Jubilees

And in the first year of the forty-fifth jubilee, Rebekah called Jacob, her son, and commanded him concerning his father and his brother, that he should honor them all the days of his life.

And Jacob said: "I will do everything as you have commanded me; because this will be an honor and greatness for me, and righteousness before the Lord, that I honor them.

And you, mother, know from the day I was born until this day, all my works and everything in my heart, that I always think well of all.

And how could I not do this which you command me, that I should honor my father and my brother!

Tell me, mother, what perversity have you seen in me that I should turn away from it and mercy be upon me?"

And she said to him: "My son, I have not seen in you all my days any perversity, but only deeds of uprightness. And I will tell you the truth, my son; I will die this year, and I will not survive this year of my life; because I saw in a dream the day of my death, that I would not live beyond one hundred and fifty-five years, and behold, I have completed all the days of my life that I have to live."

And Jacob laughed at his mother's words because she told him that she would die; and she was sitting opposite him and in possession of her strength, and she was not sick in her strength; because she went in and out and saw, and her teeth were strong, and no disease had touched her all the days of her life.

And Jacob said to her: "Blessed am I, my mother, if my days approach the days of your life, and my strength continue with me as your strength, and you will not die, because you are jesting idly with me concerning your death."

And she went to Isaac and said to him: "One request I make of you: make Esau swear that he will not harm Jacob, nor persecute him with enmity; because you know that Esau's thoughts are perverse from his youth, and there is no goodness in him; because he desires after your death to kill him.

And you know everything he has done from the day that Jacob, his brother, went to Haran until this day. How he has abandoned us with all his heart, and done us harm; your flocks of sheep he has taken for himself, and taken all your possessions from before your face.

And when we implored and begged for what was ours, he did like a man who is having pity on us.

And he is embittered against you because you blessed Jacob, your perfect and upright son; because there is no wickedness, but only goodness in him, and since he came from Haran until this day he has not stolen anything from us, because he brings us everything in his season always, and rejoices with all his heart when we take from his hands and he blesses us, and he has not left us since he returned from Haran until this day, and he remains with us continually in the house honoring us."

And Isaac said to her: "I also know and see the works of Jacob that righteousness is in him, because all his ways are injustice and violence.

And now my heart is afflicted because of all his works, and neither he nor his descendants shall be saved, because they are of those who shall be destroyed from the earth and of those who shall be exterminated from under heaven, because he abandoned the God of Abraham and followed after his wives and after their filthiness and after their error, he and his sons.

And you ask me to make him swear that he will not kill Jacob his brother; even if he swears he will not keep his oath, and he will not do good, but only evil.

But if he wishes to kill his brother Jacob, into the hands of Jacob he shall be delivered, and he shall not escape from his hands.

And do not fear you because of Jacob; because the guardian of Jacob is great, powerful and honored, and more blessed than the guardian of Esau!"

And Rebekah sent and called Esau and he came to her, and she said to him: "I have a request, my son, to make of you, and you promise me that you will do it, my son."

And he said: "I will do all that you say to me, and I will not refuse your request."

And she said to him: "I ask you that on the day I die you take me and bury me near Sarah, your father's wife, and that you and Jacob love one another and neither of you desire evil against the other, but only mutual love, and thus you will prosper, my sons, and be honored in the midst of the earth, and no enemy will rejoice over you, and you will be a blessing and mercy in the eyes of those who love you."

And he said: "I will do as you have asked me, and I will bury you on the day you die near Sarah, my father's mother, as you wish, so that her bones lie near your bones.

And Jacob, my brother, I will also love him above all flesh; because I have no brother in all the earth, but only him. And this is no great merit for me if I love him; because he is my brother, and we were sown together in your body, and together we came out of your womb, and if I do not love my brother, whom shall I love?

And I myself ask you to exhort Jacob concerning me and concerning my sons, because I know that he will surely be king over me and my sons, because on the day my father blessed him he made him the greater and me the lesser.

And I swear to you that I will love him, and will not desire evil against him all the days of my life, but only good." And he swore to her in this manner.

And she called Jacob before the eyes of Esau, and commanded him according to the words she had spoken to Esau.

And he said: "I will do according to your pleasure; believe me, no evil will come from me or my sons against Esau, and that I will not precede with anything, but only in love."

And they ate and drank, she and her sons that night, and she died. Three jubilees and one week and one year of life, that night, and her two sons, Esau and Jacob, buried her in the double cave near Sarah, her father's mother.