Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
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."
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