Lost Books of the Bible (105 page)

32 The men who were on the top of the wall, the inhabitants of the city, seeing that the sons of Jacob were coming up to them, all fled from the wall, descended into the city and concealed themselves in the middle of the city.

33 Issachar and Naphtali that remained under the wall approached and broke the gates of the city, and set ablaze a fire at the gates of the city that the iron melted, and all the sons of Jacob came into the city, they and all their men; they fought with the inhabitants of the city of Sarton and struck them with the edge of the sword, and no man stood up before them.

34 About two hundred men fled from the city and they all went and hid themselves in a certain tower in the city; Judah pursued them to the tower and broke down the tower which fell on the men, and they all died.

35 The sons of Jacob went up the road of the roof of that tower, and they looked and there was another strong and high tower at a distance in the city, and the top of it reached to heaven.  The sons of Jacob hurried and descended and went with all their men to that tower, and found it filled with about three hundred men, women and little ones.

36 The sons of Jacob struck a great smiting among those men in the tower and they ran away and fled from them.

37 And Simeon and Levi pursued them when twelve mighty and valiant men came out to them from the place where they had concealed themselves.

38 And those twelve men maintained a strong battle against Simeon and Levi, and Simeon and Levi could not prevail over them; those valiant men broke the shields of Simeon and Levi, and one of them struck at Levi's head with his sword when Levi hastily placed his hand to his head, for he was afraid of the sword.  The sword struck Levi's hand, and  the hand of Levi was nearly cut off.

39 Levi seized the sword of the valiant man in his hand and took it forcibly from the man; with it he struck at the head of the powerful man and he severed his head.

40 Eleven men approached to fight with Levi, for they saw that one of them was killed; the sons of Jacob fought but the sons of Jacob could not defeat them, for those men were very powerful.

41 And the sons of Jacob seeing that they could not win over them, Simeon gave a loud and tremendous shriek, and the eleven powerful men were stunned at the voice of Simeon's shrieking.

42 Judah at a distance knew the voice of Simeon's shouting, and Naphtali and Judah ran with their shields to Simeon and Levi and found them fighting with those powerful men, unable to defeat them as their shields were broken.

43 Naphtali saw that the shields of Simeon and Levi were broken and he took two shields from his servants and brought them to Simeon and Levi.

44 And Simeon, Levi and Judah on that day fought all three against the eleven mighty men until the time of sunset, but they could not win over them.

45 This was told to Jacob, and he was very grieved; he prayed to the Lord, and he and Naphtali his son went against these mighty men.

46 Jacob approached, drew
his bow, and came near to the mighty men, and killed three of their men with the bow; the remaining eight turned back and then the war waged against them in the front and rear.  They were greatly afraid for their lives and could not stand before the sons of Jacob, and they fled from before them.

47 In their flight they met Dan and Asher coming toward them, and they suddenly fell on them and fought with them, and killed two of them; Judah and his brothers pursued them and struck the remainder of them, and killed them.

48 All the sons of Jacob returned and walked through the city searching if they could find any men; they found about twenty young men in a cave in the city; Gad and Asher struck them all and Dan and Naphtali lighted on the rest of the men who had fled and escaped from the second tower, and they struck them all.

49 The sons of Jacob struck all the inhabitants of the city of Sarton, but the women and little ones they left in the city and did not kill them.

50 And all the inhabitants of the city of Sarton were powerful men; one of them would pursue a thousand, and two of them would not flee from ten thousand of the rest of men.

51 The sons of Jacob killed all the inhabitants of the city of Sarton with the edge of the sword; no man stood up against them, and they left the women in the city.

52 The sons of Jacob took all the spoil of the city and captured what they desired, and they took flocks and herds and property from the city; the sons of Jacob did to Sarton and its inhabitants as they had done to Chazar and its inhabitants, and they turned and went away.

CHAPTER 39

1 When the sons of Jacob went from the city of Sarton, they had gone about two hundred cubits when they met the inhabitants of Tapnach coming toward them, for they went out to fight with them because they had smitten the king of Tapnach and all his men.

2 So all that remained in the city of Tapnach came out to fight with the sons of Jacob and they thought to retake from them the booty and the spoil which they had captured from Chazar and Sarton.

3 The rest of the men of Tapnach fought with the sons of Jacob in that place, and the sons of Jacob struck them and they fled before them.  They pursued them to the city of Arbelan and they all fell before the sons of Jacob.

4 The sons of Jacob returned and came to Tapnach to take away the spoil of Tapnach; when they came to Tapnach they heard that the people of Arbelan had gone out to meet them to save the spoil of their brothers.  The sons of Jacob left ten of their men in Tapnach to plunder the city, and they went out toward the people of Arbelan.

5 The men of Arbelan went out with their wives to fight with the sons of Jacob, for their wives were experienced in battle; they went out, about four hundred men and women.

6 And all the sons of Jacob shouted with a loud voice;  they all ran toward the inhabitants of Arbelan with a great and tremendous voice.

7 The inhabitants of Arbelan heard the noise of the shouting of the sons of Jacob and their roaring like the noise of lions and like the roaring of the sea and its waves.

8 And fear and terror possessed their hearts on account of the sons of Jacob; they were terribly afraid of them and they retreated and fled before them into the city.  The sons of Jacob pursued them to the gate of the city and they came on them in the city.

9 The sons of Jacob fought with them in the city, and all their women were engaged in slinging against the sons of Jacob; the combat was very severe among them all of that day till evening.

10 And the sons of Jacob could not prevail over them;  the sons of Jacob had almost perished in that battle.  The sons of Jacob cried to the Lord and greatly gained strength toward evening; the sons of Jacob struck all the inhabitants of Arbelan by the edge of the sword, men, women and little ones.

11 Also the remainder of the people who had fled from Sarton, the sons of Jacob struck them in Arbelan, and the sons of Jacob did to Arbelan and Tapnach as they had done to Chazar and Sarton. When the women saw that all the men were dead, they went on the roofs of the city and struck the sons of Jacob by showering down stones like rain.

12 And the sons of Jacob hurried and came into the city and seized all the women and struck them with the edge of the sword.  The sons of Jacob captured all the spoil and booty, flocks and herds and cattle.

13 The sons of Jacob did to Machnaymah as they had done to Tapnach, to Chazar and to Shiloh, and they turned from there and went away.

14 On the fifth day the sons of Jacob heard that the people of Gaash had gathered against them to battle, because they had slain their king and their captains, for there had been fourteen captains in the city of Gaash, and the sons of Jacob had slain them all in the first battle.

15 And the sons of Jacob that day put on their weapons of war, and they marched to battle against the inhabitants of Gaash.  In Gaash there was a strong and mighty people of the people of the Amorites; Gaash was the strongest and best fortified city of all the cities of the Amorites, and it had three walls.

16 The sons of Jacob came to Gaash and they found the gates of the city locked and about five hundred men standing at the top of the outer-most wall; a people numerous as the sand on the sea shore were in ambush for the sons of Jacob from outside the city at the rear.

17 And the sons of Jacob approached to open the gates of the city, and while they were drawing near to it, those who were in ambush at the rear of the city came forth from their places and surrounded the sons of Jacob.

18 The sons of Jacob were enclosed between the people of Gaash, and the battle was both to their front and rear; all the men that were on the wall were casting from the wall on them, arrows and stones.

19 And Judah, seeing that the men of Gaash were getting too strong for them, gave a most piercing and tremendous shriek and all the men of Gaash were terrified at the voice of Judah's cry; men fell from the wall at his powerful shriek and all those that were from without and within the city were greatly afraid of their lives.

20 And the sons of Jacob still came closer to break the doors of the city
when the men of Gaash threw stones and arrows on them from the top of the wall, and made them flee from the gate.

21 The sons of Jacob returned against the men of Gaash who were with them from outside the city and they struck them terribly, as striking against gourds, and they could not stand against the sons of Jacob for fright and terror had seized them at the shriek of Judah.

22 The sons of Jacob killed all those men who were outside the city, and the sons of Jacob still drew nearer to make an entrance into the city and to fight under the city walls, but they could not for all the inhabitants of Gaash who remained in the city had surrounded the walls of Gaash in every direction; the sons of Jacob were unable to approach the city to fight with them.

23 The sons of Jacob came near to one corner to fight under the wall;  the inhabitants of Gaash threw arrows and stones on them like showers of rain, and they fled from under the wall.

24 And the people of Gaash who were on the wall, seeing that the sons of Jacob could not prevail over them from under the wall, reproached the sons of Jacob in these words, saying,

25 What is the matter with you in the battle that you cannot prevail? Can you then do to the mighty city of Gaash and its inhabitants as you did to the cities of the Amorites that were not so powerful? Certainly to those weak ones among us you did those things and killed them in the entrance of the city, for they had no strength when they were terrified at the sound of your shouting.

26 And will you now then be able to fight in this place? Certainly here you will all die, and we will avenge the cause of those cities that you have laid waste.

27 And the inhabitants of Gaash greatly reproached the sons of Jacob and reviled them with their gods, and continued to cast arrows and stones on them from the wall.

28 Judah and his brothers heard the words of the inhabitants of Gaash and their anger was greatly roused, and Judah was zealous of his God in this matter, and he called out and said, O Lord, help, send help to us and our brothers.

29 And he ran at a distance with all his might with his drawn sword in his hand, and he sprang from the earth and by dint of his strength mounted the wall, and his sword fell from his hand.

30 And Judah shouted on the wall, and all the men that were on the wall were terrified; some of them fell from the wall into the city and died, and those who were yet on the wall, when they saw Judah's strength were greatly afraid and fled for their lives into the city for safety.

31 And some were emboldened to fight with Judah on the wall; they came close to kill him when they saw there was no sword in Judah's hand and they thought of casting him from the wall to his brothers; twenty men of the city came up to assist them, they surrounded Judah and all shouted over him, and approached him with drawn swords; they terrified Judah, and Judah cried out to his brothers from the wall.

32 And Jacob and his sons drew the bow from under the wall, and struck three of the men that were on the top of the wall, and Judah
continued to cry and he exclaimed, O Lord help us, O Lord deliver us, and he cried out with a loud voice on the wall, and the cry was heard at a great distance.