Asenath

Also known as: Joseph's unnamed wife, the daughter of his master (Section 038) · Family: Egyptians · Role: daughter of Zuleika · First appears: The Wives Of The Sons Of Jacob

Born to Dinah and Shechem, Asenath was abandoned as an infant at Egypt’s borders. An angel carried her to Egypt, where Potiphar adopted and raised her. While still an infant, she defended Joseph against a false accusation, assuring her foster-father that the charge was false and preventing him from having Joseph hanged.

At eighteen, Asenath rejected marriage proposals, including one from Pharaoh’s first-born son, whose father refused the match. After seeing Joseph in the first year of plenty, she changed her mind: “If my father will give me in marriage to Joseph, I will be his forever.” She spent seven days and nights repenting and casting away her idols; on the eighth morning, an angel gave her the bread and cup of life. Asenath and Joseph became betrothed, then married in Pharaoh’s presence. During the seven years of plenty, she bore Joseph two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

Later, Asenath visited Jacob, who blessed her. When Pharaoh’s first-born son’s forces attacked her and her attendants, she fled; after she prayed for aid, her assailants’ swords fell from their hands and they begged her pardon.