Testament of Gad 1

1The copy of the testament of Gad, which he spoke to his sons in the one hundred and twenty-fifth year of his life, saying to them:

2Listen, my children: I was the ninth son born to Jacob, and I was brave over the flocks.

3I therefore guarded the flock by night; and when a lion or a wolf or any wild beast came against the flock, I would chase it down, and overtaking it I would seize its foot with my hand, and hurl it about a stone's throw, and so kill it.

4So Joseph my brother was shepherding all the livestock with us for thirty days, and being young, he was weakened by the heat.

5And he returned to Hebron to our father. And he made him recline near himself, because he loved him very much.

6And Joseph told our father that the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah were slaughtering the best of the livestock and eating them without the consent of Reuben and Judah.

7For he had seen that I rescued a lamb from the mouth of a bear, and I killed her, but I slaughtered the lamb — over which I grieved, because it could not live — and we ate it.

8And beyond this I was angry with Joseph until the day of his being sold.

9And the spirit of hatred was in me, and I did not want to perceive Joseph, neither through hearing nor through sight, because he rebuked us to our face, saying that we were eating the livestock without Judah. For in everything he said to our father, he believed him.