Jubilees 37

1On the day Isaac, the father of Jacob and Esau, died, the sons of Esau heard that

2Isaac had given the rights of the firstborn to Jacob his younger son, and they were exceedingly angry. And they contended with their father, saying, "Why, did he give the rights of the firstborn to Jacob, who is younger, while you are the elder, and leave you aside?"

3"Jacob is younger; to Jacob your father gave the birthright, and you he abandoned." And Esau said to them, "For I sold my birthright to Jacob for a little dish of lentil stew. And on the day my father sent me to hunt and bring him game, so that he might eat and bless me, Jacob came by craftiness and brought my father food and drink, and my father blessed him and set me under his hand. And now our father has made us swear, me and him, that we will not seek evil, each against his brother."

4Yet now our father has made us swear, me and him, that we should not seek evil, each against his brother,

5and that we should remain in love and in peace, a man with his brother, and not corrupt our ways." But they said to him, "We will not listen to you to make peace with him, for our strength is stronger than his strength, and we are stronger than he. Go up against him, and let us kill him and destroy his sons. But if you will not go

6with us, we will harm you also. And now listen to us: let us send to Aram and to Philistia and to Moab and to Ammon, and let us choose for ourselves select men, eager for battle, and let us go against him and fight with him and uproot him from the land before he grows strong."

7And their father said to them, "Do not go, and do not make war with him, lest you fall."

8But they said to him, "This is how you have acted from your youth until this day, and you

9and bow your neck under his yoke. We will not listen to this word." And they sent to Aram, and to Aduram, the friend of their father, and they hired with them one thousand warriors for battle.

10And there came to them from Moab and from the sons of Ammon one thousand chosen men who were hired; and from Philistia one thousand chosen men fit for war; and from Edom and from the Horites one thousand chosen men trained for battle; and from the Kittim strong men fit for war.

11And they said to their father, "Go out with them and lead them; and if not,

12we will kill you." And he was filled with wrath and indignation when he saw that his sons were forcing him to go before them and lead them to Jacob his brother.

13He went in front to lead them to Jacob his brother. Then he remembered all the evil that had been hidden in his heart against Jacob his brother, and he did not remember the oath that he had sworn to his father and to his mother, that he would not seek any evil against Jacob all his days.

14Throughout all this, Jacob did not know that they were coming against him to kill him. And he was mourning for Leah his wife until they came near to the tower with four thousand men, warriors and chosen fighters. And they sent to him honorable men, saying, "Behold, your brother has come against you to fight you, with four hundred men girded with the sword, and they carry shields and weapons of war." For they loved Jacob more than Esau, and they told him that Jacob was a gracious and merciful man, more than Esau. Then Jacob was alarmed when they came near to the tower, and he shut the gates of the tower and stood on the battlements and spoke with his brother Esau and said, "The comfort for which you have come is a fine comfort, to comfort me concerning my wife who has died. Is this the oath that you swore to your father and your mother? Again, before they have died, you have broken the oath, and at the moment you swore to your father you were condemned." And at that time Esau answered and said to him, "There is no righteous oath for the sons of men, nor for the beasts of the earth; for whatever they swear, they scheme one against another with evil, so that each may kill his enemy and foe. And you hate me and my children forever, and there is no observing brotherhood with you. Hear this word that I declare to you: if the boar can change its skin and its bristles become soft like wool, or if horns grow on its head like the horns of a stag or a sheep, then I will keep brotherhood with you. And if the breasts separated from their mother should return and suckle again, then I will be reconciled to you as a brother. And if wolves make peace with lambs so as not to devour or oppress them, and if their hearts are good toward them, then there will be peace in my heart toward you. And if the lion becomes the friend of the ox and is bound together with it under one yoke and plows with it and makes peace with it, then I will make peace with you. And when the raven becomes white like the raza-bird, then I will know that I have loved you and will make peace with you. Be destroyed, and may your sons be destroyed, and let there be no peace for you." And when Jacob saw that he was evil in his heart toward him, and with all his soul intended to kill him, and that he came raging like a wild boar rushing upon the spear that pierces and kills it and does not turn back from it, then he said to his own and to his servants that they should attack him and all his companions.

15Then Judah said to Jacob his father, saying to him, "Bend your bow, father, and send out your arrows and strike down the enemy and kill the adversary; and may you have strength, for we will not kill your brother, because he is such, and because he is your kinsman we will give him honor." Then Jacob bent his bow and sent forth an arrow and struck Esau his brother on his right breast and killed him. And again he sent an arrow and struck Adoran the Aramean on the left breast and drove him back and killed him. Then the sons of Jacob and their servants went out from the four sides of the tower. And Judah went out first, and Naphtali and Gad with him, and fifty servants with him, on the south side of the tower, and they killed all whom they found before them, and not one of them escaped. And Levi and Dan and Asher went out on the east side of the tower, and fifty men with them, and they killed the warriors of Moab and Ammon. And Reuben and Issachar and Zebulun went out on the north side of the tower, and fifty men with them, and they killed the fighters of Philistia. And Simeon and Benjamin and Enoch the son of Reuben went out on the west side of the tower, and fifty men with them, and they killed of Edom and of the Horites four hundred strong and warlike men. And six hundred fled, and four of Esau’s sons fled with them, and they left their father lying slain, as he had fallen on the hill that is in Adurim. And the sons of Jacob pursued after them as far as Mount Seir. But Jacob buried his brother in the hill that is in Adurim, and he returned to his house, and they comforted him there.