Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/245

XXVIII.] which the Egyptians gave first their gold, then their apparel, and all their moveable goods; then their land, then their slaves, and last of all themselves, their wives and children, as bondsmen, that they might have food.

But not only did Egypt suffer, the adjoining lands were also afflicted with scarcity. There was no corn in Canaan, and Jacob sent his ten sons into Egypt to buy corn, retaining Benjamin at home. He cautioned his sons not to create mistrust by their numbers, nor cause the evil eye to light on them, and advised them to enter the city of Pharaoh by different gates, for it had ten.

But Joseph expected that his brothers would be coming to Egypt, and therefore he bade the gatekeepers every day bring him the names of those who had entered the city. One day one porter gave him the name of Reuben, son of Jacob; and so on to the tenth, Asher, son of Jacob. Joseph at once gave orders for every storehouse to be closed with the exception of one, and gave the keepers of the open magazine the names of his brothers, and said to them, "When these people arrive take them prisoners, and bring them before me."

And when they appeared before him, he charged them with being spies: "For," said he, "if ye were true men, ye would have come in together; but ye entered by different gates, and that shows that ye are set upon evil."

When, to excuse themselves, they told their family history, he bade them go and bring Benjamin down to him, and, to secure their return, he kept Simeon in prison as hostage.

When Joseph wanted to imprison Simeon, his brothers desired to assist him by force, but Simeon refused their assistance. Joseph ordered seventy fighting men of Pharaoh's body-guard to cast him down and handcuff him. But when they approached, Simeon gave a scream, and the seventy fell back on the ground, and their teeth went down their throats. "Hah!" said Joseph to his son Manasseh, who stood near him, "throw a chain about his neck." Manasseh dealt Simeon a blow, and chained him. "Then," said Simeon, "this blow comes from one of the family."

Jacob, reluctant to part with Benjamin, was however obliged to do so, being pressed with famine. Joseph received the brethren, measured out to them the wheat, and, by his orders,