1. ... Hear, my brethren, give ear to Reuben
your father, what things I command you. And, behold, I call to witness
against you this day the God of heaven, that ye walk not in the ignorance
of youth and fornication wherein I ran greedily, and I defiled the bed
of Jacob my father. For I tell you that He smote me with a sore plague
in my loins for seven months; and had not Jacob our father prayed for me
to the Lord, surely the Lord would have destroyed me. For I was thirty
years old when I did this evil in the sight of the Lord, and for seven
months I was sick even unto death; and I repented for seven years in the
set purpose of my soul before the Lord. Wine and strong drink I drank not,
and flesh entered not into my mouth, and I tasted not pleasant food, mourning
over my sin, for it was great. And it shall not so be done in Israel.
2. And now hear me, my children, what things I saw
in my repentance concerning the seven spirits of error. Seven spirits are
given against man from Beliar, and they are chief of the works of youth
... the spirit of fornication, dwelleth in the nature and in the senses
.. the spirit of fawning and trickery .. the spirit of lying, in perdition
and in jealousy to feign words, and to conceal words from kindred and friends
.. the spirit of injustice, with which are theft and pilferings, that a
man may work the desire of his heart; for injustice worketh together with
the other spirits by means of craft .. And so perisheth every young man,
darkening his mind from the truth, and not understanding the law of God,
nor obeying the admonitions of his fathers, as befell me also in my youth.
And now, children, love the truth, and it shall
preserve you. I counsel you, hear ye Reuben your father. Pay no heed to
the sight of a woman, nor yet associate privately with a female under the
authority of a husband, nor meddle with affairs of womankind. For had I
not seen Bilhah bathing in a covered place, I had not fallen into this
great iniquity. For my mind, dwelling on the woman's nakedness, suffered
me not to sleep until I had done the abominable deed. For while Jacob our
father was absent with Isaac his father, when we were in Gader, near to
Ephratha in Bethlehem, Bilhah was drunk, and lay asleep uncovered in her
chamber; and when I went in and beheld her nakedness, I wrought that impiety,
and leaving her sleeping I departed. And forthwith an angel of God revealed
to my father Jacob concerning my impiety, and he came and mourned over
me, and touched her no more...
4. Pay no heed, therefore, to the beauty of women,
and muse not upon their doings; but walk in singleness of heart in the
fear of the Lord, and be labouring in works, and roaming in study and among
your flocks, until the Lord give to you a wife whom He will, that ye suffer
not as I did. Until my father's death I had not boldness to look stedfastly
into the face of Jacob, or to speak to any of my brethren, because of my
reproach; and even until now my conscience afflicteth me by reason of my
sin. And my father comforted me; for he prayed for me unto the Lord, that
the anger of the Lord might pass away from me, even as the Lord showed
me. From henceforth, then, I was protected, and I sinned not. Therefore,
my children, observe all things whatsoever I command you, and ye shall
not sin. For fornication is the destruction of the soul, separating it
from God, and bringing it near to idols, because it deceiveth the mind
and understanding, and bringeth down young men into hell before their time.
For many hath fornication destroyed; because, though a man be old or noble,
it maketh him a reproach and a laughing-stock with Beliar and the sons
of men. For in that Joseph kept himself from every woman, and purged his
thoughts from all fornication, he found favour before the Lord and men.
For the Egyptian woman did many things unto him, and called for magicians,
and offered him love potions, and the purpose of his soul admitted no evil
desire. Therefore the God of my fathers delivered him from every visible
and hidden death. For if fornication overcome not the mind, neither shall
Beliar overcome you.
5. Hurtful are women, my children; because, since
they have no power or strength over the man, they act subtilly through
outward guise how they may draw him to themselves; and whom they cannot
overcome by strength, him they overcome by craft. For moreover the angel
of God told me concerning them, and taught me that women are overcome by
the spirit of fornication more than men, and they devise in their heart
against men; and by means of their adornment they deceive first their minds,
and instil the poison by the glance of their eye, and then they take them
captive by their doings, for a woman cannot overcome a man by force.
Therefore flee fornication, my children, and command
your wives and your daughters that they adorn not their heads and their
faces; because every woman who acteth deceitfully in these things hath
been reserved to everlasting punishment. For thus they allured the Watchers
before the flood; and as these continually beheld them, they fell into
desire each of the other, and they conceived the act in their mind, and
changed themselves into the shape of men, and appeared to them in their
congress with their husbands; and the women, having in their minds desire
toward their apparitions, gave birth to giants, for the Watchers appeared
to them as reaching even unto heaven.
6. Beware, therefore, of fornication; and if you
wish to be pure in your mind, guard your senses against every woman. And
command them likewise not to company with men, that they also be pure in
their mind. For constant meetings, even though the ungodly deed be not
wrought, are to them an irremediable disease, and to us an everlasting
reproach of Beliar; for fornication hath neither understanding nor godliness
in itself, and all jealousy dwelleth in the desire thereof....