על יוסף מ״בOn Joseph 42
א׳
1[251] When the king learned that his viceroy had a father and that his family was very numerous, he urged that the whole household should leave its present home, and promised to give the most fertile part of Egypt to the expected settlers. He therefore gave the brothers carts and wagons and a great number of beasts laden with provisions, and an adequate body of servants, that they might bring their father safely.
ב׳
2[252] When they arrived home and told the story of their brother, so incredible and beyond anything he could have hoped for, he gave no heed to them at all, for, however worthy of credit the speakers might be, the extravagance of the tale did not allow him to assent to it readily.
ג׳
3[253] But, when the old man saw the equipments suited for an occasion of the kind, and that the lavish supplies of all that was needed agreed with the story they told him of his son, he praised God that He had filled the seeming gap in his house.
ד׳
4[254] But joy also straightway begat fear in his soul at the thought of leaving his ancestral way of life. For he knew how natural it is for youth to lose its footing and what licence to sin belongs to the stranger’s life, particularly in Egypt where things created and mortal are deified, and in consequence the land is blind to the true God. He knew what assaults wealth and renown make on minds of little sense, and that left to himself, since his father’s house supplied no monitor to share his journey, alone and cut off from good teaching, he would be readily influenced to change to alien ways.
ה׳
5[255] Such were his feelings when He Whose eye alone can see the invisible soul took pity, and in his sleep at night appeared to him and said, “Fear not to go to Egypt. I Myself will guide thee on the road and make the journey safe and to thy pleasure. Further, I will restore to thee the son for whom thou hast so greatly yearned, who once was thought dead, but now, after many years, is found not only alive but a ruler of that great country.” Then, filled with high hopes, he hastened at dawn to set forth rejoicing.
ו׳
6[256] But his son when he heard it, informed of all by the scouts who watched the road, proceeded with all speed to meet his father when he was not far from the boundary. And when the two met at the place called the Heroes’ City they laid their heads upon each other’s neck and while the tears smeared their raiment lingered long in embraces of which they could not take their fill, and, when at last they brought themselves to cease therefrom, pressed onwards to the king’s court. When the king beheld him,
ז׳
7[257] overcome by his venerable appearance, he welcomed him with all modesty and respect, as though he were the father not of his viceroy but of himself. And, after the usual, and more than the usual, courtesies had passed, he gave him a portion of land, rich of soil and very fruitful. And, learning that the sons were graziers who had much substance of cattle, he appointed them keepers of his own, and put into their charge flocks and herds innumerable of goats and oxen and sheep.