1 And now I command you, my children, hearken to Yahuḏah your father, and keep my sayings to perform all the ordinances of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, and to obey the commands of Elohim.
2 And 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 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
3 Since I also gloried that in wars no comely woman’s face ever enticed me, and reproved Re’uḇĕn my brother concerning Bilhah, the wife of my father, the spirit of jealousy and of fornication arrayed themselves against me, until I lay with Shuwa the Kena’anite, and Tamar, who was espoused to my sons.
4 For I said to my father-in-law: I will take counsel with my father, and so will I take thy daughter.
5 And he was unwilling but he showed me a boundless store of gold in his daughter’s behalf; for he was a sovereign.
6 And he adorned her with gold and pearls, and caused her to pour out wine for us at the feast with the beauty of women.
7 And the wine turned aside my eyes, and pleasure blinded my heart.
8 And I became enamoured of and I lay with her, and transgressed the commandment of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 and the commandment of my fathers, and I took her to wife.
9 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 rewarded me according to the imagination of my heart, inasmuch as I had no joy in her children.
10 And now, my children, I say unto you, be not drunk with wine; for wine turneth the mind away from, the truth, and inspires the passion of lust, and leadeth the eyes into error.
11 For the spirit of fornication hath wine as a minister to give pleasure to the mind; for these two also take away the mind of man.
12 For if a man drink wine to drunkenness, it disturbeth the mind with filthy thoughts leading to fornication, and heateth the body to carnal union; and if the occasion of the lust be present, he worketh the sin, and is not ashamed.
13 Such is the inebriated man, my children; for he who is drunken reverenceth no man.
14 For, 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 unto Tamar, and I wrought a great sin, and I uncovered the covering of my sons’ shame.
15 After I had drunk wine I reverenced not the commandment of Elohim, and I took a woman of Kena’an to wife.
16 For much discretion needeth the man who drinketh wine, my children; and herein is discretion in drinking wine, a man may drink so long as he preserveth modesty.
17 But if he go beyond this limit the spirit of deceit attacketh his mind, and it maketh the drunkard to talk filthily, and to transgress and not to be ashamed, but even to glory in his shame, and to account himself honourable.
18 He that committeth fornication is not aware when he suffers loss, and is not ashamed when put to dishonour.
19 For even though a man be a sovereign and commit fornication, he is stripped of his sovereignship by becoming the slave of fornication, as I myself also suffered.
20 For 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 sovereignty.
21 And indeed I repented of these things; wine and flesh I eat not until my old age, nor did I behold any joy.
22 And the messenger of Elohim showed me that for ever do women bear rule over sovereign and beggar alike.
23 And from the sovereign 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.
24 Observe, 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.
25 If ye drink wine in gladness, be ye modest in the reverence of Elohim.
26 For if in your gladness the reverence of Elohim departeth, then drunkenness ariseth and shamelessness stealeth in.
27 But if ye would live soberly do not touch wine at all, lest ye sin in words of outrage, and in fightings and slanders, and transgressions of the commandments of Elohim, and ye perish before your time.
28 Moreover, wine revealeth the mysteries of Elohim and men, even as I also revealed the commandments of Elohim and the mysteries of Ya’aqoḇ my father to the Kena’anite woman Shuwa, which Elohim bade me not to reveal.
29 And wine is a cause both of war and confusion.
30 And 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 Shuwa the Kena’anite.
31 For I know that because of these two things shall my race fall into wickedness.
32 For even wise men among my sons shall they mar, and shall cause the sovereignty of Yahuḏah to be diminished, which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 gave me because of my obedience to my father.
33 For I never caused grief to Ya’aqoḇ, my father; for all things whatsoever he commanded I did.
34 And Yitsḥaq, the father of my father, baraḵ me to be sovereign in Yisra’ĕl, and Ya’aqoḇ further baraḵ me in like manner.
35 And I know that from me shall the sovereignty be established.
36 And I know what evils ye will do in the last days.
37 Beware, therefore, my children, of fornication, and the love of money, and hearken to Yahuḏah your father.
38 For these things withdraw us from the Torah of Elohim, and blind the inclination of the soul, and teach arrogance, and suffer not a man to have compassion upon his neighbour.
39 They rob his soul of all goodness, and oppress him with toils and troubles, and drive away sleep from him, and devour his flesh.
40 And he hindereth the sacrifices of Elohim; and he remembereth not the beraḵah of Elohim, he hearkeneth not to a naḇi when he speaketh, and resenteth the words of reverence.
41 For he is a slave to two contrary passions, and cannot obey Elohim, because they have blinded his soul, and he walketh in the day as in the night.
42 My children, the love of money leadeth to idolatry; because, when led astray through money, men name as elohim those who are not elohim, and it causeth him who hath it to fall into madness.
43 For 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.
44 But the Elohim of my fathers had mercy on me, because I did it in ignorance.
45 And the prince of deceit blinded me, and I sinned as a man and as flesh, being corrupted through sins; and I learnt my own weakness while thinking myself invincible.
46 Know, therefore, my children, that two Ruaḥoth wait upon man – the Ruaḥ of truth and the spirit of deceit.
47 And in the midst is the Ruaḥ of understanding of the mind, to which it belongeth to turn whithersoever it will.
48 And the works of truth and the works of deceit are written upon the hearts of men, and each one of them 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 knoweth.
49 And there is no time at which the works of men can be hid; for on the heart itself have they been written down before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
50 And the Ruaḥ of truth testifieth all things, and accuseth all; and the sinner is burnt up by his own heart, and cannot raise his face to the judge