Genesis 39:1-23

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

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.

Genesis 2:19

2:19 The Lord God formed ⁵⁵  out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would ⁵⁶  name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

Hosea 6:2

6:2 He will restore ⁵⁷  us in a very short time; ⁵⁸ 

he will heal us in a little while, ⁵⁹ 

so that we may live in his presence.

Acts 2:27-31

2:27 because you will not leave my soul in Hades, ⁶⁰ 

nor permit your Holy One to experience ⁶¹  decay.

2:28 You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will make me full of joy with your presence.’ ⁶² 

2:29 “Brothers, ⁶³  I can speak confidently ⁶⁴  to you about our forefather ⁶⁵  David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 2:30 So then, because ⁶⁶  he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants ⁶⁷  on his throne, ⁶⁸  2:31 David by foreseeing this ⁶⁹  spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, ⁷⁰  that he was neither abandoned to Hades, ⁷¹  nor did his body ⁷²  experience ⁷³  decay. ⁷⁴ 

[39:1]  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.

[39:1]  ² sn Captain of the guard. See the note on this phrase in Gen 37:36.

[39:1]  ³ tn Heb “from the hand of.”

[39:2]  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).

[39:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he was.”

[39:3]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text adds “in his hand,” a phrase not included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[39:4]  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.

[39:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[39:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “put into his hand.”

[39:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and it was from then.”

[39:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[39:5]  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).

[39:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “in the house and in the field.” The word “both” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[39:5]  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.

[39:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[39:6]  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.

[39:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “hand.” This is a metonymy for being under the control or care of Joseph.

[39:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “did not know.”

[39:6]  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.

[39:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “handsome of form and handsome of appearance.” The same Hebrew expressions were used in Gen 29:17 for Rachel.

[39:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “she lifted up her eyes toward,” an expression that emphasizes her deliberate and careful scrutiny of him.

[39:7]  ²² tn Heb “lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[39:8]  ²³ tn Heb “and he said.”

[39:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “know.”

[39:8]  ²⁵ tn The word “here” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[39:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “hand.” This is a metonymy for being under the control or care of Joseph.

[39:9]  ²⁷ tn The nuance of potential imperfect fits this context.

[39:10]  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.

[39:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “listen to.”

[39:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “to lie beside her to be with her.” Here the expression “to lie beside” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[39:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “and it was about this day.”

[39:11]  ³² tn Heb “the men of the house.”

[39:12]  ³³ tn Heb “he fled and he went out.” The construction emphasizes the point that Joseph got out of there quickly.

[39:12]  ³⁴ sn For discussion of this episode, see A. M. Honeyman, “The Occasion of Joseph’s Temptation,” VT 2 (1952): 85-87.

[39:14]  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).

[39:14]  ³⁶ sn A Hebrew man. Potiphar’s wife raises the ethnic issue when talking to her servants about what their boss had done.

[39:14]  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.

[39:14]  ³⁸ tn Heb “he came to me to lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[39:14]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and I cried out with a loud voice.”

[39:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “that I raised.”

[39:17]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and she spoke to him according to these words, saying.”

[39:17]  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.

[39:17]  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.

[39:19]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and when his master heard the words of his wife which she spoke to him, saying.”

[39:19]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “according to these words.”

[39:19]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “did to me.”

[39:19]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “his anger burned.”

[39:20]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the house of roundness,” suggesting that the prison might have been a fortress or citadel.

[39:20]  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.

[39:21]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and he extended to him loyal love.”

[39:21]  ⁵¹ tn Or “the chief jailer” (also in the following verses).

[39:22]  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.

[39:23]  ⁵³ tn Heb “was not looking at anything.”

[39:23]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:19]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “fashioned.” To harmonize the order of events with the chronology of chapter one, some translate the prefixed verb form with vav (ו) consecutive as a past perfect (“had formed,” cf. NIV) here. (In chapter one the creation of the animals preceded the creation of man; here the animals are created after the man.) However, it is unlikely that the Hebrew construction can be translated in this way in the middle of this pericope, for the criteria for unmarked temporal overlay are not present here. See S. R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew, 84-88, and especially R. Buth, “Methodological Collision between Source Criticism and Discourse Analysis,” Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics, 138-54. For a contrary viewpoint see IBHS 552-53 §33.2.3 and C. J. Collins, “The Wayyiqtol as ‘Pluperfect’: When and Why,” TynBul 46 (1995): 117-40.

[2:19]  ⁵⁶ tn The imperfect verb form is future from the perspective of the past time narrative.

[6:2]  ⁵⁷ tn The Piel of חָיָה (khayah) may mean: (1) to keep/preserve persons alive from the threat of premature death (1 Kgs 20:31; Ezek 13:18; 18:27); (2) to restore the dead to physical life (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6; cf. NCV “will put new life in us”); or (3) to restore the dying back to life from the threat of death (Ps 71:20; BDB 311 s.v. חָיָה).

[6:2]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “after two days” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV). The expression “after two days” is an idiom meaning “after a short time” (see, e.g., Judg 11:4; BDB 399 s.v. יוֹם 5.a).

[6:2]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “on the third day” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV), which parallels “after two days” and means “in a little while.” The “2-3” sequence is an example of graded numerical parallelism (Prov 30:15-16, 18-19, 21-23, 24-28, 29-31). This expresses the unrepentant overconfidence of Israel that the Lord’s discipline of Israel would be relatively short and that he would restore them quickly.

[2:27]  ⁶⁰ tn Or “will not abandon my soul to Hades.” Often “Hades” is the equivalent of the Hebrew term Sheol, the place of the dead.

[2:27]  ⁶¹ tn Grk “to see,” but the literal translation of the phrase “to see decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “to look at decay,” while here “see decay” is really figurative for “experience decay.”

[2:28]  ⁶² sn A quotation from Ps 16:8-11.

[2:29]  ⁶³ tn Since this represents a continuation of the address beginning in v.14 and continued in v. 22, “brothers” has been used here rather than a generic expression like “brothers and sisters.”

[2:29]  ⁶⁴ sn Peter’s certainty is based on well-known facts.

[2:29]  ⁶⁵ tn Or “about our noted ancestor,” “about the patriarch.”

[2:30]  ⁶⁶ tn The participles ὑπάρχων (Juparcwn) and εἰδώς (eidw") are translated as causal adverbial participles.

[2:30]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk “one from the fruit of his loins.” “Loins” is the traditional translation of ὀσφῦς (osfu"), referring to the male genital organs. A literal rendering like “one who came from his genital organs” would be regarded as too specific and perhaps even vulgar by many contemporary readers. Most modern translations thus render the phrase “one of his descendants.”

[2:30]  ⁶⁸ sn An allusion to Ps 132:11 and 2 Sam 7:12-13, the promise in the Davidic covenant.

[2:31]  ⁶⁹ tn Grk “David foreseeing spoke.” The participle προϊδών (proidwn) is taken as indicating means. It could also be translated as a participle of attendant circumstance: “David foresaw [this] and spoke.” The word “this” is supplied in either case as an understood direct object (direct objects in Greek were often omitted, but must be supplied for the modern English reader).

[2:31]  ⁷⁰ tn Or “the Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[2:31]  ⁷¹ tn Or “abandoned in the world of the dead.” The translation “world of the dead” for Hades is suggested by L&N 1.19. The phrase is an allusion to Ps 16:10.

[2:31]  ⁷² tn Grk “flesh.” See vv. 26b-27. The reference to “body” in this verse picks up the reference to “body” in v. 26. The Greek term σάρξ (sarx) in both verses literally means “flesh”; however, the translation “body” stresses the lack of decay of his physical body. The point of the verse is not merely the lack of decay of his flesh alone, but the resurrection of his entire person, as indicated by the previous parallel line “he was not abandoned to Hades.”

[2:31]  ⁷³ tn Grk “see,” but the literal translation of the phrase “see decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “look at decay,” while here “see decay” is really figurative for “experience decay.”

[2:31]  ⁷⁴ sn An allusion to Ps 16:10.