Book of Jasher — 1840 English Edition

Book of Jasher — 1840 English Edition 4

CHAPTER IV. 1. And all the days that Enoch lived upon the earth, were three hundred and sixty five years. 2. And when Enoch had ascend- ed into heaven, all the kings of the earth rose and took Methuselah his son and anointed him, and they caused him to reign over them in the place of his father. 3. And Methuselah acted upright- ly in the sight of God, as his father Enoch had taught him, and he like- wise during the whole of his life taught the sons of men wisdom, knowledge and the fear of God, and he did not turn from the good way either to the right or to the left. 4. But in the latter days of Me- thuselah, the sons of men turned from the Lord, they corrupted the earth, they robbed and plundered each otiier, and they rebelled against God and they transgressed, and they corrupted their ways, and would not hearken to the voice of Methuselah, but rebelled against iiim. 5. And the Lord was exceedingly wroth against them, and the Lord continued to destroy the seed in those days, so that there was neither sowing nor reaping in the earth. 6. For when they sowed the ground in order that they might ob- tain food for their support, behold, thorns and thistles were produced which they did not sow. 7. And still the sons of men did not turn from their evil ways, and their hands were still extended to do evil in the sight of God, and they provoked the Lord with their evil ways, and the Lord was very wroth, and repented that he had made man. 8. And he thought to destroy and annihilate them *and he did so. 9. In those days when Lamech the son of Methuselah was one hun- dred and sixty years old, Seth the son of Adam died. 10. And all the days that Seth lived, were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died. 1 1 . And Lamech was one hun- dred and eighty years old when he took Ashmua, the daughter of Elishaa the son of Enoch his uncle, and she conceived. 12. And at that time the sons of men sowed the ground, and a little food was produced, yet the sons of men did not turn from their evil ways, and they trespassed and re- belled against God. 13. And the wife of Lamech conceived and bare him a son at 'Referring to what was shortly to take place ; the flood. ^10 THE BOOK OF JASHER. that time, at the revokition of the year. 14. And Methuselah- called his name Noah, saying, the earth was in his days at rest and free from cor- ruption, and Lamech his father call- ed his name *Menachem, saying, this one shall comfort us in our works and miserable toil in the earth, which God had cursed. 15. And the child grew up and was weaned, and he went in the ways of his father Methuselah, per- fect and upright with God. 16. And all the sons of men depar- ted from the ways of the Lord in those days as they multiplied upon the face of the eartii with sons and daughters, and they taught one another their evil practices, and they continued sinning against the Lord. 17. And every man made unto himself a god, and they robbed and plundered every man his neighbor as well as his relative, and they cor- rupted the earth, and the earth was ■filled with violence. 18. And their judges and rulers went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice, and the sons of men in those days •took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord ; and God saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals. * Menachem sitrnifies a comforter. We have no account in scripture of his being called Me- nachem, although the reason why he might have had that name is given as it is here : " this one will comfort us," {Gen.) which does not so well accord with the name Noah, which means to rest. I 19. And the Lord said, I will blot out man that I created from the face of the earth, yea from man to the birds of the air, together with cattle and beasts that are in the field, for I repent that I made them. 20. And all men who walked in the ways of the Lord, died in those days, before the Lord brought the evil upon man which he had de- clared, for this was from the Lord, that they should not see the evil which the Lord spoke of concerning the sons of men. 21. And Noah foimd grace in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord chose him and his children to raise up seed from them \ipon the face of the whole earth.