ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.

CHAPTER II.

127

HOW JOSEPH THE YOUNGEST OF JACOB'S SONS, WAS ENVIED BY HIS BRETHREN, WHEN CERTAIN DREAMS HAD FORESHOWED HIS FUTURE HAPPINESS.

1. It happened that Jacob came to so great happiness as rarely any other person has arrived at. He was richer than the rest of the inhabitants of that country: and was at once envied and admired for such virtuous sons, for they were deficient in nothing, but were of great souls, both for labouring with their hands, and enduring of toil; and shrewd also in understanding. And God exercised such a providence over him, and such a care of his happiness, as to bring him the greatest blessings, even out of what appeared to be the most sorrowful condition; and to make him the cause of our forefather's departure out of Egypt, him and his posterity. The occasion was this; when Jacob had this son Joseph born to him by Rachel, his father loved him above the rest of his sons, both because of the beauty of his body, and the virtues of his mind, for he excelled the rest in prudence. This affection of his father excited the envy and the hatred of his brethren; as did also his dreams which he saw, and related to his father and to them, which foretold his future happiness, it being usual with mankind to envy their very nearest relations such their prosperity. Now the visions which Joseph saw in his sleep were these:

2. When they were in the middle of harvest, and Joseph was sent by his father with his brethren, to gather the fruits of the earth, he saw a vision in a dream, but greatly exceeding the accustomary appearances that come when we are asleep; which, when he was got up, he told his brethren, that they might judge what it portended. He said, " he saw the last night, that his wheat sheaf stood still in the place where he set it, but that their sheaves ran to bow down to it, as servants bow down to their masters." But as soon as they perceived the vision foretold that he should obtain power and great wealth, and that his power should be in opposition to them, they gave no interpretation of it to Joseph, as if the dream were not by them understood: but they prayed that no part of what they suspected to be its meaning might come to pass: and they bare a still greater hatred to him on that account.

3. But God, in opposition to their envy, sent a second vision to Joseph, which was much more wonderful than the former; for it seemed to him that the sun took with him the moon, and the rest of the stars, and came down to the earth, and bowed down to him. He told this vision to his father,

and that, as suspecting nothing of ill-will from his brethren, when they were there also, desired him to interpret what it should signify. Now Jacob was pleased with the dream; for, considering the prediction in his mind, and shrewdly and wisely guessing at its meaning, he rejoiced at the great things thereby signified, because it declared the future happiness of his son; and that by the blessing of God, the time should come, when he should be honoured, and thought worthy of worship by his parents and brethren, as guessing that the moon and sun were like his mother and father; the former, as she that gave increase and nourishment to all things, and the latter, he that gave form and other powers to them; and that the stars were like his brethren, since they were eleven in number, as were the stars that receive their power from the sun and moon.

4. And thus did Jacob make a judgment of his vision, and that a shrewd one also. But these interpretations caused very great grief to Joseph's brethren: and they were affected to him hereupon, as if he were a certain stranger, that was to have those good things which were signified by the dreams, and not as one that was a brother, with whom it was proba ble they should be joint partakers; and as they had been partners in the same parentage, so should they be of the same happiness. They also resolved to kill the lad; and having fully ratified that intention of theirs, as soon as their collec tion of the fruits was over, they went to Schechem, which is a country good for feeding of cattle, and for pasturage, there they fed their flocks, without acquainting their father with their removal thither: whereupon he had melancholy suspicions about them, as being ignorant of his sons' condition, and receiving no messenger from the flocks that could inform him of the true state they were in; so, because he was in great fear about them, he sent Joseph to the flocks to learn the circumstances his brethren were in, and to bring him word how they did.

CHAPTER III.

HOW JOSEPH WAS THUS SOLD BY HIS BRETHREN INTO EGYPT, BY REASON OF THEIR HATRED TO HIM; AND HOW HE THERE GREW FAMOUS AND ILLUSTRIOUS, AND HAD HIS BRETHREN UNDER HIS POWER.

1. Now these brethren rejoiced, as soon as they saw their brother coming to them, not indeed as at the presence of a near relation, or as at the presence of one sent by their father, but as at the presence of an enemy, and one that by divine

providence was delivered into their hands; and they already resolved to kill him, and not let slip the opportunity that lay before them. But when Reubel, the eldest of them, saw them thus disposed, and that they had agreed together to execute their purpose, he tried to restrain them, showing them the heinous enterprise they were going about, and the horrid nature of it: that this action would appear wicked in the sight of God, and impious before men, even though they should kill one not related to them, but much more flagitious and detestable to appear to have slain their own brother; by which act the father must be treated unjustly in the son's slaughter, and the mother* also be in perplexity while she laments that her son is taken away from her, and this not in a natural way neither. So he entreated them to have a regard to their own consciences, and wisely to consider what mischief would betide them on the death of so good a child, and their youngest brother; that they would also fear God, who was already both a spectator and a witness of the designs they had against their brother; that he would love them if they abstained from this act, and yielded to repentance and amendment: but in case they proceeded to do the fact, all sorts of punishments would overtake them from God for this murder of their brother, since they polluted his providence, which was every where present, and which did not overlook what was done either in deserts or cities; for wheresoever a man is, there ought he to suppose that God is also. He told them further, that their consciences would be their enemies, if they attempted to go through so wicked an enterprise, which they can never avoid, whether it be a good conscience, or whether it be such a one as they will have within them, when once they have killed their brother. He also added this besides to what he had before said, that it was not a righteous thing to kill a brother, though he had injured them; that it is a good thing to forget the actions of such near friends, even in things wherein they might seem to have offended; but that they were going to kill Joseph, who had been guilty of nothing that was ill toward them, in whose case the infirmity of his small age should rather procure him mercy, and move them to unite together in the care of his preservation. That the cause of killing him made

*We may here observe, that in correspondence to Joseph's second dream, which implied that his mother, who was then alive, as well as his father, should come and bow down to him, Josephus represents her here as still alive after she was dead, for the decorum of the dream that foretold it, as the interpretation of that dream does also in all our copies.

the act itself much worse, while they determined to take him off out of envy at his future prosperity; an equal share of which they would naturally partake while he enjoyed it, since they were to him not strangers, but the nearest rela tions, for they might reckon upon what God bestowed upon Joseph as their own, and that it was fit for them to believe that the anger of God would for this cause be more severe upon them, if they slew him who was judged by God to be worthy of that prosperity which was to be hoped for; and while, by murdering him, they made it impossible for God to bestow it upon him.

2. Reubel said these, and many other things, and used en. treaties to them, and thereby endeavoured to divert them from the murder of their brother. But when he saw that his dis course had not molified them at all, and that they made haste to do the fact, he advised them to alleviate the wickedness they were going about, in the manner of taking Joseph off; for as he had exhorted them first, when they were going to revenge themselves, to be dissuaded from doing it, so since the sentence for killing their brother had prevailed, he said that they would not, however, be so grossly guilty if they would be persuaded to follow his present advice, which would include what they were so eager about, but was not so very bad, but, in the distress they were in, of a lighter nature. He begged of them, therefore, not to kill their brother with their own hands, but to cast him into the pit that was hard by, and so let him die; by which they would gain so much, that they would not defile their own hands with his blood. To this the young men readily agreed; so Reubel took the lad, and tied to him a cord, and let him down gently into the pit, for it had no water at all in it; who, when he had done this, went bis way to seek for such pasturage as was fit for feeding their flocks.

But Judas, being one of Jacob's sons also, seeing some Ara. bians, of the posterity of Ishmael, carrying spices and Sy. rian wares out of the land of Gilead to the Egyptians, after Reubel was gone, advised his brethren to draw Joseph out of the pit, and sell him to the Arabians: for if he should die among strangers a great way off, they should be freed from this barbarous action. This, therefore, was resolved on: so they drew Joseph up out of the pit, and sold him to the merchants for twenty pounds.* He was now seventeen years old. But Reubel coming in the night-time to the pit, resolved

The Septuagint have 20 pieces of gold, the testament of Gad 30; the Hebrew and Samaritan 20 of silver; and the vulgar Latin 30. What was the true number, and true sum, cannot therefore now be known,

to save Joseph, without the privity of his brethren; and when, upon his calling to him, he made him no answer, he was afraid that they had destroyed him after he was gone of which he complained to his brethren, but when they had told him what they had done, Reubel left off his mourning. 4. When Joseph's brethren had done thus to him, they considered what they should do to escape the suspicions of their father. Now they had taken away from Joseph the coat which he had on when he came to them, at the time they let him down into the pit; so they thought proper to tear that coat to pieces, and to dip it into goat's blood, and then to carry it, and show it to their father, that he might believe he was destroyed by wild beasts. And when they had so done, they came to the old man, but this not till what had happened to his son had already come to his knowledge: then they said that they had not seen Joseph, nor knew what mishap had befallen hin, but that they had found his coat bloody, and torn to pieces, whence they had a suspicion that he had fallen among wild beasts, and so perished, if that was the coat he had on when he came from home. Now Jacob Irad before some better hopes that his son was only made a captive; but now he laid aside that notion, and supposed that this coat was an evident argument that he was dead, for he well remembered that this was the coat he had on when he sent him to his brethren; so he hereafter lamented the lad as now dead, as if he had been the father of no more than one, without taking any comfort in the rest; and so he was also affected with his misfortune before he met with Joseph's brethren, when he also conjectured that Joseph was destroyed by wild beasts. He sat down also clothed in sackcloth and in heavy affliction, insomuch that he found no ease when his sons comforted him, neither did his pains remit by length of time.

CHAPTER IV.

CONCERNING THE SIGNAL CHASTITY OF JOSEPH.

1. Now Potiphar, an Egyptian, who was chief cook to king Pharaoh, bought Joseph of the merchants, who sold him to him. He had him in the greatest honour, and taught him the learning that became a freeman, and gave him leave to make use of a diet better than was allotted to slaves. He intrusted also the care of his house to him. So he enjoyed these advantages; yet did not leave that virtue which he had before, upon such a change of his condition, but he demonstrated that wisdom was able to govern the uneasy passions