t12papocrypha
Testament of Judah 21
Judah charges his sons to honor Levi and never exalt themselves against the priestly order, because Jehovah placed the kingdom beneath the priesthood — the earthly beneath the heavenly. Judah's dominion governs the nations as a turbulent sea: kings rise as predators, enslaving free sons and daughters, devouring wealth, feeding the scavengers of war. False prophets come as storms upon the righteous. The chapter establishes a fixed constitutional order: Holy Order priesthood stands above every temporal throne, not as a political claim but as the Lord's own appointment, which no earthly king may lawfully overturn.
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And now, my children, love Levi, that ye may abide, and exalt not yourselves against him, lest ye be utterly destroyed. For to me the Lord gave the kingdom, and to him the priesthood, and He set the kingdom beneath the priesthood. To me He gave the things upon the earth; to him the things in the heavens. As the heaven is higher than the earth, so is the priesthood of God higher than the kingdom upon the earth. For the Lord chose him above thee, to draw near to Him, and to eat of His table and first-fruits, even the choice things of the sons of Israel, and thou shalt be to them as a sea. For as, on the sea, just and unjust are tossed about, some taken into captivity while others are enriched, so also shall every race of men be in thee, some are in jeopardy and taken captive, and others shall grow rich by means of plunder. For they who rule will be as great sea-monsters, swallowing up men like fishes: free sons and daughters do they enslave; houses, lands, flocks, money, will they plunder; and with the flesh of many will they wrongfully feed the ravens and the cranes; and they will go on further in evil, advancing on still in covetousness. And there shall be false prophets like tempests, and they shall persecute all righteous men.
