۞ Women in the town began to gossip, "The nobleman's wife is trying to seduce her slave! Love for him consumes her heart! Indeed! We see her in manifest error." 30 When she heard of their intrigues, she sent for them and prepared a party for them. She gave a knife to each of them [to cut fruits, etc.] and then asked Joseph to appear before them. When the women saw him, they were greatly amazed [at his beauty], and they cut their hands, exclaiming, "God preserve us! This is no human being but a noble angel!" 31 Said she: "This, then, is he about whom you have been blaming me! And indeed, I did try to make him yield himself unto me, but he remained chaste. Now, however, if he does not do what I bid him, he shall most certainly be imprisoned, and shall most certainly find himself among the despised! 32 (Joseph) prayed: "O Lord, dearer is prison than what they invite me to. Unless You turn their guiles away from me I shall succumb to their charms and thus become a pagan." 33 So his Lord answered him, and He turned away from him their guile; surely He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing. 34 And it seemed good to them (the men-folk) after they had seen the signs (of his innocence) to imprison him for a time. 35