Book of Jasher — 1840 English Edition

Book of Jasher — 1840 English Edition 7

CHAPTER VIL 1. And these are the names of the sons of Noah : Japheth, Ham and Shem ; and children were born to them after the flood, for they had taken wives before the flood. 2. Tiiese are the sons of Japheth ; Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tu- bal, Meshech and Tiras, seven sons. 3. And the sons of Gomer were Askinaz, Rephath and Tegarmah. 4. And the sons of Magog were Elichanaf and Lubal. 5. And the children of Madai were Achon, Zeelo, Chazoni and Lot. 6. And the sons of Javan were Elisha, Tarshish, Chittim and Dudo- nim. 7. And the sons of Tubal w^ere Ariphi, Kesed and Taari. 8. And the sons of Meshech were Dedon, Zaron and Shebashni. 9. And the sons of Tiras were Benib, Gera, Lupirion and Gilak ; these are the sons of Japheth ac- cording to their families, and their numbers in those days were about four hundred and sixty men. 10. And these are the sons of Ham ; Cush, Mitzraim, Phut and Canaan, four sons ; and the sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama and Satecha, and the sons o-f Raama were Sheba and Dedan. 1 ] . And the sons of Mitzraim were Lud, Anom and Pathros, Chas- loth and Chaphtor. 12. And the sons of Phut were Gebul , Hadan, Benah and Adan. 16 THE BOOK OF JASHER. 13. And the sons of Canaan were Zidon, Heth, Amori, Gergashi, Hivi, Arkee, Seni, Arodi, Zimodi and Chamothi. 14. These are the sons of Ham, according to their famihes, and their numbers in those days were about seven hundred and thirty men. 15. And these are the sons of Shem; Elam, Ashur, Arpachshad, Lud and Aram, five sons ; and the sons of Elam were Shushan, Ma- chul and Harmon. 16. And the sons of Ashar were Mirus and Mokil, and the sons of Arpachshad were Shelach, Anar and Ashcol. 17. And the sons of Lud were Pethor and Bizayon, and the sons of Aram were Uz, Chul, Gather and Mash. 18. These are the sons of Ham, according to their famihes ; and their numbers in those days were about three hundred men. 19. These are the generations of him until he Shem; Shem begat Arpachshad and; 27. And i Terah, and Terah was thirty-eight years old, and he begat Haran and Nahor. 23. And Cush the son of Ham, the son of Noah, took a wife in those days, in his old age, and she bare a son, and they called his name Nimrod, saying, at that time the sons of men again began to rebel and transgress against God, and the child grew up, and his father loved him exceedingly, for he was the son of his old age. 24. And the garments of skin which God made for Adam and his wife, when they went out of the garden, were given to Cush. 25. For after the death of Adam and his wife, the garments were giv- en to Enoch, the son of Jered, and when Enoch was taken up to God, he gave them to Methuselah, his son. 26. And at the death of Methuse- lah, Noah took them and brought them to the ark, and they were with went out of the ark. their going out. Ham Arpachshad begat Shelach, and '• stole those garments from Noah his Shelach begat Eber and to Eber father, and he took them and hid were born two children, the name of them from his brothers, one was Peleg, for in his days the ' 28. And when Ham begat his sons of men were divided, and in : first born Cush, he gave him the the latter days, the earth was divi- 1 garments in secret, and they were ded 20. And the name of the second was Yoktan, meaning that in his day the lives of the sons of men Yv'ere diminished and lessened. 21, These are the sons of Yok- tan; Almodad, Shelaf, Chazarmov with Cush many days. 29. And Cush also concealed them from his sons and brothers, and when Cush had begotten Nimrod, he gave him those garments through his love for him, and Nimrod grew up, and when he was twenty years eth, Yerach, Hadurom, Ozel, Diklah, ; old he piU on those garments. Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, HaV' ilah and Jobab ; all these are the sons of Yoktan. 22. And Peleg his brother begat Yen, and Yen begat Serug, and Se- riig begat Nahor, and Nahor begat 30. And Nimrod became strong when he put on the garments, and God gave him might and strength, and he was a mighty hunter in the earth, yea, he was a mighty hunter in the field, and he hunted the ani- THE BOOK OF JASHER. 17 mals and he built altars, and he of- fered upon them the animals before the Lord. 31. And Nimrod Strengthened himself, and he rose up from amongst his brethren, and he fought the bat- tles of his brethren against all their enemies round about. 32. And the Lord delivered all the enemies of his brethren in his hands, and God prospered him from time to time in his battles, and he reigned upon earth, 33. Therefore it became current in those days, when a man ushered forth those that he liad trained up for battle, he would say to them, like God did to Nimrod, who was a mighty hunter in the earth, and who succeeded in the battles that prevail- ed against his brethren, that he de- livered them from the hands of their enemies, so may God strengthen us and deliver us this day. 34. And when Nimrod was forty years old, at that lime there was a war between his brethren and the children of Japhelh, so that they were in the power of their enemies. 35. And Nimrod went forth at that time, and he assembled all the sons of Cush and their families, about four hundred and sixty men, and he hired also from some of his friends and acquaintances about eighty men, and he gave them their hire, and he went with them to bat- tle, and when he was on the road, Nimrod strengthened the hearts of the people that went with him. 36. And he said to them, do not fear, neither be alarmed, for all our enemies will be delivered into our hands, and you may do with them as you please. 37. And all the men that went were about five hundred, and they 2 fought against their enemies, and they destroyed them, and subdued them, and Nimrod placed standing ofhcers over them in their respective places, 38. And he look some of their children as security, and they were all servants to Nimrod and to his brethren, and Nimrod and all the people that were with him turned homeward, 39. And when Nimrod had joy- fully returned from battle, after having conquered his enemies, all his breth- ren, together with those who knew him before, assembled to make him king over them, and ihey placed the regal crown upon his head, 40. And he set over his subjects and people, princes, judges and rulers, as is the custom amongst kings, 41. And he placed Terah the son of Nahor the prince of his host, and he dignified him and elevated him above all his princes. 42. And whilst he was reigning according to his heart's desire, after having conquered all his enemies around, he advised with his counsel- lors to build a city for his palace, and they did so. 43. And they found a large valley opposite to the east, and they built him a large and extensive city, and Nimrod called the name of the city that he built iShinar, for the Lord had vehemently shaken his enemies and destroyed them, 44. And Nimrod dwelt in Shinar, and he reigned securely, and he fought with his enemies and he sub- dued them, and he prospered in all his battles, and his kingdom became very great. 45. And all nations and tongues heard of his fame, and they gathered 18 THE BOOK OF JASHER. themselves* to him, and they bowed down to the earth, and they brought him offerings, and he became their lord and king, and they all dweh with him in the city of Shinar, and Nimrod reigned in the earth over all the sons of Noah, and they were all under his power and counsel. 46. And all the earth was of one tongue and words of union, but Nim- rod did not go in the ways of the Lord, and he was more wicked than all the men that were before him, from the days of the flood until those days. 47. And he made Gods of wood * According to Jasher, (and, I believe, Dr. Clarke gives the same opinion of some Chris- tian commentators,) an inference can be drawn that there was a partial separation of mankind long before the affair at Babel, as the confusion of languages did not take place till about 340 years after the flootl, being the end of Peleg's life, or the 48th year of the life of Abraham ; and having shown that the date of Abraham's birth should be A. M. 1948 instead of 2008, it will follow that the confusion of Babel took place A. M. 1996. I have no doubt that a se- paration took place before then, until they were reunited under the dominion of Nimrod. Ow- ing to this separation, and their numerous in- crease, their having no regular form of govern- ment, and particularly their petty v^-ars among each other, their first language would branch out into many variations, but still near enough to the original to be understood by each other, and sufficiently altered to be called different tongues ; and as a number of families might, by co-operating together, be called a petty nation, so would some alteration in their speech, or tongue, be sufficient to distinguish them. Ja- sher tells us, that when Nimrod was 40 years old, there was war between his brethren and the children of Japheth ; (see verse 34;) and that they were under the power of their ene- mies ; that with a few people, (of the children of Cush only,) he made war, and subdued them ; and that they all came to dwell with him in Shinar. I have frequently had to remark that the word all must not in the Hebrew be taken in that latitude, as it would in the modern lan- guages. When a united number is intended to be expressed, the word all is used as in verse 35, when " Nimrod assembled all the sons of Cush, and their families, about four hundred and sixtv men," by this is meant that all fJiosc assem- bled of the families of Gush were four hundred and stone, and he bowed down to them, and he rebelled against the Lord, and taught all his subjects and the people of the earth his wicked ways ; and Mardon his son was more wicked than his father. 48. And every one that heard of the acts of Mardon the son of Nimrod would say, concerning him, from the wicked goeth forth wickedness ; therefore it became a proverb in the whole earth, saying, from the wick- ed goeth forth wickedness, and it was current in the words of mezi from that time to this. and sixty men. Sufficient examples will be found in Jasher as well as in scripture, where So must be understood in this sense. I therefore understand in this verse, not that all mankind came to live in Shinar, but that all those that did come, resided in Shinar. And if, owing to their former separa- tion into petty nations, they must have adopted various dialects sufficient to distinguish them, as Jasher tells us that " all nations and tongues heard his fame," so when they were reuni- ted, and become under one government, not from choice, but from compulsion, then they be- came again of one lip and words of union ; for thus would I translate onnK onaii, commonly translated, and one speech, which is the li- teral translation, meaning that after their ces- sation from war and petty broils, they again spoke in one lip and words of union, in opposi- tion to separate dialects and words of strife. This inference of a former separation will ex- plain that part of the speech of the builders of Babel, " we will build a tower, &.C., &c., lest we be scattered upon the face of the earth," alluding to their former dissensions, by which means they had originally separated, and be- come scattered, but wishing to unite in idolatry, and raise an amazing tower, they hoped it would be the means of uniting the whole race of man- kind under their impious standard. It seems that the famihes of Cush, Mitzraim, Phut and Canaan were the chief instigators to this im- pious act, and that out of all the families then existing, not of Ham only, but the impious of all the families that assembled to the task, were 600,000 men ; and they chose a valley at two days' distance from Shinar, say twenty miles. I have no doubt the numbers of the human race were very considerable at that time, as it was 340 years after the flood, and there was plenty of time for the propagation of men to three or four millions of inhabitants. THE BOOK OF JASHER. 19 49. And Terah the son of Nahor, prince of Nimrod's host, was in those days very great in the sight of the king and his subjects, and the king and princes loved him, and they ele- vated him very high. 50. And Terah* took a wife, and her name was Amthelo the daughter of Cornebo ; and the wife of Terah conceived and bare him a son in those days. 51. Terah was seventy years old when he begat him, and Terah called the name of his son that was born to himt Abram, because the king had raised him in those days, and digni- fied him above all his princes that were with him.