Joseph the Patriarch

Reuben, the eldest of them, was horrified by such a crime; he proposed lowering Joseph into the cistern: his secret intention was to save his life in this way and return him to his father. As soon as Joseph arrived, they stripped him of his robe, the fatal object of envy, and threw him into the cistern, which was without water. Shortly after, Ishmaelites and Midianites passed by; they were going from Gilead to Egypt Égypte The place where the legendary meeting between Dismas and the Holy Family takes place. , leading camels laden with spices, resin, and myrrh. Then Judah, one of the accomplices, spoke up: "What will it profit us to kill our brother and hide his death? It is better to sell him to these Ishmaelites and not defile our hands; for he is our brother and our own flesh."

This advice prevailed; Joseph was pulled from the cistern and sold for twenty pieces of silver.

The guilty ones dipped Joseph's robe in the blood of a goat and sent it to Jacob with these words: "This is a robe we have found; see if it is your son's." Jacob, having recognized it, said: "It is my son's tunic; a cruel beast has devoured him; a beast has devoured Joseph." He tore his garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and wept for his son for a long time. His children gathered to try to soften his grief; but he remained inconsolable and said to them: "I will weep until I join my son in death." And he continued to shed tears; for Joseph had just been snatched from him, and Benjamin was henceforth the only pledge that remained to him o f Rachel Benjamin Younger brother of Joseph, son of Rachel. 's affection.

However, Joseph was taken to Egypt and sold by the Midianites to Pot iphar, o Putiphar Officer of the King of Egypt and first master of Joseph. ne of the king's chief officers. The young slave had found favor before God, who sends men the trial of a short tribulation only to provide them with an occasion for virtue and a source of glory; his fine qualities also made him pleasing to his master, who entrusted him with the stewardship of his house and relied on him for the care of his affairs. The Egyptian was not deceived, and God blessed him because of Joseph: his possessions grew in a noticeable way and success crowned all his enterprises.

It had already been a few years that Joseph had been displaying, in the obscurity of a thankless service, a superior intelligence and virtue, when the master's wife cast g uilty glances a femme du maître Accuser of Joseph after his refusal to yield to temptation. t him and solicited him to crime. The noble captive remained faithful to God and to honor, and replied with as much moderation as firmness. «Behold, my master has entrusted all things to me,» he said, «to the point that he does not even know what he possesses; he has nothing that is not in my power and that he has not placed in my hands, reserving nothing but you who are his wife. And could I commit such an iniquity and sin against my God!» This response, instead of discouraging the passion, seemed to animate it and give it an increasing bitterness. One day, Joseph being alone in an apartment, his master's wife attempted a final effort, and seized him by his cloak. When a woman has lost all self-respect and deserved to lose the esteem of others, she knows only how to stifle the memory of her abolished dignity under sensual pleasures, and she dares everything to lower into the complicity of the same crime the one who, from the height of his virtue, threatens to remain forever her accuser and her judge.

Joseph had the intelligence as well as the courage of duty; he left his cloak in the hands of the impudent woman and fled, the only way to conquer in such danger; indeed, if the spirit has its convictions and its promptness, the senses have their wavering and their failure. One can conceive the transports of the scorned attempt. Her passion disappointed, her authority ignored, Potiphar's wife had to fear, but she had above all to avenge herself: it was necessary to forestall the possible complaints of Joseph, and above all, it was necessary to make a slave bear the penalty of his virtue. She called her servants as if to lend her aid, and she complained with airs of modest pride that this foreigner had dared to bring his guilty temerities to her; she owed her safety only to her cries, and she had been able to snatch this garment as evidence against Joseph. Then, when her husband returned, she traced the origin of all this misfortune back to him, and fraudulently involved him in the act of accusation, so that having to justify himself from the suspicion of imprudence, he would think all the less of accusing her herself of infidelity. «This slave whom you brought,» she said, «came to insult me, and, when he heard me cry out, he left this cloak in my hands and fled.»

The slander succeeded very well; Potiphar was not skillful enough to escape the artifices of his wife and surprise the truth beneath the studied appearances with which the imposture covered itself. Without reflecting that a man hardly prepares himself for great crimes by ten years of virtue and devoted service, and that the violence could come as much from the one who had snatched the cloak as from the one who had let it be taken, he fell into an extreme rage against his steward, and had him thrown into prison. But the Lord was with Joseph; for, in imposing labor, God gives the strength to sustain it, and, by his grace, there are no trials so harsh that a generous courage cannot overcome them.

The Lord, moreover, permitted Joseph to win the favor of the prison governor. The latter, taking pity on the young captive and seeing nothing in him that betrayed an abject or criminal soul, placed his trust in him and entrusted him with the care of the other prisoners. Now, one morning, Joseph saw two of his companions more dejected than usual: dreams had cast them into this sadness. He listened to the account of these dreams, gave their explanation, and predicted to one of the condemned that he would be crucified in three days, and to the other that in three days he would also be restored to liberty and reinstated in his former office; he then implored the latter not to forget him in the time of his good fortune. The event justified this interpretation: at the end of three days, one of the outcasts was crucified, the other restored to liberty and reinstated in his former office; however, he forgot Joseph, for happiness removes the memory of services received. God permitted it so in this encounter, so that His chosen one would rely on the help of heaven, and not on that of the earth, and that, destined to command men, he might learn to know them.

About two years having passed, the King of Egypt had two dreams that roi d'Égypte Sovereign of Egypt who elevates Joseph to power. frightened him. It was one of the superstitions of ancient paganism to always seek mystery in dreams, and God, who governs men by mercifully taking into account even their errors and weaknesses, sometimes gave a profound significance to what was commonly only a play of the organism or a whim of the imagination. These dreams of the King of Egypt entered into the plan of celestial wisdom, which is why they were a true figure of the future; they were to prepare the triumph of Joseph, which is why the explanation of them was reserved for him. In vain were all the common interpreters called; the king was discouraged by the ignorance of his diviners. Then the sadness of the master brought the name of Joseph back to the lips of the courtier, who had learned of him in misfortune, and who had not remembered him in fortune. Joseph was taken from prison: he appeared before the king; the king recounted his two dreams, and Joseph, explaining them both in the same sense, announced that seven years of abundance would be followed by seven years of sterility. He therefore proposed to establish over all of Egypt a wise and skillful man who, during the times of fertility, would set aside a portion of the grain, so that, when the scarcity came, the people would not be without resources.

The king believed with reason that no one could better remedy the evils of the future than the man to whom God had thus revealed them in advance. He therefore subjected all of Egypt to Joseph, reserving for himself above the young favorite only the grandeur of the throne. He clothed him in a robe of fine linen, gave him a gold chain, the mark of his new dignity, and placed the royal ring on his finger. He had him mount a triumphal chariot, ordering a herald to cry out that all the people recognized the authority of Joseph, and to bend the knee as he passed. Then, changing his name from Joseph, he called him by an Egyptian word th sauveur du monde Son of Jacob, sold by his brothers, who became governor of Egypt. at means savior of the world. Finally, to crown all these flattering distinctions, he had him marry the daughter of a priest of Heliopolis, thus allying him with the most noble and powerful class of his states. Thus ended the misfortunes of Joseph; they were like the fertile seed of the prosperity and glory that filled the rest of his life.

His prophetic words were fulfilled: seven years of abundance were followed by seven years of sterility. The scourge had also struck the neighboring countries. Jacob, pressed by the famine, sent his sons to Egypt, whose resources he had learned of; Benjamin alone remained with him. Grain was sold only on the order of Joseph; his brothers were therefore presented to him and adored him, prostrating themselves before him in the manner of the Orientals. He recognized them without difficulty, but he was not recognized by them, because manhood and perhaps misfortune had changed the features of his adolescence.

At the sight of his brothers bowed before him, Joseph remembered his dreams of old. He adopted a severe tone and seemed to believe that these strangers had come as enemies. He kept them in prison for three days; then, learning that they still had a brother, he sent them back with orders to bring him and kept one of them as a hostage. They, believing they were not understood by the Egyptian minister, who had spoken to them until then through an interpreter, reproached each other for their former fratricide. Then Joseph, overcome by tenderness, withdrew for a moment to weep, then he returned, expressing the will to keep Simeon, one of the strangers, as a hostage. The others returned sadly t Chanaan Land of origin of the family of Jacob. o the land of Canaan. Their father fell into deep affliction when he was told of the captivity of Simeon and the formal order to bring Benjamin to Egypt; it was a long time before he consented to expose this son again, the dear and last fruit of his old age.

However, as the famine continued to rage, Jacob was forced to yield to the pressure of circumstances, and he sent his sons to Egypt, entrusting Benjamin to them with regret, for whom Judah answered with his own life. Joseph, seeing them arrive with his young brother, ordered them to be brought into his palace and a feast to be prepared for them. They were waiting in the dining hall when finally Joseph appeared. All bowed before him. He welcomed them with kindness and questioned them about their old father. Then, lifting his eyes, he caught sight of Benjamin and said: "Is this your young brother of whom you spoke to me? My son," he added, "may God be gracious to you!" And he hastened to leave; for, at the sight of his brother, his bowels were moved, and he could not hold back his tears. When he had wept freely, he returned, and, making an effort to master his emotion, he took the meal in the company of his brothers, but at another table, the Egyptians regarding the foreigners as profane. He served them himself; Benjamin was treated more honorably than the others, which astonished them. For the rest, the feast passed in joy.

The next day, the brothers were to leave. Joseph had his silver cup hidden among Benjamin's provisions, and they had barely resumed their journey when he sent his men in pursuit of them. They were caught, they were accused of having committed a theft; they defended themselves, but the cup was found among Benjamin's provisions. Joseph threatened to keep him as a slave. Then Judah made known all the reluctance Jacob had felt in letting Benjamin leave, and the terrible blow that the captivity of this tenderly loved son would deal to his old age. In the name of his father, Joseph could not restrain himself any longer: he sent away the Egyptians who surrounded him, and cried out while shedding tears: "I am Joseph. Does my father still live?" But his brothers could not answer him, so seized with fear were they. "Come near to me," he said to them gently, "I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold." He reassured them, saying that God had permitted all things for a greater good; he instructed them to inform his father of all that they saw and to bring him back with them to Egypt, where they would all be fed during the five years that the famine was to last. And throwing himself on the neck of his brother Benjamin to embrace him, he wept, and Benjamin also wept as he received him in his arms. Joseph then gave all his brothers the same marks of tenderness, and, gradually recovering from their mute terror, they dared to speak to him.

At this happy news which was brought to him by his sons, Jacob seem Jacob Father of Joseph and the twelve tribes. ed to awaken from a deep sleep and for some time refused to believe their word. Finally, coming to his senses, he said: "If my son Joseph is still alive, it is enough; I will go and see him before I die." Indeed, he left for Egypt with all his people and his possessions. Joseph came to meet him, and, seeing him, ran to him and embraced him tightly with many tears. "I will die with joy now," his father said to him, "since I have seen your face and I leave you after me." Jacob was also presented to the king, and obtained permission to settle with his sons in the region of Goshen, the most fertile in E gypt a Gessen Fertile region of Egypt where the family of Jacob settled. nd the most suitable for a pastoral people. Seventeen years later, he died, prophesying the magnificent destinies of his race. He adopted Manasseh and Ephraim, sons of Joseph, into the number of his children, and asked that his ashes be reunited one day with the ashes of his fathers.

Joseph saw the children of his grandchildren. Near death, he asked that his bones be transported to the Promised Land; then he expired, at the age of one hundred and ten. His body was embalmed and placed in a coffin which the Israelites, upon their departure from Egypt, carried to the land of Canaan.

Such was Joseph, a famous example of the difficulties that await virtue, of the courage it must employ, and of the triumph it can obtain. Ancient times saw no more perfect image of that Just One, who, betrayed by his brothers and unrecognized in his works, was condemned as a criminal, and emerged from the captivity of the tomb to feed the entire earth with the bread of evangelical truth, and to conquer, through all the gifts of his divine charity, the glorious title of Savior of the world.

Joseph the Patriarch is represented: 1st at the moment he is sold by his brothers; they then receive from the Midianite merchants the price of the sale, while the child is handed over to the caravan of buyers to be taken to Egypt; 2nd with the palpable indication of the dream in which his future greatness was shown to him, in the form of a sheaf standing in the midst of eleven others that bow down before it; 3rd lowered into a well or cistern by his brothers, then pulled from this well to be sold; 4th explaining Pharaoh's dreams Pharaon Sovereign of Egypt who elevates Joseph to power. . — Let us add that his modest resistance to Potiphar's wife, his meeting with his brothers and his father, can provide artists with beautiful subjects for composition.

Les Femmes de la Bible, by Mgr Darboy; Caractéristiques des Saints, by the Reverend Father Cahier.