Joseph feared for his life, for Judah was so
enraged that he wept blood. Some say that Judah wore five garments, one
over the other; but when he was angry his heart swelled so much that his
five garments burst open. Joseph cried so terribly that one of the
pillars of his house fell in and was changed into sand. Then Judah said:
"He is valiant, like one of us."
[69] Gen. xlii, 24.--It does not appear from the sacred
narrative why Joseph selected his brother Simeon as
hostage. Possibly Simeon was most eager for his death,
before he was cast into the dry well and then sold to
the Ishmaelites; and indeed both he and his brother Levi
seem to have been "a bad lot," judging from the dying
Jacob's description of them, Gen. xlix, 5-7.
_Jacob's Sorrow._
But like a gem, among a heap of rubbish is the touching little story of
how the news of Joseph's being alive and the viceroy of Egypt was
conveyed to the aged and sorrow-stricken Jacob. When the brethren had
returned to the land of Canaan, after their second expedition, they were
perplexed how to communicate to their father the joyful intelligence
that his long-lamented son still lived, fearing it might have a fatal
effect on the old man if suddenly told to him. At length Serach, the
daughter of Asher, proposed that she should convey the tidings to her
grandfather in a song.
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