The Chronicles of Jerahmeel: Or, the Hebrew Bible Historiale. Being a Collection of Apocryphal and Pseudo-Epigraphical Books Dealing With the History of the World from the


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The Chronicles of Jerahmeel Or, the Hebrew Bible Historiale. Being a Collection of Apocryphal and Pseudo-Epigraphical Books Dealing With the History of the World from the by Eleazar Ben Asher Ha-Levi, (z-lib.org).ep

LXI. THE CHILDREN OF MOSES

(1) The banishment brought about by Titus, Vespasianus, and Hadrian,

occurred on the eve of the ninth of Ab, on the outgoing of the Sabbath and the

Sabbatical year. The Levites were then occupied with their ministrations, and,

with their harps in their hands, were singing their hymns. But Scripture saith, 'He

hath brought upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own

evil.' The words 'He shall cut them off' were not yet fully uttered ere their

enemies came upon them, slaughtered many of them, and sent the rest into exile.

Thus, also, when Nebuchadnezzar the wicked sent them into exile it fell upon

the eve of the ninth of Ab, the outgoing of the Sabbatical year and the Sabbath,

when the Levites were standing on their 'Duchan,' being sixty myriads in

number, who were, moreover, of the seed of Moses our instructor. While the

harps were in their hands, the verse 'He hath brought upon them their own

iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own evil,' was not yet fully uttered, ere

the enemy came and exiled them to Babylon. When they arrived in Babylon,

their enemies and captors said to them, 'Sing us a song of Zion.' And they

replied, 'How can we sing a song of Zion upon strange ground?'

(2) 'Now,' retorted their captors, 'ye shall sing by force.' But they at once cut

off their fingers with their teeth, and cast them before them. And they replied,

'How can those fingers which struck the strings of the harps in the temple strike

them here in a strange land?' And God exclaimed, 'If I forget Jerusalem, My

right hand shall be forgotten.'

(3) A cloud then descended, and lifting all the children of Moses, with their



sheep and cattle, brought them to the east of Havila. In the night they were let

down, and on that same night they heard a great noise surrounding them, like

that of a river, without seeing a drop of water descending, but heard only the

rolling of stones and sand, where there had never been a river. This river then

rolled great stones, and the sand, without any water, made a noise as of a great

earthquake, so that if anyone came near that river, he was dashed to pieces. This

continued until the Sabbath. The river they called Sabbatyon or Sabbatianus. In

some part the river is less than sixty cubits in width; there the people stand and

speak with those of the other side. On the Sabbath it ceases to flow, and on the

eve of Sabbath a cloud descends full of smoke. No one is able to approach them,

neither do they approach us. There are no wild beasts, no unclean animals, nor

any reptiles or creeping things; nothing except their flocks and herds.

(4) They reap and sow, and they ask the others, and thus they learned of the

destruction of the second temple. Behind the sons of Moses we do not know who

may be dwelling; but Naphtali, Gad, and Asher came to Dan after the destruction

of the second temple; for Isaachar, who lived at the mountains of the deep,

quarrelled with them and called them 'the sons of the handmaids.' At length,

being afraid lest they be coming to battle, those three tribes went away until they

came to Dan, and these four tribes were thus living in one place.




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