(Genesis 39:01 - 40:23)
Joseph was transported to Egypt where Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh and a captain of the palace guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, to whom he had been sold. Jehovah, however, looked after Joseph and saw that he was successful in all things. As a household servant, Joseph was in the good graces of his Egyptian master Potiphar, who, seeing that was an able man and divinely favored, made him his personal attendant. Soon, Potiphar promoted him to be the steward of his household and placed all his domestic affairs in his hands. Thenceforth, Jehovah, for Joseph’s sake, blessed the house of the Egyptian, and this blessing embraced his entire household, his flocks and fields, and all that Potiphar possessed. Entrusting everything to Joseph, Potiphar hardly had to concern himself with anything -- save for what he ate.
Joseph was a well-built and fine-looking young man, and, after a while, his master's wife cast a lustful eye upon him. "Come and lie with me!" she bid him. But he spurned her, saying, "Your husband has no concern for the affairs of his household, but has put me in charge of everything. There is no one who has more authority here than I. There is nothing he has not given me control over, except for you, for you are his wife. ... How can I do this wicked thing and sin against God?"
Every day, though, she repeated her importuning proposition. But Joseph rebuffed her advances, refusing not only to lie with her, but even to be alone with her. One day, however, when Joseph entered the house to attend to his duties, there happened to be no other men present. Potiphar's wife pulled him to her by clutching the hem of his cloak and demanded "Come and lie with me!" He got away from her, but, in fleeing, left behind his cloak. When she noticed that he had fled, but that she still grasping his cloak, the wife called together the men of the household. She announced to them, "My husband has brought in a Hebrew to abuse us. He tried to rape me, but I cried out and when he heard me, he dashed out of the house, leaving his cloak behind.” As proof of her charge, she saved the garment and showed it her husband when he came home. She told him the same story, "That Hebrew slave that you brought into the house tried to rape me! I screamed and so he fled, leaving behind this cloak.”
Potiphar, giving too much credence to his wife's words, was furious. Consequently, he sent Joseph to the jail where the Pharaoh's prisoners were kept and had him incarcerated there. But Jehovah was merciful and caused the warden of the prison to become favorably disposed to Joseph. Joseph was subsequently allowed to take charge of the prisoners that were in custody and assumed the entire management of the prison. Whatever was done there was done by Joseph alone with the warden quite content to know nothing about it. (Jehovah thus favored Joseph and made him successful in all things).
At that time, the Pharaoh's chief cup-bearer and his chief baker incurred the displeasure of their royal master, who was so angry with them that he put them in the custody of the warden of the same prison where Joseph was being held. The warden turned them over to Joseph, who looked after them as they served their sentence.
After some time in prison, the cup-bearer and the baker both had dreams on the same night, with each dream having its particular interpretation. When Joseph checked on them in the morning, he found them looking down at the mouth. "Why are you gloomier today than usual?" he asked of the Pharaoh’s officers who were imprisoned with him.
They both replied, "We each had a dream last night, but there is no one here to tell us what they may portend.”
Joseph replied, “Isn’t the interpretation of dreams reserved to God? ... Go ahead, tell me the dreams."
The cup-bearer recounted his dream to Joseph. "In the dream, I saw a vine before me and the vine had three branches. It budded and blossomed and then the clusters turned into ripe grapes. I was holding a drinking cup belong to the Pharaoh. I took the grapes and squeezed their juice into the cup and then served it to the Pharaoh."
Joseph responded, "The interpretation of the dream is this: The three branches correspond to three days, after which the Pharaoh will remember your good service and restore you to your former position. You will serve him the cup as a part of the duties of your office, just as in the old days when you were his cup-bearer. ... If all goes well with you, please remember me and do me this kindness, put in a good word for me with the Pharaoh so that he might set me free, for I was abducted from the land of the Hebrews and have done nothing here to warrant being thrown into prison."
The chief baker, being encouraged by the favorable interpretation, told Joseph, "I also had a dream. In it, I carried three wicker baskets on my head. In the topmost one there was an assortment of pastries for the Pharaoh, but birds were eating them from out of the basket on my head."
Joseph responded, "This is the interpretation: The three baskets correspond to three days. At the end of that time, the Pharaoh will remember you. --- He will impale you on a stake, where the vultures will devour your flesh!”
In three days time, it was the Pharaoh's birthday. He held a great feast for his servants and at the banquet remembered his former chief cup-bearer and the chief baker. The first, the cup-bearer, he restored to his place where he once again served the Pharaoh his cup. But as for the chief baker, he impaled him, just as Joseph had foretold in his interpretation of the dream.
However, the cup-bearer failed to remember Joseph; he forgot all about him.
Notes
1. Joseph, a man of talent and enterprise, has the facility to make the best of every adverse situation and the ability to inspire confidence in those he works for. Nevertheless, Potiphar believed the side of the story told by his faithless wife rather than the truth told by Joseph -- not, however, too surprising. And the cup-bearer failed to put in a good word for him when he was restored to his position, as Joseph had predicted in his interpretation of the dream of the three grape branches. This is a very true-to-life story of gratitude -- the lack of it, for most people, then and now, are only momentarily grateful to those who do them a good turn. They generally end up feeling resentment toward those who know more and who work harder and more successfully than they do.
2. Joseph resists the unwelcome advances of Potiphar's wife not out of a distaste for her person, or out of loyalty to his master, but because to submit would be wrong per se, a sin, an act prohibited by God. This is the first definitive instance in Genesis of sexual morality divorced from familial obligations. (Judah's visiting a prostitute is not explicitly condemned, while Tamar's presumed promiscuity shamed the family because it resulted in a scandalous out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Nor does the text condemn Reuben's affair with his step mother, save that it offended his father.)
3. Joseph's interpretation of his fellow inmate's dreams seems intuitive and prophetic, rather than relying on some formula or guide to meaning. He initially declines to interpret the dreams, because he believes that is God's role, but does so anyway. The text does not ascribe his dream knowledge as emanating from a divine source. At this point, Joseph can best be described as a psychic rather than a prophet.
4. So far in Joseph's story there is no direct intervention by or contact with Jehovah, save for a lot of favoring and blessing. He is referenced only in "if something happens, it's God's will" context. When something favorable happens to Joseph, then it is Jehovah who has made it happen, but the agency by which he operates is unstated. The objective reader is left to conclude that Jehovah is not really involved at all, any more than God is responsible for numinously influencing the mind of an employer so that he will give a devout Christian a raise in pay. Jehovah is constantly favoring and blessing Joseph, yet, he seems content to have him rot in jail for something he didn't do.
5. It should be mentioned that in Ancient Egypt criminals were almost never sentenced to terms of imprisonment as punishment. Jails were merely holding cells for those awaiting trial and sentencing. Punishment was usually corporeal, whipping, beatings, ear-loppings, and so forth. Sometimes it consisted of banishment or exile. Rape, which was what Joseph was accused of, might have been a capital offense, but, in fact, executions, which had to be sanctioned by the Pharaoh, were not very common. Impaling was the usual mode of execution. (Some translations incorrectly have the chief baker being beheaded or hanged.)
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