The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 133

D¹🔗o ye also therefore, my children, love the Lord God of heaven, and keep His commandments, and be followers of the good and holy man Joseph; and let your mind be unto good, even as ye know me.

²🔗 He that hath his mind good seeth all things rightly.

³🔗 Fear ye the Lord, and love your neighbour; and even though the spirits of Beliar allure you into all troublous wickedness, yet shall no troublous wickedness have dominion over you, even as it had not over Joseph my brother.

⁴🔗 How many men wished to slay him, and God shielded him!

⁵🔗 For he that feareth God and loveth his neighbour cannot be smitten by Beliar’s spirit of the air, being shielded by the fear of God; nor can he be ruled over by the device of men or of beasts, for he is aided by the love of the Lord which he hath towards his neighbour.

⁶🔗 For he even besought our father Jacob that he would pray for our brethren, that the Lord would not impute to them the evil that they devised concerning Joseph.

⁷🔗 And thus Jacob cried out, My child Joseph, thou hast prevailed over the bowels of thy father Jacob.

⁸🔗 And he embraced him, and kissed him for two hours, saying, In thee shall be fulfilled the prophecy of heaven concerning the Lamb of God, even the Saviour of the world, that spotless shall He be delivered up for transgressors, and sinless shall He be put to death for ungodly men in the blood of the covenant, for the salvation of the Gentiles and of Israel, and shall destroy Beliar, and them that serve him.