colors, his upper garment, his breeches, and his shirt.[43]
However, the reptiles could do him no harm. God heard
his cry of distress, and kept them in hiding in the clefts
and the holes, and they could not come near him. From the
depths of the pit Joseph appealed to his brethren, saying:
"O my brethren, what have I done unto you, and what is
my transgression? Why are you not afraid before God on
account of your treatment of me? Am I not flesh of your
flesh, and bone of your bone? Jacob your father, is he not
also my father? Why do you act thus toward me? And
how will you be able to lift up your countenance before
Jacob? O Judah, Reuben, Simon, Levi, my brethren, deliver
me, I pray you, from the dark place into which you
have cast me. Though I committed a trespass against you,
yet are ye children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were