44 S Genesis 39:6
put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed
the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord
was on everything Poti p
har had, both in the h
ouse and in the f ield. 6 So Poti
phar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in c harge, he did not
concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s
wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”
8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not
concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has en
trusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this h
ouse than I am. My master has
withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then
could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” 10 And t hough she spoke
to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
11 One day he went into the h
ouse to attend to his duties, and none of the
household servants was inside. 12 She c aught him by his c loak and said, “Come
to bed with me!” But he left his c loak in her hand and ran out of the house.
13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of
the house, 14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this
Hebrew has been brought to us to make s port of us! He came in here to sleep
with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak
beside me and ran out of the house.”
16 She kept his c loak beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she
told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make
sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me
and ran out of the house.”
19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how
your slave treated me,” he b
urned with anger. 20 Joseph’s master took him and
put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.
But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he
showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison war
den. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and
he was made responsible for all that was done t here. 23 The warden paid no
attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph
and gave him success in whatever he did.
The Cupbearer and the Baker
40
Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of E
gypt of
fended their master, the king of E
gypt. 2 Pharaoh was angry with his
two officials, the c hief cupbearer and the c hief baker, 3 and put them in cus
tody in the h
ouse of the captain of the g
uard, in the same prison where Jo
seph was confined. 4 The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and
he attended them.
After they had been in custody for some time, 5 each of the two men — the
cupbearer and the baker of the king of E
gypt, who were being held in pris
on — had a dream the same n
ight, and each d
ream had a meaning of its own.
6 When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were de
jected. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his
master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”
8 “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret
them.”
Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me
your dreams.”
9 So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my
dream I saw a vine in front of me, 10 and on the vine were three branches. As
soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. 11 Phar
aoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Phar
aoh’s cup and put the cup in his hand.”
12 “This is what it m
eans,” Joseph said to him. “The t hree branches are t hree
days. 13 Within t hree days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to
your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to