۞ And women in the city said: The chiefs wife seeks her slave to yield himself (to her), surely he has affected her deeply with (his) love; most surely we see her in manifest error. 30 When she heard their slanderings, she sent for them and prepared a banquet, and gave each of them a knife (for paring fruit), and called (to Joseph): "Come out before them." When they saw him, the women were so wonderstruck they cut their hands, and exclaimed: "O Lord preserve us! He is no mortal but an honourable angel." 31 She said, "That is the one about whom you blamed me. And I certainly sought to seduce him, but he firmly refused; and if he will not do what I order him, he will surely be imprisoned and will be of those debased." 32 Joseph said, "Lord, prison is dearer to me than that which women want me to do. Unless You protect me from their guile, I shall be attracted to them in my ignorance". 33 So his Lord responded to him and averted from him their plan. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Knowing. 34 Yet, even after all the evidence they had seen, they thought it right to jail him for a time. 35