Genesis 39:6-20

International Standard Version

⁶ Everything that he owned, he entrusted into Joseph’s care. He never concerned himself about anything, except for the food he ate.

Potiphar’s Wife Accuses Joseph

Now Joseph was well built and good looking. ⁷ That’s why, sometime later, Joseph’s master’s wife looked straight at Joseph and propositioned him: “Come on! Let’s have a little sex!”^[a]

⁸ But he refused, telling his master’s wife, “Look! My master doesn’t have to worry about anything in the house with me in charge, and he has entrusted everything into my care. ⁹ No one has more authority in this house than I do. He has withheld nothing from me, except you, and that’s because you’re his wife. So how can I commit such a horrible evil? How can I sin against God?”

¹⁰ She kept on talking to him like this day after day, but he wouldn’t listen to her. Not only would he refuse to have sex with her, he refused even to stay around her. ¹¹ One day, though,^[b] he went into the house to do his work. None of the household servants^[c] were inside, ¹² so she grabbed Joseph^[d] by his outer garment and demanded “Let’s have some sex!”

Instead, Joseph ran outside, leaving his outer garment still in her hand. ¹³ When she realized that he had left his outer garment right there in her hand, she ran outside ¹⁴ and yelled for her household servants. “Look!” she cried out. “My husband^[e] brought in a Hebrew man to humiliate us. He came in here to have sex with me, but I screamed out loud! ¹⁵ When he heard me starting to scream, he left his outer garment with me and fled outside.” ¹⁶ She kept his outer garment by her side until Joseph’s master came home, ¹⁷ and then this is what she told him: “That Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came in here to rape^[f] me. ¹⁸ But when I started to scream, he left his outer garment with me and ran outside.”

Joseph is Locked in Prison

¹⁹ When Joseph’s master heard his wife’s claim to the effect that “This is how your servant treated me,” he flew into a rage, ²⁰ arrested Joseph, and locked him up in the same prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph remained there in prison.