The Book of Jubilees
Jubilees 35
1And in the first year of the first week of the forty-fifth jubilee Rebecca called Jacob, her son, and commanded him regarding his father and regarding his brother, that he should honour them all the days of his life.
2And Jacob said: "I will do everything as thou hast commanded me; for this thing will be honour and greatness to me, and righteousness before the Lord, that I should honour them.
3And thou too, mother, knowest 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.
4And how should I not do this thing which thou hast commanded me, that I should honour my father and my brother! Tell me, mother, what perversity hast thou seen in me and I shall turn away from it, and mercy will be upon me."
5And she said unto him: "My son, I have not seen in thee all my days any perverse but (only) upright deeds. And yet I shall tell thee the truth, my son: I shall die this, year,
6and 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 behold I have completed all the days of my life which I am to live."
7And Jacob laughed at the words of his mother, because his mother had said unto him that she should die; and she was sitting opposite to him in possession of her strength, and she was not infirm in her strength;
8for she went in and out and saw, and her teeth were strong, and no ailment had touched her all the days of her life.
9And Jacob said unto her: "Blessed am I, mother, if my days approach the days of thy life, and my strength remain with me thus as thy strength: and thou wilt not die, for thou art jesting idly with me regarding thy death."
10And she went in to Isaac and said unto him: "One petition I make unto thee: make Esau swear that he will not injure Jacob, nor pursue him with enmity;
11for thou knowest Esau's thoughts that they are perverse from his youth, and there is no goodness in him; for he desireth after thy death to kill him.
12And thou knowest all that he hath done since the day Jacob his brother went to Haran until this day;
13how he hath forsaken us with his whole heart, and hath done evil to us; thy flocks he hath taken to himself, and carried off all thy possessions from before thy face.
14And when we implored and besought him for what was our own, he did as a man who was taking pity on us.
15And he is bitter against thee because thou didst bless Jacob thy perfect and upright son; for there is no evil but only goodness in him,
16and since he came from Haran unto this day he hath not robbed us of aught, for he bringeth us everything in its season always,
17and rejoiceth with all his heart when we take at his hands, and he blesseth us, and hath not parted from us since he came from Haran until this day,
18and he remaineth with us continually at home honouring us."
19And Isaac said unto her: "I, too, know and see the deeds of Jacob who is with us, how that with all his heart he honoureth us;
20but I loved Esau formerly more than Jacob, because he was the first-born; but now I love Jacob more than Esau, for he hath done manifold evil deeds, and there is no righteousness in him,
21for all his ways are unrighteousness and violence, [and there is no righteousness around him].
22And 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 will be destroyed from the earth, and who will be rooted out from under heaven,
23for he hath forsaken the God of Abraham and gone after his wives and after their uncleanness and after their error, he and his children.
24And thou dost bid me make him swear that he will not slay Jacob, his brother; even if he swear he will not abide by his oath, and he will not do good but evil only.
25But if he desireth to slay Jacob, his brother, into Jacob's hands will he be given, and he will not escape from his hands, [for he will descend into his hands.]
26And fear thou not on account of Jacob; for the guardian of Jacob is great and powerful and honoured, and praised more than the guardian of Esau."
27And Rebecca sent and called Esau, and he came to her, and she said unto him: "I have a petition, my son, to make unto thee, and do thou promise to do it, my son."
28And he said: "I will do everything that thou sayest unto me, and I will not refuse thy petition."
29And she said unto him: "I ask you that the day I die, thou wilt take me in and bury me near Sarah, thy father's mother,
30and that thou and Jacob will love each other, and that neither will desire evil against the other, but mutual love only,
31and (so) ye will prosper, my sons, and be honoured in the midst of the land, and no enemy will rejoice over you, and ye will be a blessing and a mercy in the eyes of all those that love you."
32And he said: "I will do all that thou hast told me, and I shall bury thee on the day thou diest near Sarah, my father's mother, as thou hast desired that her bones may be near thy bones.
33And Jacob, my brother, also, I shall love above all flesh; for I have not a brother in all the earth but him only:
34and this is no great merit for me if I love him; for he is my brother, and we were sown together in thy body, and together came we forth from thy womb,
35and if I do not love my brother, whom shall I love?<br>And I, myself, beg thee to exhort Jacob concerning me and concerning my sons, for I know that he will assuredly be king over me and my sons,
36for on the day my father blessed him he made him the higher and me the lower.
37And I swear unto thee that I shall love him, and not desire evil against him all the days of my life but good only."
38And he sware unto her regarding all this matter.
39And she called Jacob before the eyes of Esau, and gave him commandment according to the words which she had spoken to Esau.
40And he said: "I shall do thy pleasure; believe me that no evil will proceed from me or from my sons against Esau, and I shall be first in naught save in love only."
41And they ate and drank, she and her sons that night, and she died, three jubilees and one week and one year old, on that night,
42and her two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried her in the double cave near Sarah, their father's mother.