Genesischapter 39
23 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
She grabbed Joseph by his cloak and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his cloak in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
This chapter returns to Joseph, now a slave in an Egyptian household, and it was first heard by a nation that knew slavery in Egypt from the inside. It follows a rise and a sudden fall, and then a second rise in a very different house. One sentence about God's presence frames the chapter and returns at each turn. Listen for how often the word hand appears, and for when Joseph speaks and when he is silent. Notice what a garment is used to prove. The chapter asks what faithfulness looks like when it costs a man everything he has gained.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, who knew what it was to serve inside an Egyptian household
- What
- A narrative of Joseph's service in Potiphar's house, his refusal of Potiphar's wife, and his imprisonment on her false charge.
- Where
- Egypt, in the house of Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh's guard, and then in the prison where the king's prisoners were held.
- When
- About 1898 to 1889 BC on the traditional chronology, in the years between Joseph's sale at seventeen and his rise at thirty.
- Why
- To show that the LORD was with Joseph in slavery and in prison, and that faithfulness to God held when it brought no reward.
Historical context
The chapter is Joseph's, and in it he is property, bought from the Ishmaelites by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. The time is the first stretch of the thirteen years between the pit at seventeen and the court at thirty, which Genesis counts at 37:2 and 41:46.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The place is Egypt, a great man's estate and then the jail attached to the captain of the guard. Such a household ran under one steward who kept the accounts, controlled the stores and answered for everything except the master's own food. James K. Hoffmeier records that foreign slaves did reach those posts, with Semitic names on the household lists.
A first hearer knew what a reader today has to be told about the rest. The wife of a great man had her own quarters, her own servants and a great deal of unsupervised time. Egypt produced its own story on the same situation, the Tale of Two Brothers, where a wife propositions her husband's younger brother and accuses him when he refuses.
A slave charged with assaulting his master's wife could be executed, and Joseph is jailed instead. The jail is the king's own, which is why officers of the crown are put in with him in the next chapter.
Significance
Twice Joseph is put in charge and twice he is stripped of it, and both times the chapter says the same thing, that the LORD was with Joseph.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For Israel that was the theology of their own slavery. God's presence did not lift them out of the house of bondage, and it was with them inside it.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The classical readers treat this chapter as a test passed, and they put the reason for Joseph's refusal in a law that binds every nation rather than Israel alone. Rashi glosses Joseph's own words by the rabbinic ruling that the sons of Noah "were subject to the command which forbade immorality", on Sanhedrin 56b (Rashi on Genesis 39:9:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain). He explains the Egyptian's confidence in Joseph by Joseph's own speech, that "the name of God was a familiar word in his mouth", on Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 8 (Rashi on Genesis 39:3:1), and he reads the refusal as total, the tenth verse forbidding even lying beside her, "even without sinning", on Genesis Rabbah 87:6 (Rashi on Genesis 39:10:1). The day of the assault he sets on a festival, "a day of merriment, a day of their sacred feast", which is why the house was empty (Rashi on Genesis 39:11:1). Of the favour Joseph found in the prison he says only that it made him liked, "so that he was liked by all who saw him", and cites the Mishnaic use of the same word for a bride everyone likes, at Ketubot 17a (Rashi on Genesis 39:21:1). Ramban's English is in the corpus on the prison, and he opens by weighing another commentator's reading against his own: "Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra says that the verse itself explains" what the place was (Ramban on Genesis 39:20:1, the Commentary on the Torah by Ramban, translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo Publishing House, New York, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY). Radak and Sforno read the opening blessing plainly. Radak says Joseph "he was successful in all things he undertook on his own behalf" and in his master's house alike (Radak on Genesis 39:2:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY), and Sforno reads the Lord's being with Joseph as protection, "to save him from anyone who would take advantage of him" (Sforno on Genesis 39:2:1, Munk translation, CC-BY). Malbim comments here at 39:5:1 and 39:13:1, Sforno again at 39:12:1 and Radak at 39:15:1, and the corpus holds no English of those four under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand as citations.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-five of them Midrash and five Talmud. Bereshit Rabbah is cited fourteen times, and the run at 87:1, 87:5, 87:6 through 87:10 and 88:1, 88:5 and 88:7 covers the refusal, the seizing of the garment and the accusation. Bereshit Rabbati is cited at Parashat Vayeshev 31 and 32 and at Parashat Miketz 12 and 39, Aggadat Bereshit at 25:2, 40:1, 42:1, 61:1, 61:3 and 68:2, Midrash Sekhel Tov at Bereshit 39:13:1, 39:15:1, 39:18:1 and 39:22:1, and Midrash Lekach Tov at Genesis 39:13:1 and 39:23:1. Bamidbar Rabbah is cited at 13:5 and 14:6 and Midrash Aggadah at Genesis 39:3:1 and 39:16:1. The five Talmud locators fall where the chapter turns on law and character: Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 11:2 at the blessing on the house, Avodah Zarah 3a:8 at the approach and 5a:5 at Joseph's daily refusal, Arakhin 15b:19 and Avot DeRabbi Natan 16:2 at the words about sin against God. Rashi hands on further sayings with their locators, among them Genesis Rabbah 44:5 and 87:6, Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 8, Sanhedrin 56b and Ketubot 17a.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 39:1:1, 39:3:1, 39:4:1, 39:6:1, 39:7:1, 39:9:1, 39:10:1, 39:11:1, 39:14:1, 39:16:1, 39:17:1, 39:19:1, 39:21:1, 39:22:1 and 39:23:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ramban, Ramban on Genesis 39:20:1, the Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides), translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo Publishing House, New York, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Genesis 39:1:1, 39:2:1 and 39:8:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Radak on Genesis 39:15:1, cited only; Sforno, Sforno on Genesis 39:2:1, Munk translation, CC-BY; Sforno on Genesis 39:12:1, cited only; Malbim, Malbim on Genesis 39:5:1 and 39:13:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Midrash, Bereshit Rabbah 29:4, 42:3, 53:10, 60:15, 86:6, 87:1, 87:5, 87:7, 87:8, 87:9, 88:1, 88:5 and 88:7; Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 31 and 32 and Parashat Miketz 12 and 39; Aggadat Bereshit 25:2, 40:1, 42:1, 61:1, 61:3 and 68:2; Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 39:13:1, 39:15:1, 39:18:1 and 39:22:1; Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 39:13:1 and 39:23:1; Bamidbar Rabbah 13:5 and 14:6; Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 39:3:1 and 39:16:1; Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 1:14; Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on Megilat Esther, Midrash on the Megillah (of Esther) 3; Genesis Rabbah 87:6 as Rashi cites it; Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 3a:8 and 5a:5, Arakhin 15b:19; Sanhedrin 56b and Ketubot 17a as Rashi cites them; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Avot DeRabbi Natan 16:2; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 11:2.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Lord Was with Joseph
Genesis 39:1-2
taken down to Egypt: Joseph is taken down to Egypt, where Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard, buys him from the Ishmaelites. He is a slave in a foreign house, sold there by his own brothers. Then comes the sentence that governs the chapter, that the LORD was with Joseph. It is said first of a slave.
Genesis 39:1
“The Jews have a proverb, "If the world did not know the worth of good men, they would hedge them about with pearls." He was sold to an officer of Pharaoh, with whom he might get acquainted with public persons and public business, and so be fitted for the preferment for which he was designed.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
he became a successful man: The word for successful comes from tsalach, the verb Abraham's servant used at Genesis 24:40 when he said the LORD would give his errand success. The God who prospered that errand for Isaac prospers a slave in Egypt. Joseph serves inside the house, near his master.
Genesis 39:2
“Lowly servants have grounds on which they may glory; Joseph also was a servant. Those who have passed from freedom into slavery through some exigency have a source of consolation. They have something to imitate, so that they may learn that their status can change but not their character; that among household servants there is liberty; and that in servitude there is constancy. Masters have something to hope for through good and humble servants. Abraham found a wife for his son through a servant of his household.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Joseph the Patriarchpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 39:2
“SCRIPTURE frequently sums up a man's life in a single sentence. Here is the biography of Joseph sketched by Inspiration—"God was with him," so Stephen testified in his famous speech recorded in Acts 7:9. Here is the life story of Abraham—"Abraham believed God." Of Moses, we read, "The man Moses was very meek." Take a New Testament life, such as that of John the Baptist, and you have it in a line—"John did no miracles, but all things that he spoke concerning Jesus were true." The mere name of John—"that disciple whom Jesus loved"—would serve for an epitaph of him.”
Genesis 39:3-4
his master saw that the LORD was with him: An Egyptian who knows nothing of the God of Abraham can see the LORD at work in a slave's hands. Calvin says the grace on Joseph showed plainly enough for a heathen master to read it. Joseph found favor in his sight and was put over the whole household. Everything Potiphar owns passes into Joseph's hand.
Genesis 39:3
“Here that which has been lately alluded to more clearly appears, that the grace of God shone forth in Joseph, in no common or usual manner; since it became thus manifest to a man who was a heathen, and, in this respect, blind.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
became his personal attendant: Personal attendant renders the Hebrew verb sharat, used of Joshua as the attendant of Moses at Exodus 24:13. Put in charge is the verb paqad, and Joseph later advises Pharaoh at Genesis 41:34 to appoint overseers with the same word. A slave now runs the house.
Genesis 39:4
“He made him overseer - הפקיד hiphkid, from פקד pakad, to visit, take care of, superintend; the same as επισκοπος, overseer or bishop, among the Greeks. This is the term by which the Septuagint often express the meaning of the original.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 39:5-6
the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s household: A pagan household is blessed on account of one Hebrew slave inside it. The blessing promised to Abraham at Genesis 12:3 is working here at the smallest scale, on a man who owns nothing. Potiphar leaves everything in Joseph's care and concerns himself with the food he eats. The verse then calls Joseph well-built and handsome.
Genesis 39:5
“And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 39:5
“8 But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand; 9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joseph was well-built and handsome: The Hebrew pair behind well-built and handsome is the one used of his mother Rachel at Genesis 29:17. The detail stands directly before the trouble of verse 7. Egyptians kept apart from Hebrews at table, as Genesis 43:32 records, and Potiphar's food stayed his own concern.
Genesis 39:6
“Joseph was a goodly person, and well favored - יפה תאר ויפה מראה yepkeh thoar, vipheh mareh, beautiful in his person, and beautiful in his countenance. The same expressions are used relative to Rachel; see them explained Gen 29:17 (note). The beauty of Joseph is celebrated over all the East, and the Persian poets vie with each other in descriptions of his comeliness. Mohammed spends the twelfth chapter of the Koran entirely on Joseph, and represents him as a perfect beauty, and the most accomplished of mortals.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How Can I Do This Great Wickedness?
Genesis 39:7-9
cast her eyes upon Joseph: Joseph refuses and gives two reasons in order, the trust his master put in him, and then God. He calls it sin against God. Nothing has been withheld from him except her, and the verse gives the reason, that she is his master's wife. Everything given and one thing held back is the shape of Genesis 2:16 and 17.
But he refused: Refused translates ma'en, the verb of Jacob refusing all comfort at Genesis 37:35. In the Hebrew text the word carries the shalshelet, a rare accent found only four times in the Torah and sung as a long wavering note. Here the son refuses his master's wife in his master's house.
Genesis 39:8
“But what should I say about the arrangement of his private house, which he governed? However, he accomplished more by ruling himself before others. And even though he was attractive in appearance and very handsome, he did not use the beauty of his face to cause harm to others, but preserved it for his own grace. He believed himself to be more beautiful if he could prove himself more attractive through modesty and the cultivation of chastity rather than through the loss of his virtue.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · ON JOSEPH 5.22patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 39:8
“My master wotteth not - Knoweth not, from the old Anglo-Saxon, witan, to know; hence, wit, intellect, understanding, wisdom, prudence.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
how could I do such a great evil: Abimelech spoke of adultery as a great guilt on his kingdom at Genesis 20:9. After his own adultery David confessed at Psalm 51:4 that his sin was against God and was evil in His sight. Joseph names that before the act.
Genesis 39:9
“How can I sin against God - Not only how shall I do it and sin against my master, my mistress, myself, my own body and soul, but against God? - Gracious souls look upon this as the worst thing in sin, that it is against God, against his nature and his dominion, against his love and his design. They that love God, for this reason hate sin.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 39:9
“How then - ואיך veeik, and how? Joseph gives two most powerful reasons for his noncompliance with the wishes of his mistress: 1. Gratitude to his master, to whom he owed all that he had. 2. His fear of God, in whose sight it would be a heinous offense, and who would not fail to punish him for it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 39:10-12
spoke to Joseph day after day: The pressure runs day after day, and the verse says so. Joseph refuses her and keeps out of her way, and he does it every day she asks. One day the house is empty of servants, and she takes hold of his cloak. He leaves the cloak in her hand, escapes, and runs outside.
Genesis 39:10
“The young man is desired by his mistress but is not provoked to lust. He is asked and runs away. She who commanded in other matters, in this one thing coaxes and pleads. She loved him, or was it rather herself?”
Caesarius of Arles · written before 542 · SERMON 90.2patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 39:10
“The temptation he was assaulted with was very strong. Never was a more violent onset made upon the fort of chastity than this recorded here. (1.) The sin he was tempted to was uncleanness, which considering his youth, his beauty, his single state, and his plentiful living at the table of a ruler, was a sin which, one would think, might most easily beset him and betray him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
went into the house to attend to his work: Joseph enters the house on the business entrusted to him at verse 4. An empty house left no witness to what followed. The charge that comes next rests on her word alone.
Genesis 39:11
“And it came to pass about this time,.... About a week, or a month, or rather a year, as Aben Ezra thinks, after she first began her solicitations to him.”
he escaped and ran outside: Her demand is the same two Hebrew words she spoke in verse 7, now with her hand on his cloak. Paul gives the same counsel at 1 Corinthians 6:18, flee from sexual immorality. Joseph answers force with flight.
Genesis 39:12
“Further, she said to him, "Lie with me." The first weapons of the adulteress are those of the eyes, the second those of words, but one who is not seduced by the eyes can resist the word. A defense is at hand when the passions are still free. And so it is written that "he refused." Therefore Joseph first overcame her attack through a struggle in his heart and drove her back with the shield of his soul, so to speak; then he launched his word like a spear to force her retreat.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Joseph the Patriarchpatristic
Genesis 39:13-15
he had left his cloak in her hand: She calls the household servants before she calls her husband. The charge runs against Potiphar as well, in her words this Hebrew has been brought to us. Henry notices that she never calls Potiphar her husband in the speech, only he. Clarke points out that the verb she chooses for make sport of is the one behind Isaac's name, and it carries what she wants without her saying it.
Genesis 39:13
“And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand,.... And so all hopes of succeeding in her addresses to him were over: and he was fled forth; into the streets, or into some out house, where business was carried on by servants under him.”
I screamed as loud as I could: Under the later law of Deuteronomy 22:24 to 27, a woman's cry for help marked her as the one wronged. She claims that scream before her household servants. Every detail of her story reverses what happened.
Genesis 39:14
“Indeed, Joseph went out of doors while she spread the news of the temptation that arose from her own adultery; she said in a loud voice that the Hebrew had fled and left his garment behind. Thus she revealed what she should have concealed, so as to do harm to an innocent man by inventing a crime. But the just man Joseph did not know how to make accusation, and so the impure woman accomplished this with impunity. Therefore I might say that she was the one who had really been stripped, although she was keeping the clothing of another.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Joseph the Patriarchpatristic
3 more voices on this verse
Genesis 39:14
“Then she called unto the men of her house--Disappointed and affronted, she vowed revenge and accused Joseph, first to the servants of the house, and on his return to her lord. See, he hath brought in an Hebrew . . . to mock us--an affected and blind aspersion of her husband for keeping in his house an Hebrew, the very abomination of Egyptians.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 39:14
“Observe, When she speaks of her husband, she does not call him her husband, or her lord, but only he; for she had forgotten the covenant of her God, that was between them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 39:14
“He hath brought in a Hebrew unto us - Potiphar’s wife affects to throw great blame on her husband, whom we may reasonably suppose she did not greatly love. He hath brought in - he hath raised this person to all his dignity and eminence, to give him the greater opportunity to mock us. לפחק letsachek, here translated to mock, is the same word used in Gen 26:8, relative to Isaac and Rebekah; and is certainly used by Potiphar’s wife in Gen 39:17, to signify some kind of familiar intercourse not allowable but between man and wife.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
he left his cloak beside me: The narrator said twice that the cloak was left in her hand, at verses 12 and 13. In her telling it lies beside her. The change turns the proof of her grip into proof of his approach.
Genesis 39:15
“And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried,.... He attempting to ravish her, as she would have it understood, but afraid, lest upon her outcry those that were in the house should come in to her assistance, and seize on him: that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out: but why should he strip himself of his garment, and leave that behind him? he might have fled with it.”
Genesis 39:16-18
kept Joseph’s cloak beside her: She keeps the cloak beside her and waits for Potiphar to come home. Told the second time the story shifts, and the man becomes the Hebrew slave you brought us, so part of the blame lands on the master. Gill asks the question the account leaves standing, why a man running from an assault would strip off his cloak and leave it. No one in that house asks it.
Genesis 39:16
“And she laid up his garment by her,.... As a proof of what she laid to his charge, and as a testimony against him: until her lord came home; or until his lord came home, for the pronoun refers to Joseph, and so Jarchi interprets it; who either was gone a journey, or gone to court that day, being an officer of Pharaoh's, or to the public place where the festival was kept that day, if it was such an one.”
Before the servants she said he came to make sport of the whole household, and before her husband she makes it an insult to herself. She adds the word slave, which puts him at the bottom of the house. His brothers later call themselves his slaves at Genesis 44:16.
Genesis 39:17
“And she spake unto him according to these words,.... When her husband came home she related to him the above affair, according to the purport of the above words, and in much the same manner, and to the same import as she had to the men of her house: saying, the Hebrew servant which thou hast brought unto us came in unto me to mock me; in an obscene manner, using filthy words and actions, contrary to the rules of chastity as well as good manners; or, in other words, to lie with her, which she pretended he solicited.”
when I screamed for help: She gives her husband the same two proofs she gave the servants, the scream and the cloak. The law of Deuteronomy 19:18 to 19 later gave a false witness the very penalty he meant for his neighbor. Potiphar hears one side.
Genesis 39:18
“And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried,.... For help from the servants, and frightened at his insolent attempt: that he left his garment with me, and fled out; and then she brought it forth, and showed him it.”
Genesis 39:19-20
he burned with anger: Potiphar burns with anger and then stops short of what the charge allows. An attempt on his wife could have cost Joseph his life, and he goes to the king's prison instead. Jamieson reads the king's prison as a sign the master did not wholly believe the story. Joseph answers nothing, here or anywhere in the chapter.
Genesis 39:19
“When she could not protect her own vices, she accused the innocent; she joined deceit to deceit, held on to the possessions of others, herself condemned others and set no limit to her fury. Whatever was the reason for her cruelty? Only that she saw that her cravings were meeting with resistance and her forbidden desires were being frustrated of receiving consent. See the reason why the prison opens—to admit the innocent. Why criminals are freed of their chains—that these may be put on the faithful!”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Joseph the Patriarchpatristic
had him thrown into the prison: The prison where his master had him thrown is called sohar, a round house or fortress, and the Old Testament uses the word only in Genesis 39 and 40. Psalm 105:18 adds that the king's prisoner had his feet bruised with shackles and his neck put in irons. Sold at seventeen, he stands before Pharaoh at thirty.
Genesis 39:20
“Where the king's prisoners were bound - Potiphar, it is likely, chose that prison because it was the worst; for there the irons entered into the soul, Psalm cv, 18, but God designed it to pave the way to his enlargement. Our Lord Jesus, like Joseph was bound, and numbered with the transgressors.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 39:20
“Therefore I might say Joseph was happier when he was put into prison, because he was giving witness on behalf of chastity. For modesty is a good gift but one of lesser merit when it involves no risk. Where, however, it is maintained at the risk of one's safety, there it wins a more abundant crown. With his case unheard, his truthfulness unexamined, Joseph is sent into prison as if guilty of a crime. But the Lord did not abandon him even in prison.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Joseph the Patriarchpatristic
Genesis 39:20
“Accused persons were cast into them until the charges against them could be investigated; and though the jailer was responsible for the appearance of those placed under his custody, yet, provided they were produced when called, he was never interrogated as to the way in which he had kept them.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Favor Even Inside the Prison
Genesis 39:21-22
extended kindness to him: The LORD is with him in the prison, extending kindness to him, in a far worse place than the one he left. Favor comes in the eyes of the warden, the same order as in Potiphar's house. The warden puts every prisoner under Joseph's care. The place changed and the LORD stayed.
Genesis 39:21
“But why would it be surprising if Christ visits those in prison, since he himself mentioned being imprisoned in his own words, as it is written: "I was in prison, and you did not visit me." Where does divine mercy not penetrate? Joseph found such favor that he, who had been locked in prison, would keep the doors of the prison himself, granted the duty of jailer, and entrusted all the prisoners to his authority. Therefore, Joseph not only did not feel the prison, but also alleviated the suffering of the other prisoners.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · ON JOSEPH 5.27patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 39:21
“But the Lord was with Joseph and shewed him mercy. God despiseth not his prisoners, Psalm lxix, 33. No gates nor bars can shut out his gracious presence from his people.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 39:21
“And herein Joseph was a type of Christ, "who took upon him the form of a servant," and yet then did that which made it evident that "God was with him," who was tempted by Satan, but overcame the temptation, who was falsely accused and bound, and yet had all things committed to his hand.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Hebrew closes by making him the doer of all the work of the prison, so it ran on his orders. Charge of the king's prisoners places him beside the two officers of Pharaoh in chapter 40. That post brings him the king's cupbearer.
Genesis 39:22
“Note, Wisdom and virtue will shine in the narrowest spheres. A good man will do good wherever he is, and will be a blessing even in bonds and banishment; for the Spirit of the Lord is not bound nor banished, witness St. Paul, Phil. i.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
gave him success in whatever he did: The warden hands the whole prison over and looks into none of it, the same trust Potiphar gave. The chapter ends where it began, with success in whatever he did. Between the two he has lost a house, a cloak and his freedom. The LORD was with Joseph.
Genesis 39:23
“The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand,.... Under the hand of Joseph; he did not inquire into and examine his conduct and management of things; he took no account of what was in his hands, nor required any of him; so satisfied was he with what he did, and had such an opinion of his prudence and faithfulness.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a temptation resisted and the imprisonment that follows it, as Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The LORD was with Joseph, said twice at each end | The sentence stands four times in the chapter, at verses 2 and 3 over the slave and at verses 21 and 23 over the prisoner, counted in the Berean text in the store. John Wesley reads the first pair as the reason the work prospered and the second pair as the answer to the jail, that no gates nor bars can shut out the gracious presence of God from his people.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 39:2 and 39:21. | Genesis 39:2, Genesis 39:3, Genesis 39:21, Genesis 39:23 |
| Success in all he did, at the opening and at the close | Verse 3 has the LORD making Joseph prosper in all he did and verse 23 has the LORD giving him success in whatever he did, so the chapter ends on the words it began with while the man has lost a house, a cloak and his freedom between them. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown put the prospering under a higher influence than the warden's good opinion.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 39:21. | Genesis 39:3, Genesis 39:23 |
| The verb behind make sport of | Adam Clarke records that the word Potiphar's wife chooses at verses 14 and 17 is letsachek, the same verb that stands at Genesis 26:8 of Isaac and Rebekah, and that it carries there a familiarity proper to a husband and a wife. The accusation is built on a word the book has already used for married love.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 39:14. | Genesis 39:14, Genesis 39:17 |
| He, where a wife would say my husband | Matthew Henry observes that when she speaks of Potiphar to the servants at verse 14 she calls him neither her husband nor her lord but only he. The pronoun does the work of the insult, and the same sentence turns the blame on him for bringing the Hebrew into the house.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 39:14. | Genesis 39:14, Genesis 39:17 |
| Everything, and one thing held back | Verses 4 to 6 list what passes into Joseph's hand, the household, all that Potiphar owned, the house and the field, until the master concerns himself with nothing except the food he eats. Joseph reads that list back at verses 8 and 9 and puts one item outside it, the master's wife, and Matthew Henry takes the trust itself to be the first of the two reasons he gives.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 39:8. | Genesis 39:4, Genesis 39:5, Genesis 39:6, Genesis 39:8, Genesis 39:9 |
How the rest of Scripture reads this chapter
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
Stephen tells the chapter in two sentences at Acts 7:9 and 10, that the patriarchs sold Joseph as a slave into Egypt, that God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles, and that God granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh. Charles Spurgeon builds his sermon on Joseph from that summary and reads the chapter's own refrain as the same verdict.
Psalm 105:17 to 19 fills in the prison, saying that they bruised his feet with shackles and placed his neck in irons until his prediction came true. John Wesley cites that line at verse 20 and takes the king's prison to be the worst place available and the road to Joseph's release at the same time.
The debated concept
What Potiphar believed is the chapter's open question. An attempt on the wife of a senior officer of the crown could have cost a slave his life, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the sentence of prison rather than death as a sign that the master did not wholly believe the story his wife told him. John Gill presses the same point from the evidence and asks why a man running from an assault would strip off his cloak and leave it behind. Matthew Henry takes the anger of verse 19 at its word and reads Joseph as the best of men falsely accused of the worst of crimes by the worst of criminals, without asking what the master privately thought.
Potiphar's office is disputed in the same way. The Berean text calls him an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. Adam Clarke reports Ainsworth's view that the office was charge of the king's prisoners, which would make the jail of verse 20 Potiphar's own house and explain how the captain of the guard assigns two officers to Joseph at 40:4. Jamieson takes that identification in the next chapter. The text itself names the prison as the place where the king's prisoners were confined and leaves the rest to inference.
The divine connection
Genesis 12:3 promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. Genesis 39:5 records the LORD blessing an Egyptian's household on account of one of Abraham's descendants who owned nothing in it, and verse 5 extends the blessing to everything Potiphar owned in the house and in the field. The two verses stand together in the book, and the claim goes no further than what they say: the promise is working at the smallest scale the story has yet reached, inside one foreign household, on the account of a slave.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1610, 1881, on Genesis 39:2; John Calvin, Commentaries, 1554, on Genesis 39:1 and Matthew Henry.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Chuck Missler, The Book of Genesis; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.