Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

1. This is but a winked suggestion of the great Hebrew interpreter rash"i (1049-1105). See also Noam's dexterous explanation.

2. It appears to me that a second אתו ITO is omitted (or that the first ITO applies also to the last) after OKEL:

ויעזב כל אשר לו ביד יוסף ולא ידע אתו  

מאומה כי אם הלחם אשר הוא אוכל - אתו

Namely, Potipar (a SARIYS) who was busy in Pharaoh's court supervising the kitchen, left the entire management of his estate to his young graceful and able slave (Potifar did not bid on him a goodly sum for nothing; the Midyanites having very probably turned a handsome profit from his sale) Joseph ben Jacob HA-IBRIY. Potipar had such complete a trust in Joseph that he did not intervene naught in his doings, their only point of contact being an occasional tete-a-tete lunch, possibly an elegant vegetarian meal at the classy Ritz-on-the-Nile. 

Isaac Fried, Boston University 

On Dec 9, 2012, at 12:36 AM, jimstinehart AT aol.com wrote:

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