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175 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

175 that lyte

when the view

of Asenath's having been a prose-

parent.

He

Asenath

then went with six hundred spearmen Joseph had gone to the capital

was superseded by the theory that she was the daughter of Dinah (see Asenath), Pharaoh 'a daugh-

to capture Asenath.

the foster-mother of Moses, replaced her in rabShe was represented as a proselyte binical tradition. who went to wash herself clean from the idolatry of her father's house, and became Bithyah, " the daughter of the Lord" (Sotah 126; Meg. 13a; Ex. R. i. Lev. R. i.). The second part of Asenath's Life and Prayer is It resembles the heroic of a different character. legends told of the sons of Jacob in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and in the Book of the Jubilees; and its lesson is simply ethical the pious ought On the to show magnanimity toward his enemy. twenty-first day of the second month in the second year of the famine, Jacob went with his family to live in Goshen, and Asenath went to see him because he was to her as a father and as a god. But she was amazed at his beautiful appearance, as he, with his thick snow-white hair and long white beard, resembled a robust youth with arms and shoulders like an angel (Gen. R. lxv.), and with the thighs, legs, and feet of a giant. Jacob blessed her and, according to the Syriac

men

ter,

to sell corn,

and Asenath was

translation, said to her, "

Thou

art like one

who

re-

turneth from the battle-field after a long absence." Batiffol thinks that this refers to the rabbinic view that she was the daughter of Dinah but the alluMore striking is it that Simeon sion is rather vague. and Levi, the two avengers of Dinah, accompany Asenath and Joseph, and play a prominent part as the protectors of Asenath in the event that follows. Levi, "whom Asenath loved more than all the other brothers of Joseph because as a prophet and a saint he read the heavenly writings and disclosed them (in true Essene fashion) to Asenath in secret, having seen her place of bliss in a diamond-walled " went to the right of city in the highest heaven Asenath, and Simeon to the left as they journeyed home. But the son Jacob's Heroic of Pharaoh, on seeing Asenath, fell in love with her, and sent for Simeon Sons. and Levi, offering them great treasures if they would aid him in obtaining Asenath, who was, as he says, betrothed to him before Joseph took her to wife but they refused to do so. When Pharaoh's son unsheathed his sword to kill them, Simeon intended to slay him but Levi restrained his impetuosity, whispering to him, " We are God-fearing men and it is not befitting that we should requite The son of Pharaoh fell into a swoon evil for evil. " when he saw drawn from their scabbards the swords with which the two brothers had avenged the violence perpetrated by Shechem against their sister. But he succeeded in winning, by some tale of falsehood, the sons of Bilhali and Zilpah to aid him Dan and Gad at once agreed, and in his plans.

—

—







started that same night, each with five hundred warriors at his side, and with fifty spearaien on horses to form the vanguard. Naphtali and Asher followed, though they had at first tried to dissuade their

brothers from acting so wickedly against their father

and brother.

The son of Pharaoh, angry at Ids father's love for Joseph, made an unsuccessful attempt to slay his

with six hundred

began an attack upon Asenath's bodyAsenath, when she saw Pha-





left

as her body-guard, Benjamin being at her side in the chariot, when suddenly, from behind the thicket at the roadside where they had lain in ambush, the spearmen of Pharaoh's son came forth and

Attack on guard. Asenath's raoh's

son, called upon the name of the Lord, and fled from her chariot; but Benjamin, a lad of nineteen with the power of a young lion, leaped from the chariot, and filling his hand with stones gathered from a ravine, cast one (like David) against the right temple of the son of Pharaoh, inflicting a deep wound which threw him from his horse to the ground half dead. Then lie wounded in like manner fifty of the spearmen who were with Pharaoh's son and they fell down dead before him. In the meantime Levi, who by his prophetic power realized Asenath's danger, called his brothers, the sons of Leah, to arms and they pursued the men who lay in wait for Asenath, killing them all. The sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, however, fled before them, and with drawn swords hurried toward Asenath and Benjamin, intending to slay them; but at the prayer of Asenath, behold! their swords fell out of their hands to the ground and were turned into ashes. The sons of Bilhah and Zilpah implored her forgiveness, entreating her to save them from the hands of their brothers and she pardoned them and told them to hide behind the thicket until she had succeeded in pacifying their brothers. This she did, telling them to spare their brothers and not to requite and when Simeon in his violent rage evil for evil wanted to be the avenger of wrong, she entreated him again, saying, "Do not requite evil for evil, let the Lord avenge the wrong, but do you show forgiveness." Meantime the son of Pharaoh had risen from the ground, blood issuing from his mouth and

BodyGuard.









forehead, and as Benjamin was about to strike him down, Levi seized his hand, saying, " Do not do this, brother, for we are pious men and it does not befit us to requite evil for evil, or to smite a fallen enemy. Assist me in healing his wounds and if he recover, he will be our friend, and his father, Pharaoh, will be our father." Levi then lifted the son of Pharaoh from the ground, washed and bandaged his wound, placed him upon his horse, and brought him to Pharaoh, who received him with Levi's

Mag-

his

paternal blessing.

On

the third

after his arrival the son of Pharaoh died, and his father, who was 109

nanimity. day

years old, overcome with grief, soon followed. Pharaoh bequeathed the crown to Joseph, who ruled over Egypt forty-eight years, and then left the throne to Pharaoh's youngest son, who, being an infant at the time of his father's death, was left in charge of Joseph, who became a father to him. This second part of the book has, as far as can be

no trace either in rabbinical or patristic The role played by the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah is, however, the same as is ascribed to them in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Test. Patr.,Dan. 1 and Gadl; but in Gen. R. lxxxiv. seen, left

literature.