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Chapter 43

After Joseph's divining cup is found in Benjamin's money bag, and Joseph demands that Benjamin is left behind as slave for him, Judah exclaims:
Genesis 44:20 בראשית מד כ-מד כ
We said to my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him. וַנֹּאמֶר אֶל־אֲדֹנִי יֶשׁ־לָנוּ אָב זָקֵן וְיֶלֶד זְקֻנִים קָטָן וְאָחִיו מֵת וַיִּוָּתֵר הוּא לְבַדּוֹ לְאִמּוֹ וְאָבִיו אֲהֵבוֹ׃
In Jubilees, Judah does engage in the outright lie that Joseph is dead, but still (not surprisingly) weasels out of speaking the truth:
"O my lord, let your servant please speak a word in my lord's ear: Two brothers did your servant's mother bear to our father: one went away and was lost, and has not been found, and he alone is left of his mother, and your servant our father loves him."

Chapter 44

In Genesis, as soon as Jacob learns Joseph is still alive, he sets off for Egypt, and gets as far as Be'er Sheva` before God appears to him and tells him not to fear going to Egypt. In Jubilees, he's a bit more circumspect:
And Israel took his journey from Haran from his house on the new moon of the third month,
(Wait; what was he doing back in Haran!?)
He went by way of the Well of the Oath [Be'er Sheva`], he offered a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac on the seventh of this month. Then Jacob remembered the dream that he had seen at Bethel, and he feared to go down into Egypt. And while he was thinking of sending word to Joseph to come to him, and that he would not go down, he remained there seven days, if perchance he could see a vision as to whether he should remain or go down. He celebrated the harvest festival of the first-fruits with old grain, for in all the land of Canaan there was not a handful of seed [in the land], for the famine was over all the beasts and cattle and birds, and also over man. Then on the sixteenth the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him [etc]

When giving the genealogy of the sons of the Israelites as they went into Egypt, the Bible says "the sons [plural] of Dan" but lists only Ḥushim (in another place his name is metathesised to Shuḥam); Jubilees adds Samon, Asudi, 'Ijaka, and Salomon (I have no idea where it gets these names from), but then says "they died the year in which they entered into Egypt, and there was left to Dan Hushim alone."

Similarly, to Naftali's sons is added 'Iv, of whom it says "'Iv, who was born after the years of famine, died in Egypt." The narrative concludes, strangely:

These are [Jacob's] children and his children's children, in all seventy, but five died in Egypt before Joseph, and had no children, and in the land of Canaan two sons of Judah died, Er and Onan, and they had no children. The children of Israel buried those who perished, and they were reckoned among the seventy Gentile nations.

[Dead Sea Scroll of Jubilees] Jubilees posts                     Jewish learning notes index

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