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The Testament of Naphtali

Naphtali 1

The record of the testament of Naphtali, what things he ordained at the time of his death in the hundred and thirty-second year of his life. When his sons were gathered together in the seventh month, the fourth day of the month, he, being yet in good health, made them a feast and good cheer. And after he was awake in the morning, he said to them, I am dying; and they believed him not. And he blessed the Lord; and affirmed that after yesterday's feast he should die. He began then to say to his sons: Hear, my children; ye sons of Naphtali, hear the words of your father. I was born from Bilhah; and because Rachel dealt craftily, and gave Bilhah in place of herself to Jacob, and she bore me upon Rachel's lap, therefore was I called Naphtali.

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Text. Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Roberts and Donaldson, 1885. Public domain by age. The Ignatian letters follow the shorter recension, the seven letters generally accepted as genuine. These texts carry no verse numbers in the original; chapter divisions are the editors'.