t12papocrypha
Testament of Judah 19
Judah warns his children that love of money is the root path to idolatry — not as metaphor but as mechanism: money displaces Jehovah with false gods, then disorders the mind into madness. He testifies from his own wreckage: the loss of his children, the corruption of his flesh, and near total forfeiture of his covenant line. Only Jacob's priestly intercession and his own repentance arrested the descent. Jehovah, as the God of their fathers, extended pardon on the ground of ignorance, while Judah names the adversarial agency precisely — the prince of deceit — whose work is to blind a man to his own weakness until the covenant consequence lands.
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My children, the love of money leadeth to idols; because, when led astray through money, men make mention of those who are no gods, and it causeth him who hath it to fall into madness. For the sake of money I lost my children, and but for the repentance of my flesh, and the humbling of my soul, and the prayers of Jacob my father, I should have died childless. But the God of my fathers, who is pitiful and merciful, pardoned me, because I did it in ignorance. For the prince of deceit blinded me, and I was ignorant as a man and as flesh, being corrupted in sins; and I learnt my own weakness while thinking myself unconquerable.
