THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO
TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION
BY
M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.
CHAPTER XXIX.
XXIX And after these things the people appointed Zebul ruler over them, and at that time he gathered the people together and said unto them: Behold now, we know all the labour wherewith Cenez laboured with us in the days of his life. Now if he had had sons, they should have been princes over the people, but inasmuch as his daughters are yet alive, let them receive a greater inheritance among the people, because their father in his life refused to give it unto them, lest he should be called covetous and greedy of gain. And the people said: Do all that is right in thine eyes. Num. 36
2. Now Cenez had three daughters whose names are these: Ethema the firstborn, the second Pheila, the third Zelpha. And Zebul gave to the firstborn all that was round about the land of the Phœnicians, and to the second he gave the olive yard of Accaron, and to the third all the tilled land that was about Azotus. And he gave them husbands, namely to the firstborn Elisephan, to the second Odiel, and to the third Doel.1
3. Now in those days Zebul set up a treasury for the Lord and said unto the people: Behold, if any man will sanctify unto the Lord gold and silver, let him bring it to the Lord's treasury in Sylo: only let not any that hath stuff belonging to idols think to sanctify it to the Lord's treasures, for the Lord desireth not the abominations of the accursed things, lest ye disturb the synagogue of the Lord, for the wrath that is passed by sufficeth. And all the people brought that which their heart moved them to bring, both men and women, even gold and silver. And all that was brought was weighed, and it was 20 talents of gold, and 250 talents of silver. 2 Chr. 24:8
4. And Zebul judged the people twenty and five years. And when he had accomplished his time, he sent and called all the people and said: Lo, now I depart to die. Look ye to the testimonies which they that went before us testified, and let not your heart be like unto the waves of the sea, but like as the wave of the sea under standeth not save only those things which are in the sea, so let your heart also think upon nothing save only those things which belong unto the law. And Zebul slept with his fathers, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.
Footnotes
168:1 XXIX 2. The giving of an inheritance to the daughters of Kenaz is modelled on Num. 36: the sacred treasury, perhaps, was suggested by 2 Kings 12; 2 Chron. 24.
