Jacob insisted, "Restore our slave to us, lest you meet death
at the edge of the sword."

Unaffrighted, the Midianites drew their weapons, and,
amid war whoops, they prepared to enter into a combat with
the sons of Jacob. Then Simon rose up, and with bared
sword he sprang upon the Midianites, at the same time
uttering a cry that made the earth reverberate. The Midianites
fell down in great consternation, and he said: "I am
Simon, the son of the Hebrew Jacob, who destroyed the city
of Shechem alone and unaided, and together with my brethren
I destroyed the cities of the Amorites. God do so and
more also, if it be not true that all the Midianites, your
brethren, united with all the Canaanite kings to fight with
me, cannot hold out against me. Now restore the boy you
took from us, else will I give your flesh unto the fowls of
the air and to the beasts of the field."

The Midianites were greatly afraid of Simon, and, terrified
and abashed, they spake to the sons of Jacob with little
courage: "Said ye not that ye cast this lad into the pit because
he was of a rebellious spirit? What, now, will ye do
with an insubordinate slave? Rather sell him to us, we are
ready to pay any price you desire." This speech was part
of the purpose of God. He had put it into the heart of
the Midianites to insist upon possessing Joseph, that he
might not remain with his brethren, and be slain by them.[49]
The brethren assented, and Joseph was sold as a slave while
they sat over their meal. God spake, saying: "Over a meal
did ye sell your brother, and thus shall Ahasuerus sell your