three score and ten days of mourning that the heathen
made for Jacob, they were recompensed at the time of
Ahasuerus. During seventy days, from the thirteenth of
Nisan, the date of Haman's edict ordering the extermination
of the Jews, until the twenty-third of Siwan, when Mordecai
recalled it, they were permitted to enjoy absolute power
over the Jews.

When all preparations for the burial of Jacob had been
completed, Joseph asked permission of Pharaoh to carry the
body up into Canaan. But he did not himself go to put his
petition before Pharaoh, for he could not well appear before
the king in the garb of a mourner, nor was he willing to
interrupt his lamentation over his father for even a brief
space and stand before Pharaoh and prefer his petition. He