Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
Then Moses threw the second plate into the water, that with the figure
of the eagle, repeating the same words, but again the coffin did not
rise from the bed of the Nile, and there it remained, too, when he
threw in the third plate bearing the figure of the bull, and called
upon Joseph a third time to come forth. But the fourth plate with the
human figure and the fourth invocation to Joseph brought the coffin to
the surface of the water. Moses seized it, and in joy he bore it
off.[439] While Israel had been busy gathering gold and silver from the
Egyptians, Moses had been thinking of nothing but Joseph's coffin, and
his happiness was great that he had been permitted to fulfil the wish
of Joseph.[440]
During the forty years of wandering through the desert, the coffin was
in the midst of Israel, as a reward for Joseph's promise to his
brethren, "I will nourish you and take care of you." God had said, "As
thou livest, for forty years they will take care of thy bones."[441]
All this time in the desert Israel carried two shrines with them, the
one the coffin containing the bones of the dead man Joseph, the other
the Ark containing the covenant of the Living God. The wayfarers who
saw the two receptacles wondered, and they would ask, "How doth the ark
of the dead come next to the ark of the Ever-living?" The answer was,
"The dead man enshrined in the one fulfilled the commandments enshrined
in the other. In the latter it is written, I am the Lord thy God, and
he said, Am I in the place of God? Here it is written, Thou shalt have
no other gods before My face, and he said, I fear God. Here it is
written, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, and
therefore he did not swear by God, but said, By the life of Pharaoh.
Here it is written, Remember the Sabbath day, and he said to the
overseer of his palace on Friday, Slay and make ready, meaning for the
Sabbath. Here it is written, Honor thy father and thy mother, and he
said, when his father desired to send him to his brethren, Here am I,
although he knew it was perilous for him to go. Here it is written,
Thou shalt not kill, and he refrained from murdering Potiphar when
Potiphar's wife urged him to do it. Here it is written, Thou shalt not
commit adultery, and he scorned the adulterous proposals of Potiphar's
wife. Here it is written, Thou shalt not steal, and he stole nothing
from Pharaoh, but gathered up all the money and brought it unto
Pharaoh's house. Here it is written, Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor, and he told his father nothing of what his
brethren had done to him, though what he might have told was the truth.
Here it is written, Thou shalt not covet, and he did not covet
Potiphar's wife."[442]
On their arrival in the Holy Land, the Israelites buried the bones of
Joseph in Shechem, for God spake to the tribes, saying, "From Shechem
did ye steal him, and unto Shechem, shall ye return him."[443]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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