Joseph Succeeds in Adversity

39 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh, commander of the bodyguards, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down there. ² But Adonai was with Joseph. So he became a successful man in the house of his master, the Egyptian. ³ His master saw that Adonai was with him and that Adonai made everything he set his hand to successful. ⁴ Joseph found favor in his eyes, so he served him as a personal servant and he made him an overseer over his household; everything that was his he entrusted into his hand. ⁵ From the time that he made him an overseer in his house and over everything that belonged to him, Adonai blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph; Adonai’s blessing was on everything that belonged to him, in the house and in the field. ⁶ So he released everything he owned into Joseph’s hand. With him in charge, he did not think about anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was handsome in form and handsome in appearance.

⁷ Now after these things, the master’s wife lifted up her eyes at Joseph and said, “Come, lie down with me!”

⁸ But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “my master doesn’t think about anything in the house with me in charge, and everything that belongs to him he’s entrusted into my hand. ⁹ No one in this house is greater than I, and he has withheld nothing from me—except you, because you are his wife. So how could I commit this great evil and sin against God?”

¹⁰ So whenever she spoke to Joseph, day after day, he did not listen to her invitation to lie down beside her, to be with her. ¹¹ Now on one such day, he came into the house to do his work, and none of the people of the house were there in the house. ¹² Then she grabbed him by his garment saying, “Come, lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand, fled and went outside. ¹³ When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, ¹⁴ she screamed to the men of her house and said to them, “Look! Someone brought a Hebrew man to us to fool with us. He approached me to lie with me so I screamed out loud. ¹⁵ When he heard me raise my voice and scream, he left his garment with me, fled and went outside.”

¹⁶ Then she kept the garment with her until his master came home. ¹⁷ She spoke the same words to him saying, “The Hebrew slave that you brought us approached me to fool with me. ¹⁸ When I raised my voiced and screamed, he left his garment with me and fled outside.”

¹⁹ Now when his master heard the words his wife spoke to him saying, “Such are the things your slave did to me,” his anger burned. ²⁰ Then Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So there he was, in the prison.

²¹ But Adonai was with Joseph and extended kindness to him and gave him favor in the eyes of the commander of the prison. ²² The commander of the prison entrusted into Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison, so that everything that was done there, he was responsible for it. ²³ The commander of the prison did not concern himself with anything at all under his care, because Adonai was with him, and Adonai made whatever he did successful.

Interpreter of Dreams

40 Now it was after these things that the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. ² Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, with the chief of the cupbearers and with the chief of the bakers. ³ So he put them in custody of the house of the commander of the bodyguards—in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined. ⁴ The commander of the bodyguards assigned Joseph to be with them and served them as their personal servant. They were in custody for some time.

⁵ Then the two of them each dreamed a dream on the same night. The dream of each man—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each had its own interpretation. ⁶ When Joseph came to them in the morning, he observed them, and there they were, looking miserable. ⁷ So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were with him in the custody of the house of his master saying, “Why are your faces so sad today?”

⁸ They said to him, “We dreamed a dream and there is no one to interpret it.”

Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Please tell me.”

⁹ So the chief of the cupbearers told his dream to Joseph, saying to him, “In my dream, suddenly, there was a vine in front of me. ¹⁰ On the vine were three branches, and as it was budding, its blossoms came out, its clusters ripened into grapes. ¹¹ Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand and I took the grapes, pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and put the cup in Pharaoh’s palm.”

¹² “This is its interpretation,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches: they are three days. ¹³ In another three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position. Then you’ll put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand just as you used to do before when you were his cupbearer. ¹⁴ But if you remember me, that I was with you, when it goes well with you, please show me kindness and mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house. ¹⁵ For I was forcibly kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing at all that they should put me in this pit.”

¹⁶ When the chief of the bakers saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream. Expectantly, there were three baskets of white bread on my head. ¹⁷ In the top basket was food for Pharaoh—all kinds of baked goods. But the birds were eating them from the basket on my head.”

¹⁸ Then Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation. The three baskets: they are three days. ¹⁹ In another three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—off of you—and will hang you on a tree. Then the birds will eat your flesh off of you.”

²⁰ Then it happened on the third day—Pharaoh’s birthday—that he held a banquet for all his servants. He lifted up the head of the chief of the cupbearers and the head of the chief of the bakers among his servants. ²¹ He restored the chief of the cupbearers as his cupbearer, and he put the cup on the palm of Pharaoh’s hand. ²² But the chief of the bakers he hung. It was just as Joseph had interpreted for them. ²³ Yet the chief of the cupbearers did not remember Joseph—indeed, he forgot him.

Parashat Miketz

Exalted by Pharaoh

41 Now at the end of two whole years, Pharaoh was dreaming. Behold, there he was standing by the Nile. ² Then behold, there were seven cows, good-looking and beefy, and they grazed in the reeds. ³ Then behold, there were seven other cows coming up after them from the Nile, ugly and emaciated, and they stood beside the cows at the edge of the Nile. ⁴ Then the ugly emaciated cows ate the seven good-looking beefy cows—and Pharaoh woke up.

⁵ Then he slept and dreamed a second time: behold, there were seven ears of corn coming up on one stalk, plump and good. ⁶ Then behold, there were seven ears of corn, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouting up after them. ⁷ Then the seven thin ears of corn swallowed up the seven plump and full ears of corn. Then Pharaoh woke up—it was a dream.

⁸ But in the morning he was disturbed in his spirit. So he sent and called for the fortune-telling priests of Egypt and all its wise men and Pharaoh told them his dream. But no one could interpret them for Pharaoh.

⁹ Then the chief of the cupbearers spoke with Pharaoh saying, “I am reminded of my sins today. ¹⁰ Pharaoh had been angry with his servants and put me in the custody of the house of the commander of the bodyguards—me and the chief of the bakers. ¹¹ Then we each dreamed a dream on the same night, he and I, we both dreamed, yet each dream had its own interpretation. ¹² Now there with us was a Hebrew youth—a slave belonging to the commander of the bodyguards. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams for us, each man’s dream he interpreted. ¹³ Then it came about, just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. Me he restored to my position, but him he hung.

¹⁴ Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph. So they quickly fetched him from the pit. He shaved, changed his clothes, and came to Pharaoh. ¹⁵ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I dreamed a dream and there’s no one to interpret it. I heard about you—it’s said that you can listen to a dream to interpret it.”

¹⁶ Then Joseph answered Pharaoh saying, “It’s not within me. God will answer with shalom for Pharaoh.”