340 myths · Page 7 of 12
After twenty pounds of silver changed hands, Jacob's sons ran after the Midianites to reverse the sale. The caravan was faster than their regret.
Afraid the shock would kill their father, the brothers gave Serah a harp and one line of song. Joy woke the holy spirit that grief had choked for years.
Jacob came into the tent in goat skins and borrowed clothes. He walked out crowned like a bridegroom, his bones strengthened by dew from heaven.
Potiphar's wife faked illness to empty the house. Joseph fled, left his garment, and kept the Name that never left his lips.
The Ishmaelites learned Joseph was Jacob's son and pressed him to confess. He kept the slave story so his brothers would not die for selling him.
At Jacob's funeral procession, Esau fell slain by the cave, and his severed head rolled into the lap of blind Isaac, who begged mercy heaven refused.
After they threw Joseph in the pit, the brothers sat down to eat. Only Zebulon refused food and kept watch, while Judah blocked a blessing over murder.
Ten times brothers called Jacob thy servant. Joseph stayed silent and lost ten years, then rode out like a subject to meet his father-king.
Reuben stalled murder with a pit and hid on a mountain to save Joseph by night, but nine brothers sold the boy while the eldest watched the wrong ridge.
Ten years in prison, one for each brother Joseph had once carried reports about to Jacob. In the dark a letter of the divine Name was added to his: Jehoseph.
Ganoon claimed private revelation and led Ephraim out of Egypt too soon. Two hundred thousand fell. Bows turned back in battle.
When Joseph fled, Zuleika clung to the scrap of garment, then took her friends' counsel to reverse the charge and bury him in prison.
Blind with tears for Joseph, Jacob wrote to Egypt's ruler and prayed for two lost sons, never guessing the viceroy was the first.
At Joseph's door the brothers begged like strangers. Benjamin's cup tore their clothes, and Judah heard a rope follow a bucket into the dark.
Simon and Gad raised hands to kill Joseph. Later Zuleika pressed a sword to his throat while God held the stone that holds the earth.
Guards at the grain gates wrote down every buyer's father and grandfather. Joseph read the lists, waiting for ten names from Canaan to show up.
The cup rose out of Benjamin's sack, planted the night before. Back in the hall, Manasseh stamped his foot once and the whole palace shook.
Asenath nursed the dying man and told Joseph to bring his sons for a blessing. Jacob's answer was that in seventeen years the boys had never come.
Jacob lay dead and Joseph needed Canaan for the burial. Pharaoh stalled until Joseph reminded him of the throne-secret oath sworn in seventy languages.
For seventeen years Joseph kept runners on the road so that he would never be alone in a room with his father. His father knew the whole time.
Joseph threatened anyone who skipped the welcome. Purple ranks and rooftop drums met Jacob while he served proper meat and taught his brothers how to stay free.
Dying, Jacob ordered Joseph to forgive and shield his brothers. Ages later the tribes buried Joseph in Shechem, the ground that first took him.
On the road to Egypt, Jacob counted five terrors for his house. God answered each one, and Joseph sent horses ahead so the old man would not break.
Jacob's family boarded a crewless ship in a shared dream, Joseph seized both rudders in jealousy, and only the patriarch's whistle raised the wreck.
Ganon said God told him to lead his tribe out of Egypt. They packed gold and weapons but no food, and the shepherds of Gath would not sell them sheep.
Joseph sent clothes up from Egypt, a turban among them for his father. Jacob put it on, then slaughtered sacrifices asking whether he should go at all.
Three days after Jacob was laid to rest, Seir and the East rode against Joseph. Six hundred thousand fell, then Esau's sons and Seir turned on each other.
In the fat years some mocked the warehouses. In the famine they lined up. Jacob's sons went home with grain and found their silver back in every sack.
Joseph stored Egypt's grain, seized Simeon, and heaped Benjamin's plate seven times high before the silver cup closed the trap.
They needed ten men to swear the ban and there were only nine of them left at the pit. So they made the Holy One the tenth.
