Joseph and Asenath 10

1And, when Joseph had left the house, Pentephres also and all his kindred departed to their inheritance, and Asenath was left alone with the seven virgins, listless and weeping till the sun set; and she neither ate bread nor drank water, but while all slept she herself alone was awake and weeping and frequently beating her breast with her hand.

2And after these things Asenath rose from her bed, and went quietly down the stairs from the loft, and on coming to the gateway found the portress sleeping with her children; and she hasted and took down from the door the leathern cover of the curtain and filled it with cinders and carried it up to the loft and laid it on the floor.

3And thereupon she shut the door securely and fastened it with the iron bolt from the side and groaned with great groaning together with much and very great weeping.

4But the virgin whom Asenath loved above all the virgins having heard her groaning hasted and came to the door after awaking the other virgins also and found it shut.

5And, when she had listened to the groaning and the weeping of Asenath, she said to her, standing without: "What is it, my mistress, and wherefore art thou sad?

6And what is it that troubleth thee?

7Open to us and let us see thee."

8And Asenath said to her, being shut inside: "Great and grievous pain hath attacked mine head, and I am resting in my bed, and I am not able to rise and open to you, for that I am infirm over all my limbs.

9Go therefore each of you to her chamber and sleep, and let me be still."

10And, when the virgins had departed, each to her own chamber, Asenath rose and opened the door of her bedroom quietly, and went away into her second chamber where the chests of her adornment were, and she opened her coffer and took a black and sombre tunic which she put on and mourned when her firstborn brother died.

11Having taken, then, this tunic, she carried it into her chamber, and again shut the door securely, and put the bolt to from the side.

12Then, therefore, Asenath put off her royal robe, and put on the mourning tunic, and loosed her golden girdle and girded herself with a rope, and put off the tiara, that is the mitre, from her head, likewise also the diadem, and the chains from her hands and her feet were also all laid upon the floor.

13Then she taketh her choice robe and the golden girdle and the mitre and her diadem, and she cast them through the window that looked toward the north, to the poor.

14And thereupon she took all her gods that were in her chamber, the gods of gold and of silver whereof there was no number, and brake them up into fragments, and cast them through the window to poor men and beggars.

15And again Asenath took her royal dinner and the fatlings and the fish and heifer's flesh, and all the sacrifices of her gods, and the vessels of the wine of libation, and cast them all through the window that looked north as food for the dogs.

16And after these things she took the leathern cover containing the cinders and poured them upon the floor; and thereupon she took sackcloth and girded her loins; and she loosed also the net of the hair of her head and sprinkled ashes over her head.

17And she strewed cinders also upon the floor, and fell upon the cinders and kept beating her breast constantly with her hands and weeping all the night with groaning until the morning.

18And, when Asenath arose in the morning and saw, and lo! the cinders were beneath her as clay from her tears, she again fell upon her face upon the cinders till the sun set.

19Thus Asenath did for seven days, not tasting aught whatever.