YASHAR 77 (Jasher 77)

1 Aḏiqam was twenty years old when he reigned over Mitsrayim. He reigned four years.

2 In the two hundred and sixth year of Yisra’el’s going down to Mitsrayim Aḏiqam reigned over Mitsrayim, but he did not continue long in his reign over Mitsrayim as his fathers had continued their reigns.

3 For Mĕlol his father reigned ninety-four years in Mitsrayim, but he was sick ten years and died, for he had been wicked before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.

4 And all the Mitsrites called the name of Aḏiqam, Pharaoh like the name of his fathers, as was their custom to do in Mitsrayim.

5 And all the wise men of Pharaoh called the name of Aḏiqam, Aḥuz, for aḥuz means short in the Mitsrite language.

6 And Aḏiqam was exceedingly ugly, and he was an ammah and a span and he had a great beard which reached to the soles of his feet.

7 And Pharaoh sat upon his father’s throne to reign over Mitsrayim, and he conducted the reign of Mitsrayim in his wisdom.

8 And while he reigned he exceeded his father and all the preceding sovereigns in wickedness, and he increased his yoke over the children of Yisra’ĕl.

9 And he went with his servants to Goshen to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and he strengthened the labour over them, and he said to them, “Complete your work, each day’s task, and do not let your hands slacken from your work from this day onward as you did in the days of my father.”

10 And he placed officers over them from among the children of Yisra’ĕl, and over these officers he placed task-masters from among his servants.

11 And he placed over them a measure of bricks for them to do according to that number, day by day, and he turned back and went to Mitsrayim.

12 At that time the task-masters of Pharaoh ordered the officers of the children of Yisra’ĕl according to the command of Pharaoh, saying,

13 “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘Do your work each day, and finish your task, and observe the daily measure of bricks; do not diminish it.’

14 ‘And it shall come to pass that if you are deficient in your daily bricks, I will put your young children in their place.’ ”

15 And the task-masters of Mitsrayim did so in those days as Pharaoh had ordered them.

16 And whenever any deficiency was found in the children of Yisra’el’s measure of their daily bricks, the task-masters of Pharaoh would go to the wives of the children of Yisra’ĕl and take infants of the children of Yisra’ĕl to the number of bricks deficient. They would take them by force from their mother’s bosom, and put them in the building instead of the bricks,

17 while their fathers and mothers were crying over them and weeping when they heard the weeping voices of their infants in the wall of the building.

18 And the task-masters prevailed over Yisra’ĕl, that the Yisra’ĕlites should place their children in the building, so that a man placed his son in the wall and put mortar over him, while his eyes wept over him, and his tears ran down upon his child.

19 And the task-masters of Mitsrayim did so to the infants of Yisra’ĕl for many days, and no one pitied or had compassion over the infants of the children of Yisra’ĕl.

20 And the number of all the children killed in the building was two hundred and seventy, some whom they had built upon instead of the bricks which had been left deficient by their fathers, and some whom they had drawn out dead from the building.

21 And the labour imposed on the children of Yisra’ĕl in the days of Aḏiqam exceeded in hardship that which they did in the days of his father.

22 And the children of Yisra’ĕl sighed every day because of their heavy work, for they had said to themselves, “See when Pharaoh shall die, his son will rise up and lighten our work.”

23 But they increased the latter work more than the former, and the children of Yisra’ĕl sighed at this and their cry ascended to Elohim because of their labour.

24 And Elohim heard the voice of the children of Yisra’ĕl and their cry, in those days, and Elohim remembered His covenant to them which He had made with Aḇraham, Yitsḥaq and Ya’aqoḇ.

25 And Elohim saw the burden of the children of Yisra’ĕl, and their heavy work in those days, and He determined to deliver them.

26 And Mosheh son of Amram was still confined in the dungeon in those days, in the house of Re’uw’ĕl the Midyanite, but Tsipporah the daughter of Re’uw’ĕl supported him with food secretly day by day.

27 And Mosheh was confined in the dungeon in the house of Re’uw’ĕl for ten years.

28 And at the end of ten years, which was the first year of the reign of Pharaoh over Mitsrayim in the place of his father,

29 Tsipporah said to her father Re’uw’ĕl, “No person inquires or seeks after the Iḇri, whom you bound in prison now ten years.

30 “Now therefore, if it is good in your eyes, let us send and see whether he is living or dead.” But her father did not know that she had supported him.

31 And Re’uw’ĕl her father answered and said to her, “Has ever such a matter come to pass that a man should be shut up in a prison without food for ten years, and that he should live?”

32 And Tsipporah answered her father, saying, “Indeed you have heard that the Elohim of the Iḇrim is great and awesome, and does wonders for them at all times.

33 “It was He who delivered Aḇraham from Ur of the Kasdim, and Yitsḥaq from the sword of his father, and Ya’aqoḇ from the Messenger of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 who wrestled with him at the ford of Yabboq.

34 “Also with this man He has done many matters. He delivered him from the river in Mitsrayim and from the sword of Pharaoh, and from the children of Kush, so He can also deliver him from scarcity of food and make him live.”

35 And the word was good in the eyes of Re’uw’ĕl, and he did according to the word of his daughter, and sent to the dungeon to ascertain what became of Mosheh.

36 And he looked, and see, the man Mosheh was living in the dungeon, standing on his feet, praising and praying to the Elohim of his ancestors.

37 And Re’uw’ĕl commanded Mosheh to be brought out of the dungeon, so they shaved him and he changed his prison garments and ate bread.

38 And afterward Mosheh went into the garden of Re’uw’ĕl which was behind the house, and there he prayed to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 his Elohim, who had done mighty wonders for him.

39 And it came to be that while he prayed he looked opposite to him, and see, an inscribed rod was placed in the ground, which was planted in the midst of the garden.

40 And he approached the rod and he looked, and see, the name of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 Elohim of hosts was engraved on it, written and produced upon the rod.

41 And he read it and stretched out his hand and he plucked it like a forest tree from the thicket, and the rod was in his hand.

42 And this is the rod with which all the works of our Elohim were performed, after He had created the shamayim and earth, and all the host of them, seas, rivers and all their fishes.

43 And when Elohim had driven Aḏam from the garden of Ĕḏen, he took the rod in his hand and went and tilled the ground from which he was taken.

44 And the rod came down to Noaḥ and was given to Shĕm and his descendants, until it came into the hand of Aḇraham the Iḇri.

45 And when Aḇraham had given all he had to his son Yitsḥaq, he also gave to him this rod.

46 And when Ya’aqoḇ had fled to Paddan Aram, he took it in his hand, and when he returned to his father he had not left it behind.

47 Also when he went down to Mitsrayim he took it in his hand and gave it to Yosĕph, one portion above his brothers, for Ya’aqoḇ had taken it by force from his brother Ĕsaw.

48 And after the death of Yosĕph, the nobles of Mitsrayim came into the house of Yosĕph, and the rod came into the hand of Re’uw’ĕl the Miḏyanite, and when he went out of Mitsrayim, he took it in his hand and planted it in his garden.

49 And all the mighty men of the Qĕynites tried to pluck it when they strove to get Tsipporah his daughter, but they were unsuccessful

50 so the rod remained planted in the garden of Re’uw’ĕl, until he who had a right to it came and took it.

51 And when Re’uw’ĕl saw the rod in the hand of Mosheh, he was amazed by it, and he gave him his daughter Tsipporah for a wife.