Genesischapter 40

23 verses · ASV

This chapter sends 153 cross-references outward and receives 110 — heaviest partner: Genesis.

Chapter summary

The butler and the baker. Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker fall under displeasure and are put in the same prison. Each dreams a dream on the same night. Joseph interprets: in three days the butler is restored, the baker hanged. Both happen as he said. But the butler forgets Joseph. Two years will pass in silence. Henry calls it the school of patience; Gill emphasises Joseph's one plea — ‘think on me when it shall be well with thee’ — made for liberty by a righteous prisoner, and received by a grateful man who immediately forgot. Providence keeps its own schedule.

Drafted from Matthew Henry, Calvin, Gill, Clarke, JFB, and Barnes.

Context

Law · Moses — see the Genesis overview for the book's full setting.

1 And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt.

2 And Pharaoh was wroth against his two officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.

3 And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.

4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he ministered unto them: and they continued a season in ward.

5 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were bound in the prison.

6 And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and saw them, and, behold, they were sad.

7 And he asked Pharaoh’s officers that were with him in ward in his master’s house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sad to-day?

8 And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell it me, I pray you.

9 And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;