Genesis/Bereshith 40 – "DDD"

Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh’s two officers.  The scene faithfully reflects Egyptian conditions in the age of Joseph.

1 Now after these events it was 

that the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt fell afoul of their lord, the king of Egypt.

after these things. Recounted in the preceding chapter.

[EF] the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt: The Hebrew has “the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and the baker,” a common construction in biblical Hebrew.

 

2 Pharaoh became infuriated with his two officials, with the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,

the butlers . . .  the bakers. The Egyptian court had a ‘scribe of the sideboard’ and a ‘superintendent of the bakehouse’  (Erman).

These officers had to taste the food for the king before the royal meal began.  The word for butler may also be rendered, ‘cup-bearer.’ It is conjectured that these officials were accused of plotting to poison Pharaoh.

[EF[ cupbearer: Others use “butler.”

3 and he placed them in custody in the house of the chief of the guard, in the dungeon house, the

place where Yosef was imprisoned.

in ward.  In confinement, pending their trial.

captain of the guard. i.e. Potiphar. In the prison, the keeper was in charge and was responsible to Potiphar.

4 The chief of the guard appointed Yosef for them, that he should wait upon them. 

They were in custody for many days.

Potiphar appoints Joseph to be with the imprisoned officers.  He is not appointed over them, but he is deputed to be their attendant—a mark of courtesy on the part of Potiphar to his unfortunate colleagues.

a season.  lit. ‘days’; implying a considerable time.

[EF] appointed Yosef: As Potifar had “appointed him over his house” (39:4).

[RA] And the high chamberlain assigned to Joseph to them and he ministered them. The source critics take this as a flat contradiction of the end of chapter 39, where Joseph is appointed as general supervisor of the prison, serving as a kind of managing warden.  But, in fact, Joseph’s “ministering’ to the two courtiers need not imply a menial role. These two prisoners had occupied important places in the court, and Pharaoh may yet pardon them, so it makes perfect sense that they should be singled out for special treatment in prison, to be attended personally by the warden’s right-hand.  There is another seeming discrepancy with the preceding report of Joseph’s incarceration: there, the prison was run by a prison warden (sar beyt hasohari) whereas here it is governed by the high chamberlain (sar hatabaim), the title assigned to Potiphar himself at the beginning of chapter 39.  But it is easy enough to imagine the high chamberlain as a kind of minister of justice, bureaucratically responsible for the royal prisons, with the warden answering to him.

5 And then the two of them dreamt a dream, each man his own dream, in a single night, 

each man according to his dream’s interpretation, 

the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were imprisoned in the dungeon house.

according to the interpretation.  As the future verified.

[EF] interpretation: Or, “meaning.”

[RA]  solution. Although a long tradition of translations opts for “interpretation” here, the Hebrew verb patar  and its cognate noun suggest decipherment (compare the related term pesher used in the Dead Sea Scrolls).  There is one conclusive decoding for every dream, and a person who is granted insight can break the code.

6 When Yosef came to them in the morning and saw them, here, they were dejected!

[RA] they were frowning.  The Hebrew zo’afim can refer either to a grim mood or to the grim facial expression that it produces.  Because both the narrative report in this verse and Joseph’s words in the next verse make clear that he sees something is wrong when he looks at their faces, this translation opts for facial expression, against all the previous English versions.

7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were with him in custody in the house of his lord, saying: 

Why are your faces in such ill-humor today?

8 They said to him: 

We have dreamt a dream, and there is no interpreter for it! 

Yosef said to them:

Are not interpretations from God?

Pray recount them to me!

none that can interpret it. No professional interpreter was available, and they had in vain consulted others in the prison as to the possible meaning of their dreams.  The interpreter was a professional man of importance in Egypt and Babylon, belonging to the class of soothsayers, magicians and ‘wise men’.

do not interpretations belong to God? i.e. it may be that God who sent the dreams will give me the interpretation of them.  ‘Man cannot by his own wisdom interpret dreams. God alone can reveal their true meaning. Pray tell me the dream, perhaps He will favour me with wisdom to explain its import ‘ (Chizkuni).

[EF] Are not interpretations from God: Foreshadowing 41:16, “Not I!/God will answer . . . “

[RA]  Are not solutions from God? Joseph in Egyptian captivity remains a good Hebrew monotheist.  In Egypt, the interpretation of dreams was regarded as a science, and formal instruction in techniques of dream interpretation was given in schools called “houses of life.”  Joseph is saying, then, to these two high-ranking Egyptians that no trained hermeneut of the oneiric—no professional poter—is required; since god possesses the meanings of dreams, if He chooses, He will simply reveal the meanings to the properly attentive person.  But one should note that Joseph immediately proceeds to ask the cupbearer to recount his dream, unhesitantly assuming that he, Joseph, is such a person whom God will favor with insight into the meaning of the dream.

9 The chief cupbearer recounted his dream to Yosef, he said to him: 

In my dream- 

here, a vine was in front of me,

10 and on the vine, three winding-tendrils, 

and just as it was budding, the blossom came up, (and) its clusters ripened into grapes.

[RA] and as it was budding, its blossom shot up, its clusters ripened to grapes.  Like Joseph’s pair of dreams, both these dreams are stylized, schematic, and nearly transparent in regard to meaning.  The only item requiring any effort of interpretation is the three tendrils representing three days. (Numbers stand out in each of the three sets of dreams in the Joseph story—first twelve, here three, and then seven.)  The one manifestly dreamlike element in the cupbearer’s dream occurs at this point, when time is speeded up as he looks at the vine, and in a rapid blur the vine moves from bud to blossom to ripened grapes to wine.

11 Now Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand- 

I picked the grapes 

and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup 

and put the cup in Pharaoh’s palm.

pressed them. Grape juice mixed with water is mentioned as a refreshing drink on the Egyptian inscriptions.

[EF] Pharaoh’s cup: The cup was a common symbol of fate in the ancient Near East.

12 Yosef said to him: 

This is its interpretation: 

The three windings are three days-

13 in another three days

Pharaoh will lift up your head, 

he will restore you to your position 

so that you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand (once more), 

according to the former practice, when you were his cupbearer.

lift up thy head.  In honour, by restoring thee to thy post.

[EF[ lift up your head: A parallel expression in Assyrian means “release’ or “pardon.”

[RA]  lift up your head.  As almost any reader of the Hebrew quickly sees, the biblical idiom, here rendered quite literally, is doubly punned on in the story.  To lift up someone’s head, in administrative and royal contexts, means to single out (as in a census), to invite, to grant favor or extend reconciliation (as when a monarch lifts up with a gesture the downcast head of a contrite subject).  When Joseph addresses the baker in verse 19, he begins as though he were using the idiom in the same positive sense as here, but by adding “from upon you,” he turns it into a reference to beheading, the first such reference in the Bible.  In verse 20, when both courtiers are the object of the idiom, it is used in the neutral sense of “to single out.”

14 But keep me in mind with you, when it goes well for you, 

pray deal kindly with me and call me to mind to Pharaoh, 

so that you have me brought out of this house.

have me in thy remembrance. All he asks is that the chief butler should not forget him, but try to secure his freedom.

[EF] with you: Possibly stressing the personal nature of the plea.

15 For I was stolen, yes, stolen from the land of the Hebrews, 

and here too I have done nothing 

that they should have put me in the pit.

stolen away. See XXXVII,28, implying that he was not a slave by birth.

land of the Hebrews. The land where Jacob was dwelling.  Some identify the word ‘Hebrews’ in this verse with the Habiri, the invaders of Palestine in the 14th pre-Christian century, who are mentioned in the Tell-el-Amarna tablets.

[EF] stolen: The Yaakov motif of Chaps. 30-31.

[RA]  put in the pit. In the previous verse, Joseph refers to the place of his incarceration as “this house” (invoking elliptically the “house” component of “prison-house”).  Now he calls it a pit, perhaps because it is a kind of underground dungeon, but also to make us see the link with the empty cistern into which he was flung by his brothers—twice he has been put in a pit for what he must feel is no good reason.

16 Now when the chief baker saw that he had interpreted for good, 

he said to Yosef:

I too, in my dream-

here, three baskets of white-bread were on my head,

that the interpretation was good. i.e. favourable. This encourages him to realte his dream.

baskets of white bread.  For the king (cf. Neh. V,18); or, ‘baskets of open wicker-work,’ enabling the birds to peck at the contents (Rashbam).

[EF] white-bread: Others use “wicker.”

17 and in the uppermost basket, all sorts of edibles for Pharaoh, baker’s work, 

and birds were eating them from the basket, from off my head.

baked food. Confectionery.

and the birds.  The butler dreamed that he actually performed the duties of his office, whereas the baker only sought to do so, but was prevented.  The further ominous circumstance was the birds darting down upon the food, he being powerless to drive them away.

[EF] eating: In Pharaoh’s dreams of Chap. 41, “eating up” comes to symbolize the disaster of famine.

[RA] in the topmost…all sorts of food for Pharaoh…and birds were eating. The cupbearer in his dream performs his normal court function, though at fast-forward speed.  The baker executes a kind of bizarre parody of his normal function, balancing three baskets of bread one on top of the other.  This precarious arrangement may imply, as Amos Funkenstein has proposed to me, a sense that the baker has been negligent of his duties.  The pecking of birds at this tower of baked goods is of course an explicitly ominous element.  The two dreams parallel Joseph’s two dreams in that the first is anchored in an agricultural setting and involves harvesting while the second is oriented toward the sky above.  But instead of the glorious celestial bodies, here we have the swooping down of ravenous birds from the sky.

18 Yosef gave answer, he said: 

This is its interpretation: 

The three baskets are three days-

19 in another three days 

Pharaoh will lift up your head 

from off you, 

he will hang you on a tree, 

and the birds will eat your flesh from off you.

hang thee.  Impale thee.  The decapitated corpse of a malefactor was allowed to hang exposed to the public view, and to become the prey of the birds.  In Israel, this barbarous custom was prohibited 9Deut. XXI,23).

[EF] hang . . . on a tree:  Others use “impale on a stake.”

[RA] impale.  Despite the fact that the Hebrew verb generally means “to hang,” hanging was not a common means of execution anywhere in the ancient Near East, and there is evidence elsewhere that the same verb was sued for impalement, which was frequently practiced.  The baker’s dire fate would seem to be first decapitation and then exposure of the body on a high stake.

20 And thus it was, on the third day, 

Pharaoh’s birthday, 

that he made a great drinking-feast for all his servants, 

and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker amidst his servants:

Pharaoh’s birthday. On that day he reviewed the prisoners or considered their petitions.

21 he restored the chief cupbearer to his cupbearership, 

so that he put the cup in Pharaoh’s palm (once more),

22 but the chief baker he hanged, 

just as Yosef had interpreted to them.

23 But the chief cupbearer did not keep Yosef in mind, 

he forgot him.

 not . . . remember Joseph.  On that day.

but forgot him. (Afterwards (Rashi).  As Joseph had put his trust in the butler, God caused him to wait two years for his freedom (Midrash). The chief butler’s forgetfulness, in the enjoyment of his own good fortune, is sadly natural.  Nothing alas is more common than ingratitude.  Man forgets; but God does not forget his own.  And when the night is darkest, the dawn is near.

[EF] he forgot him: here, as in Potifar’s house, initial success gives way to failure and continued imprisonment.

[RA] did not remember Joseph, no, he forgot him. The verb for remembering also means “to mention,” and Joseph employs both senses of the root in his words to the cupbearer in verse 14.  Now, with the emphasis of synonymity (did not remember, forgot), attention is drawn to the cupbearer’s failure to respond to the plea of the man who helped him in prison.  It will take another pair of dreams—with which the next episode begins—to elicit that mention/remembering.  It should also be kept in mind that remembering is central to the larger story of Joseph and his brothers. When he sees them again after more than twenty years of separation, this same crucial verb of memory zakhar, will be invoked for him, and the complicated strategy he adopts for treating his brothers is a device for driving them into a painful process of moral memory.