Judah: "Thou art a king, why dost thou speak in this wise, counselling
a falsehood? Woe unto the king that is like thee!"
Joseph: "Is there a greater falsehood than that ye spake concerning
your brother Joseph, whom you sold to the Midianites for twenty pieces
of silver, telling your father, An evil beast bath devoured him?"
Judah: "The fire of Shechem burneth in my heart, now will I burn all
thy land with fire."
Joseph: "Surely, the fire kindled to burn Tamar, thy daughter-in-law,
who did kill thy sons, will extinguish the fire of Shechem."
Judah: "If I pluck out a single hair from my body, I will fill the
whole of Egypt with its blood."
Joseph: "Such is it your custom to do; thus ye did unto your brother
whom you sold, and then you dipped his coat in blood, brought it to
your father, and said, An evil beast hath devoured him, and here is his
blood."
When Judah heard this, he was exceedingly wroth, and he took a stone
weighing four hundred shekels that was before him, cast it toward
heaven with one hand, caught it with his left hand, then sat upon it,
and the stone turned into dust. At the command of Joseph, Manasseh did
likewise with another stone, and Joseph said to Judah: "Strength hath
not been given to you alone, we also are powerful men. Why, then, will
ye all boast before us?" Then Judah sent Naphtali forth, saying, "Go
and count all the streets of the city of Egypt and come and tell me the
number," but Simon interposed, saying, "Let not this thing trouble you,
I will go to the mount, and take up one huge stone from the mount,
throw it over the whole of Mizraim, the city of Egypt, and kill all
therein."
Hearing all these words, which they spake aloud, because they did not
know that he understood Hebrew, Joseph bade his son Manasseh make haste
and gather together all the inhabitants of Egypt, and all the valiant
men, and let them come to him on horseback and afoot. Meantime Naphtali
had gone quickly to execute Judah's bidding, for he was as swift as the
nimble hart, he could run across a field of corn without breaking an
ear. And he returned and reported that the city of Egypt was divided
into twelve quarters. Judah bade his brethren destroy the city; he
himself undertook to raze three quarters, and he assigned the nine
remaining quarters to the others, one quarter to each.
In the meantime Manasseh had assembled a great army, five hundred
mounted men and ten thousand on foot, among them four hundred valiant
heroes, who could fight without spear or sword, using only their
strong, unarmed hands. To inspire his brethren with more terror, Joseph
ordered them to make a loud noise with all sorts of instruments, and
their appearance and the hubbub they produced did, indeed, cause fear
to fall upon some of the brethren of Joseph. Judah, however, called to
them, "Why are you terrified, seeing that God grants us His mercy?" He
drew his sword, and uttered a wild cry, which threw all the people into
consternation, and in their disordered flight many fell over each other
and perished, and Judah and his brethren followed after the fleeing
people as far as the house of Pharaoh. Returning to Joseph, Judah again
broke out in loud roars, and the reverberations caused by his cries
were so mighty that all the city walls in Egypt and in Goshen fell in
ruins, the pregnant women brought forth untimely births, and Pharaoh
was flung from his throne. Judah's cries were heard at a great
distance, as far off as Succoth.
When Pharaoh learnt the reason of the mighty uproar, he sent word to
Joseph that he would have to concede the demands of the Hebrews, else
the land would suffer destruction. "Thou canst take thy choice," were
the words of Pharaoh, "between me and the Hebrews, between Egypt and
the land of the Hebrews. If thou wilt not heed my command, then leave
me and go with them into their land."