The Book of Jubilees
From The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament
by R.H. Charles, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1913.
Scanned and Edited by Joshua Williams, Northwest Nazarene
College.
Chapter 50
Laws regarding the jubilees, 1-5, and the Sabbath, 6-13)
And after this law I made known to thee the days of the Sabbaths in the
desert of Sin(ai), which is between Elim and Sinai.
And I told thee of the Sabbaths of the land on Mount Sinai, and I told thee
of the jubilee years in the sabbaths of years: but the year thereof have I not
told thee till ye enter the land which ye are to possess.
And the land also shall keep its sabbaths while they dwell upon it, and
they shall know the jubilee year.
Wherefore I have ordained for thee the year-weeks and the years and the
jubilees: there are forty-nine jubilees from the days of Adam until this day,
(2410 AM) and one week and two years: and there are yet forty years to come
(lit. 'distant') for learning the (2450 AM) commandments of the Lord, until
they pass over into the land of Canaan, crossing the Jordan to the west.
And the jubilees shall pass by, until Israel is cleansed from all guilt
of fornication, and uncleanness, and pollution, and sin, and error, and dwells
with confidence in all the land, and there shall be no more a Satan or any evil
one, and the land shall be clean from that time for evermore.
And behold the commandment regarding the Sabbaths -I have written (them)
down for thee- and all the judgments of its laws.
Six days shalt thou labour, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
Lord your God. In it ye shall do no manner of work, ye and your sons, and your
men- servants and your maid-servants, and all your cattle and the sojourner
also who is with you.
And the man that does any work on it shall die: whoever desecrates that
day, whoever lies with (his) wife, or whoever says he will do something on it,
that he will set out on a journey thereon in regard to any buying or selling:
and whoever draws water thereon which he had not prepared for himself on the
sixth day, and whoever takes up any burden to carry it out of his tent or out
of his house shall die.
Ye shall do no work whatever on the Sabbath day save what ye have prepared
for yourselves on the sixth day, so as to eat, and drink, and rest, and keep
Sabbath from all work on that day, and to bless the Lord your God, who has given
you a day of festival and a holy day: and a day of the holy kingdom for all
Israel is this day among their days for ever.
For great is the honour which the Lord has given to Israel that they should
eat and drink and be satisfied on this festival day, and rest thereon from all
labour which belongs to the labour of the children of men save burning frankincense
and bringing oblations and sacrifices before the Lord for days and for Sabbaths.
This work alone shall be done on the Sabbath-days in the sanctuary of the
Lord your God; that they may atone for Israel with sacrifice continually from
day to day for a memorial well-pleasing before the Lord, and that He may receive
them always from day to day according as thou hast been commanded.
And every man who does any work thereon, or goes a journey, or tills (his)
farm, whether in his house or any other place, and whoever lights a fire, or
rides on any beast, or travels by ship on the sea, and whoever strikes or kills
anything, or slaughters a beast or a bird, or whoever catches an animal or a
bird or a fish, or whoever fasts or makes war on the Sabbaths:
The man who does any of these things on the Sabbath shall die, so that the
children of Israel shall observe the Sabbaths according to the commandments
regarding the Sabbaths of the land, as it is written in the tablets, which He
gave into my hands that I should write out for thee the laws of the seasons,
and the seasons according to the division of their days.
Herewith is completed the account of the division of the days.
