Genesis 39

Sold him. The whole passage implies the existence in Egypt at this time of a traffic in slaves, who were foreigners, and valued at no very high rate. The monuments prove slaves to have been exceedingly numerous under the Ancient Empire. The king had a vast number; the estates of the nobles were cultivated by them; and a large body of hieroduli, or “sacred slaves,” was attached to most of the temples. Foreign slaves seem to have been preferred to native ones, and wars were sometimes undertaken less with the object of conquest or subjugation than with that of obtaining a profit by selling those who were taken prisoners in the slave market. G. R.

1. 1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he ministered unto him; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. And it came to pass from the time that he 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. And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand; and he knew not aught that was with him, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was comely, and well favoured. And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master knoweth not what is with me in the house, and he hath put all that he hath into my hand; there is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife; how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? 10 And 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. And it came to pass about this time, that he went into the house to do his work; and there was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth, that 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: and it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment by me, and fled, and got him out. And she laid up his garment by her, until his master came home. And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me: and it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment by me, and fled out. And 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. And Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison. But the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed kindness unto him, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And 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. The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand, because the Lord was with him; and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.

1-6. From a slave, Joseph is made overseer to Potiphar. He was faithful, honest, upright, and conscientious, because in his earthly he served a heavenly Master, whose presence he always realized. Accordingly “Jehovah was with him,” and “Jehovah made all that he did to prosper in his hand." His master was not long in observing this. From an ordinary domestic slave he promoted him to be “overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.” The confidence was not misplaced. Jehovah’s blessing henceforth rested upon Potiphar’s substance, and he “left all that he had in Joseph’s hand; and he knew not aught that he had, save the bread which he did eat.” The sculptures and paintings of the ancient Egyptian tombs bring vividly before us the daily life and duties of Joseph. “The property of great men is shown to have been managed by scribes, who exercised a most methodical and minute supervision over all the operations of agriculture, gardening, the keeping of live stock, and fishing. Every product was carefully registered, to check the dishonesty of the laborers, who in Egypt have always been famous in this respect. Probably in no country was farming ever more systematic, Joseph’s previous knowledge of tending flocks, and perhaps of husbandry, and his truthful character, exactly fitted him for the post of overseer. How long he filled it we are not told.” (Pede.) A. E.

He who acknowledges God in all his ways has the promise that God shall direct all his steps. Joseph’s captivity shall promote God’s glory; and to this end, God works in him, for him, and by him. Even the irreligious can see when the Most High distinguishes his followers: Joseph’s master saw that Jehovah was with him. A. C.—He saw that Joseph was the object of supernatural care and favor; and this Moses ascribes to its true source. 5. And it came to pass from the time. The blessing of heaven previous to Joseph’s advancement to the stewardship had rested more especially upon himself and his doings. He had been made to prosper in a signal manner, and Potiphar was constrained to acknowledge it. But now from this time the blessing of the Lord was upon Potiphar, upon all that he had, whether in the house or the field, but still for Joseph’s sake. As Potiphar had shown himself disposed to favor the Lord’s servant, the Lord will repay his kindness by blessing him. Bush.

Joseph came into Egypt soon after he was 17 (ch. 37:2); he was thirteen years in Potiphar’s service and in prison—of these, more than two in prison. B.—7-15. Quite in contrast with the usual oriental custom, women were exempt from seclusion, and moved in society with apparently entire freedom. This appears in the family of Potiphar. The ancient sculptures and paintings found in their tombs give a very full view of the domestic life of the ancient Egyptians, no point of which is more striking than the high social position of woman and the entire absence of the harem system of seclusion. “The wife is called the lady of the house.” According to the monuments the women in Egypt lived under far less restraint than in the East, or even in Greece. Wilkinson’s Egypt is full of testimony to this point. (Hengstenberg’s Moses, p. 24) H. C.

7-10. Joseph resists the daily solicitations of his master’s wife. None greater in this house than I. He pleads the unreserved trust his master had reposed in him. He is bound by the law of honor, the law of chastity (this great evil), and the law of piety (sin against God). Joseph uses the common name of God in addressing this Egyptian. He could employ no higher pleas than the above. M.

Joseph’s bearing in this case was worthy to be put on permanent record to pass down through all future generations to the end of time, a perfect model of both virtue and wisdom—the virtue that resists seductive temptation with unwavering firmness; and the wisdom that comprehends and applies the perfect methods of resisting temptation. Joseph did not daily with his tempter; did not suffer the temptation to gather new force, but met it instantly with the strongest considerations possible—“How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” The sense of a present God settled the question forever. There was indeed another line of consideration. Potiphar had trusted him most entirely; shall he abuse this trust? Never. Thus Joseph’s course was at once decided. H. C.

All the spite of his brethren was not so great a cross to him as the inordinate affection of his mistress. Temptations on the right hand are now more perilous and hard to resist, by how much they are more plausible and glorious; but the heart that is bent upon God knows how to walk steadily and indifferently betwixt the pleasures of sin and fears of evil. He saw this pleasure would advance him; yet resolves to contemn: a good heart will rather lie in the dust, than rise by wickedness. “How shall I do this, and sin against God?” He knew that all the honors of Egypt could not buy off the guilt of one sin, and therefore abhors her company: he that will be safe from the acts of evil must wisely avoid the occasions. As sin ends ever in shame when it is committed, so it makes us past shame that we may commit it. Bp. H.—By the grace of God he was enabled to resist the fierce assault, and to baffle a plot against his innocence more formidable than the cruel machinations of his brethren against his life. He achieved a victory over himself, such as has seldom been witnessed in this fallen world. Bush.—Nothing can be nobler than a true and thorough manhood, where, amid the seductions of sense, the soul still retains the mastery of itself by retaining its loyalty to God. Hamilton.

9. Sin against God. The direct sin would have been against his master; but Joseph clearly recognized that the true guilt of all sin consists in its breach of the law, and disobedience to the will of God. E. H. B.—So did David, after his great sin, in his penitential utterance: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” B.

The sin he was tempted to, considering his youth, his beauty, his single state, and his plentiful living at the table of a ruler, was a sin which, one would think, might most easily beset him and betray him. The tempter was his mistress, whom it was his place to obey and his interest to oblige, whose favor would contribute more than anything to his preferment, and by whose means he might arrive at the highest honors of the court. On the other hand, it was at his utmost peril if he slighted her and made her his enemy. Opportunity favored the temptation. The tempter was in the house with him; his business led him to be, without any suspicion, where she was: none of the family were within, there appeared no danger of its being ever discovered, or, if it should be suspected, his mistress would protect him. To all this was added importunity, frequent constant importunity, to such a degree that at last she laid violent hands on him. His resistance of the temptation was very brave, and the victory truly honorable. The almighty grace of God enabled him to overcome this assault of the enemy. How can I do this? not only, How shall I? or How dare I? but How can I? “Not only sin against my master, my mistress, myself, my own body and soul; but against God?” The worst thing in sin is that it is against God, against his nature and his dominion, against his love and his design. They that love God, for this reason hate sin. H.

What is his answer to the temptation? God! There is no other true answer. When the tempter comes we must take wing, and get away to God! There are temptations in life—temptations at every turning of the street—temptations in all the evolutions of daily circumstances—temptations that come suddenly, unexpectedly, flatteringly. There is no true, all-conquering, all-triumphant answer to the temptation of the devil but this,—God! He will deliver, if so be we put our trust in him. J. P.

The words to his master’s wife, “Can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” tell us that the child of the covenant believes the covenant. Away from the tents in which he has been brought up,—without any outward tokens to remind him of any lessons he has received there, in an hour of tremendous temptation,—he confesses a righteous Ruler, whom he is to obey; he trusts in him, and does obey him; he goes to prison for it. . . . We are in danger, when any great trial of our moral strength comes, of sinking ignominiously, if we have nothing better to rely upon than calculations of consequences, or religious terrors, or a sense of honor; all which the gusts of passion may scatter to the winds. Be sure that nothing will avail but trust in a present Helper and Deliverer; of One who cares more for us than we care for ourselves; who will not suffer any who trust in Him and not in themselves, to fall from Him. Maurice.

12. This second time is Joseph stripped of his garment; before in the violence of envy, now of lust; before of necessity, now of choice; before to deceive his father, now his master; for, behold, the pledge of his fidelity, which he left in those wicked hands, is made an evidence against him of that which he refused to do. Therefore did he leave his cloak, because he would not do that of which he is accused and condemned because he left it. What safety is there against great adversaries, when even arguments of innocence are used to convince of evil? Lust is a desperate madness when it is opposed; no hatred burns so furiously as that which arises from the quenched coals of love. By Hall.

Joseph fled, and got him out. To know when to fight and when to fly, are of great importance in the Christian life. Some temptations must be manfully met, resisted, and thus overcome: from others we must fly. He who stands to contend or reason is infallibly ruined. A C.—There is but one thing which you have to fear in earth or heaven,—being untrue to your better selves, and therefore untrue to God. If you will not do the thing you know to be right, and say the thing you know to be true, then indeed you are weak. You are a coward, and sin against God, and suffer the penalty of your cowardice. You desert God, and therefore you cannot expect him to stand by you. C. Kingsley.—Not for what we can make by it, or for what it is worth, but for what it is, and for its relationship to God, let us do the right, and we may rest assured, however it may be now, that in the end we shall be on the winning side, for character is success—not position, not prosperity, not reputation—but character, and it is made and hardened and tempered in the fire of trial. Leave the reputation and the success, then, to look after themselves, and be not disconcerted if they should both be for a time under a cloud; but look well to the CHARACTER, for that is the main thing, and the life that secures that for Christ is always worth living. W. M. T.

14-18. Incriminate desire is turned to revenge. She charges upon him the crime of which she herself was alone guilty, and she shows the evidence of his purity as the proof of his guilt. To appearances, the innocent one is the guilty; the guilty one is the innocent. Accordingly Joseph is cast into prison. Potiphar’s palace has crumbled to decay, and Potiphar’s wife has long since entered a world where falsehood will not shield the guilty; but slander still lives, and has its temporary triumphs. It seems to have a marvellous adaptation to all countries, to all ages, and to all states of society. Born of malice, fed on ruined reputations, clad in the stolen robes of virtue and polished into the likeness of a holy detestation of wrongdoing—slander, notwithstanding her innate loathlessness, has attained a prominence which true goodness deplores exceedingly. As in Joseph’s case, the virtue which vice cannot conquer it is almost certain to malign. J. S. V.

20. The incident is related because it formed a necessary link in the chain of circumstances that brought him before Pharaoh. And however strong his temptation may have been, more men would be found who could thus have spoken to Potiphar’s wife, than who could have kept silence when accused by Potiphar. For his purity you will find his equal, one among a thousand; for his mercy scarcely one. The word is on his tongue that can put a very different face on the matter, but rather than utter that word, Joseph will suffer the stroke that otherwise must fall on his master’s honor. He is content to lie under the cruel suspicion that he had in the foulest way wronged the man whom most he should have regarded, and whom in point of fact he did enthusiastically serve. There was one man in Egypt whose good will he prized, and this man now scorned and condemned him, and this for the very act by which Joseph had proved most faithful and deserving. Dods.

21-23. The contrast could scarcely be greater than between his former prophetic dreams and his present condition. But even so Joseph remained steadfast. And, as if to set before us the other contrast between sight and faith, the sacred text expressly states it: “But”—a word on which our faith should often lay emphasis—“Jehovah was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” By and by, as his integrity more and more appeared, the charge of the prisoners was committed unto him; and as “what he did Jehovah made to prosper,” the whole management of the prison ultimately passed into Joseph’s hands. Thus, here also Jehovah proved Himself a faithful covenant. God. A silver streak was lining the dark cloud. But still must “patience have her perfect work.” A. E.

In the account of Joseph’s imprisonment is given to us an explanation of one of the mysteries of this our human life. It is a mystery that often sinfulness and selfishness reap the prizes here, while goodness and integrity have to endure the ills of this life. It is as if we thought that the Everlasting rewarded the goodness of his servants as a foolish mother giving her child that which is pleasant to the taste. We do well, and suffer for it; and then we complain that we have not our reward in material prosperity. Shortly after his imprisonment, Joseph was released, his merit acknowledged, and almost regal dignity conferred upon him. Whereupon we say, “Now all is right, merit has its reward;” and with this poetical justice we are satisfied. But this is not the justice of God’s world. Are these, then, the rewards of well-doing,—horses and carriages, the royal robe, and the knee bowed before him? Is it with these things, quite earthly, that the Everlasting rewards celestial qualities? Neither in this world nor in the world to come are these the rewards of goodness. What was Joseph’s reward? Not the rank conferred upon him; but this—to be pure, to be haunted by no principle of remorse; to see God, to have the vision of the King in his beauty, to know and to feel that he is near. Think you that from this the dungeon could take much, and that to this his earthly honors could add anything? The reward of well-doing is God. Robertson.

The case of Joseph proves that all the suffering in this world cannot be retrobatified for sin. There may be great suffering which cannot in any true sense be the punishment of crime. Further, this case illustrates some of the ends which God aims to secure by permitting the sufferings of the good; e.g. to discipline them to patience under suffering, and to trust in God in the midst of darkness and in spite of it. Joseph’s slavery and prison life in Egypt would have been simply miserable without this patience and this trust in the Lord his God. Everything in the future as before his eye was dark enough; but he knew there was a God of loving kindness above—a God who made no mistakes, yet whose purposes were often too deep for afflicted man to fathom; and therefore a God whom his children should learn to trust as certainly doing all things well.

Again; the case serves to reveal God’s pity and his love in that he goes with his children into their slave-life and into their prison-life with such smiles of favor, such tokens of his presence, as may well make them joyful in the most terrible affliction. As Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises within the cold, desolate walls of a prison while yet smarting under the Roman scourge, and with perhaps some prospect of sufferings more severe when another day should dawn; so Joseph found the Lord with him when he reached Egypt a slave; with him when cast into prison because he virtuously repelled a temptation to crime. God was there, proving to his servant Joseph that no surroundings are so dark that God’s manifested presence will not make them light—that no sufferings and no bereavements are so severe that God cannot throw his smile upon the sufferer and fill his soul with overflowing joy!

Yet again; this lesson teaches that God uses means apparently rough and stern to prepare his servants for higher responsibilities and more signal blessings. We cannot say what Joseph would have been if he had remained in the bosom of his father’s home through all those years from seventeen to thirty, instead of being in God’s school of suffering and trial; but it is safe to say that he made rapid strides forward in this school of God—in his knowledge of human nature; in his quick and manifest sympathy with every one in trouble; in his skill to gain the confidence of those about and above him; in his capacity for business; and not least in his living piety and his humble walk with God. His surroundings threw him roughly upon his own resources, and at the same time sweetly upon God’s resources; in consequence he rose, as few men have even been fit to rise, from slave-life and prison-life, to be the actuary of a great kingdom—the almour of bread and of life to the nations of the then civilized world; and also to become one of the most exalted and spotless characters of all history. Are not the ways of God truly wonderful? H. C.