Chapter 10

1

AND in the third week of this jubilee the unclean devils began to lead astray the children of the sons of Noach, and to make to err and destroy them.

2

And the sons of Noach came to Noach their father, and they told him concerning the devils which were leading astray and blinding and slaying his sons' sons.

3

And he prayed before Yahuah Elohayu, and said: Elohiym of the ruachoth of all flesh, who has shown mercy unto me and has saved me and my sons from the waters of the flood, and has not caused me to perish as you did the sons of perdition; For your grace has been great towards me, and great has been your mercy to my soul; Let your grace be lift up upon my sons, and let not wicked ruachoth rule over them lest they should destroy them from the earth.

4

But do you bless me and my sons, that we may increase and multiply and replenish the earth.

5

And you know how your Watchers, the fathers of these ruachoth, acted in my day: and as for these ruachoth which are living, imprison them and hold them fast in the place of condemnation, and let them not bring destruction on the sons of your servant, my Elohiym; for these are malignant, and created in order to destroy.

6

And let them not rule over the ruachoth of the living; for you alone can exercise dominion over them. And let them not have power over the sons of the righteous from henceforth and forevermore.

7

And Yahuah Elohaynu bade us to bind all.

8

And the chief of the ruachoth, Mastema, came and said: Yahuah, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them hearken to my voice, and do all that I shall say unto them; for if some of them are not left to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of my will on the sons of men; for these are for corruption and leading astray before my judgment, for great is the wickedness of the sons of men.

9

And he said: Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation.

10

And one of us he commanded that we should teach Noach all their medicines; for he knew that they would not walk in uprightness, nor strive in righteousness.

11

And we did according to all his words: all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemnation and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject before Satan on the earth.

12

And we explained to Noach all the medicines of their diseases, together with their seductions, how he might heal them with herbs of the earth.

13

And Noach wrote down all things in a cepher as we instructed him concerning every kind of medicine. Thus the evil ruachoth were precluded from hurting the sons of Noach.

14

And he gave all that he had written to Shem, his eldest son; for he loved him exceedingly above all his sons.

15

And Noach slept with his fathers, and was buried on Mount Lubar in the land of Ararat.

16

Nine hundred and fifty years he completed in his life, nineteen jubilees and two weeks and five years.

17

And in his life on earth he excelled the children of men save Chanok because of the righteousness, wherein he was perfect. For Chanok's office was ordained for a testimony to the generations of the world, so that he should recount all the deeds of generation unto generation, till the day of judgment.

18

And in the three and thirtieth jubilee, in the first year in the second week, Peleg took to himself a woman, whose name was Lomna the daughter of Sina'ar, and she bore him a son in the fourth year of this week, and he called his name Re'u; for he said: Behold the children of men have become evil through the wicked purpose of building for themselves a city and a tower in the land of Shin'ar.

19

For they departed from the land of Ararat eastward to Shin'ar; for in his days they built the city and the tower, saying, Go to, let us ascend thereby into heaven.

20

And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt which comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shin'ar.

21

And they built it: forty and three years were they building it; its breadth was two hundred and three bricks, and the height of a brick was the third of one; its height amounted to five thousand four hundred thirty and three cubits and two palms, and the extent of one wall was thirteen stades and of the other thirty stades.

22

And Yahuah Elohaynu said unto us: Behold, they are one people, and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be withheld from them. Go to, let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech, and they may be dispersed into cities and nations, and one purpose will no longer abide with them till the day of judgment.

23

And Yahuah descended, and we descended with him to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built.

24

And he confounded their language, and they no longer understood one another's speech, and they ceased then to build the city and the tower.

25

For this reason the whole land of Shin'ar is called Babel, because Yahuah did there confound all the language of the children of men, and from thence they were dispersed into their cities, each according to his language and his nation.

26

And Yahuah sent a mighty wind against the tower and overthrew it upon the earth, and behold it was between Ashshur and Babel in the land of Shin'ar, and they called its name Overthrow.

27

In the fourth week in the first year in the beginning thereof in the four and thirtieth jubilee, were they dispersed from the land of Shin'ar.

28

And Cham and his sons went into the land which he was to occupy, which he acquired as his portion in the land of the south.

29

And Kena`an saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Mitsrayim, that it was very good, and he went not into the land of his inheritance to the west that is to the sea, and he dwelt in the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward from the border of the Yardan and from the border of the sea.

30

And Cham, his father, and Kush and Mitsrayim his brothers said unto him: You have settled in a land which is not yours, and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if you do so, you and your sons will fall in the land and be accursed through sedition; for by sedition ye have settled, and by sedition will your children fall, and you shall be rooted out forever.

31

Dwell not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his sons did it come by their lot.

32

Cursed are you, and cursed shall you be beyond all the sons of Noach, by the curse by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the presence of the Holy Judge, and in the presence of Noach our father.

33

But he did not hearken unto them, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Chamath to the entering of Mitsrayim, he and his sons until this day.

34

And for this reason that land is named Kena`an.

35

And Yapheth and his sons went towards the sea and dwelt in the land of their portion, and Madai saw the land of the sea and it did not please him, and he begged a portion from Eylam and Ashshur and Arpakshad, his woman's brother, and he dwelt in the land of Madai, near to his woman's brother until this day.

36

And he called his dwelling place, and the dwelling place of his sons, Madai, after the name of their father Madai.



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