Egyptian Women, Captivated by Joseph’s Beauty, Cut Their Hands Slicing Citrons

The text reads:

^{בראשית לט:ח} וַיְמָאֵן וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל אֵשֶׁת אֲדֹנָיו הֵן אֲדֹנִי לֹא יָדַע אִתִּי מַה בַּבָּיִת וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר יֶשׁ לוֹ נָתַן בְּיָדִי. ^לט:ט אֵינֶנּוּ גָדוֹל בַּבַּיִת הַזֶּה מִמֶּנִּי וְלֹא חָשַׂךְ מִמֶּנִּי מְאוּמָה כִּי אִם אוֹתָךְ בַּאֲשֶׁר אַתְּ אִשְׁתּוֹ וְאֵיךְ אֶעֱשֶׂה הָרָעָה הַגְּדֹלָה הַזֹּאת וְחָטָאתִי לֵאלֹהִים.

^{Gen 39:8} But he refused. He said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master gives no thought to anything in this house, and all that he owns he has placed in my hands. ^39:9 He wields no more authority in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except yourself, since you are his wife. How then could I do this most wicked thing, and sin before God?”

The text reads:

^{בראשית לט:יא} וַיְהִי כְּהַיּוֹם הַזֶּה וַיָּבֹא הַבַּיְתָה לַעֲשׂוֹת מְלַאכְתּוֹ וְאֵין אִישׁ מֵאַנְשֵׁי הַבַּיִת שָׁם בַּבָּיִת. ^לט:יב וַתִּתְפְּשֵׂהוּ בְּבִגְדוֹ לֵאמֹר שִׁכְבָה עִמִּי וַיַּעֲזֹב בִּגְדוֹ בְּיָדָהּ וַיָּנָס וַיֵּצֵא הַחוּצָה.

^{Gen 39:11} One such day, he came into the house to do his work. None of the household being there inside, ^39:12 she caught hold of him by his garment and said, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand and got away and fled outside. 

The text reads:

^{בראשית לט:יג} וַיְהִי כִּרְאוֹתָהּ כִּי עָזַב בִּגְדוֹ בְּיָדָהּ וַיָּנָס הַחוּצָה. ^לט:יד וַתִּקְרָא לְאַנְשֵׁי בֵיתָהּ וַתֹּאמֶר לָהֶם לֵאמֹר רְאוּ הֵבִיא לָנוּ אִישׁ עִבְרִי לְצַחֶק בָּנוּ בָּא אֵלַי לִשְׁכַּב עִמִּי וָאֶקְרָא בְּקוֹל גָּדוֹל. ^לט:טו וַיְהִי כְשָׁמְעוֹ כִּי הֲרִימֹתִי קוֹלִי וָאֶקְרָא וַיַּעֲזֹב בִּגְדוֹ אֶצְלִי וַיָּנָס וַיֵּצֵא הַחוּצָה.

^{Gen 39:13} When she saw that he had left it in her hand and had fled outside, ^39:14 she called out to her servants and said to them, “Look, he had to bring us a Hebrew to dally with us! This one came to lie with me; but I screamed loud. ^39:15 And when he heard me screaming at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and got away and fled outside.”

Translation is from Patricia D. Ahearne-Kroll, “Joseph and Aseneth,” in Outside the Bible, ed. ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman (Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Press, 2013), 3:2525–2589 [pp. 2539–2540]. For more on this text, see eadem, “Joseph and Aseneth,” TheTorah (2021).

See discussion in Menahem Kister, אחור וקדם: המשכיות וצמיחה של מסורות בין ספרות בית שני לספרות חז"ל [Dynamics of Midrashic Traditions in Second Temple and Rabbinic Literature] (Magnes, 2024) 247–250; James L. Kugel, Traditions of the Bible: A Guide to the Bible as It Was at the Start of the Common Era (Harvard University Press, 1998), 444–446.

The meaning of the verse is uncertain. The NRSVue, in contrast, translates “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall.” The midrash, however, understands banot as ayin as “eye” as opposed to “spring,” “daughters/girls” as opposed to “branches,” and shur as the verb “to look” as opposed to the noun, “wall.” NJPS translates very differently, “Joseph is a wild ass, a wild ass by a spring, wild colts on a hillside.”

This is a rabbinic expression meaning to succeed in the world of the living and to be granted a share in the afterlife.

I follow the text as transcribed in Kister, Dynamics of Midrash, 248.

Marc Brettler suggested to (personal communication) that it is possible that these texts are referring to a fingered citron (you can look this up), and the women are confusing the fingers of the fruit with their own fingers.

James Kugel raises the question, “Why is this story here?” There is nothing in the Bible to suggest this episode. James L. Kugel, In Potiphar’s House: The Interpretive Life of Biblical Texts (Harper Collins, 1990), p. 33. Kugel believes the Midrash Tanchuma text was an early Jewish expansion but questions the inclusion of the citron and knives. He believes it to be a later addition to an earlier text, based on his understanding of the grammar. He also points out that the citrons featured in Tanchuma and Sefer HaYashar (see below) are replaced by the generic word “feast” in other traditions. Kugel argues that a more concrete example like citrons and knives suggests a later text, moving the story from generic to specific (Ibid., p. 37).

See Meir Bar-Ilan, “Chapter 12: Sūrat Yūsuf (XII) and Some of Its Possible Jewish Sources,” in Religious Stories in Transformation: Conflict, Revision and Reception, ed. Vered Tohar, Alberdina Houtman, Tamar Kadari, and Marcel Poorthuis (Brill, 2016), 189–210 [pp. 190–199]. In fact, Bar-Ilan argues that this motif itself was derivative of an earlier version, dating from the 3^rd century C.E., in which the women react with spontaneous menstrual bleeding in their excitement over seeing Moses. This motif is sometimes mixed with the bleeding from cutting themselves motif in later Islamic sources. Even in the versions that include only cutting, clearly the connection between blood and femininity is also important, solidifying the shared experience between Potiphar’s wife and her female friends.

Translation from Arthur J. Droge, The Qurʾan: A New Annotated Translation (Equinox, 2013).  

Abu Ishaq Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Thalabi, 'Ara'is al-majalis fi qisas al-anbiya', or, Lives of the Prophets, trans. William M. Brinner, Studies in Arabic Literature 23 (Brill, 2002), 202. Cf. Shalom Goldman, The Wiles of Women, The Wiles of Men: Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife in Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic Folklore (Albany: SUNY, 1995), pp. 81-82. One Muslim tradition reports that seven women died from their longing (ibid. 87).

Ali Ibne Ibrahim Qummi, Tafsir Qummi, trans. Sayyid Athar Husain S.H. Rizvi and Agha Jabir Rizwani, 2.549–550

Muḥammad ibn Abd Allah al-Kisai, Tales of the Prophets (Qisas al-Anbiyaʾ), trans. Wheeler M. Thackston, Jr. (Great Books of the Islamic World, Inc., 1997), 176.

It should be noted that other works from the Middle Ages share the name but not the format of this Sefer HaYashar, and they are not attempts at Pseudepigraphy. For example, R. Jacob ben Meir, known as Rabbeinu Tam (ca. 1100–1171), used this title for his halakhic work. Similarly, an anonymous work of mussar (Jewish ethics) penned in the 13^th century, and sometimes attributed to R. Zerahiah the Greek, also adopted Sefer HaYashar as its title.

There has been little scholarly insight into the work but the great Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Dr. Louis Ginzberg, in his monumental Legends of the Jews indirectly provides many sources for Sefer HaYashar. His research assistant, Henrietta Szold, deserves much credit too.

In the nineteenth century, Abraham Geiger argued that SHY was the basis for the Koranic elaboration, assuming (wrongly) that Sefer HaYashar was ancient.

Translation based upon Edward B.M. Browne (NY 1876) with adjustments.

As for why citrons (some translate as oranges or tangerines), one cannot say for sure. Presumably the juicy liquid is supposed to be suggestive, mingling with the blood.

For instance, later midrash does not refer to Esau, the brother of Jacob, merely as Esau, but as Esau the Wicked. See discussion in Barry Dov Walfish, “The Denigration of Esau,” TheTorah (2020); Malka Z. Simkovich, “Esau the Ancestor of Rome,” TheTorah (2018).

Some examples are the book of Jubilees or the Biblical Antiquities of Pseudo-Philo. Geza Vermes coined the term “rewritten Bible.” Cf. Geza Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1961), pp. 67ff. The appropriateness of the term is a matter of contemporary debate in scholarship. Editor’s note: For more on this genre, see Hindy Najman, “The Ancient Practice of Attributing Texts and Ideas to Moses,” TheTorah (2016); Molly M. Zahn, “What Is “Torah” in Second Temple Texts?” TheTorah (2021); Carol A. Newsom, “There Was Never One Version of the Bible,” TheTorah (2022).  

This word does not appear in the Greek LXX (Septuagint) translation.

The LXX here reads:

^{3 Kgdms 8:53a} ότε ἐλάλησεν Σαλωμων ὑπὲρ τοῦ οἴκου, ὡς συνετέλεσεν τοῦ οἰκοδομῆσαι αὐτόν  Ἥλιον ἐγνώρισεν ἐν οὐρανῷ κύριος,   εἶπεν τοῦ κατοικεῖν ἐν γνόφῳ  Οἰκοδόμησον οἶκόν μου, οἶκον ἐκπρεπῆ σαυτῷ, τοῦ κατοικεῖν ἐπὶ καινότητος.

^{3 Kgdms 8:53a} Then Salomon spoke concerning the house, when he had finished building it, “A sun the Lord made manifest in heaven; he said that he should dwell in deep darkness:  ‘Build my house, a remarkable house for yourself, to dwell in anew.’” (NETS trans.)

The Greek reads:

οὐκ ἰδοὺ αὕτη γέγραπται ἐν βιβλίῳ τῆς ᾠδῆς;