Codex: Testament of the 12 Patriarchs
Book: Testament of Judah
Judah, the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. He is the giant, athlete, warrior; he recounts heroic deeds. He runs so fast that he can outstrip a hind.
1:1 THE copy of the words of Judah, what things he spake to his sons before he died.
1:2 They gathered themselves together, therefore, and came to him, and he said to them: Hearken, my children, to Judah your father.
1:3 I was the fourth son born to my father Jacob; and Leah my mother named me Judah, saying, I give thanks to the Lord, because He hath given me a fourth son also.
1:4 I was swift in my youth, and obedient to my father in everything.
1:5 And I honoured my mother and my mother's sister.
1:6 And it came to pass, when I became a man, that my father blessed me, saying, Thou shalt be a king, prospering in all things.
1:7 And the Lord showed me favour in all my works both in the field and in the house.
1:8 I know that I raced a hind, and caught it, and prepared the meat for my father, and he did eat.
1:9 And the roes I used to master in the chase, and overtake all that was in the plains.
1:10 A wild mare I overtook, and caught it and tamed it.
1:11 I slew a lion and plucked a kid out of its mouth.
1:12 I took a bear by its paw and hurled it down the cliff, and it was crushed.
1:13 I outran the wild boar, and seizing it as I ran, I tore it in sunder.
1:14 A leopard in Hebron leaped upon my dog, and I caught it by the tail, and hurled it on the rocks, and it was broken in twain
1:15 I found a wild ox feeding in the fields, and seizing it by the horns, and whirling it round and stunning it, I cast it from me and slew it.
1:16 And when the two kings of the Canaanites came sheathed, in armour against our flocks, and much people with them, single handed I rushed upon the king of Hazor, and smote him on the greives and dragged him down, and so I slew him.
1:17 And the other, the king of Tappuah, as he sat upon his horse, I slew, and so I scattered all his people.
1:18 Achor, the king, a man of giant stature, I found, hurling javelins before and behind as he sat on horseback, and I took up a stone of sixty pounds weight, and hurled it and smote his horse, and killed it.
1:19 And I fought with this other for two hours; and I clave his shield in twain, and I chopped off his feet, and killed him.
1:20 And as I was stripping off his breastplate, behold nine men his companions began to fight with me,
1:21 And I wound my garment on my hand; and I slung stones at them, and killed four of them, and the rest fled.
1:22 And Jacob my father slew Beelesath, king of all the kings, a giant in strength, twelve cubits high.
1:23 And fear fell upon them, and they ceased warring against us.
1:24 Therefore my father was free from anxiety in the wars when I was with my brethren.
1:25 For he saw in a vision concerning me that an angel of might followed me everywhere, that I should not be overcome.
1:26 And in the south there came upon us a greater war than that in Shechem; and I joined in battle array with my brethren, and pursued a thousand men, and slew of them two hundred men and four kings.
1:27 And I went up upon the wall, and I slew four mighty men.
1:28 And so we captured Hazor, and took all the spoil.
1:29 And the next day we departed to Aretan, a city strong and walled and inaccessible, threatening us with death.
1:30 But I and Gad approached on the east side of the city, and Reuben and Levi on the west.
1:31 And they that were upon the wall, thinking that we were alone, were drawn down against us.
1:32 And so my brothers secretly climbed up the wall on both sides by stakes, and entered the city, while the men knew it not.
1:33 And we took it with the edge of the sword.
1:34 And as for those who had taken refuge in the tower, we set fire to the tower and took both it and, them.
1:35 And as we were departing the men of Tappuah seized our spoil, and seeing this we fought with them.
1:36 And we slew them. all and recovered our spoil.
1:37 And when I was at the waters of Kozeba, the men of Jobel came against us to battle.
1:38 And we fought with them and routed them; and their allies from Shiloh we slew, and we did not leave them power to come in against us.
1:39 And the men of Makir came upon us the fifth day, to seize our spoil; and we attacked them and overcame them in fierce battle: for there was a host of mighty men amongst them, and we slew them before they had gone up the ascent.
1:40 And when we came to their city their women rolled upon us stones from the brow of the hill on which the city stood.
1:41 And I and Simeon had ourselves behind the town, and seized upon the heights, and destroyed this city also.
1:42 And the next day it was told us that the king of the city of Gaash with. a mighty host was coming against us.
1:43 I, therefore, and Dan feigned ourselves to be Amorites, and as allies went into their city.
1:44 And in the depth of night our brethren came and we opened to them the gates; and we destroyed all the men and their substance, and we took for a prey all that was theirs, and their three walls we cast down.
1:45 And we drew near to Thamna, where was all the substance of the hostile kings.
1:46 Then being insulted by them, I was therefore wroth, and rushed against them to the summit; and they kept slinging against me stones and darts.
1:47 And had not Dan my brother aided me, they would have slain me.
1:48 We came upon them, therefore, with wrath, and they all fled; and passing by another way, they fought my father, and he made peace with them.
1:49 And we did to them no hurt, and they became tributary to us, and we restored to them their spoil.
1:50 And I built Thamna, and my father built Pabael.
1:51 I was twenty years old when this war befell. And the Canaanites feared me and my brethren.
1:52 And I had much cattle, and I had for chief herdsman Iram the Adullamite.
1:53 And when I went to him I saw Parsaba, king of Adullam; and he spake unto us, and he made us a feast; and when I was heated he gave me his daughter Bathshua to wife.
1:54 She bare me Er, and Onan and Shelah; and two of them the Lord smote: for Shelah lived, and his children are ye.
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