1 The copy of the words of Yahuḏah, what things he spake to his sons before he died.
2 They gathered themselves together, therefore, and came to him, and he said to them: Hearken, my children, to Yahuḏah your father.
3 I was the fourth son born to my father Ya’aqoḇ; and Lĕ’ah my mother named me Yahuḏah, saying, I give thanks to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, because He hath given me a fourth son also.
4 I was swift in my youth, and obedient to my father in everything.
5 And I honoured my mother and my mother’s sister.
6 And it came to pass, when I became a man, that my father baraḵ me, saying, Thou shalt be a sovereign, prospering in all things.
7 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 showed me favour in all my works both in the field and in the house.
8 I know that I raced a hind, and caught it, and prepared the meat for my father, and he did eat.
9 And the roes I used to master in the chase, and overtake all that was in the plains.
10 A wild mare I overtook, and caught it and tamed it.
11 I slew a lion and plucked a kid out of its mouth.
12 I took a bear by its paw and hurled it down the cliff, and it was crushed.
13 I outran the wild boar, and seizing it as I ran, I tore it in sunder.
14 A leopard in Ḥeḇron leaped upon my dog, and I caught it by the tail, and hurled it on the rocks, and it was broken in twain.
15 I 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 slew it.
16 And when the two sovereign’s of the Kena’anites came sheathed, in armour against our flocks, and much people with them, single handed I rushed upon the sovereign of Hazor, and smote him on the greives and dragged him down, and so I slew him.
17 And the other, the sovereign of Tappuaḥ, as he sat upon his horse, I slew, and so I scattered all his people.
18 Aḵor, the sovereign, 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 smote his horse, and killed it.
19 And I fought with this other for two hours; and I clave his shield in twain, and I chopped off his feet, and killed him.
20 And as I was stripping off his breastplate, behold nine men his companions began to fight with me,
21 and I wound my garment on my hand; and I slung stones at them, and killed four of them, and the rest fled.
22 And Ya’aqoḇ my father slew Beelesath, sovereign of all the sovereigns, a giant in strength, twelve cubits high.
23 And fear fell upon them, and they ceased warring against us.
24 Therefore my father was free from anxiety in the wars when I was with my brethren.
25 For he saw in a vision concerning me that a messenger of might followed me everywhere, that I should not be overcome.
26 And in the south there came upon us a greater war than that in Sheḵem; and I joined in battle array with my brethren, and pursued a thousand men, and slew of them two hundred men and four sovereigns.
27 And I went up upon the wall, and I slew four mighty men.
28 And so we captured Hazor, and took all the spoil.
29 And the next day we departed to Aretan, a city strong and walled and inaccessible, threatening us with death.
30 But I and Gaḏ approached on the east side of the city, and Re’uḇĕn and Lĕwi on the west.
31 And they that were upon the wall, thinking that we were alone, were drawn down against us.
32 And so my brothers secretly climbed up the wall on both sides by stakes, and entered the city, while the men knew it not.
33 And we took it with the edge of the sword.
34 And as for those who had taken refuge in the tower, we set fire to the tower and took both it and them.
35 And as we were departing the men of Tappuaḥ seized our spoil, and seeing this we fought with them.
36 And we slew them all and recovered our spoil.
37 And when I was at the waters of Kozĕḇa, the men of Yoḇel came against us to battle.
38 And we fought with them and routed them; and their allies from Shiloh we slew, and we did not leave them power to come in against us.
39 And the men of Maḵir 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 amongst them, and we slew them before they had gone up the ascent.
40 And when we came to their city their women rolled upon us stones from the brow of the hill on which the city stood.
41 And I and Shim’on hid ourselves behind the town, and seized upon the heights, and destroyed this city also.
42 And the next day it was told us that the sovereign of the city of Ga’ash with a mighty host was coming against us.
43 I, therefore, and Dan feigned ourselves to be Amorites, and as allies went into their city.
44 And 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.
45 And we drew near to Thamna, where was all the substance of the hostile sovereign’s.
46 Then being insulted by them, I was therefore wroth, and rushed against them to the summit; and they kept slinging against me stones and darts.
47 And had not Dan my brother aided me, they would have slain me.
48 We 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.
49 And we did to them no hurt, and they became tributary to us, and we restored to them their spoil.
50 And I built Thamna, and my father built Pabael.
51 I was twenty years old when this war befell. And the Kena’anites feared me and my brethren.
52 And I had much cattle, and I had for chief herdsman Ḥirah the Aḏullamite
53 And when I went to him I saw Parsaba, sovereign of Aḏullam; and he spake unto us, and he made us a feast; and when I was heated he gave me his daughter Shuwa to wife.
54 She bare me Ĕr, and Onan and Shĕlah; and two of them 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 smote: for Shĕlah lived, and his children are ye.