Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
Furthermore Naphtali said unto his children: "I give you no command
concerning my silver, or my gold, or any other possession that I
bequeath to you. And what I command you is not a hard matter, which you
cannot do, but I speak unto you concerning an easy thing, which you can
execute." Then his sons answered, and said, "Speak, father, for we are
listening to thy words." Naphtali continued: "I give you no commandment
except regarding the fear of God, that you should serve Him and follow
after Him." Then the sons of Naphtali asked: "Wherefore does He require
our service?" and he replied, saying: "He needs no creature, but all
creatures need Him. Nevertheless He hath not created the world for
naught, but that men should fear Him, and none should do unto his
neighbor what he would not have others do unto him." His sons asked
again, "Father, hast thou observed that we strayed from the ways of the
Lord to the right or to the left?" Naphtali replied: "God is witness,
and so am I witness for you, that it is as you say. But I fear
regarding future times, that you may depart from the ways of the Lord,
and follow after the idols of the stranger, and walk in the statutes of
the heathen peoples, and join yourselves unto the sons of Joseph
instead of the sons of Levi and Judah." The sons of Naphtali spoke,
"What reason hast thou for commanding this thing unto us?" Naphtali:
"Because I know that the sons of Joseph will one day turn recreant to
the Lord, the God of their fathers, and it is they that will lead the
sons of Israel into sin, and cause them to be driven away from their
inheritance, their beautiful land, to a land that is not ours, even as
it was Joseph that brought the Egyptian bondage down upon us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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