Testament of Joseph

Chapter 3

  1. 1 How often did the Egyptian woman threaten me with death! How often did she give me over to punishment, and then call me back and threaten me, and when I was unwilling to company with
  2. 2 her, she said to me: Thou shalt be lord of me, and all that is in my house, if thou wilt give thyself
  3. 3 unto me, and thou shalt be as our master. But I remembered the words of my father, and going
  4. 4 into my chamber, I wept and prayed unto the Lord. And I fasted in those seven years, and I appeared to the Egyptians as one living delicately, for they that fast for God's sake receive beauty of face.
  5. 5 And if my lord were away from home, I drank no wine; nor for three days did I take my food, but
  6. 6 I gave it to the poor and sick. And I sought the Lord early, and I wept for the Egyptian woman of Memphis, for very unceasingly did she trouble me, for also at night she came to me under pretence of visiting me.
  7. 7 And because she had no male child she pretended to regard me as a son, and so I prayed to the Lord, and she bare a male child.
  8. 8 And for a time she embraced me as a son, and I knew it not; but later, she sought to draw me
  9. 9 into fornication. And when I perceived it I sorrowed unto death; and when she had gone out, I came to myself, and lamented for her many days, because I recognized her guile and her deceit.
  10. 10 And I declared unto her the words of the Most High, if haply she would turn from her evil lust.