• Torah (T): Shemot (Exodus) 9:1-35
• Prophets (P): Nehemiah 9:1-10
• Apostolic (A): Mark 8:1-21
• Additional (ADD): Jubilees 48:9-11

RELATED SCRIPTURES

• Romans 9:17-18 (T)
• Exodus 19:16, 20:18; 2 Samuel 22:1-14 (T)
• Exodus 9:23, 28 Septuagint (T)
• Genesis 3:8-10 (T)
• Isaiah 34:11 – 35:4 Septuagint & DSS (P)
• Genesis 27:11 (P)
• Ephesians 2:1-10; Ephesians 6:10-18; 2 Corinthians 4:1-4 (ADD)

RELATED ADDITIONAL READINGS

• An Annotated Law of Moses 4Q365 Frag. 3 (T)
• Songs of the Sage 4Q510 (P)
• Enoch 15:1-11; Luke 11:24-26; 1 Peter 5:8 (P)
• Jubilees 2:1-3 (T)
• Jubilees 7:20-27; Jubilees 10:1-14 (H, ADD)
• Exodus 8:20 – 9:35 from the Jerusalem Targum aka Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (T)
• Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus 2.14.3-4 (T)

Note: (T) means the verse relates to that week’s Torah portion. (P) means the verse relates to that week’s Prophets portion. (A) means the verse relates to that week’s Apostolic portion. (ADD) means the verse relates to that week’s Additional portion.

Torah Portion (T)

Shemot (Exodus) 9:1-35

9:1 Then YHWH said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘This is what YHWH, the Elohim of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 For if you refuse to let them go, and hold them still, 3 behold, YHWH’s hand is on your livestock which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks with a very grievous pestilence. 4 YHWH will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt; and no word shall die of all the sons of Israel.” ’ ” 5 [Elohim]^(LXX) appointed a set time, saying, “Tomorrow YHWH shall do this word in the land.” 6 YHWH did that word on the next day; and all the livestock of Egypt died, but of the livestock of the sons of Israel, not one died. 7 Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not so much as one of the livestock of the [the sons of]^{(DSS)(LXX)(SP)} Israelites dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn, and he didn’t let the people go. 8 YHWH said to Moses and to Aaron, “Take handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh [and before his servants].^(LXX) 9 It shall become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and shall be boils and blisters breaking out on man and on animal, throughout all the land of Egypt.” 10 They took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward the sky; and it became boils and blisters breaking out on man and on animal. 11 The magicians couldn’t stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were on the magicians and on all the [land of Egypt].^(LXX) 12 YHWH hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he didn’t listen to them, as YHWH had spoken to Moses. 13 YHWH said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘This is what YHWH, the Elohim of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14 For this time I will send all my plagues against your heart, against your officials, and against your people; that you may know that there is no one like me in all the land. 15 For now I would have stretched out my hand, and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the land; 16 but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the land, 17 because you still exalt yourself against my people, that you won’t let them go. 18 Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now. 19 Now therefore command that all of your livestock and all that you have in the field be brought into shelter. The hail will come down on every man and animal that is found in the field, and isn’t brought home, and they will die.” ’ ” 20 Those who feared YHWH’s word among the servants of Pharaoh made their servants and their livestock flee into the houses. 21 Whoever didn’t respect YHWH’s word left his servants and his livestock in the field. 22 YHWH said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man, and on animal, and on every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.” 23 Moses stretched out his rod toward the heavens, and YHWH sent thunder and hail; and lightning flashed down to the land. YHWH rained hail on the land of Egypt. 24 So there was very severe hail, and lightning mixed with the hail, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 The hail struck throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and animal; and the hail struck every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the sons of Israel were, there was no hail. 27 Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. YHWH is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. 28 Pray to YHWH; for there has been enough of mighty thunderings and hail [and fire].^(DSS)(LXX) I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” 29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to YHWH. The thunders shall cease, and there will not be any more hail; that you may know that the land is YHWH’s. 30 But as for you and your servants, I know that you don’t yet fear YHWH Elohim.” 31 The flax and the barley were struck, for the barley had ripened and the flax was blooming. 32 But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they had not grown up. 33 Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread out his hands to YHWH; and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the land. 34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders had ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35 The heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he didn’t let the sons of Israel go, just as YHWH had spoken through Moses.

Prophets Portion (P)

Nehemiah 9:1-10

9:1 Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel were assembled with fasting, with sackcloth, and dirt on them. 2 The seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 They stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of YHWH their Elohim a fourth part of the day; and a fourth part they confessed and worshiped YHWH their Elohim. 4 Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Khenani of the Levites stood up on the stairs, and cried with a loud voice to YHWH their Elohim. 5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, [Binnui],^(mss) Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless YHWH your Elohim from everlasting to everlasting! Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! 6 You are YHWH, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you. 7 You are YHWH, the Elohim who chose Abram, brought him out of Ur of the Kasdim, gave him the name of Abraham, 8 found his heart faithful before you, and cut a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his seed, and have performed your words, for you are righteous. 9 “You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea, 10 and showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and made a name for yourself, as it is today.

Apostolic Portion (A)

Mark 8:1-21

8:1 In those days, when there was a [great]^(mss) multitude, and they had nothing to eat, [he]^(mss) called [the]^(mss) disciples to himself and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have stayed with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them away fasting to their home, they will faint on the way, [and]^(mss) some of them have come a long way.” 4 His disciples answered him, “From where could one satisfy these people with bread here in a deserted place?” 5 He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves. Having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to serve, and they served the multitude. 7 They also had a few small fish. Having blessed them, he said to serve these also. 8 They ate and were filled. They took up seven baskets of broken pieces that were left over. 9 [They]^(mss) were about four thousand. Then he sent them away. 10 Immediately he entered into the boat with his disciples and came into the region of Dalmanutha. 11 The Pharisees came out and began to question him, seeking from him a sign from heaven and testing him. 12 He sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Most certainly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 13 He left them, and again entering into the boat, departed to the other side. 14 They forgot to take bread; and they didn’t have more than one loaf in the boat with them. 15 He warned them, saying, “Take heed: beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.” 16 They reasoned with one [another that they had no bread].^(mss) 17 [He],^(mss) perceiving it, said to them, “Why do you reason that it’s because you have no bread? Don’t you perceive yet or understand? Is your heart still^(mss) hardened? 18 Having eyes, don’t you see? Having ears, don’t you hear? Don’t you remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They told him, “Twelve.” 20 “When the seven loaves fed the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They told him, “Seven.” 21 He asked them, “Don’t you understand yet?”

Additional Portion (ADD)

Jubilees 48:4-11

Between 1947 and 1956 approximately 15 Jubilees scrolls were found in five caves at Qumran, all written in Hebrew. The large number of manuscripts (more than for any biblical books except for Psalms, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Exodus, and Genesis, in descending order) indicates that Jubilees was widely used at Qumran. A comparison of the Qumran texts with the Ethiopic version, performed by James VanderKam, found that the Ethiopic was in most respects an accurate and literalistic translation. Scholars have dated Jubilees to have been written sometime around 160-150 B.C.

48:9 And the prince of the Mastema stood up against thee, and sought to cast thee into the hands of Pharaoh, and he helped the Egyptian sorcerers, and they stood up and wrought before thee. 10. The evils indeed we permitted them to work, but the remedies we did not allow to be wrought by their hands. 11. And the Lord smote them with malignant ulcers, and they were not able to stand for we destroyed them so that they could not perform a single sign.

Related Scriptures

9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the land.” 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

Exodus 19:16 On the third day, when it was morning, there were voices of lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.

Exodus 20:18 All the people perceived the voices of lightning, the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.

2 Samuel 22:1 David spoke to YHWH the words of this song in the day that YHWH delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul, 2 and he said: “YHWH is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine; 3 Elohim is my rock in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. My savior, you save me from violence. 4 I call on YHWH, who is worthy to be praised; So will I be saved from my enemies. 5 For the waves of death surrounded me. The Floods of Belial made me afraid. 6 The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death caught me. 7 In my distress, I called on YHWH. Yes, I called to my Elohim. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry came into his ears. 8 Then the land shook and trembled. The foundations of the heavens quaked and were shaken, because he was angry. 9 Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it. 10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. 11 He rode on a keruv, and flew. Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness a shelter around himself, gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the heavens. 13 At the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled. 14 YHWH thundered from the heavens. Elyon uttered his voice.

3:8 They heard YHWH Elohim’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the face of YHWH Elohim among the trees of the garden. 9 YHWH Elohim called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 The man said, “I heard your voice  in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

The Septuagint (from the Latin: septuāgintā literally “seventy”; often abbreviated as 70 in Roman numerals, i.e., LXX) is the earliest extant Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures and was in wide use by the time of Yeshua and his disciples because most Jews could no longer read Hebrew. For this reason it is frequently quoted in the writings of the Apostles. According to the Letter of Aristeas that the Septuagint was translated at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 B.C.E) by 70 Jewish scholars or, according to later tradition, 72, with six scholars from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who independently produced identical translations. The miraculous character of the Aristeas legend indicates the esteem in which the translation was held in the ancient Jewish diaspora and, later, among followers of Yeshua.

Isaiah 34:11 Septuagint and for a long time birds and hedgehogs, and ibises and ravens will dwell in it: and the measuring line of desolation will be cast over it, and satyrs will dwell in it. 12 Her princes will be no more; for her kings and her great men will be destroyed. 13 And thorns will spring up in their cities, and in her strong holds: and they will be habitations of monsters, and a court of ostriches. 14 And demons will meet with satyrs, and they will cry one to the other: there will satyrs rest, having found for themselves a place of rest. 15 There has the hedgehog made its nest, and the land has safely preserved its young: there have the deer met, and seen one another’s faces. 16 They passed by in full number, and not one of them perished: they sought not one another; for the Lord commanded them, and his Spirit gathered them. 17 And he will cast lots for them, and his hand has portioned out their pasture, saying, Ye will inherit the land for ever: they will rest on it through all generations.

35:1 Be glad, thou thirsty desert: let the wilderness exult, and flower as the lily. 2 And the desert places of Jordan will blossom and rejoice; the glory of Libanus has been given to it, and the honour of Carmel; and my people will see the glory o the Lord, and the majesty of Elohim. 3 Be strong, ye relaxed hands and palsied knees. 4 Comfort one another, ye fainthearted; be strong, fear not; behold, our Elohim renders judgement, and he will render it; he will come and save us.

The following excerpt is from The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, The Oldest Known Bible Translated for the First Time into English by Martin G. Abegg, Jr., Peter Flint, Eugene Ulrich

Isaiah 34:11 DSS The pelican and the porcupine will possess it, and the owl and the raven will dwell in it. Over it he will stretch a line, and chaos, and plumb lines of emptiness, and its nobles. 12 They will call it No Reign There, and all its princes will be nothing. 13 Thorns will grow in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It will be a habitation of jackals, an abode for ostriches. 14 Desert cats will meet hyenas, and goat-demons will call to each other. There too, liliths will settle, and they will find themselves a place of rest. 15 The owl will make its nest there, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade; indeed, indeed, buzzards will gather there, every one with its mate. 16 Study and read from the book of the Lord: and not one will be missing, each its mate. For it is his mouth that has commanded, and it is his spirit that has gathered them. 17 It is he who has cast the lot for them, and his hands divided it for them with the line forever…35:3 Strengthen the weak hands, support the stumbling knees. 4 Say to those who are disheartened, “Be strong, do not fear; see, your Elohim will bring vengeance, he will bring divine recompense to save you.”

1QIsa^a ends chapter 34 with “forever” in Isaiah 34:17 and then continues with the beginning of Isaiah 35:3. A later hand has inserted the passage containing the last few words of 34:17 and 35:1–2, which the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint also contain. It is possible that the passage had been in the text from which the scribe of 1QIsa a was copying and he simply omitted it by mistake. But 35:1–2 makes sense by itself and appears more likely to have been a late supplement that was inserted into the originally shorter text of 1QIsa^a on the basis of a growing variant text. The Masoretic Text also sets it off as a separate paragraph explicitly through the use of paragraph markers. The last words of Isaiah 34:17 can be understood as referring to the wild animals that will inhabit the ruined land just described in Isaiah 34 or to the redeemed exiles of Isaiah 35 who will inherit Zion.

27:11 Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man…”

Ephesians 2:1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. 3 We also all once lived among them in the coveting of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But Elohim, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Messiah—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua, 7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Messiah Yeshua; 8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of Elohim, 9 not of works, that no one would boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua for good works, which Elohim prepared before that we would walk in them.

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of Elohim, that you may be able to stand against the methodology of the devil. 12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the cosmic ruler of the darkness, and against the spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore put on the whole armor of Elohim, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth (cf. Isaiah 11:5), and having put on the breastplate of righteousness (cf. Isaiah 59:17), 15 and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace (cf. Isaiah 52:7), 16 above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation (cf. Isaiah 59:17), and the sword of the Spirit, which is the spoken word of Elohim; 18 with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the holy ones.

2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore, seeing we have this service, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of Elohim deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of Elohim. 3 Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are perishing, 4 in whom the elohim of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Messiah, who is the image of Elohim, should not dawn on them.

Additional Readings​

4Q365 [“It will be a] powder over a[ll the land of Egypt, and on man and beast it will turn into oozing sores,] that is, severe [blisters] on man and beast [in all the land of Egypt.]

Scraps of two manuscripts from Cave 4 (4Q 510–11 ) represent a mixture of sapiential psalms and poems of exorcism. Their editor, M. Baillet ( DJD, VII, 215–62), assigns the script to the end of the first century B.C.E, or the turning of the era. The first fragment preserves an interesting list of names of demons.

4Q510 … praises. Ben[edictions for the K]ing of glory. Words of thanksgiving in psalms of … to the Elohim of knowledge, the Splendour of power, the Elohim of Elohim, Lord of all the holy. [His] domini[on] is over all the powerful mighty ones and by the power of his might all will be terrified and will scatter and be put to flight by the splendour of the dwel[ling] of his kingly glory. And I, the Master, proclaim the majesty of his beauty to frighten and ter[rify] all the spirits of the destroying angels and the spirits of the bastards, the demons, Lilith, the howlers (?) and [the yelpers …] they who strike suddenly to lead astray the spirit of understanding and to appal their heart and their … in the age of the domination of wickedness and the appointed times for the humiliation of the sons of ligh[ t ], in the guilt of the ages of those smitten by iniquity, not for eternal destruction but for the humiliation of sin. Exalt, O just, the Elohim of marvels. My psalms are for the upright … May all whose way is perfect exalt him.

Enoch 15:1 And He answered and said to me, and I heard His voice: ‘Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness: approach hither and hear my voice. 2. And go, say to ⌈⌈the Watchers of the heavens⌉⌉, who have sent thee to intercede ⌈⌈for them: “You should intercede”⌉⌉ for men, and not men for you: 3. Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal the heavens, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of land, and begotten giants (as your) sons? 4. And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have coveted after flesh and blood as those ⌈also⌉ do who die and perish. 5. Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on land. 6. But you were ⌈formerly⌉ spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. 7. And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heavens, in the heavens is their dwelling. 8. And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, will be called evil spirits upon the land, and on the land will be their dwelling. 9. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men, ⌈⌈and⌉⌉ from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; ⌈they will be evil spirits on land, and⌉ evil spirits will they be called. [10. As for the spirits of the heavens, in the heavens will be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the land which were born upon the land, on the land will be their dwelling.] 11. And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the land, and cause trouble: they take no food, ⌈but nevertheless hunger⌉ and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits will rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded ⌈from them⌉.

Luke 11:24 The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he says, ‘I will turn back to my house from which I came out.’ 25 When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then he goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Jubilees 2:1-3 (T)

2:1 And the angel of the face spake to Moses according to the word of the Lord, saying: Write the complete history of the creation, how in six days the Lord Elohim finished all His works and all that He created, and kept Sabbath on the seventh day and hallowed it for all ages, and appointed it as a sign for all His works. 2. For on the first day He created the heavens which are above and the land and the waters and all the spirits which serve before Him–the angels of the face, and the angels of sanctification, and the angels [of the spirit of fire and the angels] of the spirit of the winds, and the angels of the spirit of the clouds, and of darkness, and of snow and of hail and of hoar frost, and the angels of the voices and of the thunder and of the lightning, and the angels of the spirits of cold and of heat, and of winter and of spring and of autumn and of summer, and of all the spirits of His creatures which are in the heavens and on the land, (He created) the abysses and the darkness, eventide (and night), and the light, dawn and day, which He hath prepared in the knowledge of His heart. 3. And thereupon we saw His works, and praised Him, and lauded before Him on account of all His works; for seven great works did He create on the first day.

Jubilees 7:20 And in the twenty-eighth jubilee Noaḥ began to enjoin upon his sons’ sons the ordinances and commandments, and all the judgments that he knew, and he exhorted his sons to observe righteousness, and to cover the shame of their flesh, and to bless their Creator, and honour father and mother, and love their neighbour, and guard their souls from fornication and uncleanness and all iniquity. 21. For owing to these three things came the flood upon the land, namely, owing to the fornication wherein the Watchers against the law of their ordinances went a whoring after the daughters of men, and took themselves wives of all which they chose: and they made the beginning of uncleanness. 22. And they begat sons the Nâphîdîm, and they were all unlike, and they devoured one another: and the Giants slew the Nâphîl, and the Nâphîl slew the Eljô, and the Eljô mankind, and one man another. 23. And every one sold himself to work iniquity and to shed much blood, and the land was filled with iniquity. 24. And after this they sinned against the beasts and birds, and all that moveth and walketh on the land: and much blood was shed on the land, and every imagination and desire of men imagined vanity and evil continually. 25. And the Lord destroyed everything from off the face of the land; because of the wickedness of their deeds, and because of the blood which they had shed in the midst of the land He destroyed everything. 26. “And we were left, I and you, my sons, and everything that entered with us into the ark, and behold I see your works before me that ye do not walk in righteousness; for in the path of destruction ye have begun to walk, and ye are parting one from another, and are envious one of another, and (so it cometh) that ye are not in harmony, my sons, each with his brother. 27. For I see, and behold the demons have begun (their) seductions against you and against your children, and now I fear on your behalf, that after my death ye will shed the blood of men upon the land, and that ye, too, will be destroyed from the face of the land.

Jubilees 10:1 And in the third week of this jubilee the unclean demons began to lead astray the children of the sons of Noaḥ; and to make to err and destroy them. 2. And the sons of Noaḥ came to Noaḥ their father, and they told him concerning the demons which were, leading astray and blinding and slaying his sons’ sons. 3. And he prayed before the Lord his Elohim, and said: Elohim of the spirits of all flesh, who hast shown mercy unto me, And hast saved me and my sons from the waters of the flood, And hast not caused me to perish as Thou didst the sons of perdition; For Thy grace hath been great towards me, And great hath been Thy mercy to my soul; Let Thy grace be lift up upon my sons, And let not wicked spirits rule over them Lest they should destroy them from the land. 4. But do Thou bless me and my sons, that we may increase and multiply and replenish the land. 5. And Thou knowest how Thy Watchers, the fathers of these spirits, acted in my day: and as for these spirits which are living, imprison them and hold them fast in the place of condemnation, and let them not bring destruction on the sons of thy servant, my Elohim; for these are malignant, and created in order to destroy. 6. And let them not rule over the spirits of the living; for Thou alone canst exercise dominion over them. And let them not have power over the sons of the righteous from henceforth and for evermore.” 7. And the Lord our Elohim bade us to bind all. 8. And the chief of the spirits, Mastêmâ, came and said: “Lord, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them hearken to my voice, and do all that I will say unto them; for if some of them are not left to me, I will not be able to execute the power of my will on the sons of men; for these are for corruption and leading astray before my judgment, for great is the wickedness of the sons of men.” 9. And He said: “Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation.” 10. And one of us He commanded that we should teach Noaḥ all their medicines; for He knew that they would not walk in uprightness, nor strive in righteousness. 11. And we did according to all His words: all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemnation, and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject before Satan on the land. 12. And we explained to Noaḥ all the medicines of their diseases, together with their seductions, how he might heal them with herbs of the land. 13. And Noaḥ wrote down all things in a book as we instructed him concerning every kind of medicine. Thus the evil spirits were precluded from (hurting) the sons of Noaḥ. 14. And he gave all that he had written to Shem, his eldest son; for he loved him exceedingly above all his sons.

Josephus was born Joseph ben Mattathias in 37 AD in Jerusalem of a priestly and royal family. He excelled in his studies of Jewish law and studied with the Sadducees, Pharisees, and the Essenes, eventually aligning himself with the Pharisees. In 62 AD he went to Rome to free some imprisoned priests. After accomplishing this mission through the intercession of Nero’s wife, Poppaea, he returned to Jerusalem in 65 AD to find the country in revolt against Rome. Josephus shrewdly reinterpreted the Messianic prophecies. He predicted that Vespasian would become the ruler of the ‘entire world’. His prophecy became true in 68 AD when Nero committed suicide and Vespasian became Ceasar. As a result, Josephus was freed; he moved to Rome and became a Roman citizen, taking the Vespasian family name Flavius. Vespasian commissioned Josephus to write a history of the war, which he finished in 78 AD, the Jewish War. His second major work, the Antiquities of the Jews, was completed in 93 AD. The extant manuscripts of the book Antiquities of the Jews contain two references to Yeshua of Nazareth (18.3.3. and 20.9.1.) and one reference to the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist (18.5.2.).

2.4.4. But when Pharaoh did not even then yield to the will of Elohim, but, while he gave leave to the husbands to take their wives with them, yet insisted that the children should be left behind, Elohim presently resolved to punish his wickedness with several sorts of calamities, and those worse than the foregoing, which yet had so generally afflicted them; for their bodies had terrible boils, breaking forth with blains, while they were already inwardly consumed; and a great part of the Egyptians perished in this manner. But when the king was not brought to reason by this plague, hail was sent down from the heavens; and such hail it was, as the climate of Egypt had never suffered before, nor was it like to that which falls in other climates in winter time, but was larger than that which falls in the middle of spring to those that dwell in the northern and north-western regions. This hail broke down their boughs laden with fruit. After this a tribe of locusts consumed the seed which was not hurt by the hail; so that to the Egyptians all hopes of the future fruits of the ground were entirely lost.