The Book of Jubilees

Jubilees 13

1And Abram journeyed from Haran, and he took Sarai, his wife, and Lot his brother Haran's son, to the land of Canaan, and he came into Asshur,

2and proceeded to Shechem, and dwelt near a lofty oak.<br>And he saw, and, behold, the land was very pleasant from the entering of Hamath to the lofty oak.

3And the Lord said to him: "To thee and to thy seed will I give this land."<br>And he built an altar there, and he offered thereon a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

4And he removed from thence unto the mountain . . . Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and pitched his tent there.

5And he saw and behold, the land was very wide and good, and everything grew thereon

6--vines and figs and pomegranates, oaks and ilexes, and terebinths and oil trees, and cedars and cypresses and date trees, and all trees of the field, and there was water on the mountains.

7And he blessed the Lord who had led him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and had brought him to this land.

8And it came to pass in the first year, in the seventh week, on the new moon of the first month, that he built an altar on this mountain, and called on the name of the Lord: "Thou, the eternal God, art my God."

9And he offered on the altar a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord that He should be with him and not forsake him all the days of his life.

10And he removed from thence and went towards the south, and he came to Hebron, and Hebron was built at, that time, and he dwelt there two years, and he went (thence) into the land of the south, to Bealoth and there was a famine in the land.

11And Abram went into Egypt in the third year of the week, and he dwelt in Egypt five years before his wife was torn away from him.

12NOW Tanais in Egypt was at that time built--seven years after Hebron.

13And it came to pass when Pharaoh seized Sarai, the wife of Abram, that the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

14And Abram was very glorious by reason of possessions in sheep, and cattle, and asses, and horses, and camels, and menservants, and maidservants, and in silver and gold exceedingly.

15And Lot also, his brother's son, was wealthy.

16And Pharaoh gave back Sarai, the wife of Abram, and he sent him out of the land of Egypt, and he journeyed to the place where he had pitched his tent at the beginning, to the place of the altar, with Ai on the east, and Bethel on the west, and he blessed the Lord his God who had brought him back in peace.

17And it came to pass in the forty-first jubilee, in the third year of the first week, that he returned to this place and offered thereon a burnt sacrifice, and called on the name of the Lord, and said: "Thou, the most high God, art my God for ever and ever."

18And in the fourth year of this week Lot parted from him,

19and Lot dwelt in Sodom, and the men of Sodom were sinners exceedingly.

20And it grieved him in his heart that his brother's son had parted from him; for he had no children.

21In that year when Lot was taken captive, the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot had parted from him, in the fourth year of this week:

22"Lift up thine eyes from the place where thou art dwelling, northward and southward, and westward and eastward. For all the land which thou seest I shall give to thee and to thy seed for ever, and I shall make thy seed as the sand of the sea: though a man may number the dust of the earth, yet thy seed shall not be numbered. Arise, walk (through the land) in the length of it and the breadth of it, and see it all; for to thy seed shall I give it."

23And Abram went to Hebron, and dwelt there.

24And in this year came Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Sêllâsar and Têrgâl, king of nations,

25and slew the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Sodom fled, and many fell through wounds in the vale of Siddim, by the Salt Sea.<br>And they took captive Sodom and Adam and Zeboim,

26and they took captive Lot also, the son of Abram's brother, and all his possessions, and they went to Dan.

27And one who had escaped came and told Abram that his brother's son

28had been taken captive and (Abram) armed his household servants.

29for Abram, and for his seed, a tenth of the first-fruits to the Lord, and the Lord ordained it as an ordinance for ever that they should give it to the priests who served before Him, that they should possess it for ever.

30And to this law there is no limit of days; for He hath ordained it for the generations for ever that they should give to the Lord the tenth of everything, of the seed and of the wine and of the oil and of the cattle and of the sheep.

31And He gave (it) unto His priests to eat and to drink with joy before Him.

32And the king of Sodom came to him and bowed himself before him, and said: "Our Lord Abram, give unto us the souls which thou hast rescued, but let the booty be thine."

33And Abram said unto him: "I lift up my hands to the Most High God,

34that from a thread to a shoe-latchet I shall not take aught that is thine, lest thou shouldst say I have made Abram rich;

35save only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me--Aner, Eschol, and Mamre. These will take their portion."