Chapter III

¹And it came to pass ¹ BH Slav. add ‘in the first year of the seven years of plenty’. in the fourth month, on the eighteenth ² So H Slav. Syr. Arm. Lat.: BDFA ‘twenty eighth’. day of the month, that Joseph came into the district of Heliopolis. ³ B Slav. add ‘and he was gathering the corn of that land’ (Slav. + ‘as the sand of the sea’). ²And as he approached the city, Joseph sent twelve men in front of him to Pentephres, the priest of Heliopolis, saying, May I be your guest to-day, ⁴ Lit. ‘I will stay with you to-day’. for it is near noon and time for the mid-day meal? ³The sun's heat is overpowering, and I would enjoy some refreshment under your roof. ⁴When Pentephres heard this, he was over-joyed and said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Joseph. ⁵And ⁶Pentephres called his steward ⁵ Lit. ‘him who was over his house’. and said to him, Make haste and get my house into order, and prepare a great feast, because Joseph, the mighty man of God, is coming to us to-day. ⁷And Aseneth heard that her father and mother had come back from their family estate in the country. ⁶ Lit. ‘the field of their inheritance’. And so similarly at iii. 8, iv. 3, xvi. 2, xx. 5, xxiv. 14, and xxvi. 1. ⁸And she rejoiced and said, I will go and see my father and my mother ⁷ and my mother: BF om. for they have come back from our estate in the country. ⁹And Aseneth hurried ⁸ B adds ‘into the room where her robes lay’. and put on a fine linen robe of blue woven with gold and a golden girdle round her waist, and she put ⁹ she put = Slav.: BD om. bracelets round her hands and feet, and she put on golden trousers and a necklace round her neck. ¹⁰And there were precious stones all about her, with the names of the Egyptian gods inscribed on them everywhere, on the bracelets and on the stones; and the names of the idols were stamped on the stones. ¹¹And she put a tiara on her head and bound a diadem round her temples and covered her head with a veil.