NLT One Year Bible - Flipbook - Page 72
J A N U A R Y
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to bless Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake. All his household affairs ran
smoothly, and his crops and livestock
flourished. 6So Potiphar gave Joseph
complete administrative responsibility
over everything he owned. With Joseph
there, he didn’t worry about a thing—
except what kind of food to eat!
Joseph was a very handsome and
well-built young man, 7 and Potiphar’s
wife soon began to look at him lustfully.
“Come and sleep with me,” she demanded.
8But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told
her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. 9No one
here has more authority than I do. He
has held back nothing from me except
you, because you are his wife. How
could I do such a wicked thing? It would
be a great sin against God.”
10She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to
sleep with her, and he kept out of her
way as much as possible. 11One day,
however, no one else was around when
he went in to do his work. 12 She came
and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his
cloak in her hand as he ran from the
house.
13 When she saw that she was holding
his cloak and he had fled, 14 she called
out to her servants. Soon all the men
came running. “Look!” she said. “My
husband has brought this Hebrew slave
here to make fools of us! He came into
my room to rape me, but I screamed.
15 When he heard me scream, he ran
outside and got away, but he left his
cloak behind with me.”
16She kept the cloak with her until
her husband came home. 17 Then she
told him her story. “That Hebrew slave
you’ve brought into our house tried to
come in and fool around with me,” she
said. 18“But when I screamed, he ran
outside, leaving his cloak with me!”
19 Potiphar was furious when he
heard his wife’s story about how Joseph
had treated her. 20So he took Joseph
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and threw him into the prison where
the king’s prisoners were held, and
there he remained. 21But the LORD was
with Joseph in the prison and showed
him his faithful love. And the LORD
made Joseph a favorite with the prison
warden. 22Before long, the warden put
Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened
in the prison. 23 The warden had no
more worries, because Joseph took care
of everything. The Lord was with him
and caused everything he did to
succeed.
40:1Some time later, Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and chief baker offended their
royal master. 2Pharaoh became angry
with these two officials, 3 and he put
them in the prison where Joseph was, in
the palace of the captain of the guard.
4They remained in prison for quite some
time, and the captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, who looked after
them.
5 While they were in prison, Pharaoh’s
cup-bearer and baker each had a dream
one night, and each dream had its own
meaning. 6When Joseph saw them the
next morning, he noticed that they both
looked upset. 7“Why do you look so
worried today?” he asked them.
8 And they replied, “We both had
dreams last night, but no one can tell us
what they mean.”
“Interpreting dreams is God’s business,” Joseph replied. “Go ahead and tell
me your dreams.”
9 So the chief cup-bearer told Joseph
his dream first. “In my dream,” he said,
“I saw a grapevine in front of me. 10The
vine had three branches that began to
bud and blossom, and soon it produced
clusters of ripe grapes. 11I was holding
Pharaoh’s wine cup in my hand, so I
took a cluster of grapes and squeezed
the juice into the cup. Then I placed the
cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”
12“This is what the dream means,” Joseph said. “The three branches represent three days. 13 Within three days
Pharaoh will lift you up and restore you
