When Naphtali grew old and felt his strength fading, he gathered his children and gave them one final command. It was not about silver or gold. "I speak to you about a very easy matter," he said. "Fear God. Serve Him. Cling to Him." His sons protested—had they ever strayed? "God and I are witnesses that you speak truth," Naphtali replied, "but I dread the future."
Then he told them his visions. In the first, Jacob told his twelve sons to seize whatever they could. Levi grabbed a staff, leaped onto the sun, and rode it. Judah did the same with the moon. Nine other brothers each mounted a star. Only Joseph remained on the ground. "What good is heaven to the earth-born?" he asked. Then a mighty winged bull appeared, and Joseph rode it for four hours—walking, running, flying—until he overtook Judah and beat him with his staff, seizing ten of his twelve rods. Ten brothers abandoned Judah and Levi to follow Joseph. Only Benjamin refused. Then a violent storm tore them all apart.
The second vision was more ominous. The twelve brothers stood with Jacob at the shore of the Great Sea. A ship sailed past with no crew. Jacob stripped off his clothes and plunged in, and they all followed. Once aboard, Jacob told them to read the name on the mast. It read: "This ship belongs to the son of Berakhel"—the one whom God had blessed. Jacob rejoiced.
But then a storm smashed the ship to pieces. Jacob was separated from his sons. Levi put on sackcloth and prayed, and God sent a great wind that brought the wreckage to shore. This testament, preserved in the Chronicles of Jerahmeel—a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899—contains a version of the Testament of Naphtali older and more detailed than the Greek version known to scholars.