The Validity of the Book of Jasher

The meaning of Jasher is from the Hebrew “Yashar” and it means, “Upright”, or “Righteous”.

The book is also called the “book of the upright”.

When you read it you will find this to be true because of the more intricate details it gives us of patriarchs, such as Moses, Nimrod, Esau and Jacob…

Yasher was a contemporary of Moshe and Y’hoshua (Joshua) and he was considered such an authoritative Hebrew source that he is mentioned in the scriptures twice in the Tanakh and also referred to by Rabbi Shaul (Paul) in the Apostolic writings…

The first scripture:

Joshua 10:13

13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

So here we are told that it is written in the book of Jasher.

This is important because it clearly shows us that the book of Jasher carried authority to the author of the Book of Joshua.

That means if we can find this event in the book of Jasher we have to give credence to the books validity.

Well here is what Jasher 88:55-65 says,

55 And when Adonizedek king of Jerusalem heard all that the children of Israel had done to Jericho and to Ai, he sent to Hoham king of Hebron and to Piram king at Jarmuth, and to Japhia king of Lachish and to Deber king of Eglon, saying, 56 Come up to me and help me, that we may smite the children of Israel and the inhabitants of Gibeon who have made peace with the children of Israel.  57 And they gathered themselves together and the five kings of the Amorites went up with all their camps, a mighty people numerous as the sand of the sea shore.  58 And all these kings came and encamped before Gibeon, and they began to fight against the inhabitants of Gibeon, and all the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua, saying, Come up quickly to us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites have gathered together to fight against us.  59 And Joshua and all the fighting people went up from Gilgal, and Joshua came suddenly to them, and smote these five kings with a great slaughter.  60 And the Lord confounded them before the children at Israel, who smote them with a terrible slaughter in Gibeon, and pursued them along the way that goes up to Beth Horon unto Makkedah, and they fled from before the children of Israel.  61 And whilst they were fleeing, the Lord sent upon them hailstones from heaven, and more of them died by the hailstones, than by the slaughter of the children of Israel.  62 And the children of Israel pursued them, and they still smote them in the road, going on and smiting them.  63 And when they were smiting, the day was declining toward evening, and Joshua said in the sight of all the people, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon, until the nation shall have revenged itself upon its enemies.  64 And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Joshua, and the sun stood still in the midst of the heavens, and it stood still six and thirty moments, and the moon also stood still and hastened not to go down a whole day.  65 And there was no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened to the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.

The second scripture:

2 Samuel 1:18 says,

18 Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.

It is stated here that the book of Jasher explains this use of the bow, which again points to the book as authoritative.

When we read the book of Jasher this point is confirmed:

Jasher 56:8-9 says,

8 And Jacob said unto Judah, I know my son that thou art a mighty man for thy brethren; reign over them, and thy sons shall reign over their sons forever.  9 Only teach thy sons the bow and all the weapons of war, in order that they may fight the battles of their brother who will rule over his enemies.  

Here we see that Jacob tells Judah his son to only teach his sons the use of the “bow”, because as Jacob said Judah was a “mighty man”.  So this confirms what we are told in 2 Samuel 1:18.

The Third Reference:

Rabbi Shaul (Paul) also refers to a story about Jannes and Jambres that is nowhere to be found in the 66 book Bible most used today and is only found in the book of Jasher:

In 2 Timothy 3:8 he writes,

8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

…But who are Jannes and Jambres? We are told that they are two men who withstood Moses, meaning they were in opposition to Moses.  But we find nowhere in any other scriptures the names of these two men, but if you look in the book of Jasher their identities are clearly revealed, as well as how they opposed Moses.

Jasher 79:27-38 says,

27 And when they had gone Pharaoh sent for Balaam the magician and to Jannes and Jambres his sons, and to all the magicians and conjurors and counsellors which belonged to the king, and they all came and sat before the king.  28 And the king told them all the words which Moses and his brother Aaron had spoken to him, and the magicians said to the king, But how came the men to thee, on account of the lions which were confined at the gate?  29 And the king said, Because they lifted up their rod against the lions and loosed them, and came to me, and the lions also rejoiced at them as a dog rejoices to meet his master.  30 And Balaam the son of Beor the magician answered the king, saying, These are none else than magicians like ourselves.  31 Now therefore send for them, and let them come and we will try them, and the king did so.  32 And in the morning Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron to come before the king, and they took the rod of God, and came to the king and spoke to him, saying,  33 Thus said the Lord God of the Hebrews, Send my people that they may serve me.  34 And the king said to them, But who will believe you that you are the messengers of God and that you come to me by his order?  35 Now therefore give a wonder or sign in this matter, and then the words which you speak will be believed.  36 And Aaron hastened and threw the rod out of his hand before Pharaoh and before his servants, and the rod turned into a serpent.  37 And the sorcerers saw this and they cast each man his rod upon the ground and they became serpents.  38 And the serpent of Aaron’s rod lifted up its head and opened its mouth to swallow the rods of the magicians.

He we see the whole story. Jannes and Jambres were the sons of Balaam, an Egyptian sorcerer.

Pharaoh called his top magicians to try and prove the miracles that Moses performed were nothing more than magic tricks and not from the Most High.  We see that Moses turned his rod into a snake and the magicians doing the same.

We then see Moses proving his power came from the Most High when his rod swallowed the rods of the magicians.

All of this information can only be found in the book of Jasher, without which we would have to speculate about what is said in 2 Timothy 3:8.

Further evidence:

The book of Jasher also clears up a misunderstanding that many Believers have.

There is a preconceived notion that Aaron and Miriam were upset with Moses because of an Ethiopian woman that he married, which is true… But, the problem is most people think that it was his current wife at the time Moses was leading Israel, who was Ethiopian…

The truth is the Ethiopian wife that was being referred to was a previous marriage Moses had with an Ethiopian queen!

This information is only found in the book of Jasher.  It is also confirm by the Israelite historian of 2000 years ago called Josephus and can be found in his writings, which supports the book of Jasher’s account of the aforementioned events.

So for those of you that never read these things, we hope that you’re now seeing the reason why we must study for ourselves and not simply remain with what the false system of religion has cannonized and given us.

Many blessings in your continued studies and spiritual growth!


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Torah Parashah teaching with video and audio and illustrations by Rabbi Isaac. © 2021 Assembly of Called-Out Believers. Use by Permission.

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One Comment

  1. I enjoy reading the Book of Jasher, and considered it to be a genuine historical book because of the intricacies of the stories. I learnt from other sources that Jasher simply means upright or accurate, hence the book is correctly translated as the Book of Accurate Record. The fact that no other person in Jewish history goes by the name of Yasher testifies to this translation.
    In my opinion, this book ought to be placed in between the books of Joshua and Judges.

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