any of my bodyguard and deal with them as you will.’” Then Dan and Gad and their brothers were sorely troubled, and they said, “O sir, help us, and we will be your servants for ever.”  And he said, “I will.  Hear me now:  this night I will kill my father Pharaoh—­for he is the helper of Joseph—­and do you for your part slay Joseph.  Then I will take Aseneth to wife, and you shall be my brethren and joint heirs with me in the kingdom.”  So they said, “We will do so, and thus it shall be:  we heard Joseph say to Aseneth that she should go to-morrow into the vineyard, for it is the time of vintage.  We therefore will go this night into the bed of the river and hide among the reeds; and do you take with you fifty archers upon horses, and go on before.  Then will Aseneth come and fall into our ambush, and we will kill the men that are with her, and she will flee in her chariot and fall into your hands, and you shall do to her as seems good to you.  As for Joseph, while he is mourning for Aseneth we will kill him; but first we will slay his children before his face.”  And Pharaoh’s son rejoiced greatly, and sent them forth with a great body of mighty men, and they went and hid themselves in four companies among the reeds of the river on either side of the road.

Yet Naphtali and Asher murmured against their elder brothers Dan and Gad, saying, “To what purpose are you conspiring again?  Did you not sell Joseph for a slave before, and, lo! he is become lord over all Egypt?  Now therefore, if you imagine evil against him, he will call upon God, and fire will come down out of heaven and devour you, and the angels of God will fight against you.”  But their elder brothers were angry and said, “What then would you have?  Are we to die like women?  Not so!” And the counsel of Naphtali and Asher did not prevail with them.

In the same night the son of Pharaoh rose up and went to his father’s chamber with intent to slay him, as he had promised; but when he came to the door the guards stopped him and said, “What is my lord’s will?” He said, “I desire to see my father, for I am going away to-morrow to visit my vine-yard which I have newly planted.”  And they said, “Your father is ill and has not slept until now, and he gave us commandment that no man should come into his chamber, no, not if it were his firstborn son.”  So he went away in a rage, and took fifty archers with him on horses and went on before, as Dan and Gad had said.

Aseneth also arose early in the morning and said to Joseph, “Lo, I go to the vineyard as you appointed; but my soul is troubled greatly at being parted from you.”  But Joseph said, “Be of good cheer; the Lord is with you and will keep you as the apple of an eye.  As for me, I go to distribute corn to the people of the land, that no man in Egypt may perish of hunger.”  So Aseneth went her way; and as she came to the place of the ambush by the river, the men that were in hiding rushed out upon her, and slew all the guard that were with her, even six hundred soldiers and fifty runners; and Aseneth fled away upon her chariot.