The Legends of the Jews, vol 2 | Page 9

wilderness, in a pit, and we took him out, and we will

carry him away with us on our journey." But the sons of Jacob insisted,
"Restore our slave to us, lest you meet death at the edge of the sword."
Unaffrighted, the Midianites drew their weapons, and, amid war
whoops, they prepared to enter into a combat with the sons of Jacob.
Then Simon rose up, and with bared sword he sprang upon the
Midianites, at the same time uttering a cry that made the earth
reverberate. The Midianites fell down in great consternation, and he
said: "I am Simon, the son of the Hebrew Jacob, who destroyed the city
of Shechem alone and unaided, and together with my brethren I
destroyed the cities of the Amorites. God do so and more also, if it be
not true that all the Midianites, your brethren, united with all the
Canaanite kings to fight with me, cannot hold out against me. Now
restore the boy you took from us, else will I give your flesh unto the
fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field."
The Midianites were greatly afraid of Simon, and, terrified and abashed,
they spake to the sons of Jacob with little courage: "Said ye not that ye
cast this lad into the pit because he was of a rebellious spirit? What,
now, will ye do with an insubordinate slave? Rather sell him to us, we
are ready to pay any price you desire." This speech was part of the
purpose of God. He had put it into the heart of the Midianites to insist
upon possessing Joseph, that he might not remain with his brethren,
and be slain by them.[49] The brethren assented, and Joseph was sold
as a slave while they sat over their meal. God spake, saying: "Over a
meal did ye sell your brother, and thus shall Ahasuerus sell your
descendants to Haman over a meal, and because ye have sold Joseph to
be a slave, therefore shall ye say year after year, Slaves were we unto
Pharaoh in Egypt."[50]
The price paid for Joseph by the Midianites was twenty pieces of silver,
enough for a pair of shoes for each of his brethren. Thus "they sold the
righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes." For so
handsome a youth as Joseph the sum paid was too low by far, but his
appearance had been greatly changed by the horrible anguish he bad
endured in the pit with the snakes and the scorpions. He had lost his
ruddy complexion, and he looked sallow and sickly, and the Midianites
were justified in paying a small sum for him.[51]
The merchantmen had come upon Joseph naked in the pit, for his
brethren had stripped him of all his clothes. That he might not appear

before men in an unseemly condition, God sent Gabriel down to him,
and the angel enlarged the amulet banging from Joseph's neck until it
was a garment that covered him entirely. Joseph's brethren were
looking after him as he departed with the Midianites, and when they
saw him with clothes upon him, they cried after them, "Give us his
raiment! We sold him naked, without clothes." His owners refused to
yield to their demand, but they agreed to reimburse the brethren with
four pairs of shoes, and Joseph kept his garment, the same in which he
was arrayed when he arrived in Egypt and was sold to Potiphar, the
same in which he was locked up in prison and appeared before Pharaoh,
and the same he wore when he was ruler over Egypt.[52]
As an atonement for the twenty pieces of silver taken by his brethren in
exchange for Joseph, God commanded that every first-born son shall be
redeemed by the priest with an equal amount, and, also, every Israelite
must pay annually to the sanctuary as much as fell to each of the
brethren as his share of the price.[53]
The brethren of Joseph bought shoes for the money, for they said: "We
will not eat it, because it is the price for the blood of our brother, but
we will tread upon him, for that he spake, he would have dominion
over us, and we will see what will become of his dreams." And for this
reason the ordinance has been commanded, that he who refuseth to
raise up a name in Israel unto his brother that hath died without having
a son, shall have his shoe loosed from off his foot, and his face shall be
spat upon. Joseph's brethren refused to do aught to preserve his life, and
therefore the Lord loosed their shoes from off their feet, for, when they
went down to Egypt, the slaves of Joseph took their shoes off