Joseph knowing that Reuben spoke the truth, and seeing his hair bristling through his clothes like needle-points, and knowing also that if any one of the house of Jacob were to lay his hand on the body of Reuben, his force would pass away,—he said to Ephraim, his son, “Go softly, so that Reuben may not observe thee, and lay thine hand upon his shoulder that his anger may abate.” Ephraim did as he was bidden, and instantly the hairs of Reuben sank, and his fury passed away, and he felt that the power to scream was gone from him. Then Joseph said calmly, “I shall retain Benjamin, do what you will.” Reuben made an effort to scream, but it was unavailing. Then astonishment got hold of him, and he said to Joseph, “I think that there must be one of the family of Jacob in this house.”[426] Then Joseph ordered Benjamin to be chained. And when Judah saw this, he roared like a lion, and his voice was so piercing, that Chuschim, the son of Dan, who was in Canaan, heard him, and began to roar also. And Judah drew his sword, and roared, and pursued the Egyptian soldiers sent to bind Benjamin, and the fear of him fell on them all, and they fell, and he smote them up to the gates of the king’s palace; and he roared again, and all the walls of Memphis rocked, and the earth shook, and Pharaoh was shaken off his throne and fell on his face, and the roar of Judah was heard four hundred miles off. Joseph feared to be killed by Judah. When Judah was angry, blood spirted from his right eye. Judah wore five sets of clothes upon him, one above another; and when he was angry, his heart swelled so as to tear them all. Joseph, fearing him, roared at him, and his voice shivered a pillar of the palace into fine dust, so that Judah thought, “This is a great hero! he can master me.”[427] Then said Judah to Joseph, “Let our brother go, or we will devastate this land.” Then Joseph answered, “Go home, and tell your father that a wild beast has devoured him.” Then Judah beckoned to his brother Naphtali, who was very swift of foot, and said to him, “Run speedily and count all the streets in Egypt, and come swiftly back and tell me.” But Simeon said, “There is no need; I will break a stone out of the mountains and throw it down on the land of Egypt, and will utterly destroy it.”[428] Then Joseph saw that it was not well to press them further; so he took a bowl, and filled it, and looked into it as though he were divining by it, and said suddenly, “Ye are liars! Ye told me that your brother Joseph was dead, and behold he is alive, and I see him in this bowl! Ye sold him.” Then he bade Zuleika bring the deed of sale, and he handed it to Judah. Thereupon the brothers knew him, and fell down before him, and besought him to pardon them. Then he told them how God had exalted him, and he comforted their hearts, and after that he asked news of his father. They replied, “He is blind with grief at having to part with Benjamin.”