Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
He admonished those gathered around him to beware of the seven tempter
spirits, which are the spirit of fornication, gluttony, strife, love of
admiration, arrogance, falsehood, and injustice. He cautioned them
especially against unchastity, saying: "Pay no heed to the glances of a
woman, and remain not alone with a married woman, and do not occupy
yourselves with the affairs of women. Had I not seen Bilhah bathe in a
secluded spot, I had not fallen into the great sin I committed, for
after my thoughts had once grasped the nakedness of woman, I could not
sleep until I had accomplished the abominable deed. For when our father
Jacob went to his father Isaac, while we sojourned in Eder, not far
from Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem, Bilhah was drunken with wine, and
she lay asleep, uncovered, in her bedchamber, and I entered in and saw
her nakedness and committed the sin, and I went out again, leaving her
asleep. But an angel of God revealed my impious act to my father Jacob
at once. He came back and mourned over me, and never again did he
approach Bilhah. Unto the very last day of his life, I had not the
assurance to look my father in the face or to speak to my brethren
regarding my disgrace, and even now my conscience tortures me on
account of my sin. Nevertheless my father spake words of comfort to me,
and prayed to God in my behalf, that the wrath of the Lord might depart
from me, as He showed me."
Reuben admonished his children impressively to join themselves to Levi,
"because he will know the law of the Lord," he said, "and he will give
ordinances for judgment, and bring sacrifices for all Israel, until the
consummation of the times, as the anointed high priest of whom the Lord
spake."
After announcing his last will to his sons, Reuben departed this life
at the age of one hundred and twenty-five years. His body was laid in a
coffin until his sons bore it away from Egypt, and carried it up to
Hebron, where they buried it in the Double Cave.[7]
SIMON'S ADMONITION AGAINST ENVY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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