it when they are come back to their family; haply they may return."
And when they returned to their father, they said, "O our father! Measure is withheld from us; so send with us our brother so that we may get measure, and, verily, him we will keep."
He said, "Shall I entrust you with him, save as I entrusted you with his brother before? but God is the best of keepers, and He is the most merciful of the merciful."
And when they opened their goods they found their chattels restored to them. Said they, "O our father! What more can we crave? Here are our chattels restored to us, and we shall guard our brother and we shall have an additional measure beside that—a small measure!"
He said, "I will by no means send him with you, until you give me a compact from God, that you will surely bring him to me, unless ye be encompassed" (by some unavoidable force).
So when they had given him their compact he said, "God over what ye say has charge."
And he said "O my sons, enter not by one gate, but by several gates; but I cannot avail you aught against God. Judgment is only God's; upon Him do I rely, and on Him do the reliant rely."
And when they had entered as their father had bade them, it availed them nothing against God, save for a want in Jacob’s soul which it fulfilled; for, verily, he was possessed of knowl-
