Isaac's Last Words and Admonitions: his Death. The Death of Leah (xxxvi. 1-24).

2162 A.M.

XXXVI. And in the sixth year of this week Isaac called his two sons, Esau and Jacob, and they came to him, and he said unto them: "My sons, I am going the way of my fathers, to the eternal house 2 where my fathers are. 2. Wherefore bury me near Abraham my father, in the double cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, where Abraham purchased a sepulchre to bury in; in the sepulchre which I digged for myself, there bury me. 3. And this I command you, my sons, that ye practise righteousness and uprightness on the earth, so that the Lord may bring upon you all that the Lord said that he would do to Abraham and to his seed. 4. And love one another, my sons, your brothers 3 as a man who loveth his own soul, and let each seek in what he may benefit his brother, and act together on the earth; and let them love each other as their own souls. 5. And concerning the question of idols, I command and admonish you to reject them and hate them, and love them not; for they are full of deception for those that worship them and for those that bow down to them. 6. Remember ye, my sons, the Lord God of Abraham your father, and how I too worshipped Him and served Him in righteousness and in joy, that He might multiply you and increase your seed as the stars of heaven in multitude, and establish you on the earth as the plant of righteousness 4 which will not be rooted out unto all the generations for ever. 7. And now I shall make you swear a great oath--for there is no oath which is greater than it by the name glorious and honoured

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and great and splendid and wonderful and mighty, which created the heavens and the earth and all things together--that ye will fear Him and worship Him. 8. And that each will love his brother with affection and righteousness, and that neither will desire evil against his brother from henceforth for ever all the days of your life, so that ye may prosper in all your deeds and not be destroyed. 9. And if either of you deviseth evil against his brother, know that from henceforth every one that deviseth evil against his brother will fall into his hand, and will be rooted out of the land of the living, and his seed will be destroyed from under heaven. 10. But on the day of turbulence and execration and indignation and anger, with flaming devouring fire as He burnt Sodom, so likewise will He burn his land and his city and all that is his, and he will be blotted out of the book of the discipline of the children of men, and not be recorded in the book of life, 1 but in that which is appointed to destruction, and he will depart into eternal execration; so that their condemnation may be always renewed in hate and in execration and in wrath and in torment and in indignation and in plagues and in disease for ever. 11. I say and testify to you, my sons, according to the judgment which will come upon the man who wisheth to injure his brother." 12. And he divided all his possessions between the two on that day, and he gave the larger portion to him that was the first-born, and the tower and all that was about it, and all that Abraham possessed at the Well of the Oath. 13. And he said, "This larger portion I shall give to the first-born." 14. And Esau said, "I have sold to Jacob and given my birthright to Jacob; to him let it be given, and I have not a single word to say regarding it, for it is his." 15. And Isaac said, "May a blessing rest upon you, my sons, and upon your seed this day, for ye have given me rest, and my heart is not pained concerning the birthright, lest thou shouldest work wickedness on account

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of it. 16. May the Most High God 1 bless the man that worketh righteousness, him and his seed for ever." 17. And he ended commanding them and blessing them, and they ate and drank together before him, and he rejoiced because there was one mind between them, and they went forth from him and rested that day and slept. 18. And Isaac slept on his bed that day rejoicing; and he slept the eternal sleep, and died one hundred and eighty years old. He completed twenty-five weeks and five years; and his two sons Esau and Jacob buried him. 2 19. And Esau went to the land of Edom, to the mountains of Seir, and dwelt there. 20. And Jacob dwelt in the mountains of Hebron, in the tower of the land of the sojournings of his father Abraham, and he worshipped the Lord with all his heart and according to the visible commands according as He had divided the days of his generations. 3 21. And Leah his wife died

2167 A.M.

in the fourth year of the second week of the forty-fifth jubilee, and he buried her in the double cave near Rebecca his mother, to the left of the grave of Sarah, his father's mother. 22. And all her sons and his sons came to mourn over Leah his wife with him, and to comfort him regarding her, for he was lamenting her. 23. For he loved her exceedingly after Rachel her sister died; for she was perfect and upright in all her ways and honoured Jacob, and all the days that she lived with him he did not hear from her mouth a harsh word, for she was gentle and peaceable and upright and honourable. 24. And he remembered all her deeds which she had done during her life, and he lamented her exceedingly; for he loved her with all his heart and with all his soul.

Footnotes

176:2 Cf. Eccles. xii. 5 ("man goeth to his long home," lit. "to his eternal house").

176:3 "Your brothers" probably a gloss.

176:4 Cf. i. 16, xvi. 26, xxi. 24.

177:1 Cf. XXX. 22.

178:1 This divine title occurs frequently in our Book, and in Ecclus. (48 times), and Daniel (13 times). In the Pentateuch, outside Gen. xiv. (where it occurs four times), it is only found twice. Its use was revived in Ap. Bar. (23 times), and in 4 Ezra.

178:2 Cf. Gen. xxxv. 29.

178:3 These commands had been made visible to Jacob on the seven tables which the angel had shown him in a vision; Cf. xxxii. 21.