Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
You lived in Midian for five weeks and one year. You returned to Egypt in the second week, in the second year of the fiftieth jubilee.
REF And thou didst dwell in Midian five weeks and one year.
God calls Moses from the burning bush. On the way back, Mastema attacks Moses at the inn — Jubilees' answer to the mysterious Exodus 4:24-26. The plagues fall. Mastema is bound at the Exodus. The Red Sea crossing.
This chapter resolves one of the Torah's most puzzling passages by identifying Mastema as the attacker at the inn, not God. Mastema's binding parallels the binding of Azazel in 1 Enoch.
The substitution of Mastema for God is a significant theological reinterpretation.
Exodus 3:1-4:31; Exodus 7-12 (plagues); 1 Enoch 10 (binding of Azazel); Revelation 20:2.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
You lived in Midian for five weeks and one year. You returned to Egypt in the second week, in the second year of the fiftieth jubilee.
REF And thou didst dwell in Midian five weeks and one year.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
You know what the prince Mastema tried to do to you when you were returning to Egypt — when he met you at the inn.
REF And thou knowest what prince Mastema desired to do to thee at the inn.
The chief demonic spirit, identified as the attacker at the inn — resolving the theological puzzle of Exodus 4:24-26
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
Did he not try with all his power to kill you and rescue the Egyptians from your hand?
REF Did he not seek to slay thee?
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
But I delivered you from his hand. You then performed the signs and wonders in Egypt.
REF And I delivered thee out of his hand.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
The Lord struck them with blood, frogs, lice, swarms of flies, diseased livestock, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness.
REF And the Lord smote them with plagues.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
He killed all their firstborn and destroyed all their livestock. The Lord sent angels to destroy everything Mastema had created.
REF And He slew all the firstborn, and Mastema's works were destroyed.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
Prince Mastema was bound and imprisoned, kept away from the children of Israel so he could not accuse them.
REF And Mastema was bound.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
That night the Lord commanded us to lead all the angels through Egypt to strike down every firstborn.
REF And on that night the Lord commanded us to pass through Egypt.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
Against all the gods of Egypt the Lord executed judgments and destroyed them.
REF And against all the gods of Egypt He executed judgments.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
Mastema incited the Egyptians to pursue Israel with all their chariots and horses.
REF And Mastema incited the Egyptians to pursue.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
I stood between the Egyptians and Israel. We delivered Israel from Mastema's hand. The Lord brought them through the sea on dry land.
REF And I stood between the Egyptians and Israel.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
All who pursued Israel — the Lord cast them into the depths of the sea, as he had destroyed Sodom.
REF And all who pursued were cast into the sea.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
He took vengeance on a million soldiers and a million horsemen in the sea. On the fourteenth we bound Mastema.
REF And He destroyed a million warriors in the sea.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
On the fifteenth we released him toward the Egyptians to pursue Israel.
REF And on the fifteenth we released him to pursue.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
On that day the Lord saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians.
REF And the Lord saved Israel that day.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
All the children of Israel walked on dry ground through the middle of the sea. The sea stood as a wall on their right and left.
REF And Israel walked on dry ground through the sea.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
The Lord saved Israel that day — from Egypt, from Mastema, and from all the peoples of Egypt.
REF And the Lord saved Israel from Egypt and Mastema.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore. Israel witnessed the mighty hand of the Lord.
REF And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore.
Ge'ez text per Charles/VanderKam editions
The people feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses. They sang praises to the Lord.
REF And the people feared the Lord and sang praises.