Then Joseph inquired of Benjamin what his brethren had
told their father after they had sold him into slavery, and
he heard the story of the coat dipped in the blood of a kid
of the goats. "Yes, brother," spoke Joseph, "when they
had stripped me of my coat, they handed me over to the
Ishmaelites,
who tied an apron around my waist, scourged me,
and bade me run off. But a lion attacked the one that beat
me, and killed him, and his companions were alarmed, and
they sold me to other people."[253]

Dismissed by Joseph with kind words, his brethren started
on their homeward journey as soon as the morning was
light, for it is a good rule to "leave a city after sunrise, and