Testament of Gad 5

1Hatred, then, is evil, because it continually associates with falsehood, speaking against the truth; it makes small things great, presents light as darkness, and calls the sweet bitter. It teaches slander, stirs up wrath and war, and fills the heart with insolence and every greed, with evils and a devilish poison.

2Therefore I say these things to you from experience, my children, so that you may drive out devilish hatred and cling to the love of God.

3Righteousness casts out hatred, and humility removes jealousy. For the righteous man, being humble, is ashamed to do what is unjust, not because he is condemned by another, but by his own heart, because the Lord watches over his soul.

4He does not speak against a holy man, because the fear of God dwells in him.

5For, fearing lest he offend the Lord, he does not wish at all, not even in thought, to wrong a man.

6These things I learned at last after I repented concerning Joseph.

7For true repentance according to God [removes ignorance and] puts darkness to flight, enlightens the eyes, gives knowledge to the soul, and guides the mind toward salvation.

8And he did not learn this from men, but through repentance he knows how to receive those who turn back.

9For God brought upon me a disease of the liver, and if the prayers of my father had not helped me, my spirit would almost have failed.

10For by the very things through which a man transgresses, through those he is punished.

11Since, then, my liver was pitilessly set against Joseph, I too, suffering in my liver, was judged pitilessly for ten years.