Joseph: "Thou belongest to a people that is like unto the ass, it
perceiveth nothing. But I belong to those who can see things."
Joseph fled forth, away from the house of his mistress,[122] the same
house in which aforetime wonders had been done for Sarah kept a captive
there by Pharaoh.[123] But hardly was he outside when the sinful
passion again overwhelmed him, and he returned to Zuleika's chamber.
Then the Lord appeared unto him, holding the Eben Shetiyah[124] in His
hand, and said to him: "If thou touchest her, I will cast away this
stone upon which the earth is founded, and the world will fall to
ruin." Sobered again, Joseph started to escape from his mistress,[125]
but Zuleika caught him by his garment, and she said: "As the king
liveth, if thou wilt not fulfil my wish, thou must die," and while she
spoke thus, she drew a sword with her free hand from under her dress,
and, pressing it against Joseph's throat, she said, "Do as I bid thee,
or thou diest." Joseph ran out, leaving a piece of his garment in the
hands of Zuleika as he wrenched himself loose from the grasp of the
woman with a quick, energetic motion.[126]
Zuleika's passion for Joseph was so violent that, in lieu of its owner,
whom she could not succeed in subduing to her will, she kissed and
caressed the fragment of cloth left in her hand.[127] At the same time
she was not slow to perceive the danger into which she had put herself,
for, she feared, Joseph might possibly betray her conduct, and she
considered ways and means of obviating the consequences of her
folly.[128]
Meanwhile her friends returned from the Nile festival, and they came to
visit her and inquire after her health. They found her looking
wretchedly ill, on account of the excitement she had passed through and
the anxiety she was in. She confessed to the women what had happened
with Joseph, and they advised her to accuse him of immorality before
her husband, and then he would be thrown into prison. Zuleika accepted
their advice, and she begged her visitors to support her charges by
also lodging complaints against Joseph, that he had been annoying them
with improper proposals.[129]
But Zuleika did not depend entirely upon the assistance of her friends.
She planned a ruse, besides, to be sure of convincing her husband of
Joseph's guilt. She laid aside her rich robes of state, put on her
ordinary clothes, and took to her sick-bed, in which she had been lying
when the people left to go to the festival. Also she took Joseph's torn
garment, and laid it out next to her. Then she sent a little boy to
summon some of the men of her house, and to them she told the tale of
Joseph's alleged outrage, saying: "See the Hebrew slave, whom your
master hath brought in unto my house, and who attempted to do violence
to me to-day! You had scarcely gone away to the festival when be
entered the house, and making sure that no one was here he tried to
force me to yield to his lustful desire. But I grasped his clothes,
tore them, and cried with a loud voice. When he heard that I lifted up
my voice and cried, he was seized with fear, and be fled, and got him
out, but he left his garment by me." The men of her house spake not a
word, but, in a rage against Joseph, they went to their master, and
reported to him what had come to pass.[130] In the meantime the
husbands of Zuleika's friends had also spoken to Potiphar, at the
instigation of their wives, and complained of his slave, that he
molested them.[131]
Potiphar hastened home, and he found his wife in low spirits, and
though the cause of her dejection was chagrin at not having succeeded
in winning Joseph's love, she pretended that it was anger at the
immoral conduct of the slave. She accused him in the following words:
"O husband, mayest thou not live a day longer, if thou dost not punish
the wicked slave that hath desired to defile thy bed, that hath not
kept in mind who he was when he came to our house, to demean himself
with modesty, nor hath he been mindful of the favors he hath received
from thy bounty. He did lay a privy design to abuse thy wife, and this
at the time of observing a festival, when thou wouldst be absent."[132]
These words she spoke at the moment of conjugal intimacy with Potiphar,
when she was certain of exerting an influence upon her husband.[133]
Potiphar gave credence to her words, and he had Joseph flogged
unmercifully. While the cruel blows fell upon him, he cried to God, "O
Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent of these things, and why should I
die to-day on account of a false accusation by the hands of these
uncircumcised, impious men?" God opened the mouth of Zuleika's child, a
babe of but eleven months, and he spoke to the men that were beating
Joseph, saying: "What is your quarrel with this man? Why do you inflict
such evil upon him? Lies my mother doth speak, and deceit is what her
mouth uttereth. This is the true tale of that which did happen," and
the child proceeded to tell all that had passed—how Zuleika had tried
first to persuade Joseph to act wickedly, and then had tried to force
him to do her will. The people listened in great amazement. But the
report finished, the child spake no word, as before.
Abashed by the speech of his own infant son, Potiphar commanded his
bailiffs to leave off from chastising Joseph, and the matter was
brought into court, where priests sat as judges. Joseph protested his
innocence, and related all that had happened according to the truth,
but Potiphar repeated the account his wife had given him. The judges
ordered the garment of Joseph to be brought which Zuleika had in her
possession, and they examined the tear therein. It turned out to be on
the front part of the mantle, and they came to the conclusion that
Zuleika had tried to hold him fast, and had been foiled in her attempt
by Joseph, against whom she was now lodging a trumped up charge. They
decided that Joseph had not incurred the death penalty, but they
condemned him to incarceration, because he was the cause of a stain
upon Zuleika's fair name."[134]
Potiphar himself was convinced of Joseph's innocence, and when he cast
him into prison, he said to him, "I know that thou art not guilty of so
vile a crime, but I must put thee in durance, lest a taint cling to my
children."[135]