Accordingly she took her harp, and sang to Jacob
the whole story of Joseph's life and his present greatness, and her
music soothed his spirit; and when he fully realised that his son was
yet alive, he fervently blessed her, and she was taken into Paradise,
without tasting of death.[70]
[70] "Jacob's grief" is proverbial in Muslim countries. In
the Kuran, _sura_ xii, it is stated that the patriarch
became totally blind through constant weeping for the
loss of Joseph, and that his sight was restored by means
of Joseph's garment, which the governor of Egypt sent by
his brethren.--In the _Makamat_ of Al-Hariri, the
celebrated Arabian poet (A.D. 1054-1122), Harith bin
Hamman is represented as saying that he passed a night
of "Jacobean sorrow," and another imaginary character is
said to have "wept more than Jacob when he lost his
son."
_Moses and Pharaoh._
The slaughter of the Hebrew male children by the cruel command of the
"Pharoah who knew not Joseph" was a precaution adopted, we are informed
by the Rabbis, in consequence of a dream which that monarch had, of an
aged man who held a balance in his right hand; in one scale he placed
all the sages and nobles of Egypt, and in the other a little lamb, which
weighed down them all.
Pages:
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236