39:14 she called for her household servants and said to them, “See, my husband brought35 in a Hebrew man36 to us to humiliate us.37 He tried to have sex with me,38 but I screamed loudly.39
tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so it could be treated as a passive (“a Hebrew man was brought in”; cf. NIV). But it is clear from the context that her husband brought Joseph into the household, so Potiphar is the apparent referent here. Thus the translation supplies “my husband” as the referent of the unspecified pronominal subject of the verb (cf. NEB, NRSV).
36
snA Hebrew man. Potiphar’s wife raises the ethnic issue when talking to her servants about what their boss had done.
37
tnHeb “to make fun of us.” The verb translated “to humiliate us” here means to hold something up for ridicule, or to toy with something harmfully. Attempted rape would be such an activity, for it would hold the victim in contempt.
38
tnHeb “he came to me to lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.