39Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar had bought him from the Ishmaelite traders who had taken him there. Potiphar was one of Pharaoh’s officials. He was the captain of the palace guard.

²The Lord was with Joseph. He gave him great success. Joseph lived in Potiphar’s house.

³Joseph’s master saw that the Lord was with him. He saw that the Lord gave Joseph success in everything he did. ⁴So Potiphar was pleased with Joseph. He made him his attendant. He put Joseph in charge of his house. He told Joseph to take good care of everything he owned.

⁵From that time on, the Lord blessed Potiphar’s family and servants because of Joseph. He blessed everything Potiphar had in his house and field.

⁶So Potiphar told Joseph to take good care of everything he owned. With Joseph in charge, he didn’t have to worry about anything except the food he ate.

Joseph was strong and handsome. ⁷After a while, his master’s wife noticed Joseph. She said to him, “Make love to me!”

⁸But he said no. “My master has put me in charge,” he told her. “Now he doesn’t have to worry about anything in the house. He trusts me to take care of everything he owns.

⁹“No one in this house is in a higher position than I am. My master hasn’t held anything back from me, except you. You are his wife. So how could I do an evil thing like that? How could I sin against God?”

¹⁰She spoke to Joseph day after day. But he told her he wouldn’t make love to her. He didn’t even want to be with her.

¹¹One day Joseph went into the house to take care of his duties. None of the family servants was inside.

¹²Potiphar’s wife grabbed hold of him by his coat. “Make love to me!” she said. But he left his coat in her hand. And he ran out of the house.

¹³She saw that he had left his coat in her hand and had run out of the house. ¹⁴So she called her servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew slave has been brought here to make fun of us! He came in here to force me to have sex with him. But I screamed for help. ¹⁵He heard my scream. So he left his coat beside me and ran out of the house.”

¹⁶She kept Joseph’s coat with her until Potiphar came home. ¹⁷Then she told him her story. She said, “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to rape me. ¹⁸But I screamed for help. So he left his coat beside me and ran out of the house.”

¹⁹Potiphar’s wife told him, “That’s how your slave treated me.” When Joseph’s master heard her story, he became very angry. ²⁰So he put Joseph in prison. It was the place where the king’s prisoners were kept.

While Joseph was there in the prison, ²¹the Lord was with him. He was kind to him.

So the man who was running the prison was pleased with Joseph. ²²He put Joseph in charge of all of the prisoners. He made him accountable for everything that was done there. ²³The man who ran the prison didn’t pay attention to anything that was in Joseph’s care.

The Lord was with Joseph. He gave Joseph success in everything he did.

The Wine Taster and the Baker

40Some time later, the Egyptian king’s baker and wine taster did something their master didn’t like.

²So Pharaoh became angry with his two officials, the chief wine taster and the chief baker. ³He put them in prison in the house of the captain of the palace guard. It was the same prison where Joseph was kept.

⁴The captain put Joseph in charge of those men. So Joseph took care of them.

Some time passed while they were in prison. ⁵Then each of the two men had a dream. The men were the Egyptian king’s baker and wine taster. They were being held in prison. Both of them had dreams the same night. Each of their dreams had its own meaning.

⁶Joseph came to them the next morning. He saw that they were sad. ⁷They were Pharaoh’s officials, and they were in prison with Joseph in his master’s house. So he asked them, “Why do you look so sad today?”

⁸“We both had dreams,” they answered. “But no one can tell us what they mean.”

Then Joseph said to them, “Only God knows what dreams mean. Tell me your dreams.”

⁹So the chief wine taster told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me. ¹⁰There were three branches on the vine. As soon as it budded, it flowered. And bunches of ripe grapes grew on it.

¹¹“Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand. I took the grapes. I squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup. Then I put the cup in his hand.”

¹²“Here’s what your dream means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. ¹³In three days Pharaoh will let you out of prison. He’ll give your position back to you. And you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand. That’s what you used to do when you were his wine taster.

¹⁴“But when everything is going well with you, remember me. Do me a favor. Speak to Pharaoh about me. Get me out of this prison. ¹⁵I was taken away from the land of the Hebrews by force. Even here I haven’t done anything to be put in prison for.”

¹⁶The chief baker saw that Joseph had given a positive meaning to the wine taster’s dream. So he said to Joseph, “I had a dream too. There were three baskets of bread on my head. ¹⁷All kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh were in the top basket. But the birds were eating them out of the basket that was on my head.”

¹⁸“Here’s what your dream means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. ¹⁹In three days Pharaoh will cut your head off. Then he will stick a pole through your body and set the pole up. The birds will eat up your body.”

²⁰The third day was Pharaoh’s birthday. He had a big dinner prepared for all of his officials. He brought the chief wine taster and the chief baker out of prison. He did it in front of his officials. ²¹He gave the chief wine taster’s position back to him. Once again the wine taster put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.

²²But Pharaoh had a pole stuck through the chief baker’s body. Then he had the pole set up.

Everything happened exactly as Joseph had told them when he explained their dreams.

²³But the chief wine taster didn’t remember Joseph. In fact, he forgot all about him.

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