The Hebrew race have always been remarkable for personal beauty, of which Joseph seems to have had an unusual share. This fact explams, though it cannot palliate, the conduct of Potiphar's wife, who, with the well-known profligacy of the Egyptian women, tried ev- ery means to bring the pure-minded youth to fulfil her imchaste desires. Foiled in her evil wishes, she re- solved to punish Joseph, who thus a second time inno- cently brings on himself the vengeance of the ill-dis- posed. Charged with the very crime to which he had in vain been tempted, he is, with a fickleness character- istic of Oriental lords, at once cast into the state prison (Gen. xxxix). If the suddenness and magnitude of this and other changes in the lot of Joseph should surprise any one, the feeling will be mainly owing to his want of acquaintance with the manners and customs of the East, where vicissitudes not less marked and sudden than are those presented in our present history are not imcom- mou ; for those who come into the charmed circle of an Eastern court, especially if they are persons of great en- ergy of character, are subject to the most wonderful al- ternations of fortune, the slave of to-day being the vizier of to-morrow, and vice- versa.
It must not be supposed, from the lowness of the mor- als of the Egyptians in practice, that the sin of unfaith- fulness in a wife was not ranked among the heaviest vices. The punishment of adulterers was severe, and a moral tale, entitled '• The Two Brothers" (contained in a papyrus of the 19th dynasty, found in the British Mu- seum, and translated in the Cambridge Essays for 1858), is founded upon a case nearly resembling that of Joseph,
JOSEPH
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JOSEPH
It has, indeed, been imagined that this storj- was based upon the trial of Joseph, and as it was written for the lieir to the throne of Esyi^t at a later period, there is some reason in the idea tliat the virtue of one who had held so high a position as Joseph might have been in the mind of the writer, were this part of his history well known to tlie priests, which, however, is not likelj\ This incident, moreover, is not so remarkable as to jus- tify great stress being laid upon the similarity to it of the main event of a moral tale. The story of Belle- rophon might as reasonably be traced to it, were it Egx-ptian and not Greek. The IMuslims have founded upon the history of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, whom they call Yiisuf and Zelikha, a famous religious alle- gory,-. This is much to be wondered at, as the Koran relates the tempting of Joseph with no material varia- tion in the main particulars from the authentic narra- tive. The commentators say that, after the death of Potiphar (Kit fir), Joseph married Zelikha (Sale, chap, xii). This mistake was [)robably caused by the circum- stance that Joseph's father-in-law bore the same name as his master.
Potiphar, although believing Joseph guilty, does not apjiear to have brought him before a tribunal, where the enormity of his alleged crime, especially after the trust placed in him, and the fact of his being a foreign- er, which was made much of by his master's wife (xxxix, 14, 17), would probably have insured a punishment of the severest kind. He seems to have only cast him into the prison, which appears to have been in his house, or, at least, under his control, since afterwards prisoners are related to have been put "in ward [in] the house of the captain of the executioners, into the prison" (xl, 3), and simply " in ward [in] the captain of the execu- tioners' house" (xli, 10; comp. xl, 7). The prison is de- scribed as " a place where the king's prisoners [were] bound" (xxxix, 20). Here the hardest time of Joseph's period of probation began. He was cast into prison on a false accusation, to remain there for at least two years, and perhaps for a much longer time. At first he was treated with severity; this we learn from Psa. cv, "He sent a man before them, Joseph [who]: was sold for a slave: whose feet they afflicted with the fetter; the iron entered into his soul" (ver. 17, 18). There is prob- ably here a connection between "fetter" and "iron" (comp. cxlix,8),in which case the signification of the last clause would be " the iron entered into him," mean- ing that the fetters cut his feet or legs. This is not in- consistent with the statement in Genesis that the keep- er of the prison treated Joseph well (xxxix, 21), for we are not justified in thence inferring that he was kind from the first.
In the prison, as in Potiphar's house, Joseph was found worthy of complete trust, and the keeper of the prison placed everj-thing under his control, God's espe- cial blessing attending his honest service. After a while Pharaoh was incensed against two of his officers, " the chief of the cup-bearers" (Cipdan nb), and "the chief of the bakers" (D-'Sisn lb), and cast them into the prison where Joseph was. Here the chief of the executioners, doubtless a successor of Potiphar (for, had tlie latter been convinced of Joseph's innocence, he would not have left liim in the ])rison, and if not so con- j vinced lie would not have trusted him), charged Joseph ; to serve these prisoners. Like Potiphar, thev were "of- ' liccrs" of Pharaoh (xl, 2), and though it may be a mis- take to call them gran<lees, their easy access to the king would give them an importance that explains the care taken of them by the chief of the executioners. Each dreamed a jirophetic dream, which Joseph correctly in- terpreted, disclaiming human skill and acknowledging that uiterpretations were of God. It is not necessarv here t(. dis-uss in deUU the particulars of this part of Joseph s history, since they do not materiallv affect the kadmg events of his life, thev are. however. verv in- terestuig, tro.u their perfect agreement with tlui man-