In the hundred and thirty-second year of his life, Naphtali invited all
his children to a banquet. The next morning when he awoke, he told them
that he was dying, but they would not believe him. He, however, praised
the Lord, and assured them again that his death was due after the
banquet of the day before. Then he addressed his last words to his
children:
"I was born of Bilhah, and because Rachel had acted with cunning, and
had given Jacob Bilhah instead of herself, I was called Naphtali.
Rachel loved me, for I was born upon her knees, and while I was still
very young, she was in the habit of kissing me and saying, 'O that I
had a brother unto thee from mine own body, one in thine image.'
Therefore Joseph resembled me in all respects, in accordance with
Rachel's prayer. My mother Bilhah was a daughter of Rotheus, a brother
of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, and she was born the same day as Rachel.
As for Rotheus, he was of the family of Abraham, a Chaldean,
God-fearing, and a free man of noble birth, and when he was taken
captive, he was bought by Laban and married to his slave Aina. She bore
Rotheus a daughter, and he called her Zilpah, after the name of the
village in which he was taken captive. His second daughter he called
Bilhah, saying, 'My daughter is impetuous,' for hardly was she born
when she hastened to suckle.
"I was fleet of foot like a deer, and my father Jacob appointed me to
be his messenger, and in his blessing he called me a hind let loose. As
the potter knows the vessel he fashions, how much it is to hold, and
uses clay accordingly, so the Lord makes the body in conformity with
the soul, and to agree with the capacity of the body He plans the soul.
The one corresponds to the other down to the third of a hair- breadth,
for the whole of creation was made by weight, and measure, and rule.
And as the potter knows the use of every vessel he fashions, so the
Lord knows the body of His creature, unto what point it will be
steadfast in the good, and at what point it will fall into evil ways.
Now, then, my children, let your conduct be well-ordered unto good in
the fear of God, do naught that is ill-regulated or untimely, for
though ye tell your eye to hear, it yet cannot, and as little can ye do
deeds of light while you abide in darkness."
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.
"I will tell ye, my children, the vision I had while I was yet a
shepherd of flocks. I saw my brethren pasturing the herds with me, and
our father approached, and said: 'Up, my sons, each one take what he
can in my presence!' We answered, and said to him, 'What shall we take?
We see nothing but the sun, the moon, and the stars.' Then our father
said: 'These shall ye take!' Levi, hearing this, snatched up an
ox-goad, sprang up to the sun, sat upon him, and rode. Judah did
likewise. He jumped up to the moon, and rode upon her. And the other
nine tribes did the same, each rode upon his star or his planet in the
heavens. Joseph remained behind alone on the earth, and our father
Jacob said to him, 'My son, why hast thou not done like thy brethren?'
Joseph answered, 'What right have men born of woman to be in the
heavens, seeing that in the end they must stay on earth?' While Joseph
was speaking thus, a tall steer appeared before him. He had great
pinions like the wings of the stork, and his horns were as long as
those of the reem. Jacob urged his son, 'Up, Joseph, mount the steer!'
Joseph did as his father bade him, and Jacob went his way. For the
space of two hours Joseph displayed himself upon the steer, sometimes
galloping, sometimes flying, until he reached Judah. Then Joseph
unfolded the standard in his hand, and began to rain blows down upon
Judah with it, and when his brother demanded the reason for this
treatment, he said, 'Because thou hast twelve rods in thine hand, and I
have but one. Give thine to me, and peace shall prevail between us!'
But Judah refused to do his bidding, and Joseph beat him until he
dropped ten rods, and only two remained in his clutch. Joseph now
invited his brethren to abandon Judah and follow after him. They all
did thus, except Benjamin, who stayed true to Judah. Levi was grieved
over the desertion of Judah, and he descended from the sun. Toward the
end of the day a storm broke out, and it scattered the brethren, so
that no two were together. When I gave an account of my vision to my
father Jacob, he said, 'It is but a dream, it can neither help nor
harm.'
"A short while thereafter another vision was revealed to me. I saw all
of us together with our father at the shores of the sea, and a ship
appeared in the midst of the sea, and it had neither sailors nor other
crew. Our father spake, 'Do you see what I see?' And when we answered
that we did, he commanded us to follow him. He took off his clothes,
and sprang into the sea, and we sprang after him. Levi and Judah were
the first to scale the side of the ship. Our father cried after them,
'See what is written upon the mast,' for there is no ship that does not
bear the name of the owner upon the mast. Levi and Judah scrutinized
the writing, and what they read was this, 'This ship and all the
treasures therein belong unto the son of Barachel.' Jacob thanked God
for having blessed him, not only on land, but also upon the sea, and he
said to us, 'Stretch forth your hands, and whatsoever each one seizes
shall be his!' Levi caught hold of the big mast, Judah of the second
mast, next to Levi's, and the other brethren, with the exception of
Joseph, took the oars, and Jacob himself seized the two rudders,
wherewith to guide the ship. He bade Joseph take an oar, too, but he
refused to do his father's bidding, and Jacob gave him one of the
rudders. After our father had instructed us each one in what we had to
do, he disappeared, whereupon Joseph took possession of the second
rudder, too. All went smoothly for a time, as long as Judah and Joseph
acted together in harmony with each other, and Judah kept Joseph
informed in what direction to steer. But a quarrel broke out between
them, and Joseph did not guide the vessel in the way his father had
commanded him, and Judah attempted to direct him, and the vessel was
wrecked upon a rock. Levi and Judah descended from the masts, and
likewise the other brethren left the ship and escaped to the shore. At
this moment Jacob appeared, and he found us scattered in all
directions, and we reported to him how Joseph had caused the vessel to
run aground, because he had refused, out of jealousy of Judah and Levi,
to steer it according to their instructions. Then Jacob asked us to
show him the spot where we had lost the ship, of which only the masts
were visible above the water. He emitted a whistle summoning us all,
and he swam out into the water, and raised the vessel as before.
Turning to Joseph, he spake thus, 'My son, never do that again, never
permit jealousy of thy brethren to master thee. Nearly it happened that
all thy brethren perished because of thee.'
"When I told my father what I had seen in this vision, he clasped his
hands, and tears flowed from his eyes, and be said: 'My son, for that
the vision was doubled unto thee twice, I am dismayed, and I shudder
for my son Joseph. I loved him more than all of you, but by reason of
his perverseness ye will be carried away into captivity, and scattered
among the nations. Thy first and thy second vision had the same
meaning, the vision is one.'
"Therefore, my sons, I command you not to join yourselves unto the sons
of Joseph, but ye shall join yourselves unto the sons of Levi and
Judah. I tell you, too, that my inheritance shall be of the best of
Palestine, the middle of the earth. You will eat, and the delectable
gifts of my portion will satisfy you. But I warn you not to kick in
your prosperity and not to become perverse, resisting the commands of
God, who satisfies you with the best of His land, and not to forget
your God, whom your father Abraham chose when the families of the earth
were divided in the days of Peleg. The Lord descended with seventy
angels, at their head Michael, and he commanded them to teach the
seventy languages unto the seventy families of Noah. The angels did
according to the behest of God, and the holy Hebrew language remained
only in the house of Shem and Eber, and in the house of their
descendant Abraham. On this day of teaching languages, Michael came to
each nation separately, and told it the message with which God had
charged him, saying: 'I know the rebellion and the confusion ye have
enacted against God. Now, make choice of him whom you will serve, and
whom will you have as your mediator in heaven?' Then spake Nimrod the
wicked, 'In my eyes there is none greater than he that taught me the
language of Cush.' The other nations also answered in words like these,
each one designated its angel. But Abraham said: 'I choose none other
than Him that spake and the world was. In Him I will have faith, and my
seed forever and ever.' Thenceforth God put every nation in the care of
its angel, but Abraham and his seed He kept for Himself.
"Therefore I adjure you not to go astray and serve other gods beside
Him whom our fathers made choice of. You can perceive somewhat of His
power in the creation of man. From head to foot is man wonderfully
made. With his ears he hears, with his eyes he sees, with his brain he
comprehends, with his nose he smells, with the tubes of his throat he
utters sounds, with his gullet he swallows food, with his tongue he
articulates, with his mouth he forms words, with his hands he does his
work, with his heart he meditates, with his spleen he laughs, with his
liver he waxes angry, with his stomach he crushes his food, with his
feet he walks, with his lungs he breathes, and with his kidneys he
makes resolves, and none of his organs undergoes a change in function,
each performs its own. Therefore it behooves man to take to heart who
it is that hath created him, and who hath developed him from a
foul-smelling drop in the womb of woman, who hath brought him to the
light of the world, who hath given sight to his eyes, and who hath
bestowed the power of motion upon his feet, who maketh him to stand
upright, who hath infused the breath of life into him, and who hath
imparted of His own pure spirit unto him. Happy the man, therefore,
that polluteth not the holy spirit of God within him by doing evil
deeds, and well for him if he returns it to his Creator as he received
it."
After Naphtali had charged his children thus, and with many other
lessons like these, he enjoined them to carry his remains to Hebron, to
be buried there near his fathers. Then he ate and drank with rejoicing,
covered his face, and died, and his sons did according to all that
their father Naphtali had commanded them.[14]