Genesis 39-40

New International Reader's Version

Joseph and the Wife of Potiphar

39 Joseph 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.

² The Lord was with Joseph. He gave him great success. Joseph lived in Potiphar’s house. ³ Joseph’s master saw that the Lord was with him. He saw that the Lord made Joseph successful in everything he did. ⁴ So Potiphar was pleased with Joseph and made him his attendant. He put Joseph in charge of his house. He trusted Joseph to take care of everything he owned. ⁵ From that time on, the Lord blessed Potiphar’s family and servants because of Joseph. He blessed everything Potiphar had in his house and field. ⁶ So Joseph took good care of everything Potiphar owned. With Joseph in charge, Potiphar didn’t have to worry about anything except the food he ate.

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

⁸ But he refused. “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?” ¹⁰ She spoke to Joseph day after day. But he told her he wouldn’t go to bed with her. He didn’t even want to be with her.

¹¹ One day Joseph went into the house to take care of his duties. None of the family servants was inside. ¹² Potiphar’s wife grabbed him by his coat. “Come to bed with me!” she said. But he left his coat in her hand. And he ran out of the house.

¹³ She saw that he had left his coat in her hand and had run out of the house. ¹⁴ So 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. ¹⁵ He heard my scream. So he left his coat beside me and ran out of the house.”

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

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

While Joseph was there in the prison, ²¹ the Lord was with him. He was kind to him. So the man running the prison was pleased with Joseph. ²² He put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners. He made him responsible for everything done there. ²³ The man who ran the prison didn’t pay attention to anything in Joseph’s care. That’s because the Lord was with Joseph. He gave Joseph success in everything he did.

The Wine Taster and the Baker

40 Some time later, the Egyptian king’s baker and wine taster did something their master didn’t like. ² So Pharaoh became angry with his two officials, the chief wine taster and the chief baker. ³ He put them in prison in the house of the captain of the palace guard. It was the same prison where Joseph was kept. ⁴ The captain put Joseph in charge of those men. So Joseph took care of them.

Some time passed while they were in prison. ⁵ Then 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.

⁶ Joseph came to them the next morning. He saw that they were sad. ⁷ They 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.”

⁹ So the chief wine taster told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me. ¹⁰ There 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. ¹³ In three days Pharaoh will let you out of prison. He’ll give your job 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. ¹⁵ I was taken away from the land of the Hebrews by force. Even here I haven’t done anything to be put in prison for.”

¹⁶ The 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. ¹⁷ All kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh were in the top basket. But the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”

¹⁸ “Here’s what your dream means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. ¹⁹ In 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 your flesh.”

²⁰ The third day was Pharaoh’s birthday. He had a feast prepared for all his officials. He brought the chief wine taster and the chief baker out of prison. He did it in front of his officials. ²¹ He gave the chief wine taster’s job back to him. Once again the wine taster put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand. ²² But Pharaoh had a pole stuck through the chief baker’s body. Then he had the pole set up. Everything happened just as Joseph had told them when he explained their dreams.

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