39:1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. 1 An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, 2 purchased him from 3 the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. 39:2 The Lord was with Joseph. He was successful 4 and lived 5 in the household of his Egyptian master. 39:3 His master observed that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he was doing successful. 6 39:4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal attendant. 7 Potiphar appointed Joseph 8 overseer of his household and put him in charge 9 of everything he owned. 39:5 From the time 10 Potiphar 11 appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed 12 the Egyptian’s household for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both 13 in his house and in his fields. 14 39:6 So Potiphar 15 left 16 everything he had in Joseph’s care; 17 he gave no thought 18 to anything except the food he ate. 19
Now Joseph was well built and good-looking. 20 39:7 Soon after these things, his master’s wife took notice of 21 Joseph and said, “Have sex with me.” 22 39:8 But he refused, saying 23 to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not give any thought 24 to his household with me here, 25 and everything that he owns he has put into my care. 26 39:9 There is no one greater in this household than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do 27 such a great evil and sin against God?” 39:10 Even though she continued to speak 28 to Joseph day after day, he did not respond 29 to her invitation to have sex with her. 30
39:11 One day 31 he went into the house to do his work when none of the household servants 32 were there in the house. 39:12 She grabbed him by his outer garment, saying, “Have sex with me!” But he left his outer garment in her hand and ran 33 outside. 34 39:13 When she saw that he had left his outer garment in her hand and had run outside, 39:14 she called for her household servants and said to them, “See, my husband brought 35 in a Hebrew man 36 to us to humiliate us. 37 He tried to have sex with me, 38 but I screamed loudly. 39 39:15 When he heard me raise 40 my voice and scream, he left his outer garment beside me and ran outside.”
39:16 So she laid his outer garment beside her until his master came home. 39:17 This is what she said to him: 41 “That Hebrew slave 42 you brought to us tried to humiliate me, 43 39:18 but when I raised my voice and screamed, he left his outer garment and ran outside.”
39:19 When his master heard his wife say, 44 “This is the way 45 your slave treated me,” 46 he became furious. 47 39:20 Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, 48 the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison. 49
39:21 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him kindness. 50 He granted him favor in the sight of the prison warden. 51 39:22 The warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care. He was in charge of whatever they were doing. 52 39:23 The warden did not concern himself 53 with anything that was in Joseph’s 54 care because the Lord was with him and whatever he was doing the Lord was making successful.
12:10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt 55 to stay for a while 56 because the famine was severe. 57
12:1 Now the Lord said 58 to Abram, 59
“Go out 60 from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household
to the land that I will show you. 61
5:21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah.
5:1 This is the record 62 of the family line 63 of Adam.
When God created humankind, 64 he made them 65 in the likeness of God.
4:1 Now 66 the man had marital relations with 67 his wife Eve, and she became pregnant 68 and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, “I have created 69 a man just as the Lord did!” 70 4:2 Then she gave birth 71 to his brother Abel. 72 Abel took care of the flocks, while Cain cultivated the ground. 73
4:3 At the designated time 74 Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground for an offering 75 to the Lord.
1 tn The disjunctive clause resumes the earlier narrative pertaining to Joseph by recapitulating the event described in 37:36. The perfect verbal form is given a past perfect translation to restore the sequence of the narrative for the reader.
2 sn Captain of the guard. See the note on this phrase in Gen 37:36.
3 tn Heb “from the hand of.”
4 tn Heb “and he was a prosperous man.” This does not mean that Joseph became wealthy, but that he was successful in what he was doing, or making progress in his situation (see 24:21).
5 tn Heb “and he was.”
6 tn The Hebrew text adds “in his hand,” a phrase not included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 sn The Hebrew verb translated became his personal attendant refers to higher domestic service, usually along the lines of a personal attendant. Here Joseph is made the household steward, a position well-attested in Egyptian literature.
8 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Heb “put into his hand.”
10 tn Heb “and it was from then.”
11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 sn The Hebrew word translated blessed carries the idea of enrichment, prosperity, success. It is the way believers describe success at the hand of God. The text illustrates the promise made to Abraham that whoever blesses his descendants will be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).
13 tn Heb “in the house and in the field.” The word “both” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
14 sn The passage gives us a good picture of Joseph as a young man who was responsible and faithful, both to his master and to his God. This happened within a very short time of his being sold into Egypt. It undermines the view that Joseph was a liar, a tattletale, and an arrogant adolescent.
15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 sn The Hebrew verb translated left indicates he relinquished the care of it to Joseph. This is stronger than what was said earlier. Apparently Potiphar had come to trust Joseph so much that he knew it was in better care with Joseph than with anyone else.
17 tn Heb “hand.” This is a metonymy for being under the control or care of Joseph.
18 tn Heb “did not know.”
19 sn The expression except the food he ate probably refers to Potiphar’s private affairs and should not be limited literally to what he ate.
20 tn Heb “handsome of form and handsome of appearance.” The same Hebrew expressions were used in Gen 29:17 for Rachel.
21 tn Heb “she lifted up her eyes toward,” an expression that emphasizes her deliberate and careful scrutiny of him.
22 tn Heb “lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
23 tn Heb “and he said.”
24 tn Heb “know.”
25 tn The word “here” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
26 tn Heb “hand.” This is a metonymy for being under the control or care of Joseph.
27 tn The nuance of potential imperfect fits this context.
28 tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator, followed by the infinitive construct with the preposition כְּ (kÿ). This clause could therefore be taken as temporal.
29 tn Heb “listen to.”
30 tn Heb “to lie beside her to be with her.” Here the expression “to lie beside” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
31 tn Heb “and it was about this day.”
32 tn Heb “the men of the house.”
33 tn Heb “he fled and he went out.” The construction emphasizes the point that Joseph got out of there quickly.
34 sn For discussion of this episode, see A. M. Honeyman, “The Occasion of Joseph’s Temptation,” VT 2 (1952): 85-87.
35 tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so it could be treated as a passive (“a Hebrew man was brought in”; cf. NIV). But it is clear from the context that her husband brought Joseph into the household, so Potiphar is the apparent referent here. Thus the translation supplies “my husband” as the referent of the unspecified pronominal subject of the verb (cf. NEB, NRSV).
36 sn A Hebrew man. Potiphar’s wife raises the ethnic issue when talking to her servants about what their boss had done.
37 tn Heb “to make fun of us.” The verb translated “to humiliate us” here means to hold something up for ridicule, or to toy with something harmfully. Attempted rape would be such an activity, for it would hold the victim in contempt.
38 tn Heb “he came to me to lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
39 tn Heb “and I cried out with a loud voice.”
40 tn Heb “that I raised.”
41 tn Heb “and she spoke to him according to these words, saying.”
42 sn That Hebrew slave. Now, when speaking to her husband, Potiphar’s wife refers to Joseph as a Hebrew slave, a very demeaning description.
43 tn Heb “came to me to make fun of me.” The statement needs no explanation because of the connotations of “came to me” and “to make fun of me.” See the note on the expression “humiliate us” in v. 14.
44 tn Heb “and when his master heard the words of his wife which she spoke to him, saying.”
45 tn Heb “according to these words.”
46 tn Heb “did to me.”
47 tn Heb “his anger burned.”
48 tn Heb “the house of roundness,” suggesting that the prison might have been a fortress or citadel.
49 sn The story of Joseph is filled with cycles and repetition: He has two dreams (chap. 37), he interprets two dreams in prison (chap. 40) and the two dreams of Pharaoh (chap. 41), his brothers make two trips to see him (chaps. 42-43), and here, for the second time (see 37:24), he is imprisoned for no good reason, with only his coat being used as evidence. For further discussion see H. Jacobsen, “A Legal Note on Potiphar’s Wife,” HTR 69 (1976): 177.
50 tn Heb “and he extended to him loyal love.”
51 tn Or “the chief jailer” (also in the following verses).
52 tn Heb “all which they were doing there, he was doing.” This probably means that Joseph was in charge of everything that went on in the prison.
53 tn Heb “was not looking at anything.”
54 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
55 sn Abram went down to Egypt. The Abrahamic narrative foreshadows some of the events in the life of the nation of Israel. This sojourn in Egypt is typological of Israel’s bondage there. In both stories there is a famine that forces the family to Egypt, death is a danger to the males while the females are preserved alive, great plagues bring about their departure, there is a summons to stand before Pharaoh, and there is a return to the land of Canaan with great wealth.
56 tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur), traditionally rendered “to sojourn,” means “to stay for a while.” The “stranger” (traditionally “sojourner”) is one who is a temporary resident, a visitor, one who is passing through. Abram had no intention of settling down in Egypt or owning property. He was only there to wait out the famine.
57 tn Heb “heavy in the land.” The words “in the land,” which also occur at the beginning of the verse in the Hebrew text, have not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
58 sn The
59 tn The call of Abram begins with an imperative לֶךְ־לְךָ (lekh-lÿkha, “go out”) followed by three cohortatives (v. 2a) indicating purpose or consequence (“that I may” or “then I will”). If Abram leaves, then God will do these three things. The second imperative (v. 2b, literally “and be a blessing”) is subordinated to the preceding cohortatives and indicates God’s ultimate purpose in calling and blessing Abram. On the syntactical structure of vv. 1-2 see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 37. For a similar sequence of volitive forms see Gen 45:18.
60 tn The initial command is the direct imperative (לֶךְ, lekh) from the verb הָלַךְ (halakh). It is followed by the lamed preposition with a pronominal suffix (לְךָ, lÿkha) emphasizing the subject of the imperative: “you leave.”
61 sn To the land that I will show you. The call of Abram illustrates the leading of the
62 tn Heb “book” or “roll.” Cf. NIV “written account”; NRSV “list.”
63 tn Heb “generations.” See the note on the phrase “this is the account of” in 2:4.
64 tn The Hebrew text has אָדָם (’adam).
65 tn Heb “him.” The Hebrew text uses the third masculine singular pronominal suffix on the accusative sign. The pronoun agrees grammatically with its antecedent אָדָם (’adam). However, the next verse makes it clear that אָדָם is collective here and refers to “humankind,” so it is preferable to translate the pronoun with the English plural.
66 tn The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) introduces a new episode in the ongoing narrative.
67 tn Heb “the man knew,” a frequent euphemism for sexual relations.
68 tn Or “she conceived.”
69 tn Here is another sound play (paronomasia) on a name. The sound of the verb קָנִיתִי (qaniti, “I have created”) reflects the sound of the name Cain in Hebrew (קַיִן, qayin) and gives meaning to it. The saying uses the Qal perfect of קָנָה (qanah). There are two homonymic verbs with this spelling, one meaning “obtain, acquire” and the other meaning “create” (see Gen 14:19, 22; Deut 32:6; Ps 139:13; Prov 8:22). The latter fits this context very well. Eve has created a man.
70 tn Heb “with the
71 tn Heb “And she again gave birth.”
72 sn The name Abel is not defined here in the text, but the tone is ominous. Abel’s name, the Hebrew word הֶבֶל (hevel), means “breath, vapor, vanity,” foreshadowing Abel’s untimely and premature death.
73 tn Heb “and Abel was a shepherd of the flock, and Cain was a worker of the ground.” The designations of the two occupations are expressed with active participles, רֹעֵה (ro’eh, “shepherd”) and עֹבֵד (’oved, “worker”). Abel is occupied with sheep, whereas Cain is living under the curse, cultivating the ground.
74 tn Heb “And it happened at the end of days.” The clause indicates the passing of a set period of time leading up to offering sacrifices.
75 tn The Hebrew term מִנְחָה (minkhah, “offering”) is a general word for tribute, a gift, or an offering. It is the main word used in Lev 2 for the dedication offering. This type of offering could be comprised of vegetables. The content of the offering (vegetables, as opposed to animals) was not the critical issue, but rather the attitude of the offerer.