Potiphar hastened home, and he found his wife in low
spirits, and though the cause of her dejection was chagrin
at not having succeeded in winning Joseph's love, she pretended
that it was anger at the immoral conduct of the slave.
She accused him in the following words: "O husband,
mayest thou not live a day longer, if thou dost not punish
the wicked slave that hath desired to defile thy bed, that
hath not kept in mind who he was when he came to our
house, to demean himself with modesty, nor hath he been
mindful of the favors he hath received from thy bounty.
He did lay a privy design to abuse thy wife, and this at the
time of observing a festival, when thou wouldst be absent."[132]
These words she spoke at the moment of conjugal
intimacy with Potiphar, when she was certain of exerting