Joseph's reward and David's witness

Cyril: But the wondrous Joseph was unshaken. He did not have the loose, undisciplined ways of youth, nor was he afraid because he was a foreigner and a household slave; for he had been forced into both by his brothers when they sold him to the Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:28). And since he was stronger alike than that most loathsome pleasure and than the stirrings toward lewdness, the wretched woman slandered him and turned the charge round against the young man (Genesis 39:17–19). He would not yield to her demands, and she branded him an assailant. From then on the young man was a prisoner (Genesis 39:20); yet by divine grace he was kept safe, and at once he won, as the wage of his self-control, rule over the whole land of the Egyptians (Genesis 41:41). So even if this course brings labors, even if heavy sweat lies before the glories of self-control, it counts for little with one who has chosen to love God wholly. For he will have, yes, he will have praise to match it and rewards of equal weight. That is why the inspired David too marvels at the most praiseworthy young man for what he suffered in this cause, saying, ‘Joseph was sold as a slave; they humbled his feet in fetters; his soul passed through iron’ (Psalm 105:17–18). By iron, I think, he means the hard and unbreakable onset of such sweat, through which one may hold sin in check and depart from all filth, and indeed attain the holy and most pure life, I mean the life of the Gospel, the life in Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.