Day 14. Genesis 40-42

Genesis 40-42

Genesis 40

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

The butler and the baker. We aren't told what the offense is, we just know that they were sent to prison. Joseph was put in charge of the two prisoners.

⁵And 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, which were bound in the prison.

Both had a dream. Neither could figure out what it meant.

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

¹⁰And in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes:

¹¹And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.

The chief butler was actually the cup bearer. He dreamed he would be giving Pharaoh a cup again. He couldn't figure out what his dream meant.

Joseph interpreted the dream.

¹²And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days:

¹³Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.

It took a professional dream interpreter to tell him that.

¹⁴But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house:

¹⁵For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.

Joseph says he doesn't want to be in prison for ever. Maybe you could tell the pharaoh, and I can get out of prison.

The chief baker tells Joseph his dream.

¹⁶When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head:

¹⁷And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.

Joseph interprets the dream.

¹⁹Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.

The cup bearer will be restored, the baker will die.

²⁰And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.

²¹And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand:

²²But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.

Pharaoh had a birthday party. In celebration, he restored one of the guys; he killed the other one.

²³Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.

Of course he forgot him.

Genesis 41

¹And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.

Pharaoh now has a dream.

²And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favoured kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow.

³And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river.

⁴And the ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.

Kine are cattle. Seven fat cows came out of the river, then seven skinny cows came out and ate the fat cows.

He had another dream.

⁵And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.

⁶And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.

⁷And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.

Seven ears of good corn, were eaten by seven ears of skinny corn.

It's no wonder pharaoh needed his dream interpreted. According to Easton's Bible Dictionary defines corn as "a general term representing all the commodities we usually describe by the words corn, grain, seeds, peas, beans." The word used here is dagan. I can understand several of the items, grain, seeds, peas, beans, but the word corn in the definition means maize. In the verses it says "ears of corn". Grain doesn't have ears. Seeds don't have ears. Peas and beans don't have ears. Maize has ears.

Why would pharaoh need this dream interpreted? No one back then in the middle east ever had maize. Maize was a new world plant. Columbus was the first European to see corn (if you believe Columbus was the person who discovered the Americas). 3000 years before Columbus brought maize back to Europe, nobody in Egypt would know what it was.

Of course, it was probably wheat, or barley, but wheat and barley aren't called "ears".

⁸And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.

Of course they couldn't, they were probably trying to figure out what "corn" was.

Suddenly, the butler (cup bearer) remembers Joseph, and tells the story of his dream and the baker's dream. Pharaoh calls for Joseph.

Pharaoh then retells the story, practically word for word in verses 18-24.

²⁵And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

Joseph says, he doesn't interpret dreams, god does. He says both dreams are actually about the same event.

The seven good cattle and corn are seven years of plenty, followed by seven bad cattle and corn are seven years of famine.

³³Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.

³⁴Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.

Joseph has pharaoh set up storage facilities for the seven years of plenty. Large enough that it will hold 20% of the harvest.

³⁵And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.

³⁶And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.

It's odd that the famine will affect the entirety of known civilization, and only one person had a dream that it was coming.

³⁸And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?

³⁹And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:

⁴⁰Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.

Pharaoh decides that Joseph will be the guy in charge. Joseph will be the second most powerful man in Egypt. Except that Joseph is in charge of the food, so he's actually the most powerful man.

⁴²And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;

⁴³And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Joseph now carried the seal of the king. He was basically the vice president, except he had actual power.

⁴⁵And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

Joseph was renamed Zaphnathpaaneah. Zaphnath-Paaneah may mean many things. Some take it to mean "revealer of secrets"; or "finder of mysteries". People have tried to get it to mean many things, but apparently in Egyptian, the name makes no sense. As though it got disfigured when it was being copied. That can't be true, as god has guaranteed his word to be true.

⁴⁶And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.

Joseph was 30. That would put this in 1806 BC, If Joseph was born in 1836, if Jacob left Isaac when he was 40.

⁴⁷And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.

⁴⁸And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.

They gathered a lot of corn.

⁵⁰And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him.

Joseph's two boys were Manasseh, and Ephriam. Manasseh means "to forget". Ephriam means "double fruitfulness".

⁵⁴And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

Corn bread.

⁵⁶And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.

⁵⁷And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.

Egypt was the only place with grain. In all the world.

So, Joseph was in Egypt, at the Pharaoh's for 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine, that's 14 years. I've calculated the date to be from 1806 to 1792. Which Pharaoh was it?

Amenemhet IV (Maakherure) c. 1808-1799
Sobeknofru (Sobekkare) c. 1799-1795

Sobeknofru was a woman. Surely Joseph would have mentioned that Pharaoh was a woman.

Interestingly, from this point on the 13th Dynasty of the Pharaoh's doesn't have very good dates.

Genesis 42

¹Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?

²And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.

Jacob sends his remaining boys down to Egypt to buy corn. He didn't send Benjamin, he didn't want anything bad to happen to Benjamin.

⁶And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph's brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.

Just like the dream.

⁷And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.

He wouldn't really have to make himself strange, this was several years after he was taken away. He was 17 when he started to dream, it's now at least 20 years later.

⁸And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.

His older brothers would have been in their 20's when he was put in the pit, now they are in their low 40's.

⁹And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.

Joseph messes with his brothers a bit.

¹⁰And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.

¹¹We are all one man's sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.

The brothers are big and tough around Canaanites, but they humble themselves in front of Egyptians.

¹³And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not.

Joseph again accuses them of being spies.

¹⁵Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.

¹⁶Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies.

He was initially going to lock up all the brothers except one, instead he only locks up Simeon.

²⁵Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus did he unto them.

Joseph returns their money. This is the first incidence of Punk'd.

The brothers make it back to Jacob. Why is he still called Jacob? Isn't he Israel now?He's been renamed twice.

³³And the man, the lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone:

³⁴And bring your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffick in the land.

Simeon was still in jail. The brothers made it home with food. This trip from Egypt back to Canaan didn't seem to take very long. It seems to be a relatively routine trip.

³⁶And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.

Jacob has a tendency to play favorites with his boys. First it was Joseph, now it's Benjamin. He didn't seem to express too much despair about losing Simeon.

³⁷And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again.

Reuben ultimately had four sons, at this point he must only have 2.

Points to ponder:

1. Who was the Pharaoh? Who were the Pharaohs? Again, if the authors can't get the history correct, why should they get the theology correct?

2. How hard is it to figure out the dreams? Really, no one could figure them out?

3. I find it odd that the older brothers would be so protective of Benjamin. Apparently Benjamin wasn't as much of an ass as Joseph was. We see Reuben cares more about his youngest brother, than he does for his own two sons.

Day 13. Genesis 37-39

Genesis 37-39

Genesis 37

¹And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.

Jacob's father was Isaac. In Gen. 15:13 god told Abram that his seed would live in a land where they are a stranger.

²These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

Joseph was 17 and was a tattle tale.

³Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.

Why? Benjamin was the son of his oldest age. Either way, because Jacob loved Joseph more, his brothers hated him. This verse makes no sense. Jacob was the 11th son born. He was born during the 6 year period from 1811-1805. This verse does lend credence to the old Jacob theory, as opposed to the young Jacob. It makes more sense having Jacob be 71 when he moved to Laban, than for him to be 40. Joseph was born 20 years after Jacob moved to Laban's. He was either 60 or 91. But then all the boys except Benjamin were born when Jacob was 54-60 or 85-91.

Joseph has a dream.

⁷For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.

A sheaf is a bundle of cereal plants, tied together after harvest. In Joseph's dream, his brothers bundles bowed down to his bundle.

⁸And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

His brothers aren't very much older than him, they are all pretty much the same age. Jacob moved to Laban, then 7 years later got married, 7 years later married again, 7 years later left. It was when Joseph was born that he left. So, the oldest brother (Reuben) could only be 14 years older than Joseph. Joseph is now 17, Reuben might be 31.

⁹And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.

Sun and moon were the parents (even though his mother was dead) and the 11 stars were 11 of the other symbols of the Zodiac. We don't know which one Joseph was. Based on the era, I'd expect it to have been Taurus.

Joseph told everyone his dream. The older brothers hated him more, but Jacob listened and enjoyed the story.

¹²And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

¹³And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.

Odd that the brothers would actually go back to Shechem. That place is named after Shechem, the guy who raped Dinah, and then the brothers killed. Jacob and his boys fled there because they were afraid they would be killed in retribution.

¹⁴And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

Jacob goes looking for his brothers. They weren't there, so he asks a man where they went, and the guy said to Dothan. Dothan is about 100 km (62 miles) north of Hebron (they left from the "vale of Hebron" vale=valley). So, Jacob sends his son, who he loves the most, about 60 miles, by himself, to go find his brothers. He sends him to an area where Jacob himself has fled, scared for his life, because his sons killed the male residents of an entire city.

As Jacob approached his brothers, they saw him, and conspired to kill him.

¹⁹And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.

²⁰Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

Why not just say that the Hivites killed him as revenge for Shechem?

²¹And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him.

Reuben to the rescue. Some people say Reuben did this because he was attempting to make up for his sleeping with Bilhah. That Reuben spent the rest of his life, trying to make amends for that; attempting to get back into the good graces of his father. What better way to do it, than to help his father's favorite son survive.

²²And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.

Did Reuben actually plan to return Joseph to Jacob?

²⁴And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.

They put him into a pit, not a well.

²⁵And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.

Ishmeelites, are descendants of Ishmael, they were Arabs. Ishmael was born in 1970 BC. I'm not exactly sure what year this is (I'll fix that in a bit), but it's long enough that the 10 oldest sons of Jacob don't recognize their cousins by name. Ishmael is their grandfather Isaac's brother.

²⁶And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?

²⁷Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.

Judah devises a plan to sell their brother. The brothers agree.

²⁸Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.

As the brothers were plotting to sell their brother to the Ishmeelites, some Midianites did it instead. Midian was one of the other sons of Abraham (possibly the full brother of Ishmael; definitely the half brother of Isaac). So, the boys relatively close cousins, sold their brother, to another set of their close cousins.

²⁹And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes.

³⁰And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?

Reuben is scared that Jacob is going to beat the crap out of him, for losing Joseph. Why even come up with a story? When Jacob asks where Joseph is, just tell him, you never saw him.

³¹And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;

³²And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.

Ok, they kind of used the "we never saw him story". Throwing in the coat, made it that much better. When Jacob saw the coat, he knew is was Joseph's so he expressed grief.

³⁵And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.

³⁶And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard.

Sons and daughters? Jacob only had one daughter, Dinah, this verse must mean the older boys' wives.

Potiphar means "he who Ra gave". Other than the bible, there is no evidence that Potiphar ever lived.

Genesis 38

¹And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

²And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.

Judah had a buddy named Hirah, from the town of Adullam. They were at a party together, and Hirah introduced Judah to a Canaanite woman named Shuah. Judah proceeded to have sex with her.

³And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.

⁴And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan.

⁵And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him.

Judah had 3 sons with Shuah. They were Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er's name doesn't really mean anything. In Hebrew it's עֵר which when read backwards is "evil". So Er was so evil that his name shouldn't be spelled correctly, his name is actually, Re. Onan means "strong". Shelah means "petition".

⁶And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.

Tamar was extremely beautiful.

⁷And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.

God killed Er (Re) for being extremely wicked. It seems like god himself did the killing, but it was probably an angel who did it for him, either way, god is very hands on right here.

⁸And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.

Even though god himself had Er (re) killed, Judah thought Er should have an offspring. This is one of the parts of the bible that I find to be really interesting. Apparently, according to Hebrew law/tradition (we'll get into it again later), if a brother dies (without an heir), then his younger brother is to get the widow pregnant, and that child is considered to be the offspring of the dead brother. That will keep the original brother's name alive.

⁹And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.

¹⁰And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.

Onan didn't want to be the father of Er's child, so he didn't inseminate Tamar. According to one Tamar myth, she was so beautiful, that the brothers didn't want to spoil her beauty, by making her pregnant. Some people think that when a woman becomes pregnant, they are more beautiful, Er and Onan didn't want Tamar to get birthing hips.

Genesis 38:9-10 is the reason that most Judeau-Christian religions say that masturbation is a sin. They equate Onan spilling his seed to masturbation, and also coitus interruptus. If you ever were made to feel guilty about masturbation, Gen. 38:9 and 10 is the reason.

¹¹Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.

Judah sends Tamar to her parents place. He then intends for her to marry Shelah, when he comes of age.

¹²And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

Judah is out partying again with Hirah. Tamar hears that Shelah is old enough to marry, and she's wondering why she isn't married to him yet? She took off her widow clothes and put on a veil.

¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.

Judah was apparently drunk enough to not recognize his daughter in law, the girl who married two of his sons. Remember, alcoholism runs rampant in this family.

¹⁶And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?

Judah talks dirty to her: "let me come in unto thee". Sounds so much more poetic than "i want to f--- you". Even though, that's what he said. She said "you want to f--- me, what will you give me?"

¹⁷And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it?

Wow, a whole kid from the flock. He didn't have it with him, so she asked for a pledge.

¹⁸And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.

So, she asked for his seal, and some bracelets, and his staff. Well, he went "in unto her" and she got pregnant.

What happened to his wife Shuah?

Later, he goes back with the goat, to get his things back, and asks where the harlot was. The townspeople are like "ain't no harlot here". Judah was like "and I brought the goat for nothing".

²⁴And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.

Someone tells Judah that Tamar was pregnant. He gets angry, and wants to burn her.

²⁵When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.

Tamar says, the man who got me pregnant is this guy... it just happens to be Judah's stuff. Judah realizes his error, in not giving her to Shelah.

She was pregnant with twins. One put his hand out first to be born, and the midwife put a red thread on his wrist. He then pulled his hand back, and the child without the red was born first. The one without the ribbon was named Pharez, the one with the ribbon was named Zarah. Zarah means "sunrise" because that was the color of the thread; Pharez means "breach" since he was supposed to be born second, but knocked his brother out of the way.

The tradition holds that the first children born to a widow are the dead husband's. So, even though Pharez and Zarah are Judah's children, they technically are Er's.

Genesis 39

Back to the story of Joseph.

¹And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.

Joseph now belonged to Potiphar; yes, we knew that.

²And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.

Joseph was the top slave.

⁵And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.

Everything Joseph did turned out good.

⁷And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.

Verse 6 says Joseph was well favoured, not exactly sure what that means, but it probably means he was very attractive. He comes from a line of women who are extremely hot, he probably was a very handsome man as well.

¹⁰And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.

She REALLY wanted to lie with him. He was having none of it.

¹²And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.

Really wanted to lie with him. She had a piece of his clothes.

¹⁴That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice:

¹⁵And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out.

Since he wouldn't lie with her, she decided that she'd say he did, and get him in trouble.

¹⁹And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled.

²⁰And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.

So, Joseph was put in jail. Oddly, he wasn't killed. A slave raping the master's wife should really be a capital crime. Even if it's only attempted rape. Somehow, Joseph managed to get out of it.

²¹But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

²²And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.

Joseph managed to work his way to the top of the prison hierarchy, just like he did Potiphar's house. Joseph was really good at doing that.

Points to ponder for today:

1. Would a man who truly loves his son, send him 60+ miles to go check on his brothers? Especially if they are in an area where there are death threats against them.

2. Why didn't the brothers recognize their cousins the Ishmeelites, or the Midianites? Why didn't those cousins return their cousin to Jacob? Surely they would have made introductions at the pit.

Hello, I'm Reuben, the son of Jacob (Israel), the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham.
Hello, I'm ... uh... bob, the Ishmeelite, the son of (maybe) Nebajoth, the son of Ishmael, the son of Abraham.
Oh my gawd, we're cousins.

Meanwhile some Midianites come by.

Hi, I'm Tony the Midianite, the son of bill, the son of brad, the son of Midian, the son of Abraham.

What a small world running into two cousins out here in the field of Shechem. (Reuben continues) Hey, you guys want to go kill some Hittites?

3. Er, Onan, and Sheleh, the first three sons of Judah. Then there's two more, Zarah and Pharez, one of those 5 sons is important later. The other just is all about masturbation.

4. If Potiphar never existed, then does the story hold up?