۞ And some ladies in the city began to say: "The chief's wife, violently in love with her houseboy, is out to tempt him. We think she is clearly mistaken." 30 Then, when she heard of their cunning talk, she sent unto them a messenger, and got ready for them a cushioned couch, and gave a knife to each of them. And she said: come forth to them. Then when they saw him, they were astonished at him, and they made a cut in their hands, and said: how perfect is God! no man is he: he is naught but an angel noble. 31 She said, "This is the one on whose account you subjected me to all this blame. I tried to seduce him but he abstained. If he does not yield to me, I shall order him to be locked up in prison to make him humble." 32 Joseph said: "My Lord! I prefer imprisonment to what they ask me to do. And if You do not avert from me the guile of these women, I will succumb to their attraction and lapse into ignorance." 33 Then his Lord answered to him, and averted their guile from him; verily He! He is the Hearer, the Knower! 34 Thereafter it occurred to them, even after they had seen the signs, to imprison him for a season. 35