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The Forgotten Books of Eden · 280 of 293
Testament of Issachar: Chapter II
1.KNOW ye therefore, my children, that in the last times your sons will forsake singleness, and will cleave unto insatiable desire.
2.And leaving guilelessness, will draw near to malice; and forsaking the commandments of the Lord, they will cleave unto Beliar.
3.And leaving husbandry, they will follow after their own wicked devices, and they shall be dispersed among the Gentiles, and shall serve their enemies.
4.And do you therefore give these commands to your children, that, if they sin, they may the more quickly return to the Lord; For He is merciful, and will deliver them, even to bring them back into their land.
5.Behold, therefore, as ye see, I am a hundred and twenty-six years old and am not conscious of committing any sin.
6.Except my wife I have not known any woman. I never committed fornication by the uplifting of my eyes.
7.I drank not wine, to be led astray thereby;
8.I coveted not any desirable thing that was my neighbour’s.
9.Guile arose not in my heart;
10.A lie passed not through my lips.
11.If any man were in distress I joined my sighs with his,
12.And I shared my bread with the poor.
13.I wrought godliness, all my days I kept truth.
14.I loved the Lord; likewise also every man with all my heart.
15.So do you also these things, my children, and every spirit of Beliar shall flee from you, and no deed of wicked men shall rule over you;
16.And every wild beast shall ye subdue, since you have with you the God of heaven and earth and walk with men in singleness of heart.
17.And having said these things, he commanded his sons that they should carry him up to Hebron, and bury him there in the cave with his fathers.
18.And he stretched out his feet and died, at a good old age; with every limb sound, and with strength unabated, he slept the eternal sleep.
Asked of Guide
Why does Issachar insist on singleness and claim he never sinned at 126 years old?
Issachar insists on singleness because he links single-hearted devotion to God with moral strength: he says children who keep singleness will make “every spirit of Beliar…flee” and subdue “every wild beast,” tying inner purity to protection and communal survival. He presents his own life—“I am a hundred and twenty-six years old and am not conscious of committing any sin”—as a living example, listing abstinence from wine, covetousness, guile, and lies to show how singleness produced righteousness and charity.
Issachar’s claim functions as both exhortation and proof: his long, vigorous life and burial in the family cave validate his teaching in the tradition’s moral economy. This resembles other testamentary genres like the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs where a patriarch’s spotless life and final words model repentance and fidelity; see, for example, the Testament of Benjamin for similar last-charge structure.
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