Genesis 39
39
Joseph in Potiphar’s House
1Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards, bought him from the Ishmaelites # 39:1 Gn 37:25,28,36; Ps 105:17 who had brought him there. 2The Lord was with Joseph, # 39:2 Gn 39:3,21,23; Ac 7:9 and he became a successful man, serving # 39:2 Lit and he was in the household of his Egyptian master. 3When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful, # 39:3 Ps 1:3 4Joseph found favor # 39:4 Gn 18:3; 19:19; 33:10 with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority. # 39:4 Lit owned in his hand 5From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph. # 39:5 Gn 30:27 The Lord’s blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields. 6He left all that he owned under Joseph’s authority; # 39:6 Lit owned in Joseph’s hand he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. # 39:6 Gn 29:17; 1Sm 16:12 7After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”
8But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. # 39:8 Lit owns in my hand 9No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God? ” # 39:9 Gn 20:6; 42:18; 2Sm 12:13; Ps 51:4; Pr 6:29
10Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her. # 39:10 Lit he did not listen to her to lie beside her, to be with her 11Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there. # 39:11 Lit there in the house 12She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me! ” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. 13When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside, 14she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “my husband brought a Hebrew man to make fools of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, and I screamed as loud as I could. 15When he heard me screaming for help, # 39:15 Lit he heard that I raised my voice and I screamed he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”
16She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home. 17Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, 18but when I screamed for help, # 39:18 Lit I raised my voice and screamed he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”
19When his master heard the story his wife told him #— #“These are the things your slave did to me” #— #he was furious 20and had him thrown into prison, # 39:20 Gn 40:3; Ps 105:18 where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.
Joseph in Prison
21But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. # 39:21 Gn 39:2; Ps 105:19; Ac 7:9 He granted him favor with the prison warden. # 39:21 Ex 3:21; 11:3; 12:36 22The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority, # 39:22 Lit prison in the hand of Joseph and he was responsible for everything that was done there. 23The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority, # 39:23 Lit anything in his hand because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful. # 39:23 Gn 39:2–3
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Genesis 39: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Genesis 39
39
Joseph lived in Egypt country
1This is the story about what happened to Joseph, after that time when his brothers sold him to the Midian mob. That Midian mob took Joseph to Egypt country. Then they sold Joseph to a man called Potifar. That man Potifar, he worked for the big boss of Egypt country, called Pharaoh. Potifar was in charge of all the soldiers that guarded Pharaoh’s house.
2God was with Joseph, and God helped him. So everything that Joseph did, it all went well. Joseph worked for Potifar, and he lived in Potifar’s house.#Acts 7:9 3Potifar saw that Joseph did everything really well, and he knew that God was helping him. 4So Potifar liked Joseph a lot, and he got Joseph to be his special worker. He put Joseph in charge of all the other workers in his house, and he got Joseph to look after everything that he owned. 5As soon as Potifar put Joseph in charge, God started to be really good to Potifar. God made everything go well in Potifar’s house, and he made lots of food plants grow on his land. 6So Potifar really trusted Joseph, and he let Joseph look after everything that belonged to him. Potifar didn’t worry about anything, because Joseph was in charge. Potifar just got to think about easy things, like the food he wanted to eat. Joseph looked after everything else.
Potifar’s wife made trouble for Joseph
Joseph was a really good-looking man, with a strong body. 7So after a while, Potifar’s wife started to look at Joseph a lot, and she wanted to sleep with him, like a woman sleeps with her husband. She said to Joseph, “Come and sleep with me.”
8But Joseph said, “No, I will not sleep with you. You know, I work for your husband, and he trusts me. He got me to look after everything that belongs to him. He doesn’t worry about anything, because I am in charge. 9He made me the most important person in his house. He made me the boss of everything here. There’s only one thing he will not let me touch. He will not let me touch you, because you are his wife. So I will not sleep with you. I will not go against God and do that wrong thing. No way.”
10But Potifar’s wife did not stop. Every day, she kept on asking Joseph to sleep with her. But Joseph didn’t listen to her. He didn’t sleep with her, and he tried to be far away from her.
11One day, Joseph went into Potifar’s house to do his work, just like he always did. On that day, there weren’t any other work-men in the house. 12Then Potifar’s wife came to Joseph. She grabbed him, and she held on to his coat, and she said, “Come and sleep with me.” So Joseph quickly ran out of the house. But Potifar’s wife still had Joseph’s coat in her hand.
13Potifar’s wife saw that Joseph ran out of the house, and she saw that she still had his coat in her hand. So she thought, “I will make trouble for Joseph.”
14Straight away, she shouted to the other work-men, and she said, “Come and see this.” Then those work-men came to her, and she lied to them and said, “You know, my husband brought a man here from the Hebrew tribe. That man doesn’t respect us mob. He wants to make fun of us. He came to me, and he tried to make me sleep with him, like a man sleeps with his wife. But I yelled out really loud. 15And as soon as he heard me yell out, he left his coat next to me, and he ran out of the house.”
16After that, Potifar’s wife put down Joseph’s coat next to her, and she waited for Potifar to come home. Potifar was Joseph’s boss. 17Later on, Potifar came home, and his wife said the same things to him that she said to those work-men. She lied and said, “That work-man from the Hebrew tribe, the one that you brought here, he came to me, and he tried to sleep with me and make me shamed. 18But I yelled out really loud, and straight away, he ran out of the house, and he left his coat next to me.”
Potifar put Joseph in jail
19Potifar heard his wife say that Joseph did those bad things to her. And Potifar got really angry. 20Potifar was Joseph’s boss, so he sent his men to grab Joseph, and they put him in jail. That jail belonged to Pharaoh, the big boss of Egypt country. There were other prisoners in that jail too. And Joseph stayed there in the jail.
21But God was with Joseph, and God kept on being very good to him.#Acts 7:9 God got the boss of that jail to think in a good way about Joseph. So that jail boss liked Joseph a lot, 22and he put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners in that jail. Whenever those prisoners had work to do, Joseph was their leader, and he made sure that they did their work properly. 23Joseph did everything well, so that jail boss didn’t worry about anything. He trusted Joseph to look after the prisoners and get all the work done. You see, God was with Joseph, and God made everything go well for him.
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