Jubilees 35

1And in the first year of the first week, in the forty-fifth jubilee, Rebekah called Jacob her son and instructed him concerning his father and concerning his brother, that he should honor them all the days of his life.

2And Jacob said to her, "I will do all that you have commanded me, for this matter will be an honor and greatness to me, and righteousness before God, that I should honor them."

3And you, my son, know from the day you were born until this day, all my deeds and all that is in my heart, that I love your father exceedingly.

4that is in my heart: that all my days I think good for all. And why should I not do this thing?

5which you commanded me: that I should honor my father and my brother. Tell me, then, what crookedness you have seen in me;

6And she said to him, “My son, all my days I have not seen in you any deed of crookedness, but only uprightness. Yet I will tell you the truth, my son: I shall die in this year, and I shall not live beyond this year, for I saw in a dream the day of my death, that I would not live beyond one hundred and fifty-five years.”

7And behold, I have completed all the days of my life that I was to live.” And Jacob laughed because of the words of his mother, because his mother had told him that she would die, yet she remained opposite him, and her strength was upon her, and she had not grown weak in strength, for she went in and went out and saw,

8and her teeth were strong, and no sickness at all had come upon her in all the days of her life. And Jacob said to her, “Blessed am I, mother, if my days draw near to the days of your life, and if my strength remains upon me like this, according to your strength. You will not die, for you speak with me in vain concerning your death.”

9And she went in to Isaac and said to him, “I ask one request of you: make Esau swear that he will not devise evil against Jacob and will not pursue him in hostility, for you know Esau’s mind, that he has been cruel from his youth, and there is no goodness in him, for he desires

10He will kill him after your death. And you know all that he has done from the day his brother Jacob went to Haran until this day, how with all his heart he has forsaken us and has done

11He has dealt wickedly with us; he has gathered your flocks, and he has plundered all your possessions from before your face. And while we ask and request from him what is ours, he acts like a man who has mercy on us.

12And he is bitter against you because you blessed Jacob, your perfect and upright son; for there is no evil at all in him, but only goodness. And from the time he came from Haran until this day he has not deprived us of anything, for everything comes to us in its time every day, and he rejoices with all his heart whenever we receive from his hand, and he blesses us. He has not separated himself from us from the time he came from Haran until this day, and he dwells with us continually in the house while honoring us.”

13And Isaac said to her, “I also know and see Jacob’s conduct toward us, that with all his heart he honors us. I loved Esau before Jacob from the time he was born first, but now I love Jacob more than Esau, because he has made his deeds very evil, and there is no righteousness in him, for all his ways are injustice and violence, and there is no righteousness around him.”

14And now my heart is troubled because of all his deeds, and neither he nor his seed will be saved, for they are those who will be destroyed from the earth and those who will be uprooted from under heaven, because he has forsaken the God of Abraham and gone after his wives and after

15their uncleanness and after their error, he and his children. And you tell me to make him swear that he will not kill Jacob his brother. Even if he swears, he will not keep his oath, nor will he do anything but evil. And if he desires to kill Jacob his brother, he will be given into Jacob’s hand, and he will not escape from his hand, for he will fall into his hand.

16And you, do not fear for Jacob, for Jacob’s guardian is great and mighty and honored, and more praised than Esau’s guardian.” And Rebekah sent and called Esau, and he came to her. And she said to him, “My son, I ask one request from you; say that you will do it, my son.”

17And he said, “I will do everything that you ask, and I will not refuse your request.” And she said to him, “I ask from you that on the day I die you will carry me and bury me near Sarah, the mother of your father, and that you and Jacob will love one another,

18and neither will seek evil against his brother, but only love, so that you may prosper, my sons, and be honored in the midst of the land, and no enemy may rejoice over you, and you may become a blessing and a mercy before the eyes of all who love you.”

19And he said, “I will do everything that you have told me, and I will bury you on the day of your death near Sarah, my father’s mother, just as you have desired, so that her bones may be near your bones.”

20And Jacob my brother—I love him more than all flesh, and I have no brother in all the earth except him alone. And this is no great thing for me, that I should love him, for he is my brother, and together we were sown in your womb, and together we came out from your belly. And if I do not love my brother, whom shall I love?

21And I myself ask you that you admonish Jacob concerning me and concerning my children, for I know that he will surely reign over me and over my children, because on the day my father blessed him he made him high and me low.

22And I swear to you that I will love him, and that I will not seek evil against him all the days of my life, but only good.” And he swore to her concerning all this matter.

23And she called Jacob before Esau’s eyes and instructed him according to the words that she had spoken with Esau. And he said, “I will do your pleasure. Trust me that no evil may come out from me or from my children against Esau, and I will not be first in anything except in love.”

24And they ate and drank, she and her sons, that night; and she died in that night, in the third year of the seventh week of the forty-first jubilee. And her two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried her in the double cave near Sarah, the mother of their father.

25And in the sixth year of this week Isaac called his two sons, Esau and Jacob, and they came to him. And he said to them, “My sons, I am going on the way of my fathers, to the eternal house where my fathers are.

26Bury me near Abraham my father in the double cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, which Abraham acquired as a burial place there in the land of Canaan. In the tomb which I dug for myself there, bury me.

27And I command you, my sons: do righteousness and uprightness on the earth, so that Yahweh may bring upon you all that Yahweh said he would do for Abraham and for his seed.

28And love one another, my sons, among yourselves, each loving his brother as a man loves his own life, and let a man seek—”