contracts

¹⁵Brothers (I speak according to man), if a man’s testament has been confirmed, no one would reject it or add to it.

³⁷But let your word ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ For anything beyond that is of evil.

²⁶Do not be willing to be with those who certify with their hands, and who offer themselves as a guarantee against debts.

²And he said to the leaders of the tribes of the sons of Israel: “This is the word, which the Lord has instructed:

¹⁷In this matter, God, wanting to reveal more thoroughly the immutability of his counsel to the heirs of the promise, interposed an oath,

²The soul who will have sinned, and, despising the Lord, will have denied to his neighbor the deposit which he had entrusted to his safekeeping, or who will have extorted anything by force, or who will have made a false accusation,

¹⁶Six things there are that the Lord hates, and the seventh, his soul detests: ¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸a heart that devises the most wicked thoughts, feet running swiftly unto evil, ¹⁹a deceitful witness bringing forth lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

¹⁵And Joshua made peace with them, and entering into a pact, he promised that they would not be put to death. The leaders of the multitude also swore to them.

¹⁶For men swear by what is greater than themselves, and an oath as confirmation is the end of all their controversy.

⁴⁴Come, therefore, let us enter into a pact, so that it may be a testimony between me and you.” ⁴⁵And so Jacob took a stone, and he set it up as a memorial. ⁴⁶And he said to his brothers, “Bring stones.” And they, gathering together stones, made a tomb, and they ate upon it. ⁴⁷And Laban called it, ‘Tomb of Witness,’ and Jacob, ‘Pile of Testimony;’ each of them according to the fitness of his own language. ⁴⁸And Laban said: “This tomb will be a witness between me and you this day.” (And for this reason, its name has been called Gilead, that is, ‘Tomb of Witness.’) ⁴⁹“May the Lord consider and judge between us, when we will have withdrawn from one another.

¹⁴and wiping away the handwriting of the decree which was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken this away from your midst, affixing it to the Cross.

¹⁰And I wrote it in a book and signed it, and I summoned witnesses. And I weighed out the silver on a scale. ¹¹And I received the signed deed of possession, and the stipulations, and the ratifications, with the exterior seals. ¹²And I gave the deed of possession to Baruch, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel, the son of my uncle, in the sight of the witnesses who had been recorded in the book of the purchase, and in the sight of all the Jews who were sitting in the atrium of the prison. ¹³And I instructed Baruch, in their sight, saying: ¹⁴Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Take these writings, this sealed deed of purchase, and this deed which is open, and place them in an earthen vessel, so that they will be preserved for many days.’ ¹⁵For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Houses, and fields, and vineyards will be possessed still, in this land.’