The Legends of the Jews Volume 2
Louis Ginzberg

The Legends of the Jews Volume 2, by Louis Ginzberg





117117




THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS

BY
LOUIS GINZBERG

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN MANUSCRIPT BY
HENRIETTA SZOLD


II

BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS FROM JOSEPH TO THE EXODUS




PREFACE

The arrangement and presentation of the material in this
volume are the same as in Volume I. In both my efforts
have been directed to bringing together as full as possible
a collection of Jewish legends that deal with Biblical personages
and events. The sources of those legends and explanations
of some of them will be given in the last volume
of the entire work, and the numbers throughout the work
refer to the notes in the concluding volume.

My original intention was to continue Volume II up to the
death of Moses, but the legendary material clustering around
the life and death of Moses is so abundant that practical
considerations demanded the division of this material, in order
not to make the second volume too bulky. The division
chosen is a natural one. This volume closes with the Exodus,
and contains the deeds of Moses in Egypt, while the following
volume will deal with Moses in the desert.

The fact that Job is placed between Jacob's sons and
Moses may appear strange to some readers, since in the
Bible Job is one of the last books; but "legend is above time
and space," and I have, therefore, given Job the place which
legend has ascribed to him.
                         LOUIS GINZBERG.

NEW YORK, March 28, 1910.



CONTENTS

PREFACE
JOSEPH
The Favorite Son-Joseph Hated by His Brethren--
Joseph Cast into the Pit-The Sale-Joseph's Three
Masters-Joseph's Coat Brought to His Father-Judah
and His Sons-The Wives of the Sons of Jacob--
Joseph the Slave of Potiphar-Joseph and Zuleika--
Joseph Resists Temptation-Joseph in Prison-Pharaoh's
Dreams-Joseph before Pharaoh-The Ruler of
Egypt-Joseph's Brethren in Egypt-Joseph Meets His
Brethren-The Second journey to Egypt-Joseph and
Benjamin-The Thief Caught-Judah Pleads and
Threatens-Joseph Makes Himself Known-Jacob
Receives the Glad Tidings-Jacob Arrives in Egypt--
Joseph's Kindness and Generosity~Jacob's Last Wish--
The Blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh-The Blessing
of the Twelve Tribes-The Death of Jacob-The Sons
of Jacob at War with the Sons of Esau-Zepho King
of Kittim-The Nations at War-Joseph's Magnanimity
-Asenath-The Marriage of Joseph-Kind and Unkind
Brethren-Treachery Punished-The Death and Burial
of Joseph.

II. THE SONS OF JACOB
Significant Names-Reuben's Testament-Simon's
Admonition against Envy~The Ascension of Levi-Judah
Warns against Greed and Unchastity-Issachar's Singleness
of Heart-Zebulon Exhorts unto Compassion-
Dan's Confession-Naphtali's Dreams of the Division
of the Tribes-Gad's Hatred-Asher's Last Words-
Benjamin Extols Joseph.

III. JOB
Job and the Patriarchs-Job's Wealth and
Benefactions-Satan and Job--Job's Suffering-The Four
Friends-Job Restored.

IV. MOSES IN EGYPT
The Beginning of the Egyptian Bondage-Pharaoh's
Cunning-The Pious Midwives-The Three Counsellors-
The Slaughter of the Innocents-The Parents of
Moses-The Birth of Moses-Moses Rescued from the
Water-The Infancy of Moses-Moses Rescued by
Gabriel-The Youth of Moses-The Flight-The King
of Ethiopia-Jethro-Moses Marries Zipporah-A
Bloody Remedy-The Faithful Shepherd-The Burning
Thorn-bush-The Ascension of Moses-Moses Visits
Paradise and Hell-Moses Declines the Mission-Moses
Punished for His Stubbornness-The Return to Egypt-
Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh-The Suffering In-
creases-Measure for Measure-The Plagues Brought
through Aaron-The Plagues Brought through Moses-
The First Passover-The Smiting of the First-born-
The Redemption of Israel from Egyptian Bondage-
The Exodus.



I
JOSEPH

THE FAVORITE SON
JOSEPH HATED By His BRETHREN
JOSEPH CAST INTO THE PIT
THE SALE
JOSEPH'S THREE MASTERS
JOSEPH'S COAT BROUGHT TO HIS FATHER
JUDAH AND HIS SONS
THE WIVES OF THE SONS OF JACOB
JOSEPH THE SLAVE OF POTIPHAR
JOSEPH AND ZULEIKA
JOSEPH RESISTS TEMPTATION
JOSEPH IN PRISON
PHARAOH'S DREAMS
JOSEPH BEFORE PHARAOH
THE RULER OF EGYPT
JOSEPH'S BRETHREN IN EGYPT
JOSEPH MEETS HIS BRETHREN
THE SECOND JOURNEY TO EGYPT
JOSEPH AND BENJAMIN
THE THIEF CAUGHT
JUDAH PLEADS AND THREATENS
JOSEPH MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN
JACOB RECEIVES THE GLAD TIDINGS
JACOB ARRIVES IN EGYPT
JOSEPH's KINDNESS AND GENEROSITY
JACOB'S LAST WISH
THE BLESSING OF EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH
THE BLESSING OF THE TWELVE TRIBES
THE DEATH OF JACOB
THE SONS OF JACOB AT WAR WITH THE SONS OF ESAU
ZEPHO KING OF KITTIM
THE NATIONS AT WAR
JOSEPH'S MAGNANIMITY
ASENATH
THE MARRIAGE OF JOSEPH
KIND AND UNKIND BRETHREN
TREACHERY PUNISHED
THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF JOSEPH


I

JOSEPH

THE FAVORITE SON

Jacob was not exempt from the lot that falls to the share
of all the pious. Whenever they expect to enjoy life in
tranquillity, Satan hinders them. He appears before God,
and says: "Is it not enough that the future world is set
apart for the pious? What right have they to enjoy this
world, besides?" After the many hardships and conflicts
that had beset the path of Jacob, he thought he would be at
rest at last, and then came the loss of Joseph and inflicted the
keenest suffering. Verily, few and evil had been the days
of the years of Jacob's pilgrimage, for the time spent outside
of the Holy Land had seemed joyless to him. Only the
portion of his life passed in the land of his fathers, during
which he was occupied with making proselytes, in accordance
with the example set him by Abraham and Isaac, did
he consider worth while having lived,[1] and this happy time
was of short duration. When Joseph was snatched away,
but eight years had elapsed since his return to his father's
house.[2]

And yet it was only for the sake of Joseph that Jacob had
been willing to undergo all the troubles and the adversity
connected with his sojourn in the house of Laban. Indeed,
Jacob's blessing in having his quiver full of children was due
to the merits of Joseph, and likewise the dividing of the
Red Sea and of the Jordan for the Israelites was the reward for
his son's piety. For among the sons of Jacob
Joseph was the one that resembled his father most closely in
appearance, and, also, he was the one to whom Jacob transmitted
the instruction and knowledge he had received from
his teachers Shem and Eber.[3] The whole course of the son's
life is but a repetition of the father's. As the mother of
Jacob remained childless for a long time after her marriage,
so also the mother of Joseph. As Rebekah had undergone
severe suffering in giving birth to Jacob, so Rachel in giving
birth to Joseph. As Jacob's mother bore two sons, so also
Joseph's mother. Like Jacob, Joseph was born circumcised.
As the father was a shepherd, so the son. As the father
served for the sake of a woman, so the son served under a
woman. Like the father, the son appropriated his older
brother's birthright. The father was hated by his brother,
and the son was hated by his brethren. The father was the
favorite son as compared with his brother, so was the son
as compared with his brethren. Both the father and the son
lived in the land of the stranger. The father became a servant
to a master, also the son. The master whom the father
served was blessed by God, so was the master whom the son
served. The father and the son were both accompanied by
angels, and both married their wives outside of the Holy
Land. The father and the son were both blessed with
wealth. Great things were announced to the father in a
dream, so also to the son. As the father went to Egypt and
put an end to famine, so the son. As the father exacted the
promise from his sons to bury him in the Holy Land, so
also the son. The father died in Egypt, there died also the
son. The body of the father was embalmed, also the body
of the son. As the father's remains were carried to the
Holy Land for interment, so also the remains of the son.
Jacob the father provided for the sustenance of his son
Joseph during a period of seventeen years, so Joseph the
son provided for his father Jacob during a period of seventeen
years.[4]

Until he was seventeen years old, Joseph frequented the
Bet ha-Midrash,[5] and he became so learned that he could
impart to his brethren the Halakot he had heard from his
father, and in this way he may be regarded as their teacher.[6]
He did not stop at formal instruction, he also tried to give
them good counsel, and he became the favorite of the sons
of the handmaids, who would kiss and embrace him.[7]

In spite of his scholarship there was something boyish
about Joseph. He painted his eyes, dressed his hair carefully,
and walked with a mincing step. These foibles of
youth were not so deplorable as his habit of bringing evil
reports of his brethren to his father. He accused them of
treating the beasts under their care with cruelty--he said
that they ate flesh torn from a living animal--and he charged
them with casting their eyes upon the daughters of the
Canaanites, and giving contemptuous treatment to the sons
of the handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, whom they called
slaves.

For these groundless accusations Joseph had to pay
dearly. He was himself sold as a slave, because he had
charged his brethren with having called the sons of the
handmaids slaves, and Potiphar's wife cast her eyes upon
Joseph, because he threw the suspicion upon his brethren
that they had cast their eyes upon the Canaanitish women.
And how little it was true that they were guilty of cruelty
to animals, appears from the fact that at the very time when
they were contemplating their crime against Joseph, they
yet observed all the rules and prescriptions of the ritual in
slaughtering the kid of the goats with the blood of which
they besmeared his coat of many colors.[8]


JOSEPH HATED BY HIS BRETHREN

Joseph's talebearing against his brethren made them hate
him. Among all of them Gad was particularly wrathful,
and for good reason. Gad was a very brave man, and when
a beast of prey attacked the herd, over which he kept guard
at night, he would seize it by one of its legs, and whirl it
around until it was stunned, and then he would fling it away
to a distance of two stadia, and kill it thus. Once Jacob
sent Joseph to tend the flock, but he remained away only
thirty days, for he was a delicate lad and fell sick with the
heat, and he hastened back to his father. On his return he
told Jacob that the sons of the handmaids were in the habit
of slaughtering the choice cattle of the herd and eating it,
without obtaining permission from Judah and Reuben. But
his report was not accurate. What he had seen was Gad
slaughtering one lamb, which he had snatched from the very
jaws of a bear, and he killed it because it could not be kept
alive after its fright. Joseph's account sounded as though
the sons of the handmaids were habitually inconsiderate and
careless in wasting their father's substance.[9]

To the resentment of the brethren was added their envy
of Joseph, because their father loved him more than all of
them. Joseph's beauty of person was equal to that of his
mother Rachel, and Jacob had but to look at him to be consoled
for the death of his beloved wife. Reason enough for
distinguishing him among his children.[10] As a token of his
great love for him, Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors,
so light and delicate that it could be crushed and concealed
in the closed palm of one hand. The Hebrew name of the
garment, Passim, conveys the story of the sale of Joseph.
The first letter, Pe, stands for Potiphar, his Egyptian master;
Samek stands for Soharim, the merchantmen that
bought Joseph from the company of Ishmaelites to whom his
brethren had sold him; Yod stands for these same Ishmaelites;
and Mem, for the Midianites that obtained him from
the merchantmen, and then disposed of him to Potiphar.
But Passim. has yet another meaning, "clefts." His brethren
knew that the Red Sea would be cleft in twain in days to
come for Joseph's sake, and they were jealous of the glory
to be conferred upon him. Although they were filled with
hatred of him, it must be said in their favor that they were
not of a sullen, spiteful nature. They did not hide their
feelings,
they proclaimed their enmity openly.

Once Joseph dreamed a dream, and he could not refrain
from telling it to his brethren. He spoke, and said: "Hear,
I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. Behold, you
gathered fruit, and so did I. Your fruit rotted, but mine
remained sound. Your seed will set up dumb images of
idols, but they will vanish at the appearance of my descendant,
the Messiah of Joseph. You will keep the truth as to
my fate from the knowledge of my father, but I will stand
fast as a reward for the self-denial of my mother, and you
will prostrate yourselves five times before me."[11]

The brethren refused at first to listen to the dream, but
when Joseph urged them again and again, they gave heed
to him, and they said, "Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or
shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?"[12] God put an
interpretation into their mouths that was to be verified in
the posterity of Joseph. Jeroboam and Jehu, two kings,
and Joshua and Gideon, two judges, have been among his
descendants, corresponding to the double and emphatic expressions
used by his brethren in interpreting the dream.[13]

Then Joseph dreamed another dream, how the sun, the
moon, and eleven stars bowed down before him, and Jacob,
to whom he told it first, was rejoiced over it, for he understood
its meaning properly.[14] He knew that he himself was
designated by the sun, the name by which God had called
him when he lodged overnight on the holy site of the
Temple. He had heard God say to the angels at that time,
"The sun has come."[15] The moon stood for Joseph's
mother, and the stars for his brethren, for the righteous are
as the stars.[16] Jacob was so convinced of the truth of
the dream that he was encouraged to believe that he
would live to see the resurrection of the dead, for Rachel
was dead, and her return to earth was clearly indicated by
the dream. He went astray there, for not Joseph's own
mother was referred to, but his foster-mother Bilhah, who
had raised him.

Jacob wrote the dream in a book, recording all the circumstances,
the day, the hour, and the place, for the holy spirit
cautioned him, "Take heed, these things will surely come
to pass."[17] But when Joseph repeated his dream to his
brethren, in the presence of his father, Jacob rebuked him,
saying, "I and thy brethren, that has some sense, but I and
thy mother, that is inconceivable, for thy mother is dead."[18]
These words of Jacob called forth a reproof from God. He
said, "Thus thy descendants will in time to come seek to
hinder Jeremiah in delivering his prophecies."[19] Jacob may
be excused, he had spoken in this way only in order to avert
the envy and hate of his brethren from Joseph, but they
envied and hated him because they knew that the interpretation
put upon the dream by Jacob would be realized.[20]


JOSEPH CAST INTO THE PIT

Once the brethren of Joseph led their father's flocks to
the pastures of Shechem, and they intended to take their
ease and pleasure there.[21] They stayed away a long time, and
no tidings of them were heard. Jacob began to be anxious
about the fate of his sons. He feared that a war had broken
out between them and the people of Shechem, and he resolved
to send Joseph to them and have him bring word
again, whether it was well with his brethren.[22] Jacob desired
to know also about the flocks, for it is a duty to concern
oneself about the welfare of anything from which one derives
profit. Though he knew that the hatred of his brethren
might bring on unpleasant adventures, yet Joseph, in
filial reverence, declared himself ready to go on his father's
errand. Later, whenever Jacob remembered his dear son's
willing spirit, the recollection stabbed him to the heart. He
would say to himself, "Thou didst know the hatred of thy
brethren, and yet thou didst say, Here am I."[23]

Jacob dismissed Joseph, with the injunction that he journey
only by daylight,[24] saying furthermore, "Go now, see
whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flock;
and send me word"--an unconscious prophecy. He did not
say that he expected to see Joseph again, but only to have
word from him.[25] Since the covenant of the pieces, God
had resolved, on account of Abraham's doubting question,
that Jacob and his family should go down into Egypt to
dwell there. The preference shown to Joseph by his father,
and the envy it aroused, leading finally to the sale of Joseph
and his establishment in Egypt, were but disguised means
created by God, instead of executing His counsel directly
by carrying Jacob down into Egypt as a captive.[26]

Joseph reached Shechem, where he expected to find his
brethren. Shechem was always a place of ill omen for
Jacob and his seed--there Dinah was dishonored, there the
Ten Tribes of Israel rebelled against the house of David
while Rehoboam ruled in Jerusalem, and there Jeroboam
was installed as king.[27] Not finding his brethren and the
herd in Shechem, Joseph continued his journey in the direction
of the next pasturing place, not far from Shechem, but
he lost his way in the wilderness.[28] Gabriel in human shape
appeared before him, and asked him, saying, "What seekest
thou?"[29] And he answered, "I seek my brethren."
Whereto the angel replied, "Thy brethren have given up
the Divine qualities of love and mercy.[30] Through a prophetic
revelation they learned that the Hivites were preparing
to make war upon them, and therefore they departed
hence to go to Dothan. And they had to leave this place for
other reasons, too. I heard, while I was still standing behind
the curtain that veils the Divine throne, that this day
the Egyptian bondage would begin, and thou wouldst be
the first to be subjected to it."[31] Then Gabriel led Joseph to
Dothan.[32]

When his brethren saw him afar off, they conspired
against him, to slay him. Their first plan was to set dogs
on him. Simon then spoke to Levi, "Behold, the master of
dreams cometh with a new dream, he whose descendant
Jeroboam will introduce the worship of Baal. Come now,
therefore, and let us slay him, that we may see what will
become of his dreams." But God spoke: "Ye say, We shall
see what will become of his dreams, and I say likewise, We
shall see, and the future shall show whose word will stand,
yours or Mine."[33]

Simon and Gad set about slaying Joseph, and he fell upon
his face, and entreated them: "Have mercy with me, my
brethren, have pity on the heart of my father Jacob. Lay
not your hands upon me, to spill innocent blood, for I have
done no evil unto you. But if I have done evil unto you,
then chastise me with a chastisement, but your hands lay
not upon me, for the sake of our father Jacob." These
words touched Zebulon, and he began to lament and weep,
and the wailing of Joseph rose up together with his brother's,
and when Simon and Gad raised their hands against
him to execute their evil design, Joseph took refuge behind
Zebulon, and supplicated his other brethren to have mercy
upon him. Then Reuben arose, and he said, "Brethren, let
us not slay him, but let us cast him into one of the dry pits,
which our fathers dug without finding water." That was
due to the providence of God; He had hindered the water
from rising in them in order that Joseph's rescue might be
accomplished, and the pits remained dry until Joseph was
safe in the hands of the Ishmaelites.[34]

Reuben had several reasons for interceding in behalf of
Joseph. He knew that he as the oldest of the brethren would
be held responsible by their father, if any evil befell him.
Besides, Reuben was grateful to Joseph for having reckoned
him among the eleven sons of Jacob in narrating his
dream of the sun, moon, and stars. Since his disrespectful
bearing toward Jacob, he had not thought himself worthy
of being considered one of his sons.[35] First Reuben tried
to restrain his brethren from their purpose, and he addressed
them in words full of love and compassion. But when he
saw that neither words nor entreaties would change their
intention, he begged them, saying: "My brethren, at least
hearken unto me in respect of this, that ye be not so wicked
and cruel as to slay him. Lay no hand upon your brother,
shed no blood, cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness,
and let him perish thus.[36]

Then Reuben went away from his brethren, and he hid
in the mountains, so that he might be able to hasten back
in a favorable moment and draw Joseph forth from the pit
and restore him to his father. He hoped his reward would
be pardon for the transgression he had committed against
Jacob.[37] His good intention was frustrated, yet Reuben was
rewarded by God, for God gives a recompense not only for
good deeds, but for good intentions as well.[38] As he was
the first of the brethren of Joseph to make an attempt to
save him, so the city of Bezer in the tribe of Reuben was
the first of the cities of refuge appointed to safeguard the
life of the innocent that seek help.[39] Furthermore God
spake to Reuben, saying: "As thou wast the first to endeavor
to restore a child unto his father, so Hosea, one of
thy descendants, shall be the first to endeavor to lead Israel
back to his heavenly Father."[40]

The brethren accepted Reuben's proposition, and Simon
seized Joseph, and cast him into a pit swarming with snakes
and scorpions, beside which was another unused pit, filled
with offal.[41] As though this were not enough torture, Simon
bade his brethren fling great stones at Joseph. In his later
dealings with this brother Simon, Joseph showed all the
forgiving charitableness of his nature. When Simon was
held in durance in Egypt as a hostage, Joseph, so far from
bearing him a grudge, ordered crammed poultry to be set
before him at all his meals.[42]

Not satisfied with exposing Joseph to the snakes and
scorpions, his brethren had stripped him bare before they
flung him into the pit. They took off his coat of many
colors, his upper garment, his breeches, and his shirt.[43]
However, the reptiles could do him no harm. God heard
his cry of distress, and kept them in hiding in the clefts
and the holes, and they could not come near him. From the
depths of the pit Joseph appealed to his brethren, saying:
"O my brethren, what have I done unto you, and what is
my transgression? Why are you not afraid before God on
account of your treatment of me? Am I not flesh of your
flesh, and bone of your bone? Jacob your father, is he not
also my father? Why do you act thus toward me? And
how will you be able to lift up your countenance before
Jacob? O Judah, Reuben, Simon, Levi, my brethren, deliver
me, I pray you, from the dark place into which you
have cast me. Though I committed a trespass against you,
yet are ye children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were
compassionate with the orphan, gave food to the hungry,
and clothed the naked. How, then, can ye withhold your
pity from your own brother, your own flesh and bone? And
though I sinned against you, yet you will hearken unto my
petition for the sake of my father. O that my father knew
what my brethren are doing unto me, and what they spake
unto me!"

To avoid hearing Joseph's weeping and cries of distress,
his brethren passed on from the pit, and stood at a bow-
shot's distance.[44] The only one among them that manifested
pity was Zebulon. For two days and two nights no food
passed his lips on account of his grief over the fate of
Joseph, who had to spend three days and three nights in the
pit before he was sold. During this period Zebulon was
charged by his brethren to keep watch at the pit. He was
chosen to stand guard because he took no part in the meals.
Part of the time Judah also refrained from eating with
the rest, and took turns at watching, because he feared
Simon and Gad might jump down into the pit and put an
end to Joseph's life.[45]

While Joseph was languishing thus, his brethren determined
to kill him. They would finish their meal first, they
said, and then they would fetch him forth and slay him.
When they had done eating, they attempted to say grace, but
Judah remonstrated with them: "We are about to take the
life of a human being, and yet would bless God? That is
not a blessing, that is contemning the Lord.[46] What profit
is it if we slay our brother? Rather will the punishment of
God descend upon us. I have good counsel to give you.
Yonder passeth by a travelling company of Ishmaelites on
their way to Egypt. Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites,
and let not our hand be upon him. The Ishmaelites
will take him with them upon their journeyings, and he
will be lost among the peoples of the earth.[47] Let us follow
the custom of former days, for Canaan, too, the son of Ham,
was made a slave for his evil deeds, and so will we do with
our brother Joseph."[48]


THE SALE

While the brethren of Joseph were deliberating upon his
fate, seven Midianitish merchantmen passed near the pit
in which he lay. They noticed that many birds were circling
above it, whence they assumed that there must be water
therein, and, being thirsty, they made a halt in order to refresh
themselves. When they came close, they heard Joseph
screaming and wailing, and they looked down into the pit
and saw a youth of beautiful figure and comely appearance.
They called to him, saying: "Who art thou? Who brought
thee hither, and who cast thee into this pit in the wilderness?"
They all joined together and dragged him up, and
took him along with them when they continued on their
journey. They had to pass his brethren, who called out to
the Midianites: "Why have you done such a thing, to steal
our slave and carry him away with you? We threw the
lad into the pit, because he was disobedient. Now, then, return
our slave to us." The Midianites replied: "What,
this lad, you say, is your slave, your servant? More likely
is it that you all are slaves unto him, for in beauty of form,
in pleasant looks, and fair appearance, he excelleth you all.
Why, then, will you speak lies unto us? We will not give
ear unto your words, nor believe you, for we found the lad
in the wilderness, in a pit, and we took him out, and we will
carry him away with us on our journey." But the sons of
Jacob insisted, "Restore our slave to us, lest you meet death
at the edge of the sword."

Unaffrighted, the Midianites drew their weapons, and,
amid war whoops, they prepared to enter into a combat with
the sons of Jacob. Then Simon rose up, and with bared
sword he sprang upon the Midianites, at the same time
uttering a cry that made the earth reverberate. The Midianites
fell down in great consternation, and he said: "I am
Simon, the son of the Hebrew Jacob, who destroyed the city
of Shechem alone and unaided, and together with my brethren
I destroyed the cities of the Amorites. God do so and
more also, if it be not true that all the Midianites, your
brethren, united with all the Canaanite kings to fight with
me, cannot hold out against me. Now restore the boy you
took from us, else will I give your flesh unto the fowls of
the air and to the beasts of the field."

The Midianites were greatly afraid of Simon, and, terrified
and abashed, they spake to the sons of Jacob with little
courage: "Said ye not that ye cast this lad into the pit because
he was of a rebellious spirit? What, now, will ye do
with an insubordinate slave? Rather sell him to us, we are
ready to pay any price you desire." This speech was part
of the purpose of God. He had put it into the heart of
the Midianites to insist upon possessing Joseph, that he
might not remain with his brethren, and be slain by them.[49]
The brethren assented, and Joseph was sold as a slave while
they sat over their meal. God spake, saying: "Over a meal
did ye sell your brother, and thus shall Ahasuerus sell your
descendants to Haman over a meal, and because ye have
sold Joseph to be a slave, therefore shall ye say year after
year, Slaves were we unto Pharaoh in Egypt."[50]

The price paid for Joseph by the Midianites was twenty
pieces of silver, enough for a pair of shoes for each of his
brethren. Thus "they sold the righteous for silver, and the
needy for a pair of shoes." For so handsome a youth as
Joseph the sum paid was too low by far, but his appearance
had been greatly changed by the horrible anguish he bad
endured in the pit with the snakes and the scorpions. He
had lost his ruddy complexion, and he looked sallow and
sickly, and the Midianites were justified in paying a small
sum for him.[51]

The merchantmen had come upon Joseph naked in the
pit, for his brethren had stripped him of all his clothes.
That he might not appear before men in an unseemly condition,
God sent Gabriel down to him, and the angel enlarged
the amulet banging from Joseph's neck until it was
a garment that covered him entirely. Joseph's brethren
were looking after him as he departed with the Midianites,
and when they saw him with clothes upon him, they cried
after them, "Give us his raiment! We sold him naked,
without clothes." His owners refused to yield to their demand,
but they agreed to reimburse the brethren with four
pairs of shoes, and Joseph kept his garment, the same in
which he was arrayed when he arrived in Egypt and was
sold to Potiphar, the same in which he was locked up in
prison and appeared before Pharaoh, and the same he wore
when he was ruler over Egypt.[52]

As an atonement for the twenty pieces of silver taken by
his brethren in exchange for Joseph, God commanded that
every first-born son shall be redeemed by the priest with an
equal amount, and, also, every Israelite must pay annually
to the sanctuary as much as fell to each of the brethren as
his share of the price.[53]

The brethren of Joseph bought shoes for the money, for
they said: "We will not eat it, because it is the price for
the blood of our brother, but we will tread upon him, for
that he spake, he would have dominion over us, and we will
see what will become of his dreams." And for this reason
the ordinance has been commanded, that he who refuseth to
raise up a name in Israel unto his brother that hath died
without having a son, shall have his shoe loosed from off his
foot, and his face shall be spat upon. Joseph's brethren refused
to do aught to preserve his life, and therefore the Lord
loosed their shoes from off their feet, for, when they went
down to Egypt, the slaves of Joseph took their shoes off
their feet as they entered the gates, and they prostrated
themselves before Joseph as before a Pharaoh, and, as they
lay prostrate, they were spat upon, and put to shame before
the Egyptians.[54]

The Midianites pursued their journey to Gilead, but they
soon regretted the purchase they had made. They feared
that Joseph had been stolen in the land of the Hebrews,
though sold to them as a slave, and if his kinsmen should
find him with them, death would be inflicted upon them for
the abduction of a free man. The high-handed manner of
the sons of Jacob confirmed their suspicion, that they might
be capable of man theft. Their wicked deed would explain,
too, why they had accepted so small a sum in exchange for
Joseph. While discussing these points, they saw, coming
their way, the travelling company of Ishmaelites that had
been observed earlier by the sons of Jacob, and they determined
to dispose of Joseph to them, that they might at least
not lose the price they had paid, and might escape the danger
at the same time of being made captives for the crime of
kidnapping a man. And the Ishmaelites bought Joseph from
the Midianites, and they paid the same price as his former
owners had given for him.[55]


JOSEPH'S THREE MASTERS

As a rule the only merchandise with which the Ishmaelites
loaded their camels was pitch and the skins of beasts. By
a providential dispensation they carried bags of perfumery
this time, instead of their usual ill-smelling freight, that
sweet fragrance might be wafted to Joseph on his journey
to Egypt.[56] These aromatic substances were well suited to
Joseph, whose body emitted a pleasant smell, so agreeable
and pervasive that the road along which he travelled was
redolent thereof, and on his arrival in Egypt the perfume
from his body spread over the whole land, and the royal
princesses, following the sweet scent to trace its source,
reached the place in which Joseph was.[57] Even after his
death the same fragrance was spread abroad by his bones,
enabling Moses to distinguish Joseph's remains from all
others, and keep the oath of the children of Israel, to inter
them in the Holy Land.[58]

When Joseph learned that the Ishmaelites were carrying
him to Egypt, he began to weep bitterly at the thought of
being removed so far from Canaan and from his father.
One of the Ishmaelites noticed Joseph's weeping and crying,
and thinking that he found riding uncomfortable, he lifted
him from the back of the camel, and permitted him to
walk on foot. But Joseph continued to weep and sob,
crying incessantly, "O father, father!" Another one of the
caravan, tired of his lamentations, beat him, causing only
the more tears and wails, until the youth, exhausted by his
grief, was unable to move on. Now all the Ishmaelites in
the company dealt out blows to him. They treated him with
relentless cruelty, and tried to silence him by threats. God
saw Joseph's distress, and He sent darkness and terror upon
the Ishmaelites, and their hands grew rigid when they
raised them to inflict a blow. Astonished, they asked themselves
why God did thus unto them upon the road. They
did not know that it was for the sake of Joseph.

The journey was continued until they came to Ephrath,
the place of Rachel's sepulchre. Joseph hastened to his
mother's grave, and throwing himself across it, he groaned
and cried, saying: "O mother, mother, that didst bear me,
arise, come forth and see how thy son hath been sold into
slavery, with none to take pity upon him. Arise, see thy
son, and weep with me over my misfortune, and observe the
heartlessness of my brethren. Awake, O mother, rouse thyself
from thy sleep, rise up and prepare for the conflict with
my brethren, who stripped me even of my shirt, and sold me
as a slave to merchantmen, who in turn sold me to others,
and without mercy they tore me away from my father.
Arise, accuse my brethren before God, and see whom He
will justify in the judgment, and whom He will find guilty.
Arise, O mother, awake from thy sleep, see how my father
is with me in his soul and in his spirit, and comfort him and
ease his heavy heart."

Joseph wept and cried upon the grave of his mother, until,
weary from grief, he lay immovable as a stone. Then
he heard a voice heavy with tears speak to him from
the depths, saying: "My son Joseph, my son, I heard thy
complaints and thy groans, I saw thy tears, and I knew thy
misery, my son. I am grieved for thy sake, and thy affliction
is added to the burden of my affliction. But, my son
Joseph, put thy trust in God, and wait upon Him. Fear not,
for the Lord is with thee, and He will deliver thee from all
evil. Go down into Egypt with thy masters, my son; fear
naught, for the Lord is with thee, O my son." This and
much more like unto it did the voice utter, and then it was
silent. Joseph listened in great amazement at first, and then
he broke out in renewed tears. Angered thereby, one of
the Ishmaelites drove him from his mother's grave with
kicks and curses. Then Joseph entreated his masters to take
him back to his father, who would give them great riches as
a reward. But they said, "Why, thou art a slave! How
canst thou know where thy father is? If thou hadst had a
free man as father, thou wouldst not have been sold twice
for a petty sum." And then their fury against him increased,
they beat him and maltreated him, and he wept
bitter tears.

Now God looked upon the distress of Joseph, and He sent
darkness to enshroud the land once more. A storm raged,
the lightning flashed, and from the thunderbolts the whole
earth trembled, and the Ishmaelites lost their way in their
terror. The beasts and the camels stood still, and, beat them
as their drivers would, they refused to budge from the spot,
but crouched down upon the ground. Then the Ishmaelites
spake to one another, and said: "Why hath God brought
this upon us? What are our sins, what our trespasses, that
such things befall us?" One of them said to the others:
"Peradventure this hath come upon us by reason of the sin
which we have committed against this slave. Let us beg him
earnestly to grant us forgiveness, and if then God will take
pity, and let these storms pass away from us, we shall know
that we suffered harm on account of the injury we inflicted
upon this slave."

The Ishmaelites did according to these words, and they
said unto Joseph: "We have sinned against God and
against thee. Pray to thy God, and entreat Him to take
this death plague from us, for we acknowledge that we have
sinned against Him." Joseph fulfilled their wish, and God
hearkened to his petition, and the storm was assuaged. All
around became calm, the beasts arose from their recumbent
position, and the caravan could proceed upon its way. Now
the Ishmaelites saw plainly that all their trouble had come
upon them for the sake of Joseph, and they spoke one to
another, saying: "We know now that all this evil hath happened
to us on account of this poor fellow, and wherefore
should we bring death upon ourselves by our own doings?
Let us take counsel together, what is to be done with the
slave." One of them advised that Joseph's wish be fulfilled,
and he be taken back to his father. Then they would be
sure of receiving the money they had paid out for him.
This plan was rejected, because they had accomplished a
great part of their journey, and they were not inclined to
retrace their steps. They therefore resolved upon carrying
Joseph to Egypt and selling him there. They would rid
themselves of him in this way, and also receive a great price
for him.

They continued their journey as far as the borders of
Egypt, and there they met four men, descendants of Medan,
the son of Abraham, and to these they sold Joseph for
five shekels. The two companies, the Ishmaelites and the
Medanites, arrived in Egypt upon the same day. The latter,
hearing that Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of
the guard, was seeking a good slave, repaired to him at once,
to try to dispose of Joseph to him. Potiphar was willing to
pay as much as four hundred pieces of silver, for, high as
the price was, it did not seem too great for a slave that
pleased him as much as Joseph. However, he made a
condition. He said to the Medanites: "I will pay you the
price demanded, but you must bring me the person that
sold the slave to you, that I may be in a position to find out
all about him, for the youth seems to me to be neither a
slave nor the son of a slave. He appears to be of noble
blood. I must convince myself that he was not stolen." The
Medanites brought the Ishmaelites to Potiphar, and they
testified that Joseph was a slave, that they had owned him,
and had sold him to the Medanites. Potiphar rested satisfied
with this report, paid the price asked for Joseph, and the
Medanites and the Ishmaelites went their way.


JOSEPH'S COAT BROUGHT TO HIS FATHER

No sooner was the sale of Joseph an accomplished fact
than the sons of Jacob repented of their deed. They even
hastened after the Midianites to ransom Joseph, but their
efforts to overtake them were vain, and they had to accept
the inevitable. Meantime Reuben had rejoined his brethren.[59]
He had been so deeply absorbed in penances, in praying
and studying the Torah, in expiation of his sin against
his father, that he had not been able to remain with his
brethren and tend the flocks, and thus it happened that he
was not on the spot when Joseph was sold.[60] His first errand
was to go to the pit, in the hope of finding Joseph there. In
that case he would have carried him off and restored him
to his father clandestinely, without the knowledge of his
brethren. He stood at the opening and called again and
again, "Joseph, Joseph!" As he received no answer, he
concluded that Joseph had perished, either by reason of
terror or as the result of a snake bite, and he descended into
the pit, only to find that he was not there, either living or
dead. He mounted to the top again, and rent his clothes,
and cried out, "The lad is not there, and what answer shall
I give to my father, if he be dead?" Then Reuben returned
unto his brethren, and told them that Joseph bad vanished
from the pit, whereat he was deeply grieved, because he,
being the oldest of the sons, was responsible to their father
Jacob. The brethren made a clean breast of what they had
done with Joseph, and they related to him how they had
tried to make good their evil deed, and how their efforts had
been vain.

Now there remained nothing to do but invent a plausible
explanation for their brother's disappearance to give to
Jacob. First of all, however, they took an oath not to betray
to his father or any human being what they bad actually
done with Joseph. He who violated the oath would be put
to the sword by the rest. Then they took counsel together
about what to say to Jacob. It was Issachar's advice to tear
Joseph's coat of many colors, and dip it in the blood of a
little kid of the goats, to make Jacob believe that his son had
been torn by a wild beast.[61] The reason he suggested a kid
was because its blood looks like human blood. In expiation
of this act of deception, it was ordained that a kid be used
as an atonement sacrifice when the Tabernacle was
dedicated.[62]

Simon opposed this suggestion. He did not want to relinquish
Joseph's coat, and he threatened to hew down any
one that should attempt to wrest it from him by force. The
reason for his vehemence was that he was very much enraged
against his brethren for not having slain Joseph. But
they threatened him in turn, saying, "If thou wilt not give
up the coat, we shall say that thou didst execute the evil deed
thyself." At that Simon surrendered it,[63] and Naphtali
brought it to Jacob, handing it to him with the words:
"When we were driving our herds homeward, we found
this garment covered with blood and dust on the highway,
a little beyond Shechem. Know now whether it be thy son's
coat or not." Jacob recognized Joseph's coat, and, overwhelmed
by grief, he fell prostrate, and long lay on the
ground motionless, like a stone. Then he arose, and set up
a loud cry, and wept, saying, "It is my son's coat."

In great haste Jacob dispatched a slave to his sons, to bid
them come to him, that he might learn more about what had
happened. In the evening they all came, their garments
rent, and dust strewn upon their heads. When they confirmed
all that Naphtali had told him, Jacob broke out in
mourning and lamentation: "It is my son's coat; an evil
beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn in
pieces. I sent him to you to see whether it was well with
you, and well with the flock. He went to do my errand, and
while I thought him to be with you, the misfortune befell."
Thereto the sons of Jacob made reply: "He came to us not
at all. Since we left thee, we have not set eyes on him."

After these words, Jacob could doubt no longer that
Joseph bad been torn by wild beasts, and he mourned for
his son, saying: "O my son Joseph, my son, I sent thee to
inquire after the welfare of thy brethren, and now thou art
torn by wild beasts. It is my fault that this evil chance
hath come upon thee. I am distressed for thee, my son, I
am sorely distressed. How sweet was thy life to me, and
how bitter is thy death! Would God I had died for thee, O
Joseph, my son, for now I am distressed on thy account.
O my son Joseph, where art thou, and where is thy soul?
Arise, arise from thy place, and look upon my grief for
thee. Come and count the tears that roll down my cheeks,
and bring the tale of them before God, that His wrath be
turned away from me. O Joseph, my son, how painful and
appalling was thy death! None hath died a death like thine
since the world doth stand. I know well that it came to
pass by reason of my sins. O that thou wouldst return and
see the bitter sorrow thy misfortune hath brought upon me!
But it is true, it was not I that created thee, and formed
thee. I gave thee neither spirit nor soul, but God created
thee. He formed thy bones, covered them with flesh,
breathed the breath of life into thy nostrils, and then gave
thee unto me. And God who gave thee unto me, He hath
taken thee from me, and from Him hath this dispensation
come upon me. What the Lord doeth is well done!" In
these words and many others like them Jacob mourned and
bewailed his son, until he fell to the ground prostrate and
immovable.

When the sons of Jacob saw the vehemence of their
father's grief, they repented of their deed, and wept bitterly.
Especially Judah was grief-stricken. He laid his father's
head upon his knees, and wiped his tears away as they
flowed from his eyes, while he himself broke out in violent
weeping. The sons of Jacob and their wives all sought to
comfort their father. They arranged a great memorial service,
and they wept and mourned over Joseph's death and
over their father's sorrow.[64] But Jacob refused to be
comforted.

The tidings of his son's death caused the loss of two
members of Jacob's family. Bilhah and Dinah could not
survive their grief. Bilhah passed away the very day
whereon the report reached Jacob, and Dinah died soon
after, and so he had three losses to mourn in one month.

He received the tidings of Joseph's death in the seventh
month, Tishri, and on the tenth day of the month, and therefore
the children of Israel are bidden to weep and afflict
their souls on this day. Furthermore, on this day the sin
offering of atonement shall be a kid of the goats, because the
sons of Jacob transgressed with a kid, in the blood of which
they dipped Joseph's coat, and thus they brought sorrow
upon Jacob.[65]

When he had recovered somewhat from the stunning blow
which the tidings of his favorite son's death had dealt him,
Jacob rose up from the ground and addressed his sons, tears
streaming down his cheeks all the while. "Up," he said,
"take your swords and your bows, go out in the field, and
make search, perhaps you will find the body of my son, and
you will bring it to me, so that I may bury it. Keep a lookout,
too, for beasts of prey, and catch the first you meet.
Seize it and bring it to me. It may be that God will have
pity upon my sorrow, and put the beast between your hands
that hath torn my child in pieces, and I will take my revenge
upon it."

The sons of Jacob set out on the morrow to do the bidding
of their father, while he remained at home and wept and
lamented for Joseph. In the wilderness they found a wolf,
which they caught and brought to Jacob alive, saying:
"Here is the first wild beast we encountered, and we have
brought it to thee. But of thy son's corpse we saw not a
trace." Jacob seized the wolf, and, amid loud weeping, he
addressed these words to him: "Why didst thou devour my
son Joseph, without any fear of the God of the earth, and
without taking any thought of the grief thou wouldst bring
down upon me? Thou didst devour my son without reason,
he was guilty of no manner of transgression, and thou didst
roll the responsibility for his death upon me. But God
avengeth him that is persecuted."

To grant consolation to Jacob, God opened the mouth of
the beast, and he spake: "As the Lord liveth, who hath
created me, and as thy soul liveth, my lord, I have not seen
thy son, and I did not rend him in pieces. From a land afar
off I came to seek mine own son, who suffered a like fate
with thine. He hath disappeared, and I know not whether
he be dead or alive, and therefore I came hither ten days ago
to find him. This day, while I was searching for him, thy
sons met me, and they seized me, and, adding more grief to
my grief over my lost son, they brought me hither to thee.
This is my story, and now, O son of man, I am in thy hands,
thou canst dispose of me this day as seemeth well in thy
sight, but I swear unto thee by the God that bath created me,
I have not seen thy son, nor have I torn him in pieces, never
hath the flesh of man come into my mouth." Astonished
at the speech of the wolf, Jacob let him go, unhindered,
whithersoever he would, but he mourned his son Joseph as
before.[66]

It is a law of nature that however much one may grieve
over the death of a dear one, at the end of a year consolation
finds its way to the heart of the mourner. But the disappearance
of a living man can never be wiped out of one's
memory. Therefore the fact that he was inconsolable made
Jacob suspect that Joseph was alive, and he did not give
entire credence to the report of his sons. His vague suspicion
was strengthened by something that happened to him.
He went up into the mountains, hewed twelve stones out of
the quarry, and wrote the names of his sons thereon, their
constellations, and the months corresponding to the
constellations,
a stone for a son, thus, "Reuben, Ram, Nisan," and
so for each of his twelve sons. Then he addressed the
stones and bade them bow down before the one marked with
Reuben's name, constellation, and month, and they did not
move. He gave the same order regarding the stone marked
for Simon, and again the stones stood still. And so he did
respecting all his sons, until he reached the stone for Joseph.
When he spoke concerning this one, "I command you to fall
down before Joseph," they all prostrated themselves. He
tried the same test with other things, with trees and sheaves,
and always the result was the same, and Jacob could not but
feel that his suspicion was true, Joseph was alive.[67]

There was a reason why God did not reveal the real fate
of Joseph to Jacob. When his brethren sold Joseph, their
fear that the report of their iniquity might reach the ears of
Jacob led them to pronounce the ban upon any that should
betray the truth without the consent of all the others. Judah
advanced the objection that a ban is invalid unless it is decreed
in the presence of ten persons, and there were but nine
of them, for Reuben and Benjamin were not there when the
sale of Joseph was concluded. To evade the difficulty, the
brothers counted God as the tenth person, and therefore God
felt bound to refrain from revealing the true state of things
to Jacob. He had regard, as it were, for the ban pronounced
by the brethren of Joseph.[68] And as God kept the truth a
secret from Jacob, Isaac did not feel justified in acquainting
him with his grandson's fate, which was well known to him,
for he was a prophet. Whenever he was in the company of
Jacob, he mourned with him, but as soon as he quitted him,
he left off from manifesting grief, because he knew that
Joseph lived.[69]

Jacob was thus the only one among Joseph's closest kinsmen
that remained in ignorance of his son's real fortunes,
and he was the one of them all that had the greatest reason
for regretting his death. He spoke: "The covenant that
God made with me regarding the twelve tribes is null and
void now. I did strive in vain to establish the twelve tribes,
seeing that now the death of Joseph hath destroyed the covenant.
All the works of God were made to correspond to the
number of the tribes--twelve are the signs of the zodiac,
twelve the months, twelve hours hath the day, twelve the
night, and twelve stones are set in Aaron's breastplate--and now
that Joseph hath departed, the covenant of the
tribes is set at naught."

He could not replace the lost son by entering into a new
marriage, for he had made the promise to his father-in-law
to take none beside his daughters to wife, and this promise,
as he interpreted it, held good after the death of Laban's
daughters as well as while they were alive.[70]

Beside grief over his loss and regret at the breaking of
the covenant of the tribes, Jacob had still another reason for
mourning the death of Joseph. God had said to Jacob, "If
none of thy sons dies during thy lifetime, thou mayest look
upon it as a token that thou wilt not be put in Gehenna after
thy death." Thinking Joseph to be dead, Jacob had his own
fate to bewail, too, for he now believed that he was doomed
to Gehenna.[71] His mourning lasted all of twenty-two years,
corresponding to the number of the years he had dwelt
apart from his parents, and had not fulfilled the duty of a
son toward them.[72]

In his mourning Jacob put sackcloth upon his loins, and
therein be became a model for the kings and princes in
Israel, for David, Ahab, Joram, and Mordecai did likewise
when a great misfortune befell the nation.[73]


JUDAH AND HIS SONS

When the sons of Jacob saw how inconsolable their father
was, they went to Judah, and said to him, "This great misfortune
is thy fault." Judah replied: "It was I that asked
you, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his
blood? and now you say the sin lies at my door." The
brethren continued to argue: "But it was thou that didst
say, Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and we followed
thy advice. Hadst thou said, Let us restore him to
his father, we had heeded these words of thine as well."

The brethren hereupon deprived Judah of his dignity, for
hitherto he had been their king, and they also excluded him
from their fellowship, and he had to seek his fortune alone.[74]
Through the mediation of his chief shepherd Hirah, he became
acquainted with the Canaanitish king of Adullam,
Barsan by name. Though he was well aware of the corruption
of the generations of Canaan, he permitted passion to
get the better of him, and took a Canaanite to wife. The
Adullamite king gave a banquet in his honor, at which his
daughter Bath-shua poured the wine, and intoxicated by
wine and passion Judah took her and married her.[75] Judah's
action may be compared to that of the lion who passes a carrion
and eats of it, though a cur preceding him on the way
had refused to touch it. Even Esau came in time to acknowledge
that the daughters of Canaan were wicked, and
the lion Judah must needs take one of them to wife.[76] The
holy spirit cried out against Judah when he married the
Canaanite woman of Adullam, saying, "The glory of Israel
went down in Adullam."[77]

The first-born son of Judah from this marriage was
named Er, "the childless," a suitable name for him that
died without begetting any issue.[78] At Judah's desire, Er
married Tamar, a daughter of Aram, the son of Shem, but
because she was not a Canaanitish woman, his mother used
artifices against her, and he did not know her, and an angel
of the Lord killed him on the third day after his wedding.
Then Judah gave Tamar to his second son Onan, the marriage
taking place before the week of the wedding festivities
for Er had elapsed. A whole year Onan lived with Tamar
without knowing her, and when, finally, Judah uttered
threats against him on that account, he did, indeed, have
intercourse with her, but, giving heed to the injunctions of
his mother, he took care not to beget any children with her.[79]
He, too, died on account of his iniquity, and his name Onan
"mourning," was well chosen, for very soon was his father
called upon to mourn for him.[80] Now Judah conceived the
plan of marrying Tamar to his youngest son Shelah, but his
wife would not permit it. She hated Tamar because she
was not of the daughters of Canaan like herself, and while
Judah was away from home, Bath-shua chose a wife for her
son Shelah from the daughters of Canaan. Judah was very
angry at Bath-shua for what she had done, and also God
poured out His wrath upon her, for on account of her wickedness
she had to die,[81] and her death happened a year after
that of her two sons.

Now that Bath-shua was dead, Judah might have carried
out his wish and married Tamar to his youngest son. But
he waited for Shelah to grow up, because he feared for his
life, seeing that Tamar had brought death to two husbands
before him. So she remained a widow in her father's house
for two years. Endowed with the gift of prophecy, Tamar
knew that she was appointed to be the ancestress of David
and of the Messiah, and she determined to venture upon an
extreme measure in order to make sure of fulfilling her
destiny.[82] Accordingly, when the holy spirit revealed to her
that Judah was going up to Timnah,[83] she put off from her
the garments of her widowhood, and sat in the gate of Abraham's
tent, and there she encountered Judah.[84] All the time
she lived in the house of her father-in-law, he had never
seen her face, for in her virtue and chastity she had always
kept it covered, and now when Judah met her, he did not
recognize her. It was as a reward for her modesty that God
made her to become the mother of the royal line of David,
and the ancestress of Isaiah, and his father Amoz as well,
both of whom were prophets and of royal blood.[85]

Judah passed Tamar by without paying any attention to
her, and she raised her eyes heavenward, and said, "O Lord
of the world, shall I go forth empty from the house of this
pious man?" Then God sent the angel that is appointed
over the passion of love, and he compelled Judah to turn
back.[86] With prophetic caution, Tamar demanded that, as a
pledge for the reward he promised her, he leave with her
his signet, his mantle, and his staff, the symbols of royalty,
judgeship, and Messiahship, the three distinctions of the
descendants of Tamar from her union with Judah. When
Judah sent her the promised reward, a kid of the goats, by
the hand of his friend, in order to receive the pledges from
her hand, Tamar could not be found, and he feared to make
further search for her, lest he be put to shame. But Tamar,
who soon discerned that she was with child, felt very happy
and proud, for she knew that she would be the mother of
kings and redeemers.[87]

When her state became known, she was forcibly dragged
before the court, in which Isaac, Jacob, and Judah sat as
judges. Judah, being the youngest of the judges and the
least considerable in dignity, was the first to give a decision,
for thus it is prescribed in criminal cases, that the prominent
judges overawe not the lesser and influence their decisions
unduly. It was the opinion of Judah that the woman was
liable to the penalty of death by burning, for she was the
daughter of the high priest Shem, and death by fire is the
punishment ordained by the law for a high priest's daughter
that leads an unchaste life.[88]

The preparations for her execution were begun. In vain
Tamar searched for the three pledges she had received from
Judah, she could not find them, and almost she lost hope
that she would be able to wring a confession from her
father-in-law. She raised her eyes to God, and prayed:
"I supplicate Thy grace, O God, Thou who givest ear to
the cry of the distressed in the hour of his need, answer me,
that I may be spared to bring forth the three holy children,
who will be ready to suffer death by fire, for the sake of the
glory of Thy Name." And God granted her petition, and
sent the angel Michael down to succor her. He put the
pledges in a place in which Tamar could not fail to see them,
and she took them, and threw them before the feet of the
judges, with the words: "By the man whose these are am
I with child, but though I perish in the flames, I will not
betray him. I hope in the Lord of the world, that He will
turn the heart of the man, so that he will make confession
thereof." Then Judah rose up, and said: "With your permission,
my brethren, and ye men of my father's house, I
make it known that with what measure a man metes, it shall
be measured unto him, be it for good or for evil, but happy
the man that acknowledgeth his sins. Because I took the
coat of Joseph, and colored it with the blood of a kid, and
then laid it at the feet of my father, saying, Know now
whether it be thy son's coat or not, therefore must I now
confess, before the court, unto whom belongeth this signet,
this mantle, and this staff. But it is better that I be put to
shame in this world than I should be put to shame in the
other world, before the face of my pious father. It is better
that I should perish in a fire that can be extinguished than
I should be cast into hell fire, which devoureth other fires.
Now, then, I acknowledge that Tamar is innocent. By me
is she with child, not because she indulged in illicit passion,
but because I held back her marriage with my son Shelah."
Then a heavenly voice was heard to say: "Ye are both
innocent! It was the will of God that it should happen!"[89]

The open confession of Judah induced his oldest brother
Reuben to make public acknowledgment of the sin he had
committed against his father, for he had kept it a secret until
then.[90]

Tamar gave birth to twin sons, Perez and Zerah, both
resembling their father in bravery and piety.[91] She called
the first Perez, "mighty," because she said, "Thou didst
show thyself of great power, and it is meet and proper that
thou shouldst be strong, for thou art destined to possess the
kingdom."[92] The second son was called Zerah, because he
appeared from out of the womb before his brother, but he
was forced back again to make way for Perez.[93] These two,
Perez and Zerah. were sent out as spies by Joshua, and the
line that Rahab bound in the window of her house as a
token to the army of the Israelites, she received from Zerah.
It was the scarlet thread that the midwife had bound upon
his hand, to mark him as the child that appeared first and
withdrew.[94]


THE WIVES OF THE SONS OF JACOB

Judah was the first of the sons of Jacob to enter wedlock.
After the sale of Joseph to the Midianites, his brethren had
said to Judah, "If conditions were as before, our father
would provide wives for us now. As it is, he is entirely absorbed
by his grief for Joseph, and we must look about for
wives ourselves. Thou art our chief, and thou shouldst
marry first."

Judah's marriage with Alit the daughter of the noble
merchant Shua, which was consummated at Adullam, the
residence of his friend Hirah, or, as he was called later,
Hiram, king of Tyre, was not happy. His two oldest sons
died, and shortly thereafter his wife also. It was Judah's
punishment for having begun a good deed and left it unfinished,
for "he who begins a good deed, and does not execute
it to the end, brings down misfortune upon his own head."
Judah had rescued Joseph from death, but it was his suggestion
to sell him into slavery. Had he urged them to
restore the lad to his father, his brethren would have obeyed
his words. He was lacking in constancy to persist until he
had completed the work of Joseph's deliverance, which he
had begun.[95]

In the same year, the year of Joseph's misfortune, all his
other brethren married, too. Reuben's wife was named
Elyoram, the daughter of the Canaanite Uzzi of Timnah.
Simon married his sister Dinah first, and then a second wife.
When Simon and Levi massacred the men of Shechem, Dinah
refused to leave the city and follow her brethren, saying,
"Whither shall I carry my shame?" But Simon swore he
would marry her, as he did later, and when she died in
Egypt, he took her body to the Holy Land and buried it
there. Dinah bore her brother a son,[96] and from her union
with Shechem, the son of Hamor, sprang a daughter, Asenath
by name, afterward the wife of Joseph. When this daughter
was born to Dinah, her brethren, the sons of Jacob,
wanted to kill her, that the finger of men might not point at
the fruit of sin in their father's house. But Jacob took a
piece of tin, inscribed the Holy Name upon it, and bound it
about the neck of the girl, and he put her under a thornbush,
and abandoned her there. An angel carried the babe
down to Egypt, where Potiphar adopted her as his child,
for his wife was barren. Years thereafter, when Joseph
travelled through the land as viceroy, the maidens threw
gifts at him, to make him turn his eyes in their direction
and give them the opportunity of gazing upon his beauty.
Asenath possessed nothing that would do as a present, therefore
she took off the amulet suspended from her neck, and
gave it to him. Thus Joseph became acquainted with her
lineage, and he married her, seeing that she was not an
Egyptian, but one connected with the house of Jacob
through her mother.[97]

Beside the son of Dinah, Simon had another son, whose
name was Saul, by Bunah, the damsel he had taken captive
in the campaign against Shechem.

Levi and Issachar married two daughters of Jobab, the
grandson of Eber; the wife of the former was named
Adinah, the wife of the latter, Aridah. Dan's wife was
Elflalet, a daughter of the Moabite Hamudan. For a long
time their marriage remained childless, finally they had a
son, whom they called Hushim. Gad and Naphtali married
women from Haran, two sisters, daughters of Amoram, a
grandson of Nahor. Naphtali's wife, Merimit, was the
older of the two, and the younger, the wife of Gad, was
named Uzit.

Asher's first wife was Adon, the daughter of Ephlal, a
grandson of Ishmael. She died childless, and he married a
second wife, Hadorah, a daughter of Abimael, the grandson
of Shem. She had been married before, her first husband
having been Malchiel, also a grandson of Shem, and the
issue of this first marriage was a daughter, Serah by
name. When Asher brought his wife to Canaan, the three
year old orphan Serah came with them. She was raised in
the house of Jacob, and she walked in the way of pious
children, and God gave her beauty, wisdom, and sagacity.

Zebulon's wife was Maroshah, the daughter of Molad, a
grandson of Midian, the son of Abraham by Keturah.

For Benjamin, when he was but ten years old, Jacob took
Mahlia to wife, the daughter of Aram, the grandson of
Terah, and she bore him five sons. At the age of eighteen
he married a second wife, Arbat, the daughter of Zimran,
a son of Abraham by Keturah, and by her also he had five
sons.[98]


JOSEPH THE SLAVE OF POTIPHAR

When Joseph was sold as a slave to the Ishmaelites, he
kept silent out of respect for his brethren, and did not tell
his masters that he was a son of Jacob, a great and powerful
man. Even when he came to the Midianites with the Ishmaelites,
and the former asked after his parentage, he still
said he was a slave, only in order not to put his brethren to
shame. But the most distinguished of the Midianites rebuked
Joseph, saying, "Thou art no slave, thy appearance
betrayeth thee," and he threatened him with death unless he
acknowledged the truth. Joseph, however, was steadfast,
he would not act treacherously toward his brethren.

Arrived in Egypt, the owners of Joseph could come to no
agreement regarding him. Each desired to have sole and
exclusive possession of him. They therefore decided to
leave him with a shopkeeper until they should come back to
Egypt again with their merchandise. And God let Joseph
find grace in the sight of the shopkeeper. All that he had,
his whole house, he put into Joseph's hand, and therefore
the Lord blessed him with much silver and gold, and Joseph
remained with him for three months and five days.

At that time there came from Memphis the wife of Potiphar,
and she cast her eyes upon Joseph, of whose comeliness
of person she had heard from the eunuchs. She
told her husband how that a certain shopkeeper had grown
rich through a young Hebrew, and she added: "But it is
said that the youth was stolen away out of the land of
Canaan. Go, therefore, and sit in judgment upon his owner,
and take the youth unto thy house, that the God of the
Hebrews may bless thee, for the grace of heaven rests upon
the youth."

Potiphar summoned the shopkeeper, and when he appeared
before him, he spoke harshly to him, saying: "What
is this I hear? that thou stealest souls from the land of
Canaan, and dost carry on traffic with them?" The shop-keeper
protested his innocence, and he could not be made to
recede from his assertion, that a company of Ishmaelites
had left Joseph in his charge temporarily, until they should
return. Potiphar had him stripped naked and beaten, but
he continued to reiterate the same statement.

Then Potiphar summoned Joseph. The youth prostrated
himself before this chief of the eunuchs, for he was third in
rank of the officers of Pharaoh. And he addressed Joseph,
and said, "Art thou a slave or a free-born man?" and Joseph
replied, "A slave." Potiphar continued to question
him, "Whose slave art thou?" Joseph: "I belong to the
Ishmaelites." Potiphar: "How wast thou made a slave?"
Joseph: "They bought me in the land of Canaan."

But Potiphar refused to give credence to what he said,
and he had also him stripped and beaten. The wife of Potiphar,
standing by the door, saw how Joseph was abused, and
she sent word to her husband, "Thy verdict is unjust, for
thou punishest the free-born youth that was stolen away
from his place as though he were the one that had committed
a crime." As Joseph held firmly to what he had said,
Potiphar ordered him to prison, until his masters should return.
In her sinful longing for him, his wife wanted to
have Joseph in her own house, and she remonstrated with
her husband in these words: "Wherefore dost thou keep
the captive, nobly-born slave a prisoner? Thou shouldst
rather set him at liberty and have him serve thee." He
answered, "The law of the Egyptians does not permit us to
take what belongs to another before all titles are made
clear," and Joseph stayed in prison for twenty-four days,
until the return of the Ishmaelites to Egypt.

Meanwhile they had heard somewhere that Joseph was
the son of Jacob, and they therefore said to him: "Why
didst thou pretend that thou wast a slave? See, we have
information that thou art the son of a powerful man in
Canaan, and thy father mourns for thee in sackcloth."
Joseph was on the point of divulging his secret, but he kept
a check upon himself for the sake of his brethren, and he
repeated that he was a slave.

Nevertheless the Ishmaelites decided to sell him, that he
be not found in their hands, for they feared the revenge of
Jacob, who, they knew, was in high favor with the Lord
and with men. The shopkeeper begged the Ishmaelites to
rescue him from the legal prosecution of Potiphar, and clear
him of the suspicion of man theft. The Ishmaelites in turn
had a conference with Joseph, and bade him testify before
Potiphar that they had bought him for money. He did so,
and then the chief of the eunuchs liberated him from prison,
and dismissed all parties concerned.

With the permission of her husband, Potiphar's wife sent
a eunuch to the Ishmaelites, bidding him to buy Joseph, but
he returned and reported that they demanded an exorbitant
price for the slave. She dispatched a second eunuch, charging
him to conclude the bargain, and though they asked
one mina of gold, or even two, he was not to be sparing of
money, he was to be sure to buy the slave and bring him to
her. The eunuch gave the Ishmaelites eighty pieces of gold
for Joseph, telling his mistress, however, that he had paid
out a hundred pieces. Joseph noticed the deception, but he
kept silent, that the eunuch might not be put to shame.[99]

Thus Joseph became the slave of the idolatrous priest
Potiphar, or Poti-phera, as he was sometimes called.[100] He
had secured possession of the handsome youth for a lewd
purpose, but the angel Gabriel mutilated him in such manner
that he could not accomplish it.[101] His master soon had
occasion to notice that Joseph was as pious as he was beautiful,
for whenever he was occupied with his ministrations,
he would whisper a prayer: "O Lord of the world, Thou
art my trust, Thou art my protection. Let me find grace
and favor in Thy sight and in the sight of all that see me,
and in the sight of my master Potiphar." When Potiphar
noticed the movement of his lips, he said to Joseph, "Dost
thou purpose to cast a spell upon me?" "Nay," replied
the youth, "I am beseeching God to let me find favor in
thine eyes."

His prayer was heard. Potiphar convinced himself that
God was with Joseph. Sometimes he would make a test of
Joseph's miraculous powers. If he brought him a glass of
hippocras, he would say, "I would rather have wine mixed
with absinthe," and straightway the spiced wine was
changed into bitter wine. Whatever he desired, he could be
sure to get from Joseph, and he saw clearly that God fulfilled
the wishes of his slave. Therefore he put all the keys of
his house into his hand, and he knew not aught that was
with him,[102] keeping back nothing from Joseph but his
wife.[103]
Seeing that the Shekinah rested upon him, Potiphar treated
Joseph not as a slave, but as a member of his family, for he
said, "This youth is not cut out for a slave's work, he is
worthy of a prince's place."[104] Accordingly, he provided
instruction for him in the arts, and ordered him to have
better fare than the other slaves.[105]

Joseph thanked God for his new and happy state. He
prayed, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, that Thou hast caused
me to forget my father's house." What made his present
fortunes so agreeable was that he was removed from the
envy and jealousy of his brethren. He said: "When I was
in my father's house, and he gave me something pretty, my
brethren begrudged me the present, and now, O Lord, I
thank Thee that I live amid plenty." Free from anxieties,
he turned his attention to his external appearance. He
painted his eyes, dressed his hair, and aimed to be elegant
in his walk. But God spake to him, saying, "Thy father
is mourning in sackcloth and ashes, while thou dost eat,
drink, and dress thy hair. Therefore I will stir up thy mistress
against thee, and thou shalt be embarrassed."[106] Thus
Joseph's secret wish was fulfilled, that he might be permitted
to prove his piety under temptation, as the piety of his
fathers had been tested.[107]


JOSEPH AND ZULEIKA

"Throw the stick up in the air, it will always return to its
original place." Like Rachel his mother, Joseph was of
ravishing beauty, and the wife of his master was filled with
invincible passion for him."[108] Her feeling was heightened by
the astrologic forecast that she was destined to have descendants
through Joseph. This was true, but not in the sense in
which she understood the prophecy. Joseph married her
daughter Asenath later on, and she bore him children, thus
fulfilling what had been read in the stars."[109]

In the beginning she did not confess her love to Joseph.
visiting him, she would go to him at night, and, as she had
no sons, she would pretend a desire to adopt him. Joseph
then prayed to God in her behalf, and she bore a son. However,
she continued to embrace him as though he were her
own child, yet he did not notice her evil designs. Finally,
when he recognized her wanton trickery, he mourned many
days, and endeavored to turn her away from her sinful passion
by the word of God. She, on her side, often threatened
him with death, and surrendered him to castigations in order
to make him amenable to her will, and when these means
had no effect upon Joseph, she sought to seduce him with
enticements. She would say, "I promise thee, thou shalt rule
over me and all I have, if thou wilt but give thyself up to
me. and thou shalt be to me the same as my lawful husband."
But Joseph was mindful of the words of his fathers, and he
went into his chamber, and fasted, and prayed to God, that
He would deliver him from the toils of the Egyptian woman.

In spite of the mortifications he practiced, and though he
gave the poor and the sick the food apportioned to him, his
master thought he lived a luxurious life, for those that fast
for the glory of God are made beautiful of countenance.

The wife of Potiphar would frequently speak to her husband
in praise of Joseph's chastity in order that he might
conceive no suspicion of the state of her feelings. And,
again, she would encourage Joseph secretly, telling him not
to fear her husband, that he was convinced of his purity of
life, and though one should carry tales to him about
Joseph and herself, Potiphar would lend them no credence.
And when she saw that all this was ineffectual , she approached
him with the request that he teach her the word
of God, saying, "If it be thy wish that I forsake idol worship,
then fulfil my desire, and I will persuade that Egyptian
husband of mine to abjure the idols, and we shall walk in the
law of thy God." Joseph replied, "The Lord desireth not
that those who fear Him shall walk in impurity, nor hath He
pleasure in the adulterer."

Another time she came to him, and said, "If thou wilt not
do my desire, I will murder the Egyptian and wed with thee
according to the law." Whereat Joseph rent his garment,
and he said, "O woman, fear the Lord, and do not execute
this evil deed, that thou mayest not bring destruction down
upon thyself, for I will proclaim thy impious purposes to all
in public."

Again, she sent him a dish prepared with magic spells, by
means of which she hoped to get him into her power. But
when the eunuch set it before him, he saw the image of a
man handing him a sword together with the dish, and,
warned by the vision, he took good care not to taste of the
food. A few days later his mistress came to him, and asked
him why he had not eaten of what she had sent him. He reproached
her, saying, "How couldst thou tell me, I do not
come nigh unto the idols, but only unto the Lord? The God
of my fathers hath revealed thy iniquity to me through an
angel, but that thou mayest know that the malice of the
wicked has no power over those who fear God in purity, I
shall eat thy food before thine eyes, and the God of my
fathers and the angel of Abraham will be with me." The
wife of Potiphar fell upon her face at the feet of Joseph, and
amid tears she promised not to commit this sin again.

But her unholy passion for Joseph did not depart from
her, and her distress over her unfulfilled wish made her look
so ill that her husband said to her, "Why is thy countenance
fallen?" And she replied, "I have a pain at my heart, and
the groanings of my spirit oppress me."

Once when she was alone with Joseph, she rushed toward
him, crying, "I will throttle myself, or I will jump into a well
or a pit, if thou wilt not yield thyself to me." Noticing her
extreme agitation, Joseph endeavored to calm her with these
words, "Remember, if thou makest away with thyself, thy
husband's concubine, Asteho, thy rival, will maltreat thy
children, and extirpate thy memory from the earth." These
words, gently spoken, had the opposite effect from that intended.
They only inflamed her passion the more by feeding
her hopes. She said: "There, seest thou, thou dost love me
now! It sufficeth for me that thou takest thought for me
and for the safety of my children. I expect now that my
desire will be fulfilled." She did not know that Joseph spoke
as he did for the sake of God, and not for her sake.[110]

His mistress, or, as she was called, Zuleika, pursued him
day after day with her amorous talk and her flattery, saying:
"How fair is thy appearance, how comely thy form! Never
have I seen so well-favored a slave as thou art." Joseph
would reply: "God, who formed me in my mother's womb,
hath created all men."

Zuleika: "How beautiful are thine eyes, with which thou
hast charmed all Egyptians, both men and women!"

Joseph: "Beautiful as they may be while I am alive, so
ghastly they will be to look upon in the grave."

Zuleika: "How lovely and pleasant are thy words! I
pray thee, take thy harp, play and also sing, that I may hear
thy words."

Joseph: "Lovely and pleasant are my words when I proclaim
the praise of my God."

Zuleika: "How beautiful is thy hair! Take my golden
comb, and comb it."

Joseph: "How long wilt thou continue to speak thus to
me? Leave off! It were better for thee to care for thy
household."

Zuleika: "There is nothing in my house that I care for,
save thee alone."

But Joseph's virtue was unshaken. While she spoke thus,
he did not so much as raise his eyes to look at his
mistress.[111]
He remained equally steadfast when she lavished gifts upon
him, for she provided him with garments of one kind for the
morning, another for noon, and a third kind for the evening.
Nor could threats move him. She would say, "I will bring
false accusations against thee before thy master," and Joseph
would reply, "The Lord executeth judgment for the oppressed."
Or, "I will deprive thee of food;" whereupon
Joseph, "The Lord giveth food to the hungry." Or, "I
will have thee thrown into prison;" whereupon Joseph,
"The Lord looseth the prisoners." Or, "I will put heavy
labor upon thee that will bend thee double;" whereupon
Joseph, "The Lord raiseth up them that are bowed down."
Or, "I will blind thine eyes;" whereupon Joseph, "The
Lord openeth the eyes of the blind."[112]

When she began to exercise her blandishments upon him,
he rejected them with the words, "I fear my master." But
Zuleika would say, "I will kill him." Joseph replied with
indignation, "Not enough that thou wouldst make an adulterer
of me, thou wouldst have me be a murderer, besides?"
And he spoke furthermore, saying, "I fear the Lord my
God!"

Zuleika: "Nonsense! He is not here to see thee!

Joseph: "Great is the Lord and highly to be praised, and
His greatness is unsearchable."

Thereupon she took Joseph into her chamber, where an
idol hung above the bed. This she covered, that it might not
be a witness of what she was about to do. Joseph said:
"Though thou coverest up the eyes of the idol, remember,
the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth.
Yes," continued Joseph, "I have many reasons not to do this
thing for the sake of God. Adam was banished from Paradise
on account of violating a light command; how much
more should I have to fear the punishment of God, were I to
commit so grave a sin as adultery! The Lord is in the habit
of choosing a favorite member of our family as a sacrifice
unto Himself. Perhaps He desireth to make choice of me,
but if I do thy will, I make myself unfit to be a sacrifice unto
God. Also the Lord is in the habit of appearing suddenly,
in visions of the night, unto those that love Him. Thus did
He appear unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I fear that
He may appear unto me at the very moment while I am defiling
myself with thee. And as I fear God, so I fear my
father, who withdrew the birthright from his first-born son
Reuben, on account of an immoral act, and gave it to me.
Were I to fulfil thy desire, I would share the fate of my
brother Reuben."[113]

With such words, Joseph endeavored to cure the wife of
his master of the wanton passion she had conceived for him,
while he took heed to keep far from a heinous sin, not from
fear of the punishment that would follow, nor out of
consideration for the opinion of men, but because he desired to
sanctify the Name of God, blessed be He, before the whole
world.[114] It was this feeling of his that Zuleika could not
comprehend, and when, finally, carried away by passion, she
told him in unmistakable language what she desired,[115] and
he recoiled from her, she said to Joseph: "Why dost thou
refuse to fulfil my wish? Am I not a married woman?
None will find out what thou hast done." Joseph replied:
"If the unmarried women of the heathen are prohibited
unto us, how much more their married women?[116] As the
Lord liveth, I will not commit the crime thou biddest me do."
In this Joseph followed the example of many pious men, who
utter an oath at the moment when they are in danger of succumbing
to temptation, and seek thus to gather moral courage
to control their evil instincts."

When Zuleika could not prevail upon him, to persuade
him, her desire threw her into a grievous sickness, and all
the women of Egypt came to visit her, and they said unto
her, "Why art thou so languid and wasted, thou that lackest
nothing? Is not thy husband a prince great and esteemed
in the sight of the king? Is it possible that thou canst want
aught of what thy heart desireth?" Zuleika answered them,
saying, "This day shall it be made known unto you whence
cometh the state wherein you see me."

She commanded her maid-servants to prepare food for all
the women, and she spread a banquet before them in her
house. She placed knives upon the table to peel the oranges,
and then ordered Joseph to appear, arrayed in costly garments,
and wait upon her guests. When Joseph came in,
the women could not take their eyes off him, and they all cut
their hands with the knives, and the oranges in their hands
were covered with blood, but they, not knowing what they
were doing, continued to look upon the beauty of Joseph
without turning their eyes away from him.

Then Zuleika said unto them: "What have ye done?
Behold, I set oranges before you to eat, and you have cut
your hands." All the women looked at their hands, and, lo,
they were full of blood, and it flowed down and stained their
garments. They said to Zuleika, "This slave in thy house
did enchant us, and we could not turn our eyes away from
him on account of his beauty." She then said: "This happened
to you that looked upon him but a moment, and you
could not refrain yourselves! How, then, can I control
myself in whose house he abideth continually, who see him
go in and out day after day? How, then, should I not waste
away, or keep from languishing on account of him!" And
the women spake, saying: "It is true, who can look upon
this beauty in the house, and refrain her feelings? But he
is thy slave! Why dost thou not disclose to him that which
is in thy heart, rather than suffer thy life to perish through
this thing?" Zuleika answered them: "Daily do I endeavor
to persuade him, but he will not consent to my
wishes. I promised him everything that is fair, yet have I
met with no return from him, and therefore I am sick, as
you may see."

Her sickness increased upon her. Her husband and her
household suspected not the cause of her decline, but all the
women that were her friends knew that it was on account
of the love she bore Joseph, and they advised her all the time
to try to entice the youth. On a certain day, while Joseph
was doing his master's work in the house, Zuleika came and
fell suddenly upon him, but Joseph was stronger than she,
and he pressed her down to the ground. Zuleika wept, and
in a voice of supplication, and in bitterness of soul, she said
to Joseph: "Hast thou ever known, seen, or heard of a
woman my peer in beauty, let alone a woman with beauty
exceeding mine? Yet I try daily to persuade thee, I fall
into decline through love of thee, I confer all this honor
upon thee, and thou wilt not hearken unto my voice! Is it
by reason of fear of thy master, that he punish thee? As
the king liveth, no harm shall come upon thee from thy
master on account of this thing. Now, therefore, I pray
thee, listen to me, and consent unto my desire for the sake of
the honor that I have conferred upon thee, and take this
death away from me. For why should I die on account of
thee?" Joseph remained as steadfast under these importunities
as before. Zuleika, however, was not discouraged;
she continued her solicitations unremittingly, day after
day,[118] month after month, for a whole year, but always
without the least success, for Joseph in his chastity did not
permit himself even to look upon her, wherefore she resorted
to constraint. She had an iron shackle placed upon his chin,
and he was compelled to keep his head up and look her in
the face."[119]


JOSEPH RESISTS TEMPTATION

Seeing that she could not attain her object by entreaties
or tears, Zuleika finally used force, when she judged that
the favorable chance had come. She did not have long to
wait. When the Nile overflowed its banks, and, according
to the annual custom of the Egyptians, all repaired to the
river, men and women, people and princes, accompanied by
music, Zuleika remained at home under pretense of being
sick. This was her long-looked-for opportunity, she
thought. She rose up and ascended to the hall of state, and
arrayed herself in princely garments. She placed precious
stones upon her head, onyx stones set in silver and gold,
she beautified her face and her body with all sorts of things
for the purifying of women, she perfumed the hall and the
whole house with cassia and frankincense, spread myrrh
and aloes all over, and afterward sat herself down at the
entrance to the hall, in the vestibule leading to the house,
through which Joseph had to pass to his work.

And, behold, Joseph came from the field, and he was on
the point of entering the house to do his master's work, but
when he reached the place where Zuleika sat, and saw all
she had done, he turned back. His mistress, perceiving it,
called out to him, "What aileth thee, Joseph? Go to thy
work, I will make room for thee, that thou mayest pass by
to thy seat." Joseph did as she bade him, he entered the
house, took his seat, and set about his master's work as
usual. Then Zuleika stood before him suddenly in all her
beauty of person and magnificence of raiment, and repeated
the desire of her heart.[120] It was the first and the last time
that Joseph's steadfastness deserted him, but only for an
instant. When he was on the point of complying with the
wish of his mistress, the image of his mother Rachel appeared
before him, and that of his aunt Leah, and the image
of his father Jacob. The last addressed him thus: "In time
to come the names of thy brethren will be graven upon the
breastplate of the high priest. Dost thou desire to have thy
name appear with theirs? Or wilt thou forfeit this honor
through sinful conduct? For know, he that keepeth company
with harlots wasteth his substance." This vision of
the dead, and especially the image of his father, brought
Joseph to his senses, and his illicit passion departed from
him.[121]

Astonished at the swift change in his countenance, Zuleika
said, "My friend and true-love, why art thou so affrighted
that thou art near to swooning?

Joseph: "I see my father!"

Zuleika: "Where is he? Why, there is none in the house."

Joseph: "Thou belongest to a people that is like unto the
ass, it perceiveth nothing. But I belong to those who can
see things."

Joseph fled forth, away from the house of his mistress,[122]
the same house in which aforetime wonders had been done
for Sarah kept a captive there by Pharaoh.[123] But hardly
was he outside when the sinful passion again overwhelmed
him, and he returned to Zuleika's chamber. Then the Lord
appeared unto him, holding the Eben Shetiyah[124] in His
hand, and said to him: "If thou touchest her, I will cast
away this stone upon which the earth is founded, and the
world will fall to ruin." Sobered again, Joseph started
to escape from his mistress,[125] but Zuleika caught him by his
garment, and she said: "As the king liveth, if thou wilt
not fulfil my wish, thou must die," and while she spoke thus,
she drew a sword with her free hand from under her dress,
and, pressing it against Joseph's throat, she said, "Do as I
bid thee, or thou diest." Joseph ran out, leaving a piece of
his garment in the hands of Zuleika as he wrenched himself
loose from the grasp of the woman with a quick, energetic
motion.[126]

Zuleika's passion for Joseph was so violent that, in lieu
of its owner, whom she could not succeed in subduing to her
will, she kissed and caressed the fragment of cloth left in
her hand.[127] At the same time she was not slow to perceive
the danger into which she had put herself, for, she feared,
Joseph might possibly betray her conduct, and she considered
ways and means of obviating the consequences of
her folly.[128]

Meanwhile her friends returned from the Nile festival,
and they came to visit her and inquire after her health.
They found her looking wretchedly ill, on account of the
excitement she had passed through and the anxiety she was
in. She confessed to the women what had happened with
Joseph, and they advised her to accuse him of immorality
before her husband, and then he would be thrown into
prison. Zuleika accepted their advice, and she begged her
visitors to support her charges by also lodging complaints
against Joseph, that he had been annoying them with improper
proposals.[129]

But Zuleika did not depend entirely upon the assistance of
her friends. She planned a ruse, besides, to be sure of
convincing her husband of Joseph's guilt. She laid aside her
rich robes of state, put on her ordinary clothes, and took to
her sick-bed, in which she had been lying when the people
left to go to the festival. Also she took Joseph's torn garment,
and laid it out next to her. Then she sent a little boy
to summon some of the men of her house, and to them she
told the tale of Joseph's alleged outrage, saying: "See the
Hebrew slave, whom your master hath brought in unto my
house, and who attempted to do violence to me to-day! You
had scarcely gone away to the festival when be entered the
house, and making sure that no one was here he tried to
force me to yield to his lustful desire. But I grasped his
clothes, tore them, and cried with a loud voice. When he
heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, he was seized with
fear, and be fled, and got him out, but he left his garment
by me." The men of her house spake not a word, but, in a
rage against Joseph, they went to their master, and reported
to him what had come to pass.[130] In the meantime the husbands
of Zuleika's friends had also spoken to Potiphar, at
the instigation of their wives, and complained of his slave,
that he molested them.[131]

Potiphar hastened home, and he found his wife in low
spirits, and though the cause of her dejection was chagrin
at not having succeeded in winning Joseph's love, she pretended
that it was anger at the immoral conduct of the slave.
She accused him in the following words: "O husband,
mayest thou not live a day longer, if thou dost not punish
the wicked slave that hath desired to defile thy bed, that
hath not kept in mind who he was when he came to our
house, to demean himself with modesty, nor hath he been
mindful of the favors he hath received from thy bounty.
He did lay a privy design to abuse thy wife, and this at the
time of observing a festival, when thou wouldst be absent."[132]
These words she spoke at the moment of conjugal
intimacy with Potiphar, when she was certain of exerting
an influence upon her husband.[133]

Potiphar gave credence to her words, and he had Joseph
flogged unmercifully. While the cruel blows fell upon him,
he cried to God, "O Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent
of these things, and why should I die to-day on account of
a false accusation by the hands of these uncircumcised,
impious men?" God opened the mouth of Zuleika's child,
a babe of but eleven months, and he spoke to the men that
were beating Joseph, saying: "What is your quarrel with
this man? Why do you inflict such evil upon him? Lies
my mother doth speak, and deceit is what her mouth uttereth.
This is the true tale of that which did happen," and the
child proceeded to tell all that had passed--how Zuleika had
tried first to persuade Joseph to act wickedly, and then had
tried to force him to do her will. The people listened in
great amazement. But the report finished, the child spake
no word, as before.

Abashed by the speech of his own infant son, Potiphar
commanded his bailiffs to leave off from chastising Joseph,
and the matter was brought into court, where priests sat as
judges. Joseph protested his innocence, and related all that
had happened according to the truth, but Potiphar repeated
the account his wife had given him. The judges ordered the
garment of Joseph to be brought which Zuleika had in her
possession, and they examined the tear therein. It turned
out to be on the front part of the mantle, and they came to
the conclusion that Zuleika had tried to hold him fast, and
had been foiled in her attempt by Joseph, against whom she
was now lodging a trumped up charge. They decided that
Joseph had not incurred the death penalty, but they condemned
him to incarceration, because he was the cause of a
stain upon Zuleika's fair name."[134]

Potiphar himself was convinced of Joseph's innocence,
and when he cast him into prison, he said to him, "I know
that thou art not guilty of so vile a crime, but I must put
thee in durance, lest a taint cling to my children."[135]


JOSEPH IN PRISON

By way of punishment for having traduced his ten brethren
before his father, Joseph had to languish for ten years
in the prison to which the wiles of traducers had in turn
condemned him.[136] But, on the other hand, as he had sanctified
the Name of God before the world by his chastity and
his steadfastness, he was rewarded. The letter He, which
occurs twice in the Name of God, was added to his name.
He had been called Joseph, but now he was called also
Jehoseph.[137]

Though he was bound in prison, Joseph was not yet safe
from the machinations of his mistress, whose passion for
him was in no wise lessened. In truth it was she that had
induced her husband to change his intention regarding Joseph;
she urged him to imprison the slave rather than kill
him, for she hoped that as a prisoner he could be made
amenable to her wishes more easily. She spake to her husband,
saying: "Do not destroy thy property. Cast the slave
in prison and keep him there until thou canst sell him, and
receive back the money thou didst pay out for him."[138] Thus
she had the opportunity of visiting Joseph in his cell and
trying to persuade him to do her will. She would say,
"This and that outrage have I executed against thee, but, as
thou livest, I will put yet other outrages upon thee if thou
dost not obey me." But Joseph replied, "The Lord executeth
judgment for the oppressed."

Zuleika: "I will push matters so far that all men will
hate thee."

Joseph: "The Lord loveth the righteous."

Zuleika: "I will sell thee into a strange land."

Joseph: "The Lord preserveth the strangers."[139]

Then she would resort to enticements in order to obtain
her desire. She would promise to release him from prison,
if he would but grant her wish. But he would say, "Better
it is to remain here than be with thee and commit a trespass
against God." These visits to Joseph in prison Zuleika continued
for a long time, but when, finally, she saw that all
her hopes were vain, she let him alone.[140]

As the mistress persisted in her love for Joseph, so his
master, her husband, could not separate himself from his
favorite slave. Though a prisoner, Joseph continued to
minister to the needs of Potiphar, and he received permission
from the keeper of the prison to spend some of his time
in his master's house.[141] In many other ways the jailer showed
himself kindly disposed toward Joseph. Seeing the youth's
zeal and conscientiousness in executing the tasks laid upon
him, and under the spell of his enchanting beauty, he made
prison life as easy as possible for his charge. He even
ordered better dishes for him than the common prison fare,
and he found it superfluous caution to keep watch over
Joseph, for he could see no wrong in him, and he observed
that God was with him, in good days and in bad.
He even appointed him to be the overseer of the prison,
and as Joseph commanded, so the other prisoners were
obliged to do.[142]

For a long time the people talked of nothing but the
accusation raised against Joseph by his mistress. In
order to divert the attention of the public from him, God
ordained that two high officers, the chief butler and the
chief baker, should offend their lord, the king of Egypt, and
they were put in ward in the house of the captain of the
guard. Now the people ceased their talk about Joseph, and
spoke only of the scandal at court. The charges laid at the
door of the noble prisoners were that they had attempted to
do violence to the daughter of Pharaoh, and they had
conspired to poison the king himself. Besides, they had
shown themselves derelict in their service. In the wine
the chief butler had handed to the king to drink, a fly
had been discovered, and the bread set upon the royal
board by the chief baker contained a little pebble."[143] On
account of all these transgressions they were condemned to
death by Pharaoh, but for the sake of Joseph it was ordained
by Divine providence that the king should first detain
them in prison before he ordered their execution. The
Lord had enkindled the wrath of the king against his
servants only that the wish of Joseph for liberty might
be fulfilled, for they were the instruments of his deliverance
from prison, and though they were doomed to death, yet in
consideration of the exalted office they had held at court,
the keeper of the prison accorded them privileges, as, for
instance, a man was detailed to wait upon them, and the one
appointed thereto was Joseph.[144]
1]

The chief butler and the chief baker had been confined
in prison ten years,[145] when they dreamed a dream, both of
them, but as for the interpretation, each dreamed only that
of the other one's dream.[146] In the morning when Joseph
brought them the water for washing, he found them sad,
depressed in spirits, and, in the manner of the sages, he
asked them why they looked different on that day from other
days. They said unto him, "We have dreamed a dream this
night, and our two dreams resemble each other in certain
particulars, and there is none that can interpret them." And
Joseph said unto them: "God granteth understanding to
man to interpret dreams. Tell them me, I pray you."[147] It
was as a reward for ascribing greatness and credit to Him
unto whom it belongeth that Joseph later attained to his
lofty position.[148]

The chief butler proceeded to tell his dream: "In my
dream, behold, a vine was before me; and in the vine were
three branches; and it was as though it budded, and its blossoms
shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe
grapes; and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; and I took the
grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave
the cup into Pharaoh's hand." The chief butler was not
aware that his dream contained a prophecy regarding the
future of Israel, but Joseph discerned the recondite
meaning,[149]
and he interpreted the dream thus: The three
branches are the three Fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
whose descendants in Egypt will be redeemed by three
leaders, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam; and the cup given into
the hand of Pharaoh is the cup of wrath that he will have to
drain in the end. This interpretation of the dream Joseph
kept for himself, and he told the chief butler nothing
thereof, but out of gratitude for the glad tidings of the
deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, he gave
him a favorable interpretation of his dream, and begged
him to have him in his remembrance, when it should be well
with him, and liberate him from the dungeon in which he
was confined.

When the chief baker heard the interpretation of the
butler's dream, he knew that Joseph had divined its meaning
correctly, for in his own he had seen the interpretation of
his friend's dream, and he proceeded to tell Joseph what
he had dreamed in the night: "I also was in my dream,
and, behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head;
and in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bake-
meats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the
basket upon my head." Also this dream conveyed a prophecy
regarding the future of Israel: The three baskets are
the three kingdoms to which Israel will be made subject,
Babylon, Media, and Greece; and the uppermost basket
indicates the wicked rule of Rome, which will extend over
all the nations of the world, until the bird shall come, who is
the Messiah, and annihilate Rome. Again Joseph kept
the prophecy a secret. To the chief baker he gave only the
interpretation that had reference to his person, but it was
unfavorable to him, because through his dream Joseph had
been made acquainted with the suffering Israel would have
to undergo.

And all came to pass, as Joseph had said, on the third
day.[150] The day whereon he explained the meaning of
their dreams to the two distinguished prisoners, a son was
born unto Pharaoh and to celebrate the joyous event, the
king arranged a feast for his princes and servants that was
to last eight days. He invited them and all the people to
his table, and he entertained them with royal splendor. The
feast had its beginning on the third day after the birth of the
child, and on that occasion the chief butler was restored in
honor to his butlership, and the chief baker was hanged,[151]
for Pharaoh's counsellors had discovered that it was not the
butler's fault that the fly had dropped into the king's wine,
but the baker had been guilty of carelessness in allowing the
pebble to get into the bread.[152] Likewise it appeared that
the butler had had no part in the conspiracy to poison the
king, while the baker was revealed as one of the plotters,
and he had to expiate his crime with his life.[153]


PHARAOH'S DREAMS

Properly speaking, Joseph should have gone out free from
his dungeon on the same day as the butler. He had been
there ten years by that time, and had made amends for the
slander he had uttered against his ten brethren. However,
he remained in prison two years longer. "Blessed is the
man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord,"
but Joseph had put his confidence in flesh and blood. He had
prayed the chief butler to have him in remembrance when
it should be well with him, and make mention of him unto
Pharaoh, and the butler forgot his promise, and therefore
Joseph had to stay in prison two years more than the years
originally allotted to him there.[154] The butler had not
forgotten
him intentionally, but it was ordained of God that
his memory should fail him. When he would say to himself,
If thus and so happens, I will remember the case of Joseph,
the conditions he had imagined were sure to be reversed, or
if he made a knot as a reminder, an angel came and undid
the knot, and Joseph did not enter his mind.[155]

But "the Lord setteth an end to darkness," and Joseph's
liberation was not delayed by a single moment beyond the
time decreed for it. God said, "Thou, O butler, thou didst
forget Joseph, but I did not," and He caused Pharaoh to
dream a dream that was the occasion for Joseph's release.[156]

In his dream Pharaoh saw seven kine, well-favored and
fat-fleshed, come up out of the Nile, and they all together
grazed peaceably on the brink of the river, In years when
the harvest is abundant, friendship reigns among men, and
love and brotherly harmony, and these seven fat kine stood
for seven such prosperous years. After the fat kine, seven
more came up out of the river, ill-favored and lean-
fleshed, and each had her back turned to the others, for
when distress prevails, one man turns away from the other.
For a brief space Pharaoh awoke, and when he went to sleep
again, he dreamed a second dream, about seven rank and
good ears of corn, and seven ears that were thin and blasted
with the east wind,[157] the withered cars swallowing the full
ears. He awoke at once, and it was morning, and dreams
dreamed in the morning are the ones that come true.[158]

This was not the first time Pharaoh had had these dreams.
They had visited him every night during a period of two
years, and he had forgotten them invariably in the morning.
This was the first time he remembered them, for the
day had arrived for Joseph to come forth from his prison
house.[159] Pharaoh's heart beat violently when he called
his dreams to mind on awaking.[160] Especially the second
one, about the ears of corn, disquieted him. He reflected
that whatever has a mouth can eat, and therefore the dream
of the seven lean kine that ate up the seven fat kine did not
appear strange to him. But the ears of corn that swallowed
up other ears of corn troubled his spirit.[161] He therefore
called for all the wise men of his land, and they endeavored
in vain to find a satisfactory interpretation. They explained
that the seven fat kine meant seven daughters to be born
unto Pharaoh, and the seven lean kine, that he would bury
seven daughters; the rank ears of corn meant that Pharaoh
would conquer seven countries, and the blasted ears, that
seven provinces would rebel against him.[162] About the ears
of corn they did not all agree. Some thought the good ears
stood for seven cities to be built by Pharaoh, and the seven
withered ears indicated that these same cities would be
destroyed at the end of his reign.

Sagacious as he was, Pharaoh knew that none of these
explanations hit the nail on the head. He issued a decree
summoning all interpreters of dreams to appear before him
on pain of death, and he held out great rewards and distinctions
to the one who should succeed in finding the true
meaning of his dreams. In obedience to his summons, all
the wise men appeared, the magicians and the sacred scribes
that were in Mizraim, the city of Egypt, as well as those
from Goshen, Raamses, Zoan, and the whole country of
Egypt, and with them came the princes, officers, and servants
of the king from all the cities of the land.

To all these the king narrated his dreams, but none could
interpret them to his satisfaction. Some said that the seven
fat kine were the seven legitimate kings that would rule over
Egypt, and the seven lean kine betokened seven princes that
would rise up against these seven kings and exterminate
them. The seven good ears of corn were the seven superior
princes of Egypt that would engage in a war for their overlord,
and would be defeated by as many insignificant princes,
who were betokened by the seven blasted ears.

Another interpretation was that the seven fat kine were
the seven fortified cities of Egypt, at some future time to fall
into the hands of seven Canaanitish nations, who were
foreshadowed
in the seven lean kine. According to this interpretation,
the second dream supplemented the first. It
meant that the descendants of Pharaoh would regain sovereign
authority over Egypt at a subsequent period, and
would subdue the seven Canaanitish nations as well.

There was a third interpretation, given by some: The
seven fat kine are seven women whom Pharaoh would take
to wife, but they would die during his lifetime, their loss
being indicated by the seven lean kine. Furthermore,
Pharaoh would have fourteen sons, and the seven strong
ones would be conquered by the seven weaklings, as the
blasted ears of corn in his dream had swallowed up the rank
ears of corn.

And a fourth: "Thou wilt have seven sons, O Pharaoh,
these are the seven fat kine. These sons of thine will be
killed by the seven powerful rebellious princes. But then
seven minor princes will come, and they will kill the seven
rebels, avenge thy descendants, and restore the dominion to
thy family."

The king was as little pleased with these interpretations
as with the others, which he had heard before, and in his
wrath he ordered the wise men, the magicians and the scribes
of Egypt, to be killed, and the hangmen made ready to execute
the royal decree.

However, Mirod, Pharaoh's chief butler,[163] took fright,
seeing that the king was so vexed at his failure to secure an
interpretation of his dreams that he was on the point of
giving up the ghost. He was alarmed about the king's death,
for it was doubtful whether the successor to the throne would
retain him in office. He resolved to do all in his power to
keep Pharaoh alive. Therefore he stepped before him, and
spake, saying, "I do remember two faults of mine this day,
I showed myself ungrateful to Joseph, in that I did not bring
his request before thee, and also I saw thee in distress by
reason of thy dream, without letting thee know that Joseph
can interpret dreams.[164] When it pleased the Lord God to
make Pharaoh wroth with his servants, the king put me in
ward in the house of the captain of the guard, me and the
chief baker.[165] And with us there was a simple young
man, one of the despised race of the Hebrews, slave to the
captain of the guard, and he interpreted our dreams to us,
and it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was.
Therefore,
O king, stay the hand of the hangmen, let them not
execute the Egyptians. The slave I speak of is still in the
dungeon, and if the king will consent to summon him
hither, he will surely interpret thy dreams."[166]


JOSEPH BEFORE PHARAOH

"Accursed are the wicked that never do a wholly good
deed." The chief butler described Joseph contemptuously
as a "slave" in order that it might be impossible for him
to occupy a distinguished place at court, for it was a law
upon the statute books of Egypt that a slave could never sit
upon the throne as king, nor even put his foot in the stirrup
of a horse.[167]

Pharaoh revoked the edict of death that he had issued
against the wise men of Egypt, and he sent and called Joseph.
He impressed care upon his messengers, they were
not to excite and confuse Joseph, and render him unfit to
interpret the king's dream correctly.[168] They brought him
hastily out of the dungeon, but first Joseph, out of respect
for the king, shaved himself, and put on fresh raiment,
which an angel brought him from Paradise, and then he
came in unto Pharaoh.[169]

The king was sitting upon the royal throne, arrayed in
princely garments, clad with a golden ephod upon his breast,
and the fine gold of the ephod sparkled, and the carbuncle,
the ruby, and the emerald flamed like a torch, and all the
precious stones set upon the king's head flashed like a blazing
fire, and Joseph was greatly amazed at the appearance
of the king. The throne upon which he sat was covered
with gold and silver and with onyx stones, and it had
seventy steps. If a prince or other distinguished person
came to have an audience with the king, it was the custom
for him to advance and mount to the thirty-first step of the
throne, and the king would descend thirty-six steps and
speak to him. But if one of the people came to have speech
with the king, he ascended only to the third step, and the
king would come down four steps from his seat, and address
him thence. It was also the custom that one who knew all
the seventy languages ascended the seventy steps of the
throne to the top, but if a man knew only some of the
seventy languages, he was permitted to ascend as many steps
as he knew languages, whether they were many or, few.
And another custom of the Egyptians was that none could
reign over them unless he was master of all the seventy
languages.

When Joseph came before the king, he bowed down to
the ground, and he ascended to the third step, while the
king sat upon the fourth from the top, and spake with Joseph,
saying:[170] "O young man, my servant beareth witness
concerning thee, that thou art the best and most discerning
person I can consult with. I pray thee, vouchsafe
unto me the same favors which thou didst bestow on this
servant of mine, and tell me what events they are which the
visions of my dreams foreshow. I desire thee to suppress
naught out of fear, nor shalt thou flatter me with lying
words, or with words that please me. Tell me the truth,
though it be sad and alarming."[171]

Joseph asked the king first whence he knew that the
interpretation
given by the wise men of his country was not true,
and Pharaoh replied, "I saw the dream and its interpretation
together, and therefore they cannot make a fool of
me."[172] In his modesty Joseph denied that he was an adept
at interpreting dreams. He said, "It is not in me; it is in
the hand of God, and if it be the wish of God, He will permit
me to announce tidings of peace to Pharaoh." And for
such modesty he was rewarded by sovereignty over Egypt,
for the Lord doth honor them that honor Him. Thus was
also Daniel rewarded for his speech to Nebuchadnezzar:

"There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, but as for
me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I
have more than any living, but to the intent that the
interpretation may be made known to the king, and that thou
mayest know the thoughts of thy heart."[173]

Then Pharaoh began to tell his dream, only he omitted
some points and narrated others inaccurately in order that
he might test the vaunted powers of Joseph. But the youth
corrected him, and pieced the dreams together exactly as
they had visited Pharaoh in the night, and the king was
greatly amazed.[174] Joseph was able to accomplish this feat,
because he had dreamed the same dream as Pharaoh, at the
same time as he.[175] Thereupon Pharaoh retold his dreams,
with all details and circumstances, and precisely as he had
seen them in his sleep, except that he left out the word Nile
in the description of the seven lean kine, because this river
was worshipped by the Egyptians, and he hesitated to say
that aught that is evil had come from his god.[176]

Now Joseph proceeded to give the king the true interpretation
of the two dreams. They were both a revelation concerning
the seven good years impending and the seven years
of famine to follow them. In reality, it had been the purpose
of God to bring a famine of forty-two years' duration
upon Egypt, but only two years of this distressful period
were inflicted upon the land, for the sake of the blessing of
Jacob when he came to Egypt in the second year of the
famine. The other forty years fell upon the land at the
time of the prophet Ezekiel.[177]

Joseph did more than merely interpret the dreams. When
the king gave voice to doubts concerning the interpretation,
he told him signs and tokens. He said: "Let this be a sign
to thee that my words are true, and my advice is excellent:
Thy wife, who is sitting upon the birthstool at this moment,
will bring forth a son, and thou wilt rejoice over him, but
in the midst of thy joy the sad tidings will be told thee of
the death of thine older son, who was born unto thee but two
years ago, and thou must needs find consolation for the loss
of the one in the birth of the other."

Scarcely had Joseph withdrawn from the presence of the
king, when the report of the birth of a son was brought to
Pharaoh, and soon after also the report of the death of his
first-born, who had suddenly dropped to the floor and passed
away. Thereupon he sent for all the grandees of his realm,
and all his servants, and he spake to them, saying: "Ye
have heard the words of the Hebrew, and ye have seen that
the signs which he foretold were accomplished, and I also
know that he hath interpreted the dream truly. Advise me
now how the land may be saved from the ravages of the
famine. Look hither and thither whether you can find a
man of wisdom and understanding, whom I may set over
the land, for I am convinced that the land can be saved only
if we heed the counsel of the Hebrew." The grandees and
the princes admitted that safety could be secured only by
adhering to the advice given by Joseph, and they proposed
that the king, in his sagacity, choose a man whom he considered
equal to the great task.[178] Thereupon Pharaoh said:
"If we traversed and searched the earth from end to end,
we could find none such as Joseph, a man in whom is the
spirit of God.[179] If ye think well thereof, I will set him over
the land which he hath saved by his wisdom."[180]

The astrologers, who were his counsellors, demurred, saying,
"A slave, one whom his present owner hath acquired
for twenty pieces of silver, thou proposest to set over us as
master?" But Pharaoh maintained that Joseph was not
only a free-born man beyond the peradventure of a doubt,
but also the scion of a noble family.[181] However, the princes
of Pharaoh were not silenced, they continued to give utterance
to their opposition to Joseph, saying: "Dost thou not
remember the immutable law of the Egyptians, that none
may serve as king or as viceroy unless he speaks all the
languages of men? And this Hebrew knows none but his
own tongue, and how were it possible that a man should rule
over us who cannot even speak the language of our land?
Send and have him fetched hither, and examine him in
respect to all the things a ruler should know and have, and
then decide as seemeth wise in thy sight."

Pharaoh yielded, he promised to do as they wished, and
he appointed the following day as the time for examining
Joseph, who had returned to his prison in the meantime,
for, on account of his wife, his master feared to have him
stay in his house. During the night Gabriel appeared unto
Joseph, and taught him all the seventy languages, and he
acquired them quickly after the angel had changed his name
from Joseph to Jehoseph. The next morning, when he came
into the presence of Pharaoh and the nobles of the kingdom,
inasmuch as he knew every one of the seventy languages,
he mounted all the steps of the royal throne, until he reached
the seventieth, the highest, upon which sat the king, and
Pharaoh and his princes rejoiced that Joseph fulfilled all the
requirements needed by one that was to rule over Egypt.

The king said to Joseph: "Thou didst give me the
counsel to look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over
the land of Egypt, that he may in his wisdom save the land
from the famine. As God hath showed thee all this, and as
thou art master of all the languages of the world, there is
none so discreet and wise as thou. Thou shalt therefore be
the second in the land after Pharaoh, and according unto thy
word shall all my people go in and go out; my princes and
my servants shall receive their monthly appanage from thee;
before thee the people shall prostrate themselves, only in the
throne will I be greater than thou."[182]


THE RULER OF EGYPT

Now Joseph reaped the harvest of his virtues, and according
to the measure of his merits God granted him reward.
The mouth that refused the kiss of unlawful passion and
sin received the kiss of homage from the people; the neck
that did not bow itself unto sin was adorned with the gold
chain that Pharaoh put upon it; the hands that did not
touch sin wore the signet ring that Pharaoh took from his
own hand and put upon Joseph's; the body that did not come
in contact with sin was arrayed in vestures of byssus; the
feet that made no steps in the direction of sin reposed in the
royal chariot, and the thoughts that kept themselves undefiled
by sin were proclaimed as wisdom.[183]

Joseph was installed in his high position, and invested
with the insignia of his office, with solemn ceremony. The
king took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it upon
Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in princely apparel, and set
a gold crown upon his head, and laid a gold chain about his
neck. Then he commanded his servants to make Joseph to
ride in his second chariot, which went by the side of the
chariot wherein sat the king, and he also made him to ride
upon a great and strong horse of the king's horses, and his
servants conducted him through the streets of the city
of Egypt. Musicians, no less than a thousand striking
cymbals and a thousand blowing flutes, and five thousand
men with drawn swords gleaming in the air formed the vanguard.
Twenty thousand of the king's grandees girt with
gold-embroidered leather belts marched at the right of
Joseph, and as many at the left of him.[184] The women and
the maidens of the nobility looked out of the windows to
gaze upon Joseph's beauty, and they poured down chains
upon him, and rings and jewels, that he might but direct
his eyes toward them. Yet he did not look up, and as a reward
God made him proof against the evil eye, nor has it
ever had the power of inflicting harm upon any of his
descendants.[185] Servants of the king, preceding him and
following him, burnt incense upon his path, and cassia, and all
manner of sweet spices, and strewed myrrh and aloes wherever
he went. Twenty heralds walked before him, and they
proclaimed: "This is the man whom the king bath chosen
to be the second after him. All the affairs of state will be
administered by him, and whoever resisteth his commands,
or refuseth to b