Genesis 39–40

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

39Now the Ishmaelites had taken Joseph to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, one of the king’s officers, who was the captain of the palace guard. ^2*The Lord was with Joseph and made him successful. He lived in the house of his Egyptian master, ³who saw that the Lord was with Joseph and had made him successful in everything he did. ⁴Potiphar was pleased with him and made him his personal servant; so he put him in charge of his house and everything he owned. ⁵From then on, because of Joseph the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian and everything that he had in his house and in his fields. ⁶Potiphar handed over everything he had to the care of Joseph and did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Joseph was well-built and good-looking, ⁷and after a while his master’s wife began to desire Joseph and asked him to go to bed with her. ⁸He refused and said to her, “Look, my master does not have to concern himself with anything in the house, because I am here. He has put me in charge of everything he has. ⁹I have as much authority in this house as he has, and he has not kept back anything from me except you. How then could I do such an immoral thing and sin against God?” ¹⁰Although she asked Joseph day after day, he would not go to bed with her.

¹¹But one day when Joseph went into the house to do his work, none of the house servants was there. ¹²She caught him by his robe and said, “Come to bed with me.” But he escaped and ran outside, leaving his robe in her hand. ¹³When she saw that he had left his robe and had run out of the house, ¹⁴she called to her house servants and said, “Look at this! This Hebrew that my husband brought to the house is insulting us. He came into my room and tried to rape me, but I screamed as loud as I could. ¹⁵When he heard me scream, he ran outside, leaving his robe beside me.”

¹⁶She kept his robe with her until Joseph’s master came home. ¹⁷Then she told him the same story: “That Hebrew slave that you brought here came into my room and insulted me. ¹⁸But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his robe beside me.”

¹⁹Joseph’s master was furious ²⁰and had Joseph arrested and put in the prison where the king’s prisoners were kept, and there he stayed. ^21*But the Lord was with Joseph and blessed him, so that the jailer was pleased with him. ²²He put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and made him responsible for everything that was done in the prison. ²³The jailer did not have to look after anything for which Joseph was responsible, because the Lord was with Joseph and made him succeed in everything he did.

Joseph Interprets the Prisoner’s Dreams

40Some time later the king of Egypt’s wine steward and his chief baker offended the king. ²He was angry with these two officials ³and put them in prison in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same place where Joseph was being kept. ⁴They spent a long time in prison, and the captain assigned Joseph as their servant.

⁵One night there in prison the wine steward and the chief baker each had a dream, and the dreams had different meanings. ⁶When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were upset. ⁷He asked them, “Why do you look so worried today?”

⁸They answered, “Each of us had a dream, and there is no one here to explain what the dreams mean.”

“It is God who gives the ability to interpret dreams,” Joseph said. “Tell me your dreams.”

⁹So the wine steward said, “In my dream there was a grapevine in front of me ¹⁰with three branches on it. As soon as the leaves came out, the blossoms appeared, and the grapes ripened. ¹¹I was holding the king’s cup; so I took the grapes and squeezed them into the cup and gave it to him.”

¹²Joseph said, “This is what it means: the three branches are three days. ¹³In three days the king will release you, pardon you, and restore you to your position. You will give him his cup as you did before when you were his wine steward. ¹⁴But please remember me when everything is going well for you, and please be kind enough to mention me to the king and help me to get out of this prison. ¹⁵After all, I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here in Egypt I didn’t do anything to deserve being put in prison.”

¹⁶When the chief baker saw that the interpretation of the wine steward’s dream was favourable, he said to Joseph, “I had a dream too; I was carrying three bread baskets on my head. ¹⁷In the top basket there were all kinds of pastries for the king, and the birds were eating them.”

¹⁸Joseph answered, “This is what it means: the three baskets are three days. ¹⁹In three days the king will release you—and have your head cut off! Then he will hang your body on a pole, and the birds will eat your flesh.”

²⁰On his birthday three days later the king gave a banquet for all his officials; he released his wine steward and his chief baker and brought them before his officials. ²¹He restored the wine steward to his former position, ²²but he executed the chief baker. It all happened just as Joseph had said. ²³But the wine steward never gave Joseph another thought—he forgot all about him.