Moses receives the tables of the law and instruction on past and future history which he is to inscribe
in a book, 1-4. Apostasy of Israel,5-9. Captivity of Israel and Judah, 10-13. Return of
Judah and rebuilding of the temple, 15-18. Moses' prayer for Israel, 19-21. God's promise to
redeem and dwell with them, 22-5, 28. Moses bidden to write down the future history of the
world (the Book of Jubilees?), 26. And an angel to write down the law, 27. This angel takes
the heavenly chronological tablets to dictate therefrom to Moses, 29.
THIS is the history of the division of the days of the law and of the testimony, of the events of the
years, of their (year) weeks, of their Jubilees throughout all the years of the world, as the Lord
spake to Moses on Mount Sinai when he went up to receive the tables of the law and of the
commandment, according to the voice of God as he said unto him, 'Go up to the top of the
Mount.'
[Chapter 1]
- And it came to pass in the first year of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt,
in the third month, on the sixteenth day of the month, [2450 Anno Mundi] that God spake to
Moses, saying: 'Come up to Me on the Mount, and I will give thee two tables of stone of the law
and of the commandment, which
I have written, that thou mayst teach them.'
- And Moses went up into the mount of God,
and the
glory of the Lord abode on Mount Sinai, and a cloud overshadowed it six days.
- And He
called to Moses on the seventh day out of the midst of the cloud, and the appearance of the glory
of the
Lord was like a flaming fire on the top of the mount.
- And Moses was on the Mount
forty days and forty nights, and God taught him the earlier and the later history of the division of
all the days
of the law and of the testimony.
- And He said: 'Incline thine heart to every word which I
shall speak to thee on this mount, and write them in a book in order that their generations may see
how I have not forsaken them for all the evil which they have wrought in transgressing the
covenant
which I establish between Me and thee for their generations this day on Mount Sinai.
- And thus it will come to pass when all these things come upon them, that they will recognise that
I am more righteous than they in all their judgments and in all their actions, and they will
recognise that
I have been truly with them.
- And do thou write for thyself all these words which I
declare unto, thee this day, for I know their rebellion and their stiff neck, before I bring them into
the land of which I sware to their fathers, to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, saying: ' Unto
your seed
will I give a land flowing with milk and honey.
- And they will eat and be satisfied, and
they will turn to strange gods, to (gods) which cannot deliver them from aught of their tribulation:
and this witness shall be heard for a witness against them. For they will forget all My
commandments, (even) all that I command them, and they will walk after the Gentiles, and after
their uncleanness, and after their shame, and will serve their gods, and these will
prove unto them an offence and a tribulation and an affliction and a snare.
- And many
will perish and they will be taken captive, and will fall into the hands of the enemy, because they
have forsaken My ordinances and My commandments, and the festivals of My covenant, and My
sabbaths, and My holy place which I have hallowed for Myself in their midst, and My tabernacle,
and My sanctuary, which I have hallowed for Myself in the midst of the land, that I should set my
name
upon it, and that it should dwell (there).
- And they will make to themselves high places
and groves and graven images, and they will worship, each his own (graven image), so as to go
astray, and they
will sacrifice their children to demons, and to all the works of the error of their hearts.
- And I will send witnesses unto them, that I may witness against them, but they will not hear, and
will slay the witnesses also, and they will persecute those who seek the law, and they will abrogate
and change
everything so as to work evil before My eyes.
- And I will hide My face from them, and I
will deliver them into the hand of the Gentiles for captivity, and for a prey, and for devouring, and
I will remove them from the midst of the land, and I will scatter them amongst the Gentiles.
- And they will forget all My law and all My commandments and all My judgments, and
will go
astray as to new moons, and sabbaths, and festivals, and jubilees, and ordinances.
- And
after this they will turn to Me from amongst the Gentiles with all their heart and with all their soul
and with all their strength, and I will gather them from amongst all the Gentiles, and they will seek
me, so
that I shall be found of them, when they seek me with all their heart and with all their
soul.
- And I will disclose to them abounding peace with righteousness, and I will remove them the
plant of uprightness, with all My heart and with all My soul, and they shall be for a blessing and
not for
a curse, and they shall be the head and not the tail.
- And I will build My sanctuary in
their midst, and I will dwell with them, and I will be their God and they shall be My people in
truth and
righteousness.
- And I will not forsake them nor fail them; for I am the Lord their
God.'
- And Moses fell on his face and prayed and said, 'O Lord my God, do not forsake Thy
people and Thy inheritance, so that they should wander in the error of their hearts, and do not
deliver them into the hands of their enemies, the Gentiles, lest they should rule over them and
cause them to sin against
Thee.
- Let thy mercy, O Lord, be lifted up upon Thy people, and create in them an
upright spirit, and let not the spirit of Beliar rule over them to accuse them before Thee, and to
ensnare them
from all the paths of righteousness, so that they may perish from before Thy face.
- But
they are Thy people and Thy inheritance, which thou hast delivered with thy great power from the
hands of the Egyptians: create in them a clean heart and a holy spirit, and let them not be ensnared
in
their sins from henceforth until eternity.'
- And the Lord said unto Moses: 'I know their
contrariness and their thoughts and their stiffneckedness, and they will not be obedient till they
confess
their own sin and the sin of their fathers.
- And after this they will turn to Me in all
uprightness and with all (their) heart and with all (their) soul, and I will circumcise the foreskin of
their heart and the foreskin of the heart of their seed, and I will create in them a holy spirit, and I
will cleanse them so that they shall not turn away from Me from that day unto eternity.
- And their souls will cleave to Me and to all My commandments, and they will fulfil My
commandments, and I will be their Father and they shall be My children.
- And they all
shall be called children of the living God, and every angel and every spirit shall know, yea, they
shall know that these are My children, and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness,
and that
I love them.
- And do thou write down for thyself all these words which I declare unto
thee on this mountain, the first and the last, which shall come to pass in all the divisions of the
days in the law and in the testimony and in the weeks and the jubilees unto eternity, until I
descend and dwell
with them throughout eternity.'
- And He said to the angel of the presence: Write for
Moses from
the beginning of creation till My sanctuary has been built among them for all eternity.
- And the Lord will appear to the eyes of all, and all shall know that I am the God of Israel and the
Father of all the children of Jacob, and King on Mount Zion for all eternity. And Zion and
Jerusalem shall
be holy.'
- And the angel of the presence who went before the camp of Israel took the
tables of the divisions of the years -from the time of the creation- of the law and of the testimony
of the weeks of the jubilees, according to the individual years, according to all the number of the
jubilees [according, to the individual years], from the day of the [new] creation when the heavens
and the earth shall be renewed and all their creation according to the powers of the heaven, and
according to all the creation of the earth, until the sanctuary of the Lord shall be made in
Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and all the luminaries be renewed for healing and for peace and for
blessing for all the elect of Israel, and that thus it may be from that day and unto all the days of the
earth.
Chapter: 1 | 2 | 3 |
4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 |
38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 |
44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 |
50
From The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament
by R.H. Charles, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913
Scanned and Edited by Joshua Williams, Northwest Nazarene College