Book of Jasher 19
Chapter 19
1.
And the cities of
judges to four cities, and these were their names, Serak
in the city of
2.
And Eliezer
Abraham’s servant applied to them different names, and he converted Serak to Shakra, Sharkad to Shakrura, Zebnac to Kezobim, and Menon to Matzlodin.
3.
And by desire of their four judges
the people of
erected in the streets of the cities, and if a man came to these places they
laid hold of him and brought him to one of their beds, and by force made him to
lie in them.
4.
And as he lay down, three men would
stand at his head and three at his feet, and measure him by the length of the
bed, and if the man was less than the bed these six men would stretch him at
each end, and when he cried out to them they would not answer him.
5.
And if he was longer than the bed
they would draw together the two sides of the bed at each end, until the man
had reached the gates of death.
6.
And if he continued to cry out to
them, they would answer him, saying, Thus shall it be done to a man that cometh
into our land.
7.
And when men heard all these things
that the people of the cities of
refrained from coming there.
8.
And when a poor man came to their
land they would give him silver and gold, and cause a proclamation in the whole
city not to give him a morsel of bread to eat, and if the stranger should
remain there some days, and die from hunger, not having been able to obtain a
morsel of bread, then at his death all the people of the city would come and
take their silver and gold which they had given to him.
9.
And those that could recognize the
silver or gold which they had given him took it back, and at his death they
also stripped him of his garments, and they would fight about them, and he that
prevailed over his neighbor took them.
10.
They would after that carry him and
bury him under some of the shrubs in the deserts; so they did all the days to
any one that came to them and died in their land.
11.
And in the course of time Sarah sent Eliezer to
after his welfare.
12.
And Eliezer
went to
a man of
with a stranger, and the man of
poor man of all his clothes and went away.
13.
And this poor man cried to Eliezer and supplicated his favor on account of what the
man of
him.
14.
And he said to him, Why dost thou act
thus to the poor man who came to thy land?
15.
And the man of Sodom answered Eliezer, saying, Is this man thy brother, or have the
people of Sodom made thee a judge this day, that thou speakest
about this man?
16.
And Eliezer
strove with the man of
of the poor man, and when Eliezer approached to
recover the poor man’s clothes from the man of
and with a stone smote Eliezer in the forehead.
17.
And the blood flowed copiously from Eliezer’s forehead, and when the man saw the blood he
caught hold of Eliezer, saying, Give me my hire for
having rid thee of this bad blood that was in thy forehead, for such is the
custom and the law in our land.
18.
And Eliezer
said to him, Thou hast wounded me and requirest me to
pay thee thy hire; and Eliezer would not hearken to
the words of the man of
19.
And the man laid hold of Eliezer and brought him to Shakra
the judge of
judgment.
20.
And the man spoke to the judge,
saying, I beseech thee my lord, thus has this man done, for I smote him with a
stone that the blood flowed from his forehead, and he is unwilling to give me
my hire.
21.
And the judge said to Eliezer, This man speaketh truth
to thee, give him his hire, for this is the custom in our land; and Eliezer heard the words of the judge, and he lifted up a
stone and smote the judge, and the stone struck on his forehead, and the blood
flowed copiously from the forehead of the judge, and Eliezer
said, If this then is the custom in your land give thou unto this man what I
should have given him, for this has been thy decision, thou didst decree it.
22.
And Eliezer
left the man of
judge, and he went away.
23.
And when the kings of Elam had made
war with the kings of Sodom, the kings of Elam captured all the property of
Sodom, and they took Lot captive, with his property, and when it was told to
Abraham he went and made war with the kings of Elam, and he recovered from
their hands all the property of Lot as well as the property of Sodom.
24.
At that time the wife of
daughter, and he called her name Paltith, saying,
Because God had delivered him and his whole household from the kings of
one of the men of
a wife.
25.
And a poor man came into the city to
seek a maintenance, and he remained in the city some days, and all the people
of
proclamation of their custom not to give this man a morsel of bread to eat,
until he dropped dead upon the earth, and they did so.
26.
And Paltith
the daughter of
lying in the streets starved with hunger, and no one would give him any thing
to keep him alive, and he was just upon the point of death.
27.
And her soul was filled with pity on
account of the man, and she fed him secretly with bread for many days, and the
soul of this man was revived.
28.
For when she went forth to fetch
water she would put the bread in the water pitcher, and when she came to the
place where the poor man was, she took the bread from the pitcher and gave it
him to eat; so she did many days.
29.
And all the people of
this man could bear starvation for so many days.
30.
And they said to each other, This can
only be that he eats and drinks, for no man can bear starvation for so many days
or live as this man has, without even his countenance changing; and three men
concealed themselves in a place where the poor man was stationed, to know who
it was that brought him bread to eat.
31.
And Paltith
daughter of
and she put bread into her pitcher of water, and she went to draw water by the
poor man’s place, and she took out the bread from the pitcher and gave it to
the poor man and he ate it.
32.
And the three men saw what Paltith did to the poor man, and they said to her, It is
thou then who hast supported him, and therefore has he not starved, nor changed
in appearance nor died like the rest.
33.
And the three men went out of the
place in which they were concealed, and they seized Paltith
and the bread which was in the poor man’s hand.
34.
And they took Paltith
and brought her before their judges, and they said to them, Thus did she do,
and it is she who supplied the poor man with bread, therefore did he not die
all this time; now therefore declare to us the punishment due to this woman for
having transgressed our law.
35.
And the people of
and kindled a fire in the street of the city, and they took the woman and cast
her into the fire and she was burned to ashes.
36.
And in the city of
woman to whom they did the like.
37.
For a traveler came into the city of Admah to abide there all night, with the intention of going
home in the morning, and he sat opposite the door of the house of the young
woman’s father, to remain there, as the sun had set when be had reached that
place; and the young woman saw him sitting by the door of the house.
38.
And he asked her for a drink of water
and she said to him, Who art thou? and he said to her, I was this day going on
the road, and reached here when the sun set, so I will abide here all night,
and in the morning I will arise early and continue my journey.
39.
And the young woman went into the
house and fetched the man bread and water to eat and drink.
40.
And this affair became known to the
people of Admah, and they assembled and brought the
young woman before the judges, that they should judge her for this act.
41.
And the judge said, The judgment of
death must pass upon this woman because she transgressed our law, and this
therefore is the decision concerning her.
42.
And the people of those cities
assembled and brought out the young woman, and anointed her with honey from
head to foot, as the judge had decreed, and they placed her before a swarm of
bees which were then in their hives, and the bees flew upon her and stung her
that her whole body was swelled.
43.
And the young woman cried out on
account of the bees, but no one took notice of her or pitied her, and her cries
ascended to heaven.
44.
And the Lord was provoked at this and
at all the works of the cities of
had abundance of food, and had tranquility amongst them, and still would not
sustain the poor and the needy, and in those days their evil doings and sins
became great before the Lord.
45.
And the Lord sent for two of the
angels that had come to Abraham’s house, to destroy
cities.
46.
And the angels rose up from the door
of Abraham’s tent, after they had eaten and drunk, and they reached Sodom in
the evening, and Lot was then sitting in the gate of Sodom, and when he saw
them he rose to meet them, and he bowed down to the ground.
47.
And he pressed them greatly and
brought them into his house, and he gave them victuals which they ate, and they
abode all night in his house.
48.
And the angels said to Lot, Arise, go
forth from this place, thou and all belonging to thee, lest thou be consumed in
the iniquity of this city, for the Lord will destroy this place.
49.
And the angels laid hold upon the
hand of Lot and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hands of his children,
and all belonging to him, and they brought him forth and set him without the
cities.
50.
And they said to Lot, Escape for thy
life, and he fled and all belonging to him.
51.
Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and
upon Gomorrah and upon all these cities brimstone and fire from the Lord out of
heaven.
52.
And he overthrew these cities, all
the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the
ground; and Ado the wife of Lot looked back to see the destruction of the
cities, for her compassion was moved on account of her daughters who remained
in Sodom, for they did not go with her.
53.
And when she looked back she became a
pillar of salt, and it is yet in that place unto this day.
54.
And the oxen which stood in that
place daily licked up the salt to the extremities of their feet, and in the morning
it would spring forth afresh, and they again licked it up unto this day.
55.
And Lot and two of his daughters that
remained with him fled and escaped to the cave of Adullam,
and they remained there for some time.
56.
And Abraham rose up early in the
morning to see what had been done to the cities of Sodom; and he looked and
beheld the smoke of the cities going up like the smoke of a furnace.
57.
And
daughters remained in the cave, and they made their father drink wine, and they
lay with him, for they said there was no man upon earth that could raise up
seed from them, for they thought that the whole earth was destroyed.
58.
And they both lay with their father,
and they conceived and bare sons, and the first born called the name of her son
Moab, saying, From my father did I conceive him; he is the father of the
Moabites unto this day.
59.
And the younger also called her son Benami; he is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
60.
And after this Lot and his two
daughters went away from there, and he dwelt on the other side of the Jordan
with his two daughters and their sons, and the sons of Lot grew up, and they
went and took themselves wives from the land of Canaan, and they begat children
and they were fruitful and multiplied.
