Joseph set over Potiphar's house, 1-4. His purity and imprisonment, 5-13. Imprisonment of
Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker whose dreams Joseph interprets, 14-18. (Cf. Gen.xxxvii.2;
xxxix.3-8, 12-15, 17-23; xl.1-5, 21-3; xli.1.)
[Chapter 39]
- And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan. These
are the generations of Jacob.
- And Joseph was seventeen years old when they took him down
into
the land of Egypt, and Potiphar, an eunuch of Pharaoh, the chief cook bought him.
- And
he set Joseph over all his house and the blessing of the Lord came upon the house of the Egyptian
on
account of Joseph, and the Lord prospered him in all that he did.
- And the Egyptian
committed everything into the hands of Joseph; for he saw that the Lord was with him, and that
the
Lord prospered him in all that he did.
- And Joseph's appearance was comely [and very
beautiful was his appearance], and his master's wife lifted up her eyes and saw Joseph, and she
loved him
and besought him to lie with her.
- But he did not surrender his soul, and he remembered
the Lord and the words which Jacob, his father, used to read from amongst the words of
Abraham, that no man should commit fornication with a woman who has a husband; that for him
the punishment of death has been ordained in the heavens before the Most High God, and the
sin
will be recorded against him in the eternal books continually before the Lord.
- And
Joseph
remembered these words and refused to lie with her.
- And she besought him for a year,
but he
refused and would not listen.
- But she embraced him and held him fast in the house in
order to force him to lie with her, and closed the doors of the house and held him fast; but he
left
his garment in her hands and broke through the door and fled without from her
presence.
- And the woman saw that he would not lie with her, and she calumniated him in the
presence of his lord, saying 'Thy Hebrew servant, whom thou lovest, sought to force me so that
he might lie with me; and it came to pass when I lifted up my voice that he fled and left his
garment in
my hands when I held him, and he brake through the door.'
- And the Egyptian saw the
garment of Joseph and the broken door, and heard the words of his wife, and cast Joseph
into
prison into the place where the prisoners were kept whom the king imprisoned.
- And
he was there in the prison; and the Lord gave Joseph favour in the sight of the chief of the prison
guards and compassion before him, for he saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord
made all that he did to prosper.
- And he committed all things into his hands, and the
chief of the prison guards knew of nothing that was with him, for Joseph did every thing, and the
Lord perfected it.
- And he remained there two years. And in those days Pharaoh, king
of Egypt was wroth against his two eunuchs, against the chief butler, and against the chief baker,
and he put
them in ward in the house of the chief cook, in the prison where Joseph was kept.
- And
the chief of
the prison guards appointed Joseph to serve them; and he served before them.
- And
they both
dreamed a dream, the chief butler and the chief baker, and they told it to Joseph.
- And
as he interpreted to them so it befell them, and Pharaoh restored the chief butler to his office and
the
(chief) baker he slew, as Joseph had interpreted to them.
- But the chief butler forgot
Joseph in the prison, although he had informed him what would befall him, and did not remember
to inform Pharaoh how Joseph had told him, for he forgot.
Chapter: 1 | 2 | 3 |
4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 |
38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 |
44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 |
50
From The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament
by R.H. Charles, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913
Scanned and Edited by Joshua Williams, Northwest Nazarene College