{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/fbe/fbe277.htm","path":"bib/fbe/fbe277.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/fbe/fbe277.htm","text":"The Forgotten Books of Eden, by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr., [1926]\nThe Fourth Son of Jacob and Leah.\nJudah, the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. He is the giant, athlete, warrior; he recounts heroic deeds. He runs so fast that he can outstrip a hind.\nTHE copy of the words of Judah, what things he spake to his sons before he died.\n2 They gathered themselves together, therefore, and came to him, and he said to them: Hearken, my children, to Judah your father.\n3 I was the fourth son born to my father Jacob; and Leah my mother named me Judah, saying, I give thanks to the Lord,\nbecause He hath given me a fourth son also.\n4 I was swift in my youth, and obedient to my father in everything.\n5 And I honoured my mother and my mother's sister.\n6 And it came to pass, when I became a man, that my father blessed me, saying, Thou shalt be a king, prospering in all things.\n7 And the Lord showed me favour in all my works both in the field and in the house.\n8 I know that I raced a hind, and caught it, and prepared the meat for my father, and he did eat.\n9 And the roes I used to master in the chase, and overtake all that was in the plains.\n10 A wild mare I overtook, and caught it and tamed it.\n11 I slew a lion and plucked a kid out of its mouth.\n12 I took a bear by its paw and hurled it down the cliff, and it was crushed.\n13 I outran the wild boar, and seizing it as I ran, I tore it in sunder.\n14 A leopard in Hebron leaped upon my dog, and I caught it by the tail, and hurled it on the rocks, and it was broken in twain\n15 I found a wild ox feeding in the fields, and seizing it by the horns, and whirling it round and stunning it, I cast it from me and slew it.\n16 And when the two kings of the Canaanites came sheathed, in armour against our flocks, and much people with them, single handed I rushed upon the king of Hazor, and smote him on the greives and dragged him down, and so I slew him.\n17 And the other, the king of Tappuah, as he sat upon his horse, I slew, and so I scattered all his people.\n18 Achor, the king, a man of giant stature, I found, hurling javelins before and behind as he sat on horseback, and I took up a stone of sixty pounds weight, and hurled it and smote his horse, and killed it.\n19 And I fought with this other for two hours; and I clave his shield in twain, and I chopped off his feet, and killed him.\n20 And as I was stripping off his breastplate, behold nine men his companions began to fight with me,\n21 And I wound my garment on my hand; and I slung stones at them, and killed four of them, and the rest fled.\n22 And Jacob my father slew Beelesath, king of all the kings, a giant in strength, twelve cubits high.\n23 And fear fell upon them, and they ceased warring against us.\n24 Therefore my father was free from anxiety in the wars when I was with my brethren.\n25 For he saw in a vision concerning me that an angel of might followed me everywhere, that I should not be overcome.\n26 And in the south there came upon us a greater war than that in Shechem; and I joined in battle array with my brethren, and pursued a thousand men, and slew of them two hundred men and four kings.\n27 And I went up upon the wall, and I slew four mighty men.\n28 And so we captured Hazor, and took all the spoil.\n29 And the next day we departed to Aretan, a city strong and walled and inaccessible, threatening us with death.\n30 But I and Gad approached on the east side of the city, and Reuben and Levi on the west.\n31 And they that were upon the wall, thinking that we were alone, were drawn down against us.\n32 And so my brothers secretly climbed up the wall on\nboth sides by stakes, and entered the city, while the men knew it not.\n33 And we took it with the edge of the sword.\n34 And as for those who had taken refuge in the tower, we set fire to the tower and took both it and, them.\n35 And as we were departing the men of Tappuah seized our spoil, and seeing this we fought with them.\n36 And we slew them. all and recovered our spoil.\n37 And when I was at the waters of Kozeba, the men of Jobel came against us to battle.\n38 And we fought with them and routed them; and their allies from Shiloh we slew, and we did not leave them power to come in against us.\n39 And the men of Makir came upon us the fifth day, to seize our spoil; and we attacked them and overcame them in fierce battle: for there was a host of mighty men amongst them, and we slew them before they had gone up the ascent.\n40 And when we came to their city their women rolled upon us stones from the brow of the hill on which the city stood.\n41 And I and Simeon had ourselves behind the town, and seized upon the heights, and destroyed this city also.\n42 And the next day it was told us that the king of the city of Gaash with. a mighty host was coming against us.\n43 I, therefore, and Dan feigned ourselves to be Amorites, and as allies went into their city.\n44 And in the depth of night our brethren came and we opened to them the gates; and we destroyed all the men and their substance, and we took for a prey all that was theirs, and their three walls we cast down.\n45 And we drew near to Thamna, where was all the substance of the hostile kings.\n46 Then being insulted by them, I was therefore wroth, and rushed against them to the summit; and they kept slinging against me stones and darts.\n47 And had not Dan my brother aided me, they would have slain me.\n48 We came upon them, therefore, with wrath, and they all fled; and passing by another way, they fought my father, and he made peace with them.\n49 And we did to them no hurt, and they became tributary to us, and we restored to them their spoil.\n50 And I built Thamna, and my father built Pabael.\n51 I was twenty years old when this war befell. And the Canaanites feared me and my brethren.\n52 And I had much cattle, and I had for chief herdsman Iram the Adullamite.\n53 And when I went to him I saw Parsaba, king of Adullam; and he spake unto us, and he made us a feast; and when I was heated he gave me his daughter Bathshua to wife.\n54 She bare me Er, and Onan and Shelah; and two of them the Lord smote: for Shelah lived, and his children are ye.","title":"The Forgotten Books of Eden: The Testament of Judah: Chap...","type":"page"}