39Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards, bought him from the Ishmaelites^k who had brought him there. ²The Lord was with Joseph,^l and he became a successful man, serving^D in the household of his Egyptian master. ³When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful,^m ⁴Joseph found favorⁿ with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority.^E ⁵From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph.^a The Lord’s blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields. ⁶He left all that he owned under Joseph’s authority;^F he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.^b ⁷After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

⁸But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority.^A ⁹No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?”^c

¹⁰Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her.^B ¹¹Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there.^C ¹²She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. ¹³When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside, ¹⁴she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “my husband brought a Hebrew man to make fools of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, and I screamed as loud as I could. ¹⁵When he heard me screaming for help,^D he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”

¹⁶She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home. ¹⁷Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, ¹⁸but when I screamed for help,^E he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”

¹⁹When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious ²⁰and had him thrown into prison,^d where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.

JOSEPH IN PRISON

²¹But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him.^e He granted him favor with the prison warden.^f ²²The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority,^F and he was responsible for everything that was done there. ²³The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority,^G because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful.^g

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Footnotes

D and he was
E owned in his hand
F owned in Joseph’s hand
A owns in my hand
B he did not listen to her to lie beside her, to be with her
C there in the house
D he heard that I raised my voice and I screamed
E I raised my voice and screamed
F prison in the hand of Joseph
G anything in his hand

Cross references

k Gn 37:25,28,36; Ps 105:17
l Gn 39:3,21,23; Ac 7:9
m Ps 1:3
n Gn 18:3; 19:19; 33:10
a Gn 30:27
b Gn 29:17; 1Sm 16:12
c Gn 20:6; 42:18; 2Sm 12:13; Ps 51:4; Pr 6:29
d Gn 40:3; Ps 105:18
e Gn 39:2; Ps 105:19; Ac 7:9
f Ex 3:21; 11:3; 12:36
g Gn 39:2–3