Joseph and Asenath 11

1And on the eighth day, when the dawn came and the birds were already chirping and the dogs barking at the passers-by, Asenath lifted up her head a little from the floor and the cinders whereon she was seated, for that she was exceeding weary and had lost the power of her limbs from her great humiliation; for Asenath had waxed weary and faint and her strength was failing, and thereupon she turned toward the wall, sitting under the window that looked east; and her head she laid upon her bosom, twining the fingers of her hands over her right knee; and her mouth was shut, and she opened it not during the seven days and during the seven nights of her humiliation.

2And she said in her heart, not opening her mouth: "What shall I do, I the lowly one, or where shall I go?

3And with whom again shall I hereafter find refuge? or to whom shall I speak, the virgin that is an orphan and desolate and abandoned by all and hated?

4All now have come to hate me, and among these even my father and my mother, for that I spurned the gods with loathing and made away with them and have given them to the poor to be destroyed by men.

5For my father and my mother said: 'Asenath is not our daughter.'

6But all my kin also have come to hate me, and all men, for that I have given their gods to destruction.

7And I have hated every man and all who wooed me, and now in this mine humiliation I have been hated by all and they rejoice over my tribulation.

8But the Lord and God of the mighty Joseph hateth all who worship the idols, for that he is a jealous God and terrible, as I have heard, against all who worship strange gods; whence he hath hated me also, because I worshipped dead and deaf idols and blessed them.

9But now have I shunned their sacrifice, and my mouth hath become estranged from their table, and I have no courage to call upon the Lord God of heaven, the Most High and powerful one of the mighty Joseph, for that my mouth is polluted from the sacrifices of the idols.

10But I have heard many saying that the God of the Hebrews is a true God, and a living God, and a merciful God and pitiful and long-suffering and full of mercy and gentle, and one who reckoneth not the sin of a man who is humble, and especially of one who sinneth in ignorance, and convicteth not of lawlessnesses in the time of the affliction of a man that is afflicted; accordingly I also, the humble one, will be bold and will turn to him and seek refuge with him and confess all my sins to him and pour out my petition before him, and he will have mercy on my misery.

11For who knoweth if he will see this mine humiliation and the desolation of my soul and pity me, and will see also the orphanhood of my wretchedness and virginity and defend me? for that, as I hear, he is himself a father of orphans and a consolation of the afflicted and a helper of the persecuted.

12But in any case I also the humble one will be bold and will cry to him."

13Then Asenath rose up from the wall where she was sitting, and raised herself upon her knees toward the east, and directed her eyes toward heaven, and opened her mouth and said to God: