YOḆELIM 35 (Jubilee 35)

1 And in the first year of the first week of the forty-fifth Yoḇĕl Riḇqah called Ya’aqoḇ, her son, and commanded him regarding his father and regarding his brother, that he should honour them all the days of his life.

2 And Ya’aqoḇ said, “I shall do all as you have commanded me; for this matter shall be honour and greatness to me, and righteousness before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, that I should honour 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 matter which you have commanded me, that I should honour my father and my brother!

5 “Tell me, mother, what perversity have you seen in me and I shall turn away from it, and kindness shall be upon me.”

6 And she said to him, “My son, I have not seen in you all my days any perversity, but upright deeds. And yet I shall 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 see, I have completed all the days of my life which I am to live.”

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

8 And Ya’aqoḇ said to her, “Baruḵ am I, mother, if my days approach the days of your life, and my strength remain with me such as your strength! But you shall not die, for you are joking idly with me regarding your death.”

9 And she went in to Yitsḥaq and said to him, “One petition I make unto you: make Ĕsaw swear that he shall not injure Ya’aqoḇ, nor pursue him with enmity; for you know Ĕsaw’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 Ya’aqoḇ his brother went to Ḥaran until this day; how he has forsaken us with his whole heart, and has done evil to us. He has taken your flocks to himself, and carried off all your possessions from before your face.

11 “And when we implored and pleaded with 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 baraḵ Ya’aqoḇ your perfect and upright son; for there is no evil but only goodness in him, and since he came from Ḥaran unto this day he has not robbed us of any matter, for he brings us all in its season always, and rejoices with all his heart when we take at his hands. And he baraḵ us, and has not parted from us since he came from Ḥaran until this day, and he remains with us continually at home honouring us.”

13 And Yitsḥaq said to her, “I, too, know and see the deeds of Ya’aqoḇ who is with us, how that with all his heart he honours us, and I loved Ĕsaw formerly more than Ya’aqoḇ, because he was the first-born. But now I love Ya’aqoḇ more than Ĕsaw, for he has done many evil deeds, and there is no righteousness in him, for all his ways are unrighteousness and violence.

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 shall be destroyed from the earth, and who shall be rooted out from under the shamayim, for he has forsaken the Elohim of Aḇraham and gone after his wives and after their uncleanness and after their straying; he and his children.

15 “And you command me, make him swear that he shall not slay Ya’aqoḇ, his brother? Even if he swears he shall not keep his oath, and he shall do no good, but only evil.

16 “But if he desires to slay Ya’aqoḇ, his brother; into Ya’aqoḇ’s hands he shall be given, and he shall not escape from his hands.

17 “And do not fear on account of Ya’aqoḇ; for the Guardian of Ya’aqoḇ is great and powerful and honoured, and praised more than the guardian of Ĕsaw.”

18 And Riḇqah sent and called Ĕsaw, and he came to her, and she said to him, “I have a petition, my son, to make unto you, and you shall promise to do it, my son.”

19 And he said, “I shall do all that you say to me, and I shall not refuse your petition.”

20 And she said to him, “I ask you that the day I die, you shall take me in and bury me near Sarah, your father’s mother, and that you and Ya’aqoḇ shall love each other, and that neither shall desire evil against the other, but mutual love only. And you shall prosper, my sons, and be honoured in the midst of the land, and no enemy shall rejoice over you, and you shall be a beraḵah and a kindness in the eyes of all those that love you.”

21 And he said, “I shall 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 Ya’aqoḇ, my brother, also, I shall love above all flesh; for I have no 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 knit together in your body, and together we came forth from your womb, and if I do not love my brother, whom shall I love?

23 “And I, myself, beg you to urge Ya’aqoḇ concerning me and concerning my sons, for I know that he shall surely be sovereign over my sons and I. For on the day my father baraḵ him, he made him the higher, and I the lower.

24 “And I swear to you that I shall love him, and not desire evil against him all the days of my life, but only good.” And he swore to her regarding all this matter.

25 And she called Ya’aqoḇ before the eyes of Ĕsaw, and gave him command according to the words which she had spoken to Ĕsaw.

26 And he said, “I shall do your desire; believe me that no evil shall proceed from me or from my sons against Ĕsaw, and I shall be first in none except in love only.”

27 And they ate and drank, she and her sons that night, and she died, three Yoḇelim and one week and one year old, on that night. And her two sons, Ĕsaw and Ya’aqoḇ, buried her in the cave of Maḵpĕlah near Sarah, their father’s mother.