1:18<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And said, To teach the sons of Y\u2019hudah the bow. Behold, it is written in the Sefer HaYashar. the bow<\/em><\/strong> There is dispute among interpreters as to whether “the bow” refer to the skill of archery, or is the name of a song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sefer HaYashar<\/em><\/strong> Cited also in Joshua 10:13. The Greek LXX omits the entire phrase from Joshua 10:13 and translates the the phrase to mean \u201cThe Book of the Upright\u201d in 2Sam. 1:18. The Latin Vulgate has in both places \u201cLiber Justorum<\/em>\u201d \u201cThe Book of the Upright Ones\u201d. In the Targums the phrase is Paraphrased as \u201cThe Book of the Law\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Aramaic Peshitta Tanak has \u201cThe Book of Praises\u201d in Joshua 10:13 and \u201cThe Book of the Song\u201d in 2Sam. 1:18. This may have resulted from a misreading of \u05d9\u05e9\u05e8 (Upright) as \u05e9\u05d9\u05e8 (Song). And some have speculated that the book in question was actually a book of songs which included reference to Joshua 10:13 in the lyrics of a song. This theory also takes \u201cthe bow\u201d in 2Sam. 1:18 to be the name of a song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his own recounting of the event of the prolonged day of Joshua 10 the first century Jewish Roman historian Josephus identifies the Book of Jasher mentioned by Joshua as one of \u201cthe books laid up in the Temple<\/em>\u201d (Ant. 5:1:17). Thus the Book of Jasher was known to Josephus and was known to be among the books laid up in the Temple in the first century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1625 edition of Jasher has a Preface, which says in part (translated from the Hebrew):<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026when the holy city Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus,<\/em> According to the preface this Sidrus found a false wall in this house with a hidden room. In this room he found an old man hiding with provisions and many books including the Book of Jasher The old man found favor with Sidrus who took the old man and his books with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The preface says \u201cthey went from city to city and from country to country until they reached Sevilia [a city in Spain].\u201d At that time \u201cSeville\u201d was called \u201cHispalis\u201d and was the capital of the Roman province of Hispalensis. The manuscript was donated to the Jewish college at Cordova, Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the 1625 edition of Jasher the first printed edition of the Book of Jasher was published in Naples Italy in 1552. However no copies of the 1552 edition are known to have survived. The earliest surviving Hebrew edition known is the 1625 edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The well known Hebraist and Rabbinic Scholar (and translator of the 1840 Book of Jasher) Moses Samuel wrote of Jasher:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2026the book is, with the exception of some doubtful parts,<\/em> And my old friend and mentor, the late Dr. Cyrus Gordon (who was the world\u2019s leading Semitist until his death) said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(2Sam. 1:18 HRV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
all the military heads went in to rob and plunder, and<\/em>
among the officers of Titus was one whose name was Sidrus,<\/em>
who went in to search, and found in Jerusalem a house<\/em>
of great extent\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
a venerable monument of antiquity; and that, notwithstanding<\/em>
some few additions have been made to it in comparatively<\/em>
modern times, it still retains sufficient to prove it a copy<\/em>
of the book referred to in Joshua, ch. x, and 2 Samuel, ch. 1.\u201d<\/em>
\u2013 Moses Samuel \u2013 Hebraist and Rabbinic Scholar<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n