THE copy of the words of Judah, what things he spake to his sons before he died.
2 They gathered themselves together, therefore, and came to him, and he said to them: Hearken, my children, to Judah your father.
3 I was the fourth son born to my father Jacob; and Leah my mother named me Judah, saying, I give thanks to the Lord,
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because He hath given me a fourth son also.
4 I was swift in my youth, and obedient to my father in everything.
5 And I honoured my mother and my mother's sister.
6 And it came to pass, when I became a man, that my father blessed me, saying, Thou shalt be a king, prospering in all things.
7 And the Lord showed me favour in all my works both in the field and in the house.
8 I know that I raced a hind, and caught it, and prepared the meat for my father, and he did eat.
9 And the roes I used to master in the chase, and overtake all that was in the plains.
10 A wild mare I overtook, and caught it and tamed it.
11 I slew a lion and plucked a kid out of its mouth.
12 I took a bear by its paw and hurled it down the cliff, and it was crushed.
13 I outran the wild boar, and seizing it as I ran, I tore it in sunder.
14 A leopard in Hebron leaped upon my dog, and I caught it by the tail, and hurled it on the rocks, and it was broken in twain
15 I found a wild ox feeding in the fields, and seizing it by the horns, and whirling it round and stunning it, I cast it from me and slew it.
16 And when the two kings of the Canaanites came sheathed, in armour against our flocks, and much people with them, single handed I rushed upon the king of Hazor, and smote him on the greives and dragged him down, and so I slew him.
17 And the other, the king of Tappuah, as he sat upon his horse, I slew, and so I scattered all his people.
18 Achor, the king, a man of giant stature, I found, hurling javelins before and behind as he sat on horseback, and I took up a stone of sixty pounds weight, and hurled it and smote his horse, and killed it.
19 And I fought with this other for two hours; and I clave his shield in twain, and I chopped off his feet, and killed him.
20 And as I was stripping off his breastplate, behold nine men his companions began to fight with me,
21 And I wound my garment on my hand; and I slung stones at them, and killed four of them, and the rest fled.
22 And Jacob my father slew Beelesath, king of all the kings, a giant in strength, twelve cubits high.
23 And fear fell upon them, and they ceased warring against us.
24 Therefore my father was free from anxiety in the wars when I was with my brethren.
25 For he saw in a vision concerning me that an angel of might followed me everywhere, that I should not be overcome.
26 And in the south there came upon us a greater war than that in Shechem; and I joined in battle array with my brethren, and pursued a thousand men, and slew of them two hundred men and four kings.
27 And I went up upon the wall, and I slew four mighty men.
28 And so we captured Hazor, and
