One Year Pray for the Persecuted Bible - Flipbook - Page 78
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January 19
Potip
har, so he soon made Joseph his personal
attendant. He put him in charge of his entire
household and everything he owned. 5 From
the day Joseph was put in charge of his master’s household and property, the Lord began
to bless Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake.
All his household affairs ran smoothly, and his
crops and livestock flourished. 6 So Potiphar
gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph
there, he d
idn’t worry about a t hing—except
what kind of food to eat!
Joseph was a very handsome and w
ell-built
young man, 7 and Potiphar’s wife soon began
to look at him lustfully. “Come and sleep with
me,” she demanded.
8 But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my
master trusts me with everything in his entire
household. 9 No 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.”
10 She 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.
11 One 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.”
16 She 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.
20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the
prison where the king’s prisoners were held,
and there he remained. 21 But 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. 22 Before
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.
40:1 Some time later, Pharaoh’s chief c
up-bearer
and chief baker offended their royal master.
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. 4 They 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 c
up-
bearer and baker each had a dream one night,
and each dream had its own meaning. 6 When
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 c
up-bearer told Joseph his
dream first. “In my dream,” he said, “I saw a
grapevine in front of me. 10 The vine had three
branches that began to bud and blossom, and
soon it produced clusters of ripe grapes. 11 I
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 to your position as
his chief cup-bearer. 14 And please remember
me and do me a favor when things go well for
you. Mention me to Pharaoh, so he might let
me out of this place. 15 For I was kidnapped
from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews,
and now I’m here in prison, but I did nothing
to deserve it.”
16 When the chief baker saw that Jo
seph
had given the first dream such a positive interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I had a dream,
too. In my dream there were three baskets of
white pastries stacked on my head. 17 The top
basket contained all kinds of pastries for Pha
raoh, but the birds came and ate them from
the basket on my head.”
18 “This is what the dream means,” Joseph
told him. “The three baskets also represent
three days. 19 Three days from now Pharaoh
will lift you up and impale your body on a
pole. Then birds will come and peck away at
your flesh.”
20 Pharaoh’s birthday came three days later,
and he prepared a banquet for all his officials
2 Pha
raoh
