Genesis 39: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Joseph is taken to Egypt and bought by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, and the LORD is with Joseph, so that Potiphar puts him in charge of his whole household. Potiphar's wife repeatedly asks Joseph to sleep with her; he refuses, and when he leaves his garment in her hand and runs out, she tells the household servants and then her husband that he came to her. Potiphar is angry and puts Joseph in the prison where the king's prisoners were held. There the LORD is with Joseph, and the keeper of the prison puts all the prisoners in Joseph's charge.

Claim by Claim

1. 39:1
   • Joseph was brought down to Egypt.
   • Potiphar bought Joseph.
   • Potiphar was an officer of Pharaoh.
   • Potiphar was captain of the guard.
   • Potiphar was an Egyptian.
   • Potiphar bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites.
   • The Ishmaelites had brought Joseph down to Egypt.
2. 39:2
   • The LORD was with Joseph.
   • Joseph was a man who prospered.
   • Joseph was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
3. 39:3
   • Joseph's master saw that the LORD was with Joseph.
   • Joseph's master saw that the LORD made all that Joseph did prosper in his hand.
4. 39:4
   • Joseph found favor in his master's eyes.
   • Joseph served his master personally.
   • His master appointed Joseph over his house.
   • His master put all that he had into Joseph's hand.
5. 39:5
   • From the time the master appointed Joseph over his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house.
   • The LORD blessed the Egyptian's house because of Joseph.
   • The blessing of the LORD was on all that the Egyptian had in the house.
   • The blessing of the LORD was on all that the Egyptian had in the field.
6. 39:6
   • The master left all that he had in Joseph's hand.
   • The master concerned himself with nothing he had except the food he ate.
   • Joseph was handsome in form.
   • Joseph was handsome in appearance.
7. 39:7
   • After these things, the wife of Joseph's master looked at Joseph with desire.
   • She said to Joseph, Lie with me.
8. 39:8
   • Joseph refused.
   • Joseph said to his master's wife that his master did not concern himself with anything in the house while Joseph was there.
   • Joseph said his master had put all that he had into Joseph's hand.
9. 39:9
   • Joseph said no one in that house was greater than he was.
   • Joseph said his master had withheld nothing from him except the master's wife.
   • Joseph said the reason she was withheld was that she was his master's wife.
   • Joseph asked how he could do this great evil.
   • Joseph said doing it would be sinning against God.
10. 39:10
    • She spoke to Joseph day after day.
    • Joseph did not listen to her to lie beside her.
    • Joseph did not listen to her to be with her.
11. 39:11
    • About this time Joseph went into the house to do his work.
    • None of the men of the house was there in the house.
12. 39:12
    • She seized Joseph by his garment.
    • She said, Lie with me.
    • Joseph left his garment in her hand.
    • Joseph fled.
    • Joseph went outside.
13. 39:13
    • She saw that Joseph had left his garment in her hand.
    • She saw that Joseph had fled outside.
14. 39:14
    • She called to the men of her house.
    • She told them to look.
    • She said a Hebrew man had been brought to them to mock them.
    • She said he came in to her to lie with her.
    • She said she cried out with a loud voice.
15. 39:15
    • She said that when he heard her lift up her voice and cry out, he left his garment with her.
    • She said he fled.
    • She said he went outside.
16. 39:16
    • She laid his garment beside her.
    • She kept it until his master came home.
17. 39:17
    • She spoke to her husband with these words.
    • She said the Hebrew servant whom he had brought to them came in to her.
    • She said he came in to mock her.
18. 39:18
    • She said that when she lifted up her voice and cried out, he left his garment with her.
    • She said he fled outside.
19. 39:19
    • Joseph's master heard the words his wife spoke to him.
    • His wife said, This is what your servant did to me.
    • The master's anger was kindled.
20. 39:20
    • Joseph's master took him.
    • Joseph's master put him into the prison.
    • The prison was the place where the king's prisoners were bound.
    • Joseph was there in the prison.
21. 39:21
    • The LORD was with Joseph.
    • The LORD extended steadfast love to Joseph.
    • The LORD gave Joseph favor in the eyes of the keeper of the prison.
22. 39:22
    • The keeper of the prison put all the prisoners in the prison into Joseph's hand.
    • Joseph was the one who did whatever was done there.
23. 39:23
    • The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph's hand.
    • The reason was that the LORD was with Joseph.
    • The LORD made what Joseph did prosper.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

39:1

"Brought down" is the usual way Hebrew speaks of travel from the hill country of Canaan to Egypt, which lies lower and to the south; it is geography, not a comment on Joseph's fortunes. The Ishmaelites were a trading people descended from Ishmael, Abraham's son by Hagar; the previous chapters describe them buying Joseph from his brothers and carrying him south with a caravan. "Officer of Pharaoh" translates a word for a court official (elsewhere it can mean a eunuch, though it was also used more loosely of high officers); "captain of the guard" means head of the royal bodyguard or executioners. Pharaoh was the title of Egypt's king, not a personal name.

39:2

Where the King James prints LORD in capital letters, it stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants (YHWH); Jewish tradition avoids pronouncing it and reads "the Lord" instead. "Lord" or "master" in ordinary type translates an entirely different word, meaning an owner or superior.

39:4

"Found grace in his sight" is an idiom meaning he was looked on with favor; it carries no religious sense here. The "overseer" is a household steward, the manager who ran an estate's staff, stores and accounts on the owner's behalf. Egyptian records describe exactly such a post in large households.

39:5

"For Joseph's sake" means because of Joseph, not for something Joseph wanted.

39:6

"Knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat" means he kept track of nothing except the meals put in front of him (Joseph handled the rest. Some readers have also heard an echo of the later remark (Genesis 43:32) that Egyptians would not eat at the same table as Hebrews. "A goodly person, and well favoured" is literally "beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance") the same double phrase used of Joseph's mother Rachel.

39:7

"Cast her eyes upon" is an idiom for looking at someone with desire. "Lie with me" is a plain-spoken demand for sex; the Hebrew is as blunt as the English.

39:8

"Wotteth not" is old English for "does not know" or "takes no notice of."

39:9

"Kept back" means withheld or reserved. Joseph's point is a legal and household one: everything in the estate has been handed to him except the one thing that belongs to his master alone.

39:10

"Hearkened not unto her" means he would not agree or comply, not merely that he did not hear.

39:11

"To do his business" means to carry out his work, the steward's daily duties in the house. "The men of the house" are the household servants.

39:12

The garment is an outer robe, worn over a tunic and easily slipped off or pulled away; Joseph is not left naked. In a world with few documents, a personal garment functioned as identification and could be produced as evidence that its owner had been present, the same use made of Judah's staff and seal two chapters earlier.

39:14

"Hebrew" is how outsiders label Joseph and his family through these chapters; it marks him as a foreigner and, in her mouth, sets the household servants against him. She does not name her husband, only "he", the accusation is aimed partly at the man who brought the foreigner in. "To mock us" translates a verb meaning to laugh, play or sport with, used elsewhere with a clearly sexual edge; the English "mock" is narrower than the Hebrew.

39:15

"Lifted up my voice and cried" means screamed for help. In the legal thinking of the ancient Near East, a woman's outcry was the standard proof that she had not consented; by claiming she screamed and can produce the garment, she is assembling a case.

39:16

"His lord" here means Joseph's master, her own husband, Potiphar.

39:17

"Servant" in the King James almost always means a slave, someone owned rather than employed; Joseph was bought and has no freedom to leave.

39:19

"His wrath was kindled" is a Hebrew idiom, literally "his nose burned", for flaring anger. Whom he is angry at is not stated in the text.

39:20

The Hebrew calls this place the "round house" or fortress-house; it is a detention building attached to the royal establishment, holding prisoners of the crown, rather than a public jail. Note that a slave accused of assaulting his master's wife could have been executed; the narrator records the imprisonment without explaining the choice.

39:21

"Shewed him mercy" translates a word for steady, loyal kindness, the treatment owed within a bond of obligation. The "keeper of the prison" is the warden or governor of the place.

39:22

"He was the doer of it" does not mean Joseph personally performed every task, but that nothing was done except under his direction.

39:23

"Looked not to any thing that was under his hand" means he did not check up on anything Joseph was responsible for, the same phrase used earlier of Potiphar.