Welcome to Joseph: A Beautiful Patience, the companion podcast to Harry Peter De La Savane's literary retelling of an ancient family story of betrayal, patience, and forgiveness. In this eleventh episode, the women summoned by the king assemble in an antechamber as morning light shifts across the floor.

Potiphar's wife sits slightly apart, the others having unconsciously left a circle of empty space around her. The king opens the inquiry with a single sentence: we are here to establish truth. The chapter walks through the testimonies one by one, each woman lending courage to the next, until the question can no longer be deflected. And then the answer that closes the longest open wound in the chapter: it was I who tried to seduce him, and he is surely one of the truthful.

What follows is the part that surprises everyone. Joseph, learning of his vindication in his cell, speaks not of triumph but of his former master's honour, and of the soul that inclines to evil except by the mercy that has held him steady. The captain who carries the message stands transfixed before a man whose priorities he has never seen in any prisoner. The king, hearing the report, knows he has found someone he needs.

The chapter closes with the signet ring leaving the king's finger and landing on Joseph's. The plan that could save a kingdom is set in motion. And in the quiet of his new residence, the boy who once stood shaking in a marketplace stands at his window, the Nile catching moonlight, the dream of his youth still alive.

In this episode:

• The morning of the inquiry: Egypt's noblewomen brought through darkness while the city slept
• The testimonies, and Potiphar's wife's confession at last
• Joseph's response, the part that astonishes everyone: the soul that needs mercy to remain steady
• The king's recognition: a man who refuses freedom without honour is exactly the man he needs
• The audience and the appointment: today you are respected and trusted by us
• The plan that could save a kingdom: store the grain in its ears, treat surplus as more precious than gold
• The signet ring placed on Joseph's finger, and the residence prepared

About the book: Joseph: A Beautiful Patience is a literary retelling of the story of Joseph and his family: the dream, the betrayal by his brothers, the years in slavery and prison, and the unlikely path to forgiveness. Harry Peter De La Savane writes from Ottawa-Gatineau, Canada, between English, French, and Arabic. The book is the first in a planned trilogy; novels devoted to Mary and to Jesus are also in preparation.

Get the book: Order Joseph: A Beautiful Patience at hpdelasavane.com, the perfect companion to this audio series.

Next episode: seven years of plenty unfold exactly as the dream foretold. Then famine descends on every land within reach of rumor, and one morning, eleven men from Canaan stand at Egypt's distribution complex, asking for grain.

Subscribe to follow Joseph's journey from the well to the palace, one chapter at a time.