charged his brethren with having called the sons of the
handmaids slaves, and Potiphar's wife cast her eyes upon
Joseph, because he threw the suspicion upon his brethren
that they had cast their eyes upon the Canaanitish women.
And how little it was true that they were guilty of cruelty
to animals, appears from the fact that at the very time when
they were contemplating their crime against Joseph, they
yet observed all the rules and prescriptions of the ritual in
slaughtering the kid of the goats with the blood of which
they besmeared his coat of many colors.[8]


JOSEPH HATED BY HIS BRETHREN

Joseph's talebearing against his brethren made them hate
him. Among all of them Gad was particularly wrathful,
and for good reason. Gad was a very brave man, and when
a beast of prey attacked the herd, over which he kept guard
at night, he would seize it by one of its legs, and whirl it
around until it was stunned, and then he would fling it away
to a distance of two stadia, and kill it thus. Once Jacob
sent Joseph to tend the flock, but he remained away only
thirty days, for he was a delicate lad and fell sick with the
heat, and he hastened back to his father. On his return he
told Jacob that the sons of the handmaids were in the habit
of slaughtering the choice cattle of the herd and eating it,
without obtaining permission from Judah and Reuben. But
his report was not accurate. What he had seen was Gad
slaughtering one lamb, which he had snatched from the very
jaws of a bear, and he killed it because it could not be kept