Book of Jasher 39
Chapter 39
1.
And when the sons of Jacob went from
the city of
gone about two hundred cubits when they met the inhabitants of Tapnach coming
toward them, for they went out to fight with them, because they had smitten the
king of Tapnach and all his men.
2.
So all that remained in the city of
fight with the sons of Jacob, and they thought to retake from them the booty
and the spoil which they had captured from Chazar and Sarton.
3.
And the rest of the men of Tapnach
fought with the sons of Jacob in that place, and the sons of Jacob smote them,
and they fled before them, and they pursued them to the city of
fell before the sons of Jacob.
4.
And the sons of Jacob returned and
came to Tapnach, to take away the spoil of Tapnach, and when they came to
Tapnach they heard that the people of Arbelan had gone out to meet them to save
the spoil of their brethren, and the sons of Jacob left ten of their men in
Tapnach to plunder the city, and they went out toward the people of Arbelan.
5.
And the men of Arbelan went out with
their wives to fight with the sons of Jacob, for their wives were experienced
in battle, and they went out, about four hundred men and women.
6.
And all the sons of Jacob shouted
with a loud voice, and they all ran toward the inhabitants of Arbelan, and with
a great and tremendous voice.
7.
And the inhabitants of Arbelan heard
the noise of the shouting of the sons of Jacob, and their roaring like the
noise of lions and like the roaring of the sea and its waves.
8.
And fear and terror possessed their
hearts on account of the sons of Jacob, and they were terribly afraid of them,
and they retreated and fled before them into the city, and the sons of Jacob
pursued them to the gate of the city, and they came upon them in the city.
9.
And the sons of Jacob fought with
them in the city, and all their women were engaged in slinging against the sons
of Jacob, and the combat was very severe amongst them the whole of that day
till evening.
10.
And the sons of Jacob could not
prevail over them, and the sons of Jacob had almost perished in that battle,
and the sons of Jacob cried unto the Lord and greatly gained strength toward
evening, and the sons of Jacob smote all the inhabitants of Arbelan by the edge
of the sword, men, women and little ones.
11.
And also the remainder of the people
who had fled from Sarton, the sons of Jacob smote them in Arbelan, and the sons
of Jacob did unto Arbelan and Tapnach as they had done to Chazar and Sarton,
and when the women saw that all the men were dead, they went upon the roofs of
the city and smote the sons of Jacob by showering down stones like rain.
12.
And the sons of Jacob hastened and
came into the city and seized all the women and smote them with the edge of the
sword, and the sons of Jacob captured all the spoil and booty, flocks and herds
and cattle.
13.
And the sons of Jacob did unto
Machnaymah as they had done to Tapnach, to Chazar and to
turned from there and went away.
14.
And on the fifth day the sons of
Jacob heard that the people of Gaash had gathered against them to battle,
because they had slain their king and their captains, for there had been
fourteen captains in the city of
sons of Jacob had slain them all in the first battle.
15.
And the sons of Jacob that day girt
on their weapons of war, and they marched to battle against the inhabitants of
Gaash, and in Gaash there was a strong and mighty people of the people of the
Amorites, and Gaash was the strongest and best fortified city of all the cities
of the Amorites, and it had three walls.
16.
And the sons of Jacob came to Gaash
and they found the gates of the city locked, and about five hundred men
standing at the top of the outer-most wall, and a people numerous as the sand
upon the sea shore were in ambush for the sons of Jacob from without the city
at the rear thereof.
17.
And the sons of Jacob approached to
open the gates of the city, and whilst they were drawing nigh, behold those who
were in ambush at the rear of the city came forth from their places and
surrounded the sons of Jacob.
18.
And the sons of Jacob were enclosed
between the people of Gaash, and the battle was both to their front and rear,
and all the men that were upon the wall, were casting from the wall upon them,
arrows and stones.
19.
And Judah, seeing that the men of
Gaash were getting too heavy for them, gave a most piercing and tremendous
shriek and all the men of Gaash were terrified at the voice of Judah’s cry, and
men fell from the wall at his powerful shriek, and all those that were from
without and within the city were greatly afraid of their lives.
20.
And the sons of Jacob still came nigh
to break the doors of the city, when the men of Gaash threw stones and arrows
upon them from the top of the wall, and made them flee from the gate.
21.
And the sons of Jacob returned
against the men of Gaash who were with them from without the city, and they
smote them terribly, as striking against gourds, and they could not stand against
the sons of Jacob, for fright and terror had seized them at the shriek of
22.
And the sons of Jacob slew all those
men who were without the city, and the sons of Jacob still drew nigh to effect
an entrance into the city, and to fight under the city walls, but they could
not for all the inhabitants of Gaash who remained in the city had surrounded
the walls of Gaash in every direction, so that the sons of Jacob were unable to
approach the city to fight with them.
23.
And the sons of Jacob came nigh to one
corner to fight under the wall, the inhabitants of Gaash threw arrows and
stones upon them like showers of rain, and they fled from under the wall.
24.
And the people of Gaash who were upon
the wall, seeing that the sons of Jacob could not prevail over them from under
the wall, reproached the sons of Jacob in these words, saying,
25.
What is the matter with you in the
battle that you cannot prevail? can you then do unto the mighty city of
as you did to the cities of the Amorites that were not so powerful? Surely to
those weak ones amongst us you did those things, and slew them in the entrance
of the city, for they had no strength when they were terrified at the sound of
your shouting.
26.
And will you now then be able to
fight in this place? Surely here you will all die, and we will avenge the cause
of those cities that you have laid waste.
27.
And the inhabitants of Gaash greatly
reproached the sons of Jacob and reviled them with their gods, and continued to
cast arrows and stones upon them from the wall.
28.
And Judah and his brothers heard the
words of the inhabitants of Gaash and their anger was greatly roused, and
of his God in this matter, and he called out and said, O Lord, help, send help
to us and our brothers.
29.
And he ran at a distance with all his
might, with his drawn sword in his hand, and he sprang from the earth and by
dint of his strength, mounted the wall, and his sword fell from his hand.
30.
And Judah shouted upon the wall, and
all the men that were upon the wall were terrified, and some of them fell from
the wall into the city and died, and those who were yet upon the wall, when
they saw Judah’s strength, they were greatly afraid and fled for their lives
into the city for safety.
31.
And some were emboldened to fight
with Judah upon the wall, and they came nigh to slay him when they saw there
was no sword in Judah’s hand, and they thought of casting him from the wall to
his brothers, and twenty men of the city came up to assist them, and they
surrounded Judah and they all shouted over him, and approached him with drawn
swords, and they terrified Judah, and Judah cried out to his brothers from the
wall.
32.
And Jacob and his sons drew the bow
from under the wall, and smote three of the men that were upon the top of the
wall, and Judah continued to cry and he exclaimed, O Lord help us, O Lord
deliver us, and he cried out with a loud voice upon the wall, and the cry was
heard at a great distance.
33.
And after this cry he again repeated
to shout, and all the men who surrounded Judah on the top of the wall were
terrified, and they each threw his sword from his hand at the sound of Judah’s
shouting and his tremor, and fled.
34.
And
swords which had fallen from their hands, and
them and slew twenty of their men upon the wall.
35.
And about eighty men and women still
ascended the wall from the city and they all surrounded
Lord impressed the fear of
hearts, that they were unable to approach him.
36.
And Jacob and all who were with him
drew the bow from under the wall, and they slew ten men upon the wall, and they
fell below the wall, before Jacob and his sons.
37.
And the people upon the wall seeing
that twenty of their men had fallen, they still ran toward
swords, but they could not approach him for they were greatly terrified at
38.
And one of their mighty men whose
name was Arud approached to strike Judah upon the head with his sword, when
Judah hastily put his shield to his head, and the sword hit the shield, and it
was split in two.
39.
And this mighty man after he had
struck Judah ran for his life, at the fear of Judah, and his feet slipped upon
the wall and he fell amongst the sons of Jacob who were below the wall, and the
sons of Jacob smote him and slew him.
40.
And Judah’s head pained him from the
blow of the powerful man, and Judah had nearly died from it.
41.
And Judah cried out upon the wall
owing to the pain produced by the blow, when Dan heard him, and his anger
burned within him, and he also rose up and went at a distance and ran and
sprang from the earth and mounted the wall with his wrath-excited strength.
42.
And when Dan came upon the wall near
unto Judah all the men upon the wall fled, who had stood against Judah, and
they went up to the second wall, and they threw arrows and stones upon Dan and
Judah from the second wall, and endeavored to drive them from the wall.
43.
And the arrows and stones struck Dan
and Judah, and they had nearly been killed upon the wall, and wherever Dan and
Judah fled from the wall, they were attacked with arrows and stones from the
second wall.
44.
And Jacob and his sons were still at
the entrance of the city below the first wall, and they were not able to draw
their bow against the inhabitants of the city, as they could not be seen by
them, being upon the second wall.
45.
And Dan and Judah when they could no
longer bear the stones and arrows that fell upon them from the second wall,
they both sprang upon the second wall near the people of the city, and when the
people of the city who were upon the second wall saw that Dan and Judah had
come to them upon the second wall, they all cried out and descended below
between the walls.
46.
And Jacob and his sons heard the
noise of the shouting from the people of the city, and they were still at the
entrance of the city, and they were anxious about Dan and Judah who were not
seen by them, they being upon the second wall.
47.
And Naphtali went up with his
wrath-excited might and sprang upon the first wall to see what caused the noise
of shouting which they had heard in the city, and Issachar and Zebulun drew
nigh to break the doors of the city, and they opened the gates of the city and
came into the city.
48.
And Naphtali leaped from the first
wall to the second, and came to assist his brothers, and the inhabitants of
Gaash who were upon the wall, seeing that Naphtali was the third who had come
up to assist his brothers, they all fled and descended into the city, and Jacob
and all his sons and all their young men came into the city to them.
49.
And Judah and Dan and Naphtali
descended from the wall into the city and pursued the inhabitants of the city,
and Simeon and Levi were from without the city and knew not that the gate was
opened, and they went up from there to the wall and came down to their brothers
into the city.
50.
And the inhabitants of the city had
all descended into the city, and the sons of Jacob came to them in different
directions, and the battle waged against them from the front and the rear, and
the sons of Jacob smote them terribly, and slew about twenty thousand of them
men and women, not one of them could stand up against the sons of Jacob.
51.
And the blood flowed plentifully in
the city, and it was like a brook of water, and the blood flowed like a brook
to the outer part of the city, and reached the desert of Bethchorin.
52.
And the people of Bethchorin saw at a
distance the blood flowing from the city of Gaash, and about seventy men from
amongst them ran to see the blood, and they came to the place where the blood
was.
53.
And they followed the track of the
blood and came to the wall of the city of Gaash, and they saw the blood issue
from the city, and they heard the voice of crying from the inhabitants of
Gaash, for it ascended unto heaven, and the blood was continuing to flow
abundantly like a brook of water.
54.
And all the sons of Jacob were still
smiting the inhabitants of Gaash, and were engaged in slaying them till
evening, about twenty thousand men and women, and the people of Chorin said, Surely
this is the work of the Hebrews, for they are still carrying on war in all the
cities of the Amorites.
55.
And those people hastened and ran to
Bethchorin, and each took his weapons of war, and they cried out to all the
inhabitants of Bethchorin, who also girt on their weapons of war to go and
fight with the sons of Jacob.
56.
And when the sons of Jacob had done
smiting the inhabitants of Gaash, they walked about the city to strip all the
slain, and coming in the innermost part of the city and farther on they met
three very powerful men, and there was no sword in their hand.
57.
And the sons of Jacob came up to the
place where they were, and the powerful men ran away, and one of them had taken
Zebulun, who he saw was a young lad and of short stature, and with his might
dashed him to the ground.
58.
And Jacob ran to him with his sword
and Jacob smote him below his loins with the sword, and cut him in two, and the
body fell upon Zebulun.
59.
And the second one approached and
seized Jacob to fell him to the ground, and Jacob turned to him and shouted to
him, whilst Simeon and Levi ran and smote him on the hips with the sword and
felled him to the ground.
60.
And the powerful man rose up from the
ground with wrath-excited might, and Judah came to him before he had gained his
footing, and struck him upon the head with the sword, and his head was split
and he died.
61.
And the third powerful man, seeing
that his companions were killed, ran from before the sons of Jacob, and the
sons of Jacob pursued him in the city; and whilst the powerful man was fleeing
he found one of the swords of the inhabitants of the city, and he picked it up
and turned to the sons of Jacob and fought them with that sword.
62.
And the powerful man ran to Judah to
strike him upon the head with the sword, and there was no shield in the hand of
Judah; and whilst he was aiming to strike him, Naphtali hastily took his shield
and put it to Judah’s head, and the sword of the powerful man hit the shield of
Naphtali and Judah escaped the sword.
63.
And Simeon and Levi ran upon the powerful
man with their swords and struck at him forcibly with their swords, and the two
swords entered the body of the powerful man and divided it in two, length-wise.
64.
And the sons of Jacob smote the three
mighty men at that time, together with all the inhabitants of Gaash, and the
day was about to decline.
65.
And the sons of Jacob walked about
Gaash and took all the spoil of the city, even the little ones and women they
did not suffer to live, and the sons of Jacob did unto Gaash as they had done
to Sarton and Shiloh.