a feast. And when I was heated he gave me his daughter Bathshua to wife.
54She bare me Er, and Onan and Shelah; and two of them the Lord struck: for Shelah lived, and his children are you.
2
Judah describes some_ findings, a city with walls of Iron and gates of brass. He has an encounter with an adventuress.
AND eighteen years my father abode in peace with his brother Esau, and his sons with us, after that we came from Mesopotamia, from Laban.
2And when eighteen years were fulfilled, in the fortieth year of my life, Esau, the brother of my father, came upon us with a mighty and strong people.
3And Jacob struck Esau with
an arrow, and he was taken up wounded on Mount Seir, and as he went he died at Anoniram.
4And we pursued after the sons of Esau.
5Now they had a city with walls of iron and gates of brass; and we could not enter into it, and we encamped around, and besieged it.
6And when they opened not to us in twenty days, I set up a ladder in the sight of all and with my shield upon my head I went up, sustaining the assault of stones, upwards of three talents weight. And I killed four of their mighty men.
7And Reuben and Gad killed six others.
8Then they asked from us terms of peace; and having taken counsel with our father, we received them as tributaries.
9And they gave us five hundred cors of wheat, five hundred baths of oil, five hundred measures of wine, until the famine, when we went down into Egypt.
10And after these things my son Er took to wife Tamar, from Mesopotamia, a daughter of Aram.
11Now Er was wicked, and he was in need concerning Tamar, because she was not of the land of Canaan.
12And on the third night an angel of the Lord struck him.
13And he had not known her according to the evil craftiness of his mother, for he did not wish to have children by her.
14In the days of the wedding feast I gave Onan to her in marriage; and he also in wickedness knew her not, though he spent with her a year.
15And when I threatened him he went in to her, but he spilled the seed on the ground, according to the command of his mother, and he also died through wickedness.
16And I wished to give Shelah also to her, but his mother did not permit it. For she wrought evil against Tamar, because she was not the daughters of Canaan, as she also herself was.
17And I knew that the race of the Canaanites was wicked, but the impulse of youth blinded my mind.
18And when I saw her pouring out wine, owing to the intoxication of wine I was deceived, and took her although my father had not counseled it.
19And while I was away she went and took for Shelah a wife from Canaan.
20And when I knew what she had done, I cursed her in the anguish of my soul.
21And she also died through her wickedness together with her sons.
22And after these things, while Tamar was a widow, she heard after two years that I was going up, to shear my sheep, and adorned herself in bridal array, and sat in the city Enaim by the gate.
23For it was a law of the Amorites, that she who was about to marry should sit in fornication seven days by the gate.
24Therefore being drunk with wine, I did not recognize her; and her beauty deceived me, through the fashion of her adorning.
25And I turned aside to her, and said: Let me go in to you.
26And she said: What will you give me? And I gave her my staff, and my girdle, and the diadem of my kingdom in pledge.
2/7 And I went in to her, and she conceived.
28And not knowing what I had done, I wished to slay her; but she secretly sent my pledges, and put me to shame.
29And when I called her, I heard also the secret words which I spoke when lying with her in my drunkenness. And I could not slay her, because it was from the Lord.
30For I said, Lest perhaps she did it in subtlety, having received the pledge from another woman.
31But I came not again near her while I lived, because I had done this abomination in all Israel.
32Moreover, they who were in the city said there was no harlot in the gate, because she came from another place, and sat for a while in the gate.
33And I thought that no one knew that I had gone in to her.
34And after this we came into Egypt to Joseph, because of the famine.
35And I was forty and six years old, and seventy and three years lived I in Egypt.
3
He counsels against wine and lust as twin evils. "For he who is drunken reverences no
man." (Verse 13).
AND now I command you, my children, hearken to Judah your father, and keep my sayings to perform all the ordinances of the Lord, and to obey the commands of God.
2And walk not after your lusts, nor in the imaginations of your thoughts in haughtiness of heart. And glory not in the deeds and strength of your youth, for this also is evil in the eyes of the Lord.
3Since I also gloried that in wars no comely woman's face ever enticed me, and reproved Reuben my brother concerning Bilhah, the wife of my father, the spirits of jealousy and of fornication arrayed themselves against me, until I lay with Bathshua the Canaanite, and Tamar, who was espoused to my sons.
4For I said to my father-in-law: I will take counsel with my father, and so will I take your daughter.
5And he was unwilling but he showed me a boundless store of gold in his daughter's behalf; for be was a king.
6And he adorned her with gold and pearls, and caused her to pour out wine for us at the feast with the beauty of women.
7And the wine turned aside my eyes, and pleasure blinded my heart.
8And I became enamored of and I lay with her, and transgressed the commandment of the Lord and the commandment of my fathers, and I took her to wife.
9And the Lord rewarded me according to the imagination of my heart, inasmuch as I had no joy in her children.
10And now, my children, I say to you, be not drunk with wine. For wine turns the mind away from, the truth, and inspires the passion of lust, and leads the eyes into error.
11For the spirit of fornication has wine as a minister to give pleasure to the mind; for these two also take away the mind of man.
12For if a man drink wine to drunkenness, it disturbs the mind with filthy thoughts leading to fornication, and heats the body to carnal union. And if the occasion of the lust be present, he works the sin, and is not ashamed.
13Such is the inebriated man, my children; for he who is drunken reverences no man.
14For, lo, it made me also to err, so that I was not ashamed of the multitude in the city, in that before the eyes of all I turned aside to Tamar. And I wrought a great sin, and I uncovered the covering of my sons' shame.
15After I had drunk wine I
reverenced not the commandment of God, and I took a woman of Canaan to wife.
16For much discretion needs the man who drinks wine, my children; and herein is discretion in drinking wine, a man may drink so long as he preserves modesty.
17But if he go beyond this limit the spirit of deceit attacks his mind, and it makes the drunkard to talk filthily, and to transgress and not to be ashamed. But even to glory in his shame, and to account himself honorable.
18He who commits fornication is not aware when he suffers loss, and is not ashamed when put to dishonor.
19For even though a man be a king and commit fornication, he is stripped of his kingship by becoming the slave of fornication, as I myself also suffered.
20For I gave my staff, that is, the stay of my tribe; and my girdle, that is, my power; and my diadem, that is, the glory of my kingdom.
21And indeed I repented of these things; wine and flesh I eat not until my old age, nor did I behold any joy.
22And the angel of God showed me that for ever do women bear rule over king and beggar alike.
23And from the king they take away his glory, and from the valiant man his might, and from the beggar even that little which is the stay of his poverty.
24Observe, therefore, my children, the right limit in wine; for there are in it four evil spirits--of lust, of hot desire, of profligacy, of filthy lucre.
25If you drink wine in gladness, be you modest in the fear of God.
26For if in your gladness the fear of God departs, then drunkenness arises and shamelessness steals in.
27But if you would live soberly do not touch wine at all, lest you sin in words of outrage, and in fightings and slanders, and transgressions of the commandments of God, and you perish before your time.
28Moreover, wine reveals the mysteries of God and men, even as I also revealed the commandments of God and the mysteries of Jacob my father to the Canaanitish woman Bathshua, which God bade me not to reveal.
29And wine is a cause both of war and confusion.
30And now, I command you, my children, not to love money, nor to gaze upon the beauty of women; because for the sake of money and beauty I was led astray to Bathshua the
Canaanite.
31For I know that because of these two things shall my race fall into wickedness.
32For even wise men among my sons shall they mar, and shall cause the kingdom of Judah to be diminished, which the Lord gave me because of my obedience to my father.
33For I never caused grief to Jacob, my father; for all things whatsoever he commanded I did.
34And Isaac, the father of my father, blessed me to be king in Israel, and Jacob further blessed me in like manner.
35And I know that from me shall the kingdom be established.
36And I know what evils you will do in the last days.
37Beware, therefore, my children, of fornication, and the love of money, and hearken to Judah your father.
38For these things withdraw au from the law of God, and blind the inclination of the soul, and teach arrogance, and suffer not a man to have compassion upon his neighbor.
39They rob his soul of all
goodness, and oppress him with toils and troubles, and drive away sleep from him, and devour his flesh.
40And he hinders the sacrifices of God; and he remembers not the blessing of God, he hearkens not to a prophet when he speaks, and resents the words of godliness.
41For he is a slave to two contrary passions, and cannot obey God, because they have blinded his soul, and he walks in the day as in the night.
42My children, the love of money leads to idolatry; because, when led astray through money, men name as gods those who are not gods, and it causes him who has it to fall into madness.
43For the sake of money I lost my children, and had not my repentance, and my humiliation, and the prayers of my father been accepted, I should have died childless.
44But the God of my fathers had mercy on me, because I did it in ignorance.
45And the prince of deceit blinded me, and I sinned as a man and as flesh, being corrupted through sins; and I learned my own weakness while thinking myself invincible.
46Know, therefore, my children, that two spirits wait upon man-the spirit of truth and the spirit
of deceit.
47And in the midst is the spirit of understanding of the mind, to which it belongs to turn whithersoever it will.
And the works of truth and the works of deceit are written upon the hearts of men, and each one of them the Lord knows.
49And there is no time at which the works of men can be hid; for on the heart itself have they been written down before the Lord.
50And the spirit of truth testifies all things, and accuses all; and the sinner is burned up by his
own heart, and cannot raise his face to the judge.
4
Judah makes a vivid simile concerning tyranny and a dire prophecy concerning the morals of his listeners.
AND now, my children, I command you, love Levi, that you may abide, and exalt not yourselves against him, lest you be utterly destroyed.
2For to me the Lord gave the kingdom, and to him the priesthood, and He set the kingdom beneath the priesthood.
3To me He gave the things upon the earth; to him the things in the heavens.
4As the heaven is higher than the earth. So is the priesthood of God higher than the earthly kingdom, unless it falls away through sin from the Lord and is dominated by the earthly kingdom.
5For the angel of the Lord said to me: The Lord chose him rather than you, to draw near to Him, and to eat of His table and to offer Him the first-fruits of the choice things of the sons of Israel. But you shall be king of Jacob.
6And you shall be among them as the sea.
7For as, on the sea, just and unjust are tossed about, some taken into captivity while some are enriched. So also shall every race of men be in you: some shall be impoverished, being taken captive, and others grow rich by plundering the possessions of others.
8For the kings shall be as sea-monsters.
9They shall swallow men like fishes: the sons and daughters of freemen shall they enslave;
houses, lands, flocks, money shall they plunder:
10And with the flesh of many shall they wrongfully feed the ravens and the cranes. And they shall advance in evil in covetousness uplifted, and there shall be false prophets like tempest, and they shall persecute all righteous men.
11And the Lord shall bring upon them divisions one against another.
12And there shall be continual wars in Israel; and among men of another race shall my kingdom be brought to an end, until the salvation of Israel shall come.
13Until the appearing of the God of righteousness, that Jacob, and all the Gentiles may rest in peace.
14And He shall guard the might of my kingdom for ever; for the Lord aware to me with an oath that He would not destroy the kingdom from my seed for ever.
15Now I have much grief, my children, because of your lewdness and witchcrafts, and idolatries which you shall practice against the kingdom, following those who have familiar spirits, diviners, and demons of error.
16You shall make your daughters singing girls and harlots, and you shall mingle in the abominations of the Gentiles.
17For which things' sake the Lord shall bring upon you famine and pestilence, death and the sword, beleaguering by enemies, and revilings of friends, the slaughter of children, the rape of wives, the plundering of possessions, the burning of the temple of God, the laying waste of the land, the enslavement of yourselves among the Gentiles.
18And they shall make some of you eunuchs for their wives.
19Until the Lord visit you, when with perfect heart you repent and walk in all His commandments, and He bring you up from captivity among the Gentiles.
20And after these things shall a star arise to you from Jacob in peace,
21And aman shall arise from my seed, like the sun of righteousness,
22Walking with the sons of men in meekness and righteousness;
23And no sin shall be found in him.
24And the heavens shall be opened to him, to pour out the spirit, even the blessing of the Holy Father; and He shall pour out the spirit of grace upon you;
25And you shall be to Him sons in truth, and you shall walk in His commandments first and
last.
26Then shall the scepter of my kingdom shine forth; and from your root shall arise a stem. And from it shall grow a rod of righteousness to the Gentiles, to judge and to save all that call upon the Lord.
27And after these things shall Abraham and Isaac and Jacob arise to life; and I and my brethren shall be chiefs of the tribes of Israel:
28Levi first, I the second, Joseph third, Benjamin fourth, Simeon fifth, Issachar sixth, and so all in order.
29And the Lord blessed Levi, and the Angel of the Presence, me; the powers of glory, Simeon; the heaven, Reuben; the earth, Issachar. The sea, Zebulun; the mountains, Joseph; the tabernacle, Benjamin; the luminaries, Dan; Eden, Naphtali; the sun, Gad; the moon, Asher.
30And you shall be the people of the Lord, and have one tongue. And there shall be there no spirit of deceit of Beliar, for he shall be cast into the fire for ever.
31And they who have died in grief shall arise in joy, and they who were poor for the Lord's sake shall be made rich, and they who are put to death for the Lord's sake shall awake to life.
32And the harts of Jacob shall run in joyfulness, and the eagles of Israel shall fly in gladness; and all the people shall glorify the Lord for ever.
33Observe, therefore, my children, all the law of the Lord, for there is hope for all them who hold fast to, His ways.
34And he said to them: Behold, I die before your eyes this day, a hundred and nineteen years old.
35Let no one bury me in costly apparel, nor tear open my bowels, for this shall they who are kings do; and carry me up to Hebron with you.
36And Judah, when he had said these things, fell asleep; and his sons did according to all
whatsoever he commanded them, and they buried him in Hebron, with his fathers.