
Genesis 40:1-22
40:2-3 | The offenses of the butler and baker are not revealed, but the chief butler was expected to taste all the king’s food to ensure it had not been poisoned. The baker was expected to make the food. The Hebrew phrase translated “prison” reveals Joseph’s location: it literally means “the round house” (39:20), a place of confinement where royal prisoners were kept apart from common criminals.
40:6-7 | Joseph was in prison for a crime he did not commit. Yet rather than pitying himself, he noticed that the butler and baker were sad and asked why. Helping others is often a good antidote when one’s own circumstances are difficult.
40:8-22 | In the ancient Near East, dreams were considered a source of divine revelation, so people asked magicians or wise men to interpret their dreams. Joseph recognized that dreams and their interpretations belong to God. Notice how the slight different wording of the two interpretations revealed each man’s future: Pharaoh would lift up the head of one and lift off the head of the other. Only days later, Pharoah hanged the chief baker.
40:23 | The butler forgot Joseph, but God did not.