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[45]
When, therefore, there was a public festival coming on, in which
it was the custom for women to come to the public solemnity; she pretended
to her husband that she was sick, as contriving an opportunity for solitude
and leisure, that she might entreat Joseph again. Which opportunity being
obtained, she used more kind words to him than before; and said that it
had been good for him to have yielded to her first solicitation, and to
have given her no repulse, both because of the reverence he ought to bear
to her dignity who solicited him, and because of the vehemence of her passion,
by which she was forced though she were his mistress to condescend beneath
her dignity; but that he may now, by taking more prudent advice, wipe off
the imputation of his former folly; for whether it were that he expected
the repetition of her solicitations she had now made, and that with greater
earnestness than before, for that she had pretended sickness on this very
account, and had preferred his conversation before the festival and its
solemnity; or whether he opposed her former discourses, as not believing
she could be in earnest; she now gave him sufficient security, by thus
repeating her application, that she meant not in the least by fraud to
impose upon him; and assured him, that if he complied with her affections,
he might expect the enjoyment of the advantages he already had; and if
he were submissive to her, he should have still greater advantages; but
that he must look for revenge and hatred from her, in case he rejected
her desires, and preferred the reputation of chastity before his mistress;
for that he would gain nothing by such procedure, because she would then
become his accuser, and would falsely pretend to her husband, that he had
attempted her chastity; and that Potiphar would hearken to her words rather
than to his, let his be ever so agreeable to the truth.
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