Abraham’s Family · c. 1898–1885 BC
Chapter 13
Prisoner in Egypt
But Yahweh was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
For parents
In this chapter Potiphar’s wife keeps trying to get Joseph to sleep with her, and when he runs away, she falsely accuses him of attacking her (Genesis 39:7–20). Later Pharaoh has his chief baker put to death: Joseph tells the baker his head will be cut off, his body hung on a pole and the birds will eat it (40:19–22). Both are told plainly. Parents may want to read it first.
was brought down to . There the who had brought him sold him to an Egyptian named . Potiphar was an officer of ’s, the captain of the guard.
The was with Joseph, and everything went well for him. He lived in his Egyptian master’s house, and Potiphar could see that the Lord was with Joseph. Whatever Joseph did, the Lord made it turn out well. Potiphar was pleased with Joseph, and Joseph became his personal servant. Then Potiphar put him in charge of his household and trusted him with everything he owned.
From the time Potiphar put Joseph in charge of everything, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s household because of Joseph. The Lord’s blessing was on everything Potiphar had, in the house and in the fields. So Potiphar left everything he owned in Joseph’s hands. He paid no attention to anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was strong and handsome.
After a while, Potiphar’s wife had her eye on Joseph, and she said, “Sleep with me.”
But Joseph said no. “Listen,” he told his master’s wife, “with me here, my master doesn’t even keep track of what goes on in the house. He has put everything he has into my hands. Nobody in this house is above me. He hasn’t held back anything from me but you, since you are his wife. How could I do something so wicked and sin against God?”
She kept on asking Joseph day after day, but he wouldn’t listen to her. He would not sleep with her, or even spend time with her.
Then one day Joseph went into the house to do his work. There were no other men of the household inside. She caught hold of his cloak and said, “Sleep with me!” But he ran outside, leaving his cloak behind in her hand.
When she saw that he had run outside and left his cloak in her hands, she called out to the men of her household. “Look!” she told them. “My husband has brought this into our house to make fun of us. He came in here to force himself on me, and I cried out at the top of my voice. When he heard me shouting and screaming, he left his cloak next to me and ran outside.”
She kept the cloak by her side until Joseph’s master came home, and she told him the same thing: “The Hebrew servant you brought into our house came in to make fun of me. When I raised my voice and screamed, he left his cloak by me and ran outside.”
When Potiphar heard his wife say, “This is how your slave treated me,” he was furious. He took Joseph and put him in prison, in the place where the king’s prisoners were held. And there Joseph stayed, in prison.
But even there the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord was kind to him and made the warden of the prison think well of him. The warden put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners, and Joseph was responsible for whatever went on there. The warden didn’t worry about anything Joseph looked after, because the Lord was with Joseph and made everything he did succeed.
Some time later, the king of Egypt’s and his baker did something wrong against their master, the king. Pharaoh was angry with these two men, his chief cupbearer and his chief baker. He had them locked up in the house of the captain of the guard. It was the same prison where Joseph was held. The captain of the guard put them in Joseph’s care, and Joseph looked after them. They stayed in prison for many days.
Then one night, there in the prison, the king’s cupbearer and baker both had dreams. Each man had his own dream, and each dream had its own meaning. In the morning Joseph came to see these officials of Pharaoh’s, who were being held with him in his master’s house. He saw that they looked unhappy, so he asked them, “Why do you look so sad today?”
“We both had dreams,” they said, “and there is no one to tell us what they mean.”
Joseph said to them, “Isn’t it God who explains dreams? Please tell me your dreams.”
So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. “I dreamed I saw a vine in front of me,” he said. “It had three branches. The moment it budded, it blossomed, and then its bunches of grapes were ripe. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand. I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I put the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”
Joseph told him, “This is what your dream means. The three branches are three days. Three days from now, Pharaoh will lift up your head: he will bring you out and give you your old job back. You will hand Pharaoh his cup again, the way you did before, when you were his cupbearer.
“But remember me when things are going well for you. Please do me a kindness: speak to Pharaoh about me, and get me out of here. The truth is, I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews. Even here I’ve done nothing to deserve being put in this dungeon.”
When the chief baker saw that the meaning was good, he said to Joseph, “I had a dream too. There were three baskets of white bread on my head. The top basket held all kinds of baked food for Pharaoh. The birds were eating the food out of the basket on my head.”
Joseph answered, “This is what your dream means. The three baskets are three days. Three days from now, Pharaoh will lift up your head, but he will lift it off your body. He will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh.”
On the third day, Pharaoh’s birthday, he gave a feast for all his officials. In front of them all, he lifted up the heads of both men, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker: he brought them out. He gave the chief cupbearer his job back, and once again the cupbearer put the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. But Pharaoh hanged the chief baker, exactly as Joseph had told them.
But the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph. He forgot all about him.
Two full years went by, and then Pharaoh had a dream. In it he was standing beside the Nile River. Seven cows came up out of the river, sleek and fat, and fed on the grass in the marsh. Then seven other cows came up out of the river behind them, ugly and thin. They stood on the riverbank beside the first cows. The ugly, thin cows ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. And with that, Pharaoh woke up.
He went back to sleep and had a second dream. Seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, healthy and good. Then seven more heads of grain sprang up after them, thin and dried up by the east wind. And the thin ones swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Pharaoh woke up, and it had been a dream.
In the morning Pharaoh felt troubled inside, so he called in all of Egypt’s magicians and wise men. He told them his dreams, but not one of them could explain what they meant.
Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I have to admit I did wrong. Pharaoh was once angry with his servants. He put me under guard in the house of the captain of the guard, along with the chief baker. One night he and I both had dreams, and each dream had a meaning of its own. There was a young Hebrew with us who worked for the captain of the guard. We told him what we had dreamed, and he explained our dreams to us. He told each of us what his own dream meant. And it happened just as he told us: I was given back my job, and the baker was hanged.”
So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they hurried him out of the dungeon. He shaved, changed his clothes and went in to see Pharaoh.
Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I’ve had a dream, and nobody can explain it. But I’ve heard it said about you that you only have to hear a dream to explain it.”
“I can’t,” Joseph answered Pharaoh. “God will give Pharaoh an answer that will put his mind at peace.”
Then Pharaoh told Joseph, “In my dream I was standing at the edge of the river. Seven fat, sleek cows came up out of the river and fed on the marsh grass. Then seven other cows came up after them, in poor shape, very ugly and thin. I’ve never seen cows that ugly anywhere in the land of Egypt. The thin, ugly cows ate up the seven fat cows that had come up first. But after they had eaten them, you couldn’t tell they had eaten them at all. They were still just as ugly as they had been at first. Then I woke up.
“I also dreamed that seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, full and good. Then seven more heads of grain sprang up after them, shriveled, thin and dried up by the east wind. Those thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good ones. I told the magicians about it, but none of them could explain it to me.”
Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s dreams are really one dream. God is about to do something, and he is telling Pharaoh what it is. The seven good cows stand for seven years, and so do the seven good heads of grain. It’s all one dream. The seven thin, ugly cows that came up after them stand for seven years, and so do the seven empty heads of grain dried up by the east wind. They will be seven years of famine, when food runs short.
“It is just as I said: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Look, seven years are coming when there will be plenty of food all through the land of Egypt. But after that, seven years of famine will come, and all the plenty in Egypt will be forgotten. The famine will eat up the land. The plenty will not even be remembered, because the famine that follows will be so severe.
“Pharaoh had the dream twice because God has firmly decided this, and God will make it happen soon.
“So now Pharaoh should find a wise man with good sense and put him in charge of Egypt. Pharaoh should also choose officials to take charge of the land. During the seven years of plenty, they should collect one part out of every five of everything Egypt grows. They should gather all the food from the good years that are on the way and store the grain in the cities, under Pharaoh’s control, and keep it there. That food will be there for the country when the seven years of famine come to Egypt. Then the country won’t be ruined by the famine.”
Pharaoh liked the idea, and so did all his officials. He said to them, “Can we find anyone else like this man, a man who has the Spirit of God in him?”
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “God has shown you all of this, so there is no one as wise and sensible as you. You will be in charge of my household, and all my people will do as you tell them. Only my throne will make me greater than you.” And Pharaoh told Joseph, “Look, I am putting you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.”
Pharaoh took his ring off his own hand and put it on Joseph’s. He dressed him in fine linen robes and hung a gold chain around his neck. He made Joseph ride in his second chariot, and people called out in front of him, “Kneel!” In this way Pharaoh made Joseph ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh. Without your permission no one in all Egypt will do anything.” Pharaoh named Joseph . He also gave him a wife: , the daughter of , priest of the city of . And Joseph went out across all the land of Egypt.
Joseph was thirty years old when he began to serve Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He left Pharaoh and traveled all through the land of Egypt.
During the seven years of plenty, the land produced huge harvests. Joseph gathered up all the food grown in Egypt in those seven years and stored it in the cities. The food from the fields around each city was kept in that city. Joseph piled up grain like the sand of the sea. There was so much that he stopped counting, because it was more than anyone could count.
Joseph had two sons before the years of famine came. Their mother was Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Joseph named his first son , which sounds like the Hebrew word for “forget”. “God has made me forget all my troubles,” he said, “and all my father’s family.” He named his second son , which sounds like the Hebrew for “twice fruitful”. “God has made me fruitful in the land where I have suffered,” he said.
Then the seven years of plenty in the land of Egypt were over. The seven years of famine started, just as Joseph had said. Famine struck every land, but all through the land of Egypt there was food.
When the whole land of Egypt began to go hungry, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread. He told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph, and do whatever he tells you.” The famine spread over the whole earth. Then Joseph opened up all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians. The famine was severe in Egypt. People came from every country to buy grain from Joseph in Egypt, because the famine was severe all over the world.