The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 62

T¹🔗he record of the words of Issachar. He called his sons, and said to them: Hearken, my children, to Issachar your father; give ear to my words, ye who are beloved of the Lord.

²🔗 I was the fifth son born to Jacob, even the hire of the mandrakes.

³🔗 For Reuben brought in mandrakes from the field, and Rachel met him and took them.

⁴🔗 And Reuben wept, and at his voice Leah my mother came forth.

⁵🔗 Now these mandrakes were sweet-smelling apples which the land of Aram produced on high ground below a ravine of water.

⁶🔗 And Rachel said, I will not give them to thee, for they shall be to me instead of children.

⁷🔗 Now there were two apples; and Leah said, Let it suffice thee that thou hast taken the husband of my virginity: wilt thou also take these?

⁸🔗 And she said, Behold, let Jacob be to thee this night instead of the mandrakes of thy son.

⁹🔗 And Leah said to her, Boast not, and vaunt not thyself; for Jacob is mine, and I am the wife of his youth.

¹⁰🔗 But Rachel said, How so? for to me was he first espoused, and for my sake he served our father fourteen years.

¹¹🔗 What shall I do to thee, because the craft and the subtlety of men are increased, and craft prospereth upon the earth?

¹²🔗 And were it not so, thou wouldest not now see the face of Jacob.

¹³🔗 For thou art not his wife, but in craft wert taken to him in my stead.

¹⁴🔗 And my father deceived me, and removed me on that night, and suffered me not to see him; for had I been there, it had not happened thus.

¹⁵🔗 And Rachel said, Take one mandrake, and for the other thou shalt hire him from me for one night.

¹⁶🔗 And Jacob knew Leah, and she conceived and bare me, and on account of the hire I was called Issachar.