The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 1

T¹🔗he copy of the Testament of Reuben, what things he charged his sons before he died in the hundred and twenty-fifth year of his life.

²🔗 When he was sick two years after the death of Joseph, his sons and his sons’ sons were gathered together to visit him.

³🔗 And he said to them, My children, I am dying, and go the way of my fathers.

⁴🔗 And when he saw there Judah and Gad and Asher, his brethren, he said to them, Raise me up, my brethren, that I may tell to my brethren and to my children what things I have hidden in my heart, for from henceforth my strength faileth me.

⁵🔗 And he arose and kissed them, and said, weeping: Hear, my brethren, give ear to Reuben your father, what things I command you.

⁶🔗 And, behold, I call to witness against you this day the God of heaven, that ye walk not in the ignorance of youth and fornication wherein I ran greedily, and I defiled the bed of Jacob my father.

⁷🔗 For I tell you that He smote me with a sore plague in my loins for seven months; and had not Jacob our father prayed for me to the Lord, surely the Lord would have destroyed me.

⁸🔗 For I was thirty years old when I did this evil in the sight of the Lord, and for seven months I was sick even unto death; and I repented for seven years in the set purpose of my soul before the Lord.

⁹🔗 Wine and strong drink I drank not, and flesh entered not into my mouth, and I tasted not pleasant food, mourning over my sin, for it was great. And it shall not so be done in Israel.