He himself hides the false gods in the cave of the Terebinth, and sees the great Lord bring forth his accustomed words to him, and that he himself shall be a seer of the high deity in the rich lands which the Lord had vowed to Abraham. He himself set a name on the place and consecrated the stone, which, venerating, he wholly drenched with clear oil, and raised a house beneath the roofs of the tower of Gader. Among these things Rachel, undone by grievous pain, by a funereal deed poured Benjamin from her womb. For besides the sons born of lawful mothers, the seer begot pledges through a substituted parent, and gladly acknowledged, from the allied seed of Bilhah, conspicuous Dan, whom Naphtali presses close upon. But others soon Zilpah bears, both Gad and Asher.
He obtains this also, which he knew was lacking to his merits, that he should see his father's countenance with such great offspring; that he, who had already been begotten of an aged mother, might rejoice, distinguished by twice six grandsons. So when at last, through twice ninety years, his life had been tall and drawn out through a long age, he is dissolved and, white, goes forth from his wearied body, about to behold the holy seats which prudence measures out as his portion, in which, reclining for ages on a star-bearing couch, he secure invites the snow-white just to joys. And now it pleases the brothers to divide measured-out dwellings; for because they could not, in the narrow border of the land, restrain their settlers growing with many flocks, the elder, after the fields of Canaan, receives Mount Seir and took rich, glad pastures.
Following the realms of Canaan, Jacob does not leave them, that his pious mind might ever rejoice in his father's rite. There Joseph takes up conspicuous deeds, shining forth among his brothers amid so great a distinction as the moon gleams small among the stars of heaven. He, when he now reached seventeen years, kept his father's ewes in the grassy herbage, going as the youngest by birth of those whom he begot in noble marriage-chambers, or by a servile concubine of the field. And because, conspicuous, he flourished green in the brotherly company, he stirred the fraternal feelings with the chill of envy. Him the father, embracing out of the whole stock of his sons, soothed, tender among the sturdy bodies of his brothers, and, that he might be more conspicuous among all, a flowing garment veiled him with varied dye.
When this one now served the Lord from his tender years, by chance, lulled with calm sleep over his eyes, he sees himself, mingled among his brothers, binding sheaves. While they bind the spelt in the midst of the new fields, his own rises high in an upright cone, near which the bowed sheaves of the brothers fell down crowding. After the youth unfolded this in calm speech, he stirred their fearing hearts with trembling tumult; murmuring with terrifying sound, calling him king and lord, they betrayed that the secret of crime was wanting in him alone (i.e., he was free of malice). And that he might the more break the sad ones with twin wrath, he reveals to his learned-speaking parent the dreams perceived, all being summoned whom the line of blood binds together.
For it seemed to him that he beheld the rosy sun and the moon joined together with trembling light, and these ten stars together with one rise up joined, and bend their bowed necks to him as to a lord. After the father had learned these things with sidelong mouth, he confessed that the trembling brothers must soon adore him. Forthwith the young men go off, and seek out the paternal flocks through valleys flowery in the river's grasses; to them, sent, he goes and wanders amid silent thickets, instructed by a certain youth pointing out the retreats, the pasture changed, where the band of brothers had gathered, whom he had chosen; whom, as soon as it was permitted to recognize from afar by his varied garment, they fit out an unhappy plan with discordant tongues.
It is agreed by all who hate him to destroy their brother and to report him slain by the bite of wild beasts, while the fierce ones mutter among themselves with windy murmuring: 'Let us see whether dreams will be able to drive off his death.' Was not the gentler one rejecting this with calm words, and does he not warn them against burying the cruel iron in him, advising that it were better to sink him in a standing pool? At once he is stripped, and naked he is wrapped in cold. Meanwhile one who was wont to trade Sabaean wares was driving on his camels under a heavy load, hastening to bring the Arabian harvests to Canopus. So when the hope of the younger brother is brought low, Judah says: 'You would do better to sell Joseph for coin.' Their father is kept in the dark, and beholding the garment dipped in blood he measures him as slain by no deceit.
Jacob rends his garment with hooked hands and wraps black sackcloth mourning-robes about himself. Stricken with grief the father seeks his lost one, whom of late Pharaoh's eunuch held when received, accustomed to load the tyrant's gilded tables with platters and to delight in the din of a great kitchen. Meanwhile Tamar gives birth, while glad delights of guilt are pleasing, and her womb is filled with a twofold pledge. Of these the boy who first earned the light of life thrust forth and put out a hand, which the clever woman bound with a scarlet thread; soon it is drawn back into the belly, and with the turn reversed at once the other is born, holding the first place, who had been second by lot. Since this one had once been marked off by a boundary, he bears the name Zarah; the other they called Pharez.
The Lord's faithful guardianship was watching over the lands, not suffering him though enslaved to live under harsh law. For the master, called his lord before, gives all things to his servant, and not on idle hope indeed; for the gentle Lord from on high increased more bountifully all that the young man kept. Yet he did not win the love of cruel Potiphar; for because his eyes shone in a conspicuous countenance, his mistress, wickedly wounded, begs the embrace of her servant. But the boy now shuns the foul thing and refuses to press the consecrated bed with excessive guilt. The woman, ruined in vain by forbidden flames, explores soft approaches and watches for her chances. By chance when she found the house empty and him alone, she presses on and with her hand forces him to lie down with her, grasping him. He, all the more eager, strips the garment from his body and slips out between his mistress's two arms.
The woman cries out and draws strength from her crime, screaming that the young man, trusting in his beauty, had violated the most sweet glory of her modesty, while slippery with youth he burns and contrives to climb his master's bed. Nay more, she assails her husband with sorrowful voice and wishes to subject the harmless accused to her chosen penalty; he, as though thinking it true, shuts him in a hostile prison, in which already the penalty held back the king's ministers. Soon the keeper of the prison soothes him with a kindly heart, and seeing him harmless entrusts to him the committed dungeons. There by chance two men, whom the grim tyrant, stirred by black bile, had buried in the lofty hall, shut up, dreaded their punishment with trembling heart, and while they steal their eyes away from anxious cares, they saw dreams that were heralds of things to come.
When Joseph perceives these men sorrowful with clear-seeing eye, he seeks the causes and compels them to confess what is hidden. At once the one who gave the tyrant his accustomed wines speaks of what had appeared to him in night's slumber: 'I was looking at a vine flourishing with green shoot, while it creeps and hangs interwoven by its own tendril; among the leafy branches three growths were there for me, and the golden grape hung in a nectar-bearing cluster. Then the king's cup, from which he sips the gentle drink, foamed with the tender must which my right hand had pressed; and the master held it taken upon his ready palm.' Then the young man significantly reveals all the closed meanings: that the three growths are the three days, after which, when they have passed, he restores and lays up again the lost favor for him, who will mingle the cups he saw for his calm king.
'Only do this for me in return for such deserts,' he says, 'that when confidence of speech has been granted you, you may remove my penalty from a crime that is no crime. I am called of the Hebrew nation; for sold by my brothers' wickedness, I, a noble man, went into bondage.' After these things the chief of the bakers begins to tell his vision: 'I seemed to bear three baskets on my head, filled with kingly feasts and sumptuous fare, which countless birds were snatching and carrying off with their claws.' To these words, true indeed but harsh to speak, he testifies that soon he shall be slain by the hard iron and his head torn off and fixed on a lofty stake, which the birds shall at once rend with grim beak. All is fulfilled that the young man had said, and soon the one is restored to his place, the other here is slain, his body maimed.
Meanwhile the seasons, having now slipped past through two years, were again turning the stars to their eastern courses, when the Nile-born leader saw these dreams: for while he gazes upon the pleasant river, it seemed that he beheld seven sleek heifers cropping the green, sprouting grass on the banks; and after these, others foul with leanness, dragging sluggish steps, and while (a marvel!) they scarcely cling to their own bones, they swallowed the choice heifers with gaping mouth. Dreams are joined with like causes, not discordant; behold, he sees seven ears of grain from a fertile sprout, and others thin and empty with talking seed (horrible to tell!), like Set devouring the crops. That vision the mournful man by no means restrains in his mind.
But trembling he bade all who are skilled to come, inquiring what might be the meaning of the closed matters. And when the Memphian augur, being consulted, fell silent, the young man, who lately released from prison provided the wines, speaks, revealing that Joseph being lost, he had returned to his place and his companion had been slain. Men are sent in haste to lift swiftly from the foul dungeon the prophet stripped wholly of all crime, and to make his unshapen cheeks and his hair, fed in prison, grow green again with their former beauty, by shaving. So the upright man, when consulted, makes such reply by his words, and teaches that the cows are messengers of the years, and explains that the light ears of grain are sevenfold cycles.
For thus by the forms set in order are the things to come marked out: that for seven years the land shall be fertile with crops enough, and with equal span a dread famine should prevail, when within, with parched veins, the dry earth should consume the pale grass in its dusty furrow. For the dreams that are joined by twofold visions, God, when the Thunderer is joined, ordains to stand certain. 'Nay rather, while time is at hand, while there is care for remedy, choose one of the captives, who, foreknowing these things, with judges appointed, may rule all Egypt on high and demand back a fifth from every harvest, so that the plenty first given to the fertile lands may sustain the barren years when the crops are consumed.' The seer's counsel is received with the applause of the nobles.
The king himself too at length with calmed heart exalts with lofty honor the one who relates the heavenly truths, and bids him be set as prefect over all the cities. Then he crowns the seer's finger with a gleaming ring. Soon he surrounds the fine-linen robes with a saffron mantle, a pliant chain is put about his neck, and the new governor stands higher upon his chariot, and a clamorous herald enlarges the judge with shouts. Nay more, a wife is chosen, whose name was Asenath, whom the noble seer of glorious stock, Potiphera, begot; from her the father straightway becomes blessed with a double pledge. The elder is called Manasseh, the younger Ephraim.
Hence the seer, noble on his lofty platform, demands whatever the lean time could scarcely take up, holding the granaries full, so that when the matter should require use, he might bring forth the hidden grain to all who demanded it. Afterward, when the dread famine, spread through the whole world, was driving the trembling peoples, so that there was something to be eaten, the people cry out and earnestly beg the king for food. He bids the noble Joseph give grain to the sorrowful, a father by his counsels: those whom this storehouse... Meanwhile Jacob, the death of his son now bewailed, sends ten young men from his numerous stock, to procure for themselves grain from afar for a price; and the least, Benjamin, he does not allow to go with all, lest, being weak, he be unable to bear the hard labor.
And when they had now arrived at the walls of the land of Pharaoh, they prostrate themselves and salute the soil and greet their brother, marveling at him sitting sublime on a lofty seat, yet they do not recognize him seen after long time. When the prophet beheld them with mindful heart, he chides them and with much shouting terrifies the frightened ones, declaring that they had come by the river to find what plenty of crops there was and what fat men held the lands under their governance. They plead that they know no deceits, and confess that they, twelve brothers once under one father, had held a notable house; that of all these, the last by birth was guarding their father's labors, while another had long since perished by famous death. That they, hated, were shunning the dread famine and the land of Canaan, which condemned the seed with scanty yield, and were seeking wares for sale and grain put up for bid.
The seer speaks, swearing by the name of the ruler that the young men must be shut up under harsh custody, until they produce the brother whom their gentle father held. They are bound, three at a time, under the care of the guards stripped, and then, released, they left one to be held. Nor, with their hearts bursting with hidden grief, do they fail to recall what just dangers rise against them, because, striving to write off their guiltless brother by a forbidden pact, late they pay the penalty before the judge. This he aggravates with words, relating the true sacrifice, and the crime accomplished in their haste against his own will. The seer is moved by these things, recognizing the brotherly quarrels, and turned aside with silent eyes he weeps mournfully. Meanwhile from the midst of the band of brothers Simeon is taken, a faithful hostage for all who depart.
Then the young men take up the grain sought for themselves, and the mules are burdened, weighed down with the found weight. And now in mid-journey, while one loosens the bonds of his sack, he gives the brothers to behold the coins found within; all do the same, and then soon, the price discovered, marveling, they praise the noble with utmost rivalry. And now indeed entering the thresholds of their native dwelling, the father rejoices in their return and asks for the one. Learning all, he takes up the coins and the gifts, complaining grievously that yet another son would now be absent. Then when the food was cut short and the imported grain compelled them again to procure provisions with their prices, but to retrace their step to Memphis was in no one's mind, unless the father should bid the least brother go with them.
When the father, groaning much, would not let him go anywhere, Reuben asks for the brother with faithful mouth, entrusting twin pledges to his father without fear. Judah follows on and cries out that they cannot return, testifying to the words of stern Joseph. When the aged father, now gentler, drank in these things, he gives up the youth, bathing his face with a copious flood. They depart and carry with them lightly-scented frankincense, joining incense and gum with terebinth, bearing honey amid fragrant vapors, and double the price, lest there should be a confused error, namely that the coins had been stored away hidden in their closed sacks. When Joseph saw them in the conspicuous hall, he commands that they should celebrate glad feasts with him.
Yet faithful they came with trembling guilt, and they cast themselves down, called as if with a contrived snare, because the sesterces counted out before and given to the seer, placed in their little packs, they had been unable to return; yet that they, free of thefts, brought back all things, and were not wont before this, terrified, to live by treasure. As they say such things, the minister checks them with his word, and teaches them to know that he had been defrauded of no coins: but if any advantage had bestowed gain upon the men, no one could say it was his own, nor the seer's, nor the king's. Simeon comes to meet them all and presents himself. And while he provides the men with water, while he provides fodder for the mules, the seer enters, attended by much soldiery, at whose sight the brothers bring forth their pious gifts. He, when with calm speech he has run through them all, inquires whether the father fared in firm strength.
After they said that he was unharmed and lived rightly, Joseph affirms that as a gift of grace the seer cleaves to God and ever persists in righteous things. And as though Benjamin were not known to him, he takes counsel with the young men, and at once promptly... thence he prays God for every good thing for the boy in praise. He can neither hold back his sobs nor stay his weeping, but with tender affection, anxious, he seeks the comforts of his chambers and remedies for his too-great grief. Afterward when he had reclined, the servants set out the meal. He eats and entices their hearts with easy speech, and rejoicing to set out the divided dishes to each man, he hands them out and dedicates a larger portion to one brother.
And when at last among the sated the love of eating was repressed, as before they loaded the mules with the imposed weight, the talent given by now-accustomed manner is hidden by Joseph's command, and the gleaming cup is concealed among your goods, Benjamin, more precious in its art. And now having set out on the journey they are not many miles distant, when suddenly a royal troop surrounds the unwary and holds them captured, demanding the shining cups; they cry out that he whom the charge binds shall become a slave. It is agreed, and all together lay open their loads, and uncover the sought-for cup, and leave the brother, and seek Joseph, and relating what has been done, they unfold at once the dear orders of their parent. Moved by their prayers, the seer commands all to depart and begins to call himself by the name of Sennar.
Transfixed they stiffened with fear, and with silent guilt, condemning themselves, they hold back their voices through dread. Soon he entices the accused and, calling them nearer, demands that they carry words that will please their parent: what things are, what they have been, what shall soon be brought to come, urging the old man to migrate, and his flocks gathered, to come down. He offers the Arabian hills to those who come, so that, since the land should at once be dry through a lustrum, he might feed all his kindred springing forth over the world. These words of the man too the king learns with glad heart, asks Thara to take up the throng of his dear ones, and bids Lothus deliver grain freely. Wagons are given to the men, grain, cups, bread, and the mules sweat carrying great burdens. Five robes are given to Benjamin and five to the parent, and three hundred coins stamped on the marked anvil.
But the other young men receive, as a second portion of reward, the wrappings of Melcha's snow-white garment. When the father learned these things, the gifts given, he breathes again, hastening to leave his native abode and the paternal land, and seeks Egypt, which is joined to the fields of the Arabs, leading forth seventy-five young men under paternal governance, as the rule of Genesis provided. And while the crowds hasten with hurried effort, Judah runs forward and flies before the column of brothers and teaches Joseph that the parent stands not far off. He eagerly mounts his chariot and goes out to meet, receiving the longed-for phalanx at the sight of his father. He returns swiftly to the king's unbridled hall, bearing word that the shepherds hasten, so that the throng of his dear ones, with lands set apart, might dwell on the fertile grass.
The Memphian governor himself too urges the seer and bids him settle the brothers in fertile fields. After these things the aged old man, at Sarra's request, slowly tells with how many years he is endowed, what his household is and what the cause of his coming to Canopus. And the river sends meanwhile in turn gifts worthy of his own, with much praise to the excellent leader, no less, and gives the leader a great talent to carry, by which the hall was enriched when the crops were sold off. And when the peoples now lacked money for buying, the Memphian crowd in eager rivalry, their flocks displayed, the poor buy crops, Joseph fixing the price. By these too stripped, they hand over both themselves and their estates, having received seed, by which afterward the harvests might grow green.
Only the possession of the priests was not taken away; it pleased the leader, by the tyrant's bounty, not to sell the grain freely. Hence a payment of a fifth of the crops is imposed on the people, which remains and is preserved as a rule by fixed law. Meanwhile, weighing the times of his completed life, Jacob adjures his son, rolling over the things to come, that he should compose his elders' limbs in the sepulchers. He nods to the one praying, and his hand placed under the thigh touches it, pledging by the pliant top of his staff. And the old man caresses with words his grandsons set on either side, while gently he sips kisses. He began to bless—a marvel!—he consecrates the right palm, holds it forth, the elder by birth is touched on the left by Ephraim. With foreknowing mind the elder is compelled to serve the younger, and the first hope yields place to the second.
However much Joseph wished to draw the crossed palms apart, he could not yet recall the prophet's pious words. And after he sanctioned the fixed advantages of the seer for the boys, he gives Shechem, and his sword and his darts to his son, that he might more illustrious than all climb to sublime honor. Thence he calls his sons, and divided to all the prizes—words that would abide long—and adjudges to the offspring of his sons things not granted before, and for a long age. He founds twice six tribes from their own names. All being explained, now caught in both eyes, he departed from earthly soil in body alone... *** the seer gave seventy days to mourning, while the throng venerates the sepulcher of the departed.
Nay more, the seven sons wept for seven days with copious tears, while Joseph restored peace to his harmless brothers, neglecting his old wrath. He himself too, after he had now worn out a hundred and ten years, measuring the times of joined death, speaks to his brothers what order should come, by which they might be able to retrace their step and leave the swollen land—provided that they carry back his composed ashes and bones and the flames of the elders to be buried within with them. So at last after the bright times of a long life he departed and sought God and left his body. Meanwhile, while the times drive their varied courses and new offspring rises from the seed, the sons die in crime and the offspring of those who follow. And the land of Memphis renews diverse kings.
The renown of Isaac avails nothing, nor the women of the seers, formerly exceedingly beloved. But by the gift of the holy Lord who protects the people, numerous bodies are created and the phalanxes are thickened into an immense cloud. When the king of Egypt saw these things as to be feared by him, with such words he addresses his comrades, eager, moved by wrath: 'Behold, the youth once captive and content with the food that a sparing hand held out—behold, now with long cohorts they rouse a legion already, and swell not with arms alone, foremost in warlike valor, and bear menacing faces and a subject mien. What if now they take up weapons for our enemies, or join themselves to them—by what mass of war shall ravaged Egypt fall, and what ruins shall the lofty cities make with walls torn down?'
'Nay rather let them be broken by the harsh lot of labors, and let them raise immense citadels with substructed masses, lest the hope of lost liberty return to the empty.' When these things were said, he sets clever men over them, that they might build walls and towers and threatening gates, striving to join them to heaven. By these mishaps driven, they found with sweated toil several towns: Raamses, then Pithon, and Heliopolis, distinguished by the name of the Sun. But strange—the more it was under the sad burden of labors, the more the whole youth flashed forth stronger, as though it remained on holiday.
The grim king of Egypt is terrified more and more, and devotes to destruction those not yet fearing his commands, commanding it to flow down: that when the pregnant women bring forth offspring, they should extinguish and destroy the males, nor was the penalty to fall back upon the married women if, having sworn, they should leave the despised command. Of these Phua was the companion, together holding the words spoken. They, fear of God being placed in their timid hearts, despised the threats of the leader, and being bidden to come, they say that the Hebrew women, supported by no comforter, are accustomed to pour forth their mature offspring quickly. Wherefore they earned the Lord's favorable words, rejoicing to hide themselves in their accustomed dwellings, while with whole heart they revere the Lord praising. The command is changed by the nobles, and the people is warned to plunge into the Nile's stream the begotten boys. The crowd obeys the leader, drowning the newborn in the river.
Amid these troubles a Levite, having taken a wife, begets a son white of fair body and with conspicuous cheeks, and she avoids extinguishing the future man with such beauty, lest perchance he be slain, and she fosters him hidden, three months now passed. But fearing the penalty, lest the admitted deceit lie open, sorrowful she sends the exposed child where the hoarse streams can carry it down headlong, when they lack a rower. His sister guards him from afar with keen sight, as far as eyes can keep watch following, so that she might tell of the exposed one's fate to the parent. But as the king's daughter, attended by her train, came walking joyfully, seeking pleasant things, she was bathing in the calm river and washing her body.
She spies this small boat upon the swelling waters and bids her handmaids bring back the desired prey. They, eager—as glad youth is present in the budding age—bring back the one placed in the skiff, and setting it before her, with maternal feeling they make the maiden rejoice. She, desiring to keep for herself such sweet joys of beauty and the surpassing honor of his excellent brow, commands openly that one be summoned from the Hebrew folk who might be a nurse, and this care of feeding the boy is laid upon her. She calls, now with no deceit, the anxious parent, to whom the leader's daughter, glad, might restore her own pledge, the name of nurse being applied to the mother.
The boy grew up and swiftly crept on to the years in which they flourish in earliest bloom, and given to the court he is held in place of a true offspring of Pharaoh's daughter, and receives the name of Moses, because he had been drawn out from the plaintive waves, floating in a little skiff. But he, following the promptings of his genius and his heart, prepares to survey his kindred nation around the towns, which, present under the harsh yoke, was sorrowfully consuming itself. By chance in mid-road he beholds, of the Egyptian folk, with clamorous voice afflicting a groaning man, a certain Hebrew, and hating the unjust lot, he surveys all around and, seeing that none was present here who as witness could declare the discovered deed on the spot, he strikes with his heel, and buries the fallen one with heaped sand.
Thence, replete, he sees others of the Jewish nation threatening men; and while diligently he offers himself and helps the weaker party and restores peace, he receives words sent from an angry breast: 'Why do you swell with lofty neck, as though you wield the scepters of a high prince, and the written laws clamor with you as president? Or perhaps you prepare suddenly to destroy me by death, as you slew the Egyptian youth yesterday under the light?' When these words had been spoken, garrulous rumor carries them to the leader's ears, and the king in wrath puts the young seer to flight. He, changing his soil, came to a deep well which the land of Midian holds, where the priest Jethro, dwelling, had brought forth seven offspring of his daughters and had filled his house from a dense stock.
These, the gentle two-tooth sheep committed to their care with charge, they were guarding, and they drew from the hollow spring; but by chance the shepherds thrust afar the weak hand and the timid sex, and the maidens, by no means daring to stand against them or to oppose ready palms, Moses defends and joins to the watery waves, and fosters the filled flocks and sends them back to their dwellings. The maidens, returned, their father wondering enough, having spoken sooner than usual and promptly to his commands, lead the summoned youth to their father's thresholds. He, measuring with ice-cold eye the tall man's limbs and a greater spirit, rejoices to join in marriage the beauty of his daughter, and discerns from the excellent stock grandchildren. For Zipporah, by hasty travail, diligently begets Gershom, and then brings forth his brother Eleazar.
Gershom marks one created in a foreign region, and Eleazar one snatched from the wrath of the stern leader. Meanwhile the leader falls in death, and the captive youth, pressed by many evils, drove the Lord with many lamentations, looking that he might bestow pious things and protect the people; while, mindful unto the age, his gifts are revolved with him, long ago promised in sleep to the good, which in time begun Abraham had heard would come to his people, and likewise Isaac, and then Jacob chosen to holy things. And now the oppressed nation sees God pour forth a gentle protection from heaven, while it begs peace from those on high. And while Moses alone drives the woolly two-tooth sheep of his father-in-law through the country, he comes down to the summit of a consecrated hill, which the Hebrew tongue calls Horeb. On it he sees in the conspicuous lamp of flames a bent bush shining and not burned by the fires.