Abraham’s Prayer for Protection and Good Counsel

Jubilees 12:19–21

Mid-2nd Century BCE

19That night he prayed and said:

My God, my God, God Most High,
You alone are my God.
You have created everything:
Everything that was and has been is the product of your hands.
You and your lordship I have chosen.
20Save me from the power of the evil spirits who rule the thoughts of people’s minds.
May they not mislead me from following you, my God.
Do establish me and my posterity forever.
May we not go astray from now until eternity.

21Then he said, “Shall I return to Ur of the Chaldeans who are looking for me to return to them? Or am I to remain here in this place? Make the path that is straight before you prosper through your servant so that he may do [it]. May I not proceed in the error of my mind, my God.”

Translated by James C. VanderKam.

Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

Jubilees 12:19–21, trans. James C. VanderKam, in James C. VanderKam, Jubilees: A Commentary in Two Volumes, vol. 1, ed. Sidnie White Crawford, Hermeneia: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2018), p. 441. Used with permission of 1517 Media.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

Engage with this Source

Jubilees narrates that after leaving Ur of the Chaldeans, Abraham stayed up at night observing the stars to predict the rainfall for the coming year. He then realized that the heavenly bodies and rains were under God’s control. This is the earliest account of Abraham’s recognition through heavenly meditation of the one true God and declaration of his devotion to God. This episode also reflects the Greco-Roman tradition that, having come from the land of the Chaldeans, who were known for their astrological knowledge, Abraham was a skilled astrologer. (See also “A Hellenized Abraham.”)

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