1 ① Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, commander of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. 2Yahweh blessed Joseph while he lived in the house of his master, the Egyptian, and everything went right for him.
3The Egyptian could see that God was with him and everything worked well for him. 4So Joseph pleased his master who made him overseer of his house and of all that he owned, 5and from that time God blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph; he blessed all that the Egyptian owned, his household and his land. 6The Egyptian left all he had to the care of Joseph and, with Joseph fully in charge, he concerned himself with nothing except the food that he ate.
7Now Joseph was a handsome man and well-built. 8After some time his master’s wife kept noticing him and said, “Sleep with me.” 9But he refused and said to her, “With me in charge, my master has no concern about anything in the house and has entrusted to me all that he has. 10He is no more master in this house than I am and he refuses me nothing, except yourself, of course, because you are his wife. How then could I do such an evil thing and sin against God?” 11Now, although day after day she spoke to Joseph, he would not agree to sleep with her or give himself to her.
12It happened that one day, when he entered the house to attend to his duties, none of the servants were in the house. 13Then Potiphar’s wife caught hold of Joseph by his cloak saying, “Come to bed with me.” But Joseph left his cloak in her hands and ran out of the house. 14As soon as he had run out of the house, 15she called her servants and said, “Look, a Hebrew has been brought here to make fun of us; he came here to lie with me; so I screamed 16and when he heard me scream he left his cloak with me and ran out of the house.” 17Then she kept the cloak by her until the master came home. 18She then told her story, “That Hebrew slave of yours came to make sport of me, 19but when I screamed he left his cloak with me and ran out of the house.”
20When his master heard what his wife told him, “This is how your servant treated me,” he blazed with anger. 21He took Joseph and put him in the Royal Prison where the king’s prisoners were kept. But while Joseph was in prison 22Yahweh was with him and showed him kindness so that he was well-liked by the warden of the prison. 23The warden put him in charge of all the prisoners and made him responsible for all that was done there. 24The warden did not interfere with anything that was under Joseph’s care, because Yahweh was with him and gave him success in everything he did.
- Gen 39,1 After his misfortune Joseph behaves as a model of honesty, faithfulness and perseverance. In the Bible, he is the first of the humiliated, just ones who look to God for their reward. In the Bible there were many liberators and saviors before the coming of the Son of God, the Savior. They were all tested before succeeding and many were despised by their people. The story about Joseph and Potiphar's wife is a lesson in genuine manliness. The Bible views faithfulness and respect for marriage as one of the virtues of authentic persons.
