Part 168

4 The captious and unbelieving Koreisch.

5 Wir mussten denn zuerst das Leben einbüssen. Wahl. Ullm. Maracci.

6 Lit. your minds have made a thing seem pleasant to you.

7 According to Gen. xxxvii. 24, the well or pit had "no water in it.

8 Some take the Arabic Boshra as the proper name of the person who accompanied the drawer of water.

9 The apparition of his father, who said, "Hereafter shall the names of thy brethren, engraven on precious stones, shine on the breast of the High Priest. Shall thine be blotted out?" Tr. Sotah, fol. 36. Comp. Weil, Legenden, p. 109, n.

10 Lit. that he be imprisoned.

11 An infant in the cradle. Sepher Hadjascher, as below on v. 31.

12 Instead of their food, through surprise at his beauty. Seph. Hadj. in Midr. Jalkut. See also Midr. Abkhir, ib. ch. 146.

13 It is curious to observe how Muhammad, in this and the following verse, puts his own doctrine and convictions into the mouth of Joseph.

14 Satan induced Joseph to place his confidence in man, rather than in God alone, in punishment of which sin the imprisonment was continued. Thus Midr. Rabba. Gen. Par. 89. Midr. Jalkut, ib. ch. 147.

15 In Gen. xli. 14, Joseph is released from prison before the interpretation of the dreams. But the Koran makes him decline to quit it till his character is cleared.

16 According to Gen. xli. 39, Pharaoh of his own accord sets Joseph over his house and land.

17 For the king to bestow.

18 Thus we read in Mid. Rab. on Gen. Par. 91, "Jacob said to them, Enter ye not all by one gate." See also Midr. Jalkut, ch. 148.

19 Thus also, in the Sepher Hadjaschar, Joseph first discovers himself to Benjamin, in opposition to Gen. xlv. 1.

20 Comp. Gen. xlii. 9.

21 Joseph is said by the Muhammadan commentators to have stolen an idol of gold belonging to his mother's father, which he broke, that he might not worship it. But this comment, as well as the text of the Koran, is probably based upon some such tradition as that of Midr. Rabba, Par. 92, "He is a thief and the son of a thief" (Comp. Gen. xxxi. 19)-spoken of Benjamin.

22 That is, that Joseph was still alive. Thus Midr. Tanchumah on Gen. xlii. 1.

23 Comp. Gen. xxvii. 27.

24 Joseph's mother had long been dead. See Gen. xxxv. 19. But the object of Muhammad was probably to bring the event into strict accordance with the prediction of the dream. Gen. xxxvii. 10. Some, however, suppose that Bilhah is here meant, and her appearance before Joseph is also asserted to be the fulfilment of the dream by some of the Rabbins. Comp. Raschi on Gen. xxxvii. 10.

25 Lit. This is of the announcements of the things unseen (by thee, Muhammad). Compare the manner in which the story of the Creation and of Moses in the mount is introduced. Sura xxxviii. 70; xxviii. 45. Mr. Muir thinks that Muhammad must at this period, while recasting and working up these materials, have entered upon a course of wilful dissimulation and deceit (although the end would justify to him the means employed) in claiming inspiration for them.

SURA XL.-THE BELIEVER [LXXVIII.]

MECCA.-85 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

HA. MIM. The Revelation (sending down) of the Book is from God the Almighty, the All-knowing,1

Forgiver of sin, and receiver of penitence,-vehement in chastisement,

Long-suffering! There is no God but He: to Him shall be the final gathering.