# The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, chapter 62: Issachar 1

Source: https://enocharchive.com/books/the-testaments-of-the-twelve-patriarchs/62 (Enoch Archive, public-domain translation).

**62:1** The 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.

**62:2** I was the fifth son born to Jacob, even the hire of the mandrakes.

**62:3** For Reuben brought in mandrakes from the field, and Rachel met him and took them.

**62:4** And Reuben wept, and at his voice Leah my mother came forth.

**62:5** Now these mandrakes were sweet-smelling apples which the land of Aram produced on high ground below a ravine of water.

**62:6** And Rachel said, I will not give them to thee, for they shall be to me instead of children.

**62:7** 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?

**62:8** And she said, Behold, let Jacob be to thee this night instead of the mandrakes of thy son.

**62:9** And Leah said to her, Boast not, and vaunt not thyself; for Jacob is mine, and I am the wife of his youth.

**62:10** But Rachel said, How so? for to me was he first espoused, and for my sake he served our father fourteen years.

**62:11** What shall I do to thee, because the craft and the subtlety of men are increased, and craft prospereth upon the earth?

**62:12** And were it not so, thou wouldest not now see the face of Jacob.

**62:13** For thou art not his wife, but in craft wert taken to him in my stead.

**62:14** 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.

**62:15** And Rachel said, Take one mandrake, and for the other thou shalt hire him from me for one night.

**62:16** And Jacob knew Leah, and she conceived and bare me, and on account of the hire I was called Issachar.

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