Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Isaac Fried: 

 

Why do you see Genesis 39: 6 as being “enigmatic”?  The KJV is a fairly literal translation, but to me it does not catch the gist of what the Hebrew really means:  “and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat.”  Although more of a paraphrase, NRSV seems to do a better job of conveying this verse’s intended meaning:  “So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge;  and, with him there, he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate.”  Young Joseph’s astute handling of his master’s household estate allowed the Captain of the Guard to focus on protecting Pharaoh from possibly treasonous actions of Pharaoh’s own officers.

 

Why would you think that LXM might mean the master’s “wife”?

 

Speaking of the master’s wife, in my opinion Joseph, his master, and his master’s wife, at Joseph’s suggestion, came up with the idea of the master’s wife loudly complaining about Joseph’s alleged advances toward her, as a ruse to get Joseph into the jail where Pharaoh’s officers who are suspected of treason are being held.  But once in the jail, Joseph overplays his hand.  Joseph was supposed to lie low and listen surreptitiously to what the Baker and the Cup Bearer said, in order to figure out who was guilty.  But instead, Joseph free-lances big time.  Joseph takes over effective control of the jail, and then instead of stealthily listening in on what the Baker and Cup Bearer were saying, Joseph ostentatiously has the two prisoners go over to his master’s house (Genesis 40: 7), where he grandly interprets their dreams to one and all.  In his master’s presence, at his master’s house, Joseph brazenly asks the innocent Cup Bearer at Genesis 40: 14 to ask Pharaoh to free Joseph from his master’s house!  Is that chutzpah or what?  Note that Joseph does not state at Genesis 40: 15 that he had never propositioned his master’s wife, which was the supposed reason he was in the “pit”/jail, but rather Joseph says:  “For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews….”  True, Joseph then adds that he has done nothing wrong while in Egypt, yet clearly Joseph’s main assertion is that he should not be a slave in Egypt (in his master’s house), because he had been an innocent free man in Canaan. 

 

For the unbelievable insolence of double-crossing his master in public, the master now, despite the fact that Joseph has correctly identified the Baker as the traitor (which had been the reason for putting Joseph in that jail in the first place), decides to let Joseph stay in that “pit”/prison indefinitely.  Yes, the master double-crosses Joseph, but in reality, Joseph had first double-crossed his master, by asking the Cup Bearer in the master’s own house to have Pharaoh free Joseph from his master’s house.

 

Although Joseph seems to be too smart for his own good in chapter 40 of Genesis, nevertheless it all ends up working out for the best, because the Cup Bearer never forgot that Joseph was the best dream interpreter in Egypt.  To me, each of Genesis 40: 7 and Genesis 40: 14 is more “enigmatic”, as well as being far more important, than Genesis 39: 6.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois