loins with sackcloth, threw themselves upon the ground, and
strewed earth upon their heads until the dust rose in a high
cloud. And when Asenath, the wife of Joseph, heard the
tidings of Jacob's death, she came, and with her came the
women of Egypt, to weep and mourn over him. And the
men of Egypt that had known Jacob repaired thither, and
they mourned day after day, and also many journeyed down
into Egypt from Canaan, to take part in the seventy days'
mourning made for him.[410]

The Egyptians spake to one another, saying, "Let us
lament for the pious man Jacob, because the affliction of the
famine was averted from our land on account of his merits,"
for instead of ravaging the land for forty-two years according
to the decree of God, the famine had lasted but two