Book of Jasher (Sefer haYashar) 13

~192~ And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and the days of Jacob were seven and forty years and one hundred years. At that time, Jacob fell ill, and he sent and called his son Yosef from Egypt, and Yosef came to his father. And Jacob said to Joseph and his sons, Behold, I am dead, and the God of your fathers will command and command you and return you to the land that God swore to give you and your children after you. And now at my death they buried me in the cave of the Field of the Machpelah in Hebron in the land of Canaan, to my ancestors. And Jacob swore to his sons to bury him in the tomb in Hebron, and his sons swore to him about this. And commanded them to say, Serve the Lord your God, for He will deliver you from all trouble as He delivered your ancestors. And Jacob said, call to me all your children, and all the children of Jacob's children will come and sit before him. And Jacob blessed them and said to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, Joseph, upon you and yours a thousand times, and will bless you and give you the blessing of your father Abraham. And all the children of the sons of Jacob went out from the presence of Jacob that day, when he blessed them. And it happened the next day that Jacob called his sons again, and they all gathered and came to him and sat before him. And Jacob blessed his sons on that day before his death, each one according to his blessing he blessed them, here it is written in the book of God's Torah for Israel. And Jacob said to Judah, I know, my son, that you are great to your brothers and reign over them, and your sons will reign over their sons forever. But please teach your children a bow and every weapon of war, so that they will fight the wars of their brothers the king with all his enemies. And Jacob commanded his sons on that day to say, I am this day gathered to my people, that I am not from Egypt and I am buried in the cave of Machpelah when I commanded you.

~193~ But please take care of me, don't let one of your sons carry me unless you are. And this is the thing that you will do to me by taking away my heathen to go in the land of Canaan to bury me. Yehuda Issachar and Zebulun will carry my staff from the front to the east, Reuben Shimon Gad will carry it from its side. Ephraim Menashe and Binyamin Yama, Dan Asher and Naftali to the north. Levi, do not leave him to carry with you, because he and his sons will carry the ark of God's covenant with Israel in the camp. And Joseph my son will not carry because as a king so is his honor, but Ephraim and Manasseh his sons will be under them. This is how you will treat me, you will not detract from anything that I have commanded you. And when you do this to me, God will bless you and your children after you forever. And you, my children, respect each one his brother and each one his relative, and command your children and your children's children after you to worship the God of your ancestors forever. So that you and your children and your children's children may live long in the land forever, because you will do what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God and walk in all his ways. And you, Joseph, my son, pray for the transgression of your brothers and for all your sins in the evil that is your reward, for behold, God has thought good for you and your children. And my son, do not forsake your brothers from the presence of the inhabitants of Egypt and do not make their faces sad, for they are given into the hand of their God, and it is in your hand to protect them all your days from the Egyptians. And the sons of Jacob answered their father all that we were commanded, so did my father, but let God be with us. And Jacob said to his sons, God will be with you in keeping all his ways, you shall not depart from all his ways right and left by doing what is good and right in his eyes. Because I myself knew that many troubles and bad things will find you in the last days in this land for your children and your children's children, but worship the Lord and He will save you from all trouble. And it was because you followed your God to serve Him, and you taught your children and your children's children after you to know God. And God raised up for you and your children a savior from among your children, and God saved you by his hand from all trouble, and brought you out of Egypt and returned you to the land of your fathers to inherit it safely. And Jacob was able to command his sons and gather his feet to the bed, and he died and gathered to his people.

~194~ And Joseph fell to his father and cried and wept over him and watered him and cried out in a bitter voice and said, My father my father. And his sons' wives and all his household also came and fell upon Jacob and wept over him, and cried out with a very loud voice over Jacob. And all the sons of Jacob stood up together and tore their clothes and all together put sackcloth around their waists and fell on their faces, and threw dust on their heads from heaven. And the word was told to Joseph's wife, and she stood up and put on sackcloth, and she came and all the women of Egypt with her, and they all mourned and wept for Jacob. And all the people of Egypt who knew Jacob, they all came that day when they heard this thing and all the Egyptians mourned Jacob for many days. And also from the land of Canaan people came to Egypt when they heard that Jacob had died, and they mourned him in Egypt for seventy days. And after that Joseph ordered his servants the doctors to embalm his father with myrrh and frankincense and all incense and perfume, and the doctors embalmed Jacob as Joseph commanded them. All Egypt and all the inhabitants of the land of Goshen weep and mourn for Jacob, and all his sons and members of his household lament and mourn for their father Jacob all the days. And it came to pass when the days of his mourning had passed at the end of the seventy days, and Joseph said to Pharaoh, I will go up and bury my father in the land of Canaan, when the seventh is over and I will return. And Pharaoh sent to Joseph to say, Go up and bury your father when he spoke and when he satisfied you. And Joseph and all his brothers arose to go to the land of Canaan, to bury their father Jacob while fasting. And Pharaoh commanded and a voice was sent through Egypt to say, whoever does not go up with Joseph and his brothers to the land of Canaan to bury Jacob, shall die. And all the Egyptians heard Pharaoh's voice and they all arose together, and all Pharaoh's servants and the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt went up with Joseph. And all the ministers and Pharaohs who were with Pharaoh and Joseph's servants went up and went to bury Jacob in the land of Canaan. And Jacob's sons carried Jacob's bed, which he was lying on, as their father fasted, so did his sons to him. And the bed was of pure gold, and stones of opal and crystal on it in its frame all around. And the bed cover is made of a weaver and tied with wicks, and on them are hooks made of sapphire stones and crystal. And Joseph put on the head of Jacob his father a large gold crown and put a golden scepter in his hand, and they covered him on the bed as the judgment of the kings in their lives.

~195~ And all the regiments of Egypt before him in this order, and all the heroes of Pharaoh and the heroes of Joseph will go first, with the rest of the inhabitants of Egypt on them. And they were all girded with swords, and dressed in armor and had the weapons of war on them. And all the weepers and mourners go far towards the bed, crying and lamenting, and the rest of the people follow the bed. And Yosef and his household walk together close to the bed, barefoot and weeping, while the rest of Yosef's servants and his heroes walk around him, each one of his witnesses on him, and all of them are girded with their weapons of war. And fifty of Jacob's servants go to the front of the bed, and sprinkle myrrh and frankincense and every perfume all the way. And all the sons of Jacob who carry the bed will walk on the perfume, and the servants of Jacob will go before them and throw all the perfume on the road. And Joseph went up in a heavy camp and they did according to this sentence every day, until they arrived in the land of Canaan. And they will come as far as Goren Hated, which is on the other side of the Jordan, and they will pay a great and very heavy eulogy there in that place. And all the kings of Canaan heard this thing, and they all left their place, thirty-one kings of Canaan, and they all came with all their men to mourn and mourn for Jacob. And all these kings saw Jacob's bed and behold Joseph's crown upon it, and they also took it and put their crowns on the bed and surrounded it with their crowns. And all these kings made a great and heavy obituary in that place with the sons of Jacob and the Egyptians for Jacob, because all the kings of Canaan knew the prowess of Jacob and his sons. And the rumor reached Esau to say that Jacob died in Egypt and his sons and all Egypt brought him to the land of Canaan to bury him. And Esau heard this thing and he was sitting on Mount Seir, and he and his sons and his sons' sons and all his men and all his household arose, a very large people, and they came to mourn and mourn for Jacob. And it came to pass when Esau came and executed his brother Jacob, and all the Egyptians and all of Canaan arose and made a great eulogy with Esau to Jacob in that place. And Joseph and his brothers carried their father Jacob from that place, and went to Hebron to bury Jacob in a cave with his father. And they came to Kiryat Arba to the cave, and when they came, Esau and all his sons and his men stood up to Joseph and his brothers to the devil in the cave, saying, Jacob shall not be buried in it, for he is ours and our father's. And Yosef and his brothers heard the words of Esau's sons and their mouths became very angry, and Yosef approached Esau to say. What is this thing that you are talking about, didn't my father Jacob buy it from you with great wealth after Isaac's death, that is twenty-five years today.

~196~ And also all the land of Canaan he bought from you, and from your sons and your descendants after you. And Jacob bought it for his sons and his seed after him forever, for an estate. And why would you speak such things, this day. And Esau answered Joseph saying, You shall tell a lie and you shall speak falsely, for I have not sold what I have in all this land that you will speak of, and neither has my brother Jacob bought anything of all that I have in this land. And Esau spoke these words, in order to deny Yosef with his words. Because Esau knew that there was no Joseph in those days, Esau sold everything he had in the land of Canaan to Jacob. And Joseph said to Esau, isn't it because the book of Makanah my father wrote in these words with you and set witnesses in the book and here we are in Egypt with us. And Esau answered saying, Go bring the book and whatever I find in that book I will do. And Yosef called to Naphtali his brother and said, "Hurry, Husha, don't stand up, and please run from Egypt and bring all the books, the book of the gift, the sealed book, and the open book, and also all the first books in which all the words of the firstborn are written, take them." And you brought us here, and we learned from them all the words of Esau and his sons that they will speak on this day. And Naftali heard Yosef's voice, and hastened and ran to get down from Egypt. And Naphtali is very light on his feet than all the deer that are on the face of the desert, because he will walk on the grain of the seed and it will not be broken. And Esau saw that Naphtali had gone to fetch the books and Yosef was sleeping on the cave, he and his sons, and Esau and his men all stood up against Yosef and his brothers for battle. And all the sons of Jacob and Egypt fought with Esau and his men, and the sons of Esau and his men were defeated before the sons of Jacob, and the sons of Jacob killed forty men of Esau's men. And Hoshi ben Dan ben Jacob was at that time with Bnei Jacob, but he was far from the place of war about a hundred cubits, because he was sitting with the children of Bnei Jacob on Jacob's bed for guarding. And Hushi was mute speaking and deaf of hearing, but he understood the voice of a busy man. And he asked to say why you didn't bury the dead, and what is this great bereavement. And they tortured him and told him the words of Esau and his sons, who were leaving to bury Jacob in a cave. And when they understood the things that Esau and his sons had done, he was very jealous of them. And he hurried and took a sword and ran to Esau into the battle, and struck Esau with the sword and cut off his head from him and went far away, and Esau fell among the men of war.

~197~ And it came to pass in the making of this thing, and the sons of Jacob prevailed over the sons of Esau, and the sons of Jacob buried their father Jacob in a cave in a cave, and the sons of Esau saw it. And Jacob was buried in Hebron in the cave of the Machpelah which Abraham bought from the sons of Het for a grave estate, and he was buried in very expensive clothes. And we did not do the king as much honor as Joseph did to his father at his death, because he buried him with great honor as one buryes kings. And Joseph and his brothers mourned their father Jacob for seven days. And it came to pass after that, that the sons of Esau made war against the sons of Jacob, and the sons of Esau fought against the sons of Jacob in Hebron, and Esau was still dead and was not buried. And there was a very strong war between them, and the sons of Esau were defeated before the sons of Jacob, and the sons of Jacob killed eighty men of the sons of Esau, and not one of the sons of Jacob died. And Joseph's hand prevailed over all the men of the sons of Esau, and he captured Zefu son of Eliphaz son of Esau and fifty of his men, and he bound them all with iron fetters and put them in the hands of his servants to bring them from Egypt. And it came to pass when the sons of Jacob captured Tsefu and his men, and all who were left of the house of Esau were very careful lest they should also be captured, and they all fled with Eliphaz son of Esau and his men, and they took Esau's Gentiles and went to Mount Seir on their way. And they came to Mount Seir and buried Esau in Seir, but they did not bring his head to Seir, because he was buried in that place at the site of the battle in Hebron. And it came to pass when the sons of Esau fled before the sons of Jacob, and the sons of Jacob pursued them as far as the border of Seir, but they did not kill any of them in their pursuit, because they pitied the Gentiles of Esau whom they had taken with them and fled. And the sons of Jacob returned from above them and came to the place where their brother was in Hebron, and they sat there that day and the next day until they rested from the war. And it came to pass on the third day, that they gathered together all the children of Seir Hori, and gathered all the children of Kedem with the blue of the sea in great abundance, and they went and went down from Egypt to fight with Yosef and his brothers to save their brothers. And Joseph and all the sons of Jacob heard that the sons of Esau and the sons of Kedem had gathered and were coming against them to war to save their brothers. And Joseph and his brothers and the heroes of Egypt went out to meet them, and fought them in the land of Ramses. And Joseph and his brothers beat the sons of Esau and the sons of Seir and the sons of Kedem, a very great blow. And they killed about six hundred thousand men of them, and killed with them all the heroes of the sons of Sheir Hori, there was only a few men left of them.

~198~ And the sons of Kedem and the sons of Esau killed a great many of them, and they all tried Eliphaz son of Esau and the sons of Kedem before Joseph and before his brothers. And Yosef and his brothers chased after them until they reached Sukkot, and they killed another thirty of them in Sukkot, and the rest escaped and fled to their city. And Joseph and his brothers and the heroes of Egypt returned over them with joy and good-heartedness, because they had defeated all their enemies. And they saw Ben Eliphaz and his men still in Egypt as slaves to the sons of Jacob, and Joseph gave them pain for their pain. And it came to pass when the sons of Esau and the sons of Seir returned to their land, and the sons of Seir saw that they had all fallen into the hands of the sons of Jacob and Egypt because of the war of the sons of Esau. And the sons of Seir said to the sons of Esau, you saw and knew that it was because of you that the plague was upon us. And now get out of our land and go from us to the land of Canaan to the land where your ancestors lived, why will your sons inherit our sons in our land at the end of days. And the father of my sons Esau did not listen to the sons of Seir, and the sons of Seir said to fight them. And the sons of Esau sent secretly to Angeas, the king of Africa, she said. Send us men from your people and they will come to us and we will fight together with the sons of Sheir Hori, because they have decided to fight with us to dispossess us of the land. And Angias the king of Danaba did so, because Angias was a lover of the sons of Esau in those days. And Angias sent to the sons of Esau five hundred footmen, the heroes of the army, and eight hundred horsemen. And the sons of Seir sent to the sons of Kedem and to Midian to say, You have seen what the sons of Esau did to us, for whose sake we all killed the sons of Jacob in our wars. And now come to us and help us and we will fight together with them and we will dispossess them from the land, and we will take revenge on them for your brothers and sisters who died for them in their war the sons of Jacob their brothers. And all the sons of Kedem obeyed the sons of Seir, and they came to them about eight hundred men drawing swords. And the sons of Esau fought the sons of Seir at that time in the wilderness of Paran, and the sons of Seir were stronger than the sons of Esau at that time. And the sons of Seir of the sons of Esau killed in that war about two hundred men of the men of Angeas, king of Africa, king of Danaba, that day. And it came to pass on the second day, that the sons of Esau were added, and they came to fight the sons of Seir a second time. And the war will be heavy on the sons of Esau a second time, and he will be very cruel to them because of Seir.

~199~ And the sons of Esau saw that the sons of Seir were stronger than them, and they returned and returned from the sons of Esau people one to another, and they helped the sons of Seir their enemies. And fifty-eight more of the men of Esau's sons fell in the second war, of the men of Angeas, king of Danaba. And it came to pass on the third day, that the sons of Esau heard that their brothers had returned to fight them in the second war, and the sons of Esau mourned when they heard this. And they said, What shall we do to our brother who returned to us, to help the sons of Seir, our enemies? And the sons of Esau added, and sent to Angeas, king of Danaba, to say, Send us other men, and we shall fight with them the sons of Seir, for they have honored him twice. And added Angeas and sent to the sons of Esau about six hundred men of valor, and they came to help the sons of Esau. And it came to pass at the end of the ten days, that the sons of Esau added and made war against the sons of Seir in the wilderness of Paran. And that war will be heavy on the sons of Seir, and the sons of Esau will be strong against the sons of Seir this time. And the sons of Seir snatched before the sons of Esau, and the sons of Esau killed about two thousand of them. And all the heroes of the sons of Seir died in this war, and there was no one left among them except their little sons who remained in their city. And every Midian and Bani Kedem flee to them from the war and they will leave the Bnei Se'ir, and they will be tempted when they see that the war is too heavy for them. And the sons of Esau chased after all the sons of Kedem until they reached their land, and the sons of Esau killed about two hundred and fifty more of them on the way. And the men of the sons of Esau fell in that war about thirty men, but from their brothers it was bad for them to return to them to help the sons of Sheir Hori. And Esau's sons heard the evil of their brothers again, and they mourned over this thing. And it came to pass after the war, and the children of Esau returned, and they came to Sheira to their places. And the sons of Esau killed those who remained in the land of the sons of Seir, and their wives and their children they also killed, not a soul was saved from them. But they raised about fifty little boys and girls and not the orphaned sons of Esau, and they had the boys as slaves and the girls they took as wives. And the sons of Esau dwelt in Seir under the sons of Seir, and they inherited their land and held it. And the sons of Esau took all that belonged to the sons of Seir in the land, including their flocks and their cattle and their property, and all that belonged to the sons of Seir the sons of Esau took, and the sons of Esau dwelt in Seir under the sons of Seir until this day. And the sons of Esau divided the land into divisions, for the five sons of Esau in their families.

~200~ And it came to pass in those days, that the sons of Esau took counsel that a king should reign over them in the land which they inherited. They said one to another, not because a king will reign over us in our land to be under his counsel and to fight our wars against our enemies and they did so. And all the sons of Esau swore to say that no king from their brothers will reign over them forever, but a stranger who is not from their brothers. Because all my sons were bitter, man against his son, and man against his brother, and man against his neighbor, because of the evil that their brothers did to them by burning the sons of Seir. Therefore the sons of Esau swore to say, from that day forward no one of their brothers will rule over them except a foreigner until this day. And there happened to be one of the men of Angias, king of Danava, who swallowed a son by the skin of his name. And the man is a very valiant hero and beautiful in character and good-sighted and wise in all wisdom and possessed of understanding and counsel, and there is no one among the people of Angias like him. And all the sons of Esau took him and anointed him and made him king over them, and bowed down to him and said, "Long live the king, long live the king." And they spread out the dress and gave him a gold and silver necklace, a ring, a bracelet, and an embroidery, and they enriched him greatly with silver and gold and pearls and crystal. And they made him a royal seat and put a royal crown on his head and built him a temple and he sat in it, and it was over the sons of Esau as king. And the people of Angias took the wages of their war from the sons of Esau, and they went and returned to their lord Danhaba at that time. And he reigned over the sons of Esau thirty years, and the sons of Esau dwelt in the land under the sons of Seir and Shemidum, and they dwelt under them securely to this day. And it happened in the thirty-second year that Israel came down from Egypt, which is the seventy-first year of Joseph's life. And Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, died that year, and his son Magron reigned under him. And Pharaoh commanded Yosef before his death to be Magron his son to the father, and to be Magron under Yosef's hand and under his advice. And all the Egyptians heard this saying that Joseph should be upon them, because all the Egyptians loved Joseph as much as the day before yesterday. But Magron, the son of Pharaoh, sat on his father's throne, and he was king under his father in those days. He was forty-one years old in his reign, and forty years he reigned in Egypt.

~201~ And all the Egyptians will call his name Pharaoh as his father's name, according to their judgment to do in Egypt for a king who will reign over them. And he became Pharaoh's king under his father, and he gave the judgments of the land and all the matters of the kingdom into Joseph's hand, as his father commanded him. And Joseph will be king over Egypt because he is the one who brings in and brings out in all of Egypt, and all of Egypt will be under his hand and under his advice. Because all the Egyptians followed Joseph after Pharaoh's death, and they loved him very much to rule over them. But people did not want them to say, no foreigner will rule over us. However, according to Joseph, the whole kingdom of Egypt was in those days after the death of Pharaoh, he is the one who brings out and he is the one who brings in to do as he pleases in all the land and nothing is spoken to him. And all of Egypt was under Joseph's hand, and Joseph fought with all his enemies around him, and they surrendered under his hand. And all the land and all the Philistines up to the border of Canaan subjugated Joseph, and they were all under his hand and they gave Joseph a tribute every year. And Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, sat on his throne under his father, but he was under the hand of Joseph and his counsel when he was in the beginning under the hand of his father. Nor was there a governor except in the land of Egypt alone, under the advice of Joseph. And Joseph reigned over all the land at that time, from Egypt to the great river Euphrates. And Joseph was wise in all his ways, and the Lord his God was with him. And Joseph God gave Joseph wisdom and majesty and splendor and love in the heart of Egypt and the whole land, and Joseph reigned over the whole land forty years. And all the land of the Philistines and Canaan and Sidon and beyond the Jordan bring offerings to Joseph all his days, and they bring him a tax every year as a trial. And Joseph fought with all his enemies around him and defeated them, and the whole land was in Joseph's hand. And Joseph sat on his throne in Egypt for sure. And all his brothers, the sons of Jacob, lived safely in the land of Goshen all the days of Joseph, and they cultivated and multiplied greatly in the land, and they served the Lord all their days, as their father Jacob commanded them. And it came to pass at the end of many days and years on the Sabbath of the children of Esau in their land, that the people of Bela, your king, were safe, and the children of Esau flourished and multiplied in the land. And they took counsel to go fight with the sons of Jacob and all Egypt and rescue their brother Zfu ben Eliphaz and his men, because they were still in Egypt in those days slaves to Joseph. And the sons of Esau sent to all the sons of Kedem and made peace with them, and all the sons of Kedem came to them to take the sons of Esau from Egypt to war.

~202~ And some of the people of Angias, king of Danava, came to them, and they also sent to the sons of Ishmael, and they will come to them. And all this people gathered, and came to Sheira to help the sons of Esau in their war. And this camp was a large and heavy camp with a very large number of blue seas, about eight hundred thousand men between foot and horse riders. And all these regiments came down from Egypt to fight the sons of Jacob, and encamped on Ramesses. And Joseph and his brothers and all the heroes of Egypt went out to meet them, about six hundred thousand men, and fought with them in the land of Ramses. And the sons of Jacob fought the sons of Esau at that time in the fiftieth year of the descent of the sons of Jacob from Egypt, which is the thirtieth year of the reign of Bala over the sons of Esau in Seir. And the Lord gave all the heroes of Esau and the sons of Kedem into the hands of Joseph and his brothers, and the men of the sons of Esau and the sons of Kedem were defeated before Joseph. And many of the men of Esau and the sons of Kedem fell before the sons of Jacob, about two hundred thousand men, and Bela son of Beur, their king, also fell with them in the war. And the sons of Esau saw that their king fell with them in battle and died, and they loosened their hands from the battle. And Joseph and his brothers and all the Egyptians were still beating the people of the house of Esau, and all the people of Esau were very afraid of the sons of Jacob and fled before them. And Yosef and his brothers and all the Egyptians pursued them for a day's journey, and they beat about three hundred more men of the march who beat them on the way, and after that they returned above them. And Joseph and all his brothers returned from Egypt, not one of them was absent, but twelve people fell from Egypt. And when Joseph returned from Egypt, he ordered Tsefu and his men to be banned again, and they imprisoned them with coppers and added to them grief for their grief. And all the people of the sons of Esau and the sons of Kedem returned each to his city in shame, because all the heroes who were among them in the war had fallen. And the sons of Esau saw that their king had died in the war, and they hastened and took a man from the people of Bani Kedem, Yobb, son of Zarah, from the land of Basra, and made him king over them under the authority of their king. And Joveb sat on a throne with a swallow under him as king, and Joveb reigned in red over all the sons of Esau for ten years. And the sons of Esau would no longer go to fight with the sons of Jacob from that day on, because the sons of Esau knew the prowess of the sons of Jacob and would greatly fear them. But from that day forward the sons of Esau hated the sons of Jacob, and the hatred and enmity was strong between them all the days until this day.

~203~ And after that ten years ended, and Yobb son of Zarakh, king of Edom, died. And the sons of Esau took one man named Hosham from the land of Yemen, and made him king over them under Jobab. And Husham reigned in Edom over the children of Esau, twenty years. And Joseph the king of Egypt and his brothers and all the children of Israel lived safely in Egypt in those days all the days of Joseph and his brothers there was no devil and no evil harm, and the land of Egypt recovered from the war at that time in the days of Joseph and his brothers.