Then Judah's towering rage began to show signs of breaking out: his
right eye shed tears of blood; the hair above his heart grew so stiff
that it pierced and rent the five garments in which he was clothed; and
he took brass rods, bit them with his teeth, and spat them out as fine
powder. When Joseph observed these signs, fear befell him, and in order
to show that he, too, was a man of extraordinary strength, he pushed
with his foot against the marble pedestal upon which he sat, and it
broke into splinters. Judah exclaimed, "This one is a hero equal to
myself!" Then he tried to draw his sword from its scabbard in order to
slay Joseph, but the weapon could not be made to budge, and Judah was
convinced thereby that his adversary was a God-fearing man, and he
addressed himself to the task of begging him to let Benjamin go free,
but he remained inexorable.[277]
Judah then said: "What shall we say unto our father, when he seeth that
our brother is not with us, and he will grieve over him?"