Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various SourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends
He was rejoiced, and his heart beat with passion; and when he took
the goblet of wine she offered him, he looked into her eyes, and saw
that she loved him. Then, says the Rabbi Ishmael in the Midrash, the
form of his father Jacob appeared in the window or doorway, and thus
addressed him: “Joseph! hereafter the names of thy brothers engraven on
gems shall adorn the breastplate of the High Priest, and shall thine
be absent from among them?” Then Joseph dug his ten fingers into the
ground, and so conquered himself.[414]
The Mussulmans say also that Joseph was brought to his senses by seeing
the vision of his father in the door biting his finger reproachfully at
him.[415]
When Potiphar returned home, Zuleika brought false accusations against
Joseph, but a babe who was in its cradle, in the room,--the child was
a relation of Zuleika,--lifted up its voice in protest, and said,
“Potiphar, if you want to know the truth, examine the torn portion
of the garment. If it is from the front of the dress, then know that
Zuleika was struggling to thrust Joseph from approaching her; if from
the back, know that she was pursuing him.”
Potiphar obeyed the voice of the sucking child, and found that his wife
had spoken falsely, and that Joseph was innocent.[416]
Now one of the neighbors had seen all that took place, for she was
sick, and had not attended the feast, so the whole affair was soon a
matter of gossip throughout the town. Then Zuleika invited all the
ladies who had blamed her to a great feast in her house; and towards
the close of the banquet, when the fruit and wine were brought in, an
orange and a knife were placed before each lady; and at the same moment
Joseph was brought into the room. The ladies, in their astonishment,
cut their fingers in mistake for the oranges, for their eyes were fixed
upon him, and they were amazed at his beauty; and the table was deluged
with blood.
“This,” said Zuleika, “is the youth on whose account you blame me. It
is true that I loved him, but his virtue has opposed me; and now love
is turned to hate, and I shall cast him into prison.”[417]
She was as good as her word, and thus it fell out that Joseph was
placed in the king’s prison. But God would not suffer the innocent
to be punished. He illumined his cell with a celestial light, made a
fountain spring up in the midst of it, and a fruit-bearing tree to grow
before the door.[418]
Joseph was five years in prison, and then the King of the Greeks, who
was warring against Egypt, sent an ambassador to Rajjan desiring peace.
But his true purpose was to throw him off his guard, that he might with
treachery destroy him. The ambassador sought the advice of an old Greek
woman who had long lived in Egypt. She said, “I know of only one way of
accomplishing what you desire, and that is to bribe the butler or the
baker of the king to poison him; but it would be better to put the drug
in the wine than in the bread.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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