40:1–4 The gap between Genesis 39 and 40 is left undefined, described only with the vague phrase “Some time after this” (Hb. ʾakhar haddebarim haʾeleh; v. 1). Likely it is a period of several years, during which Joseph continues to serve his new master faithfully in the royal prison (the period from 37:2 to 41:46 covered a total of thirteen years). The prison is described as “the house of the captain of the guard” (40:3), the same title borne by Potiphar (cf. 39:1); although the text does not explicitly identify the two figures, it is possible that the site of Joseph’s detention is literally at the doorstep of his previous success.

Two high-profile officials of Pharaoh are committed to the prison, and Joseph is assigned by the captain of the guard to serve them (40:4). These men are described as Pharaoh’s “chief cupbearer” (sar-hammashqim; v. 2) and his “chief baker” (sar-haʾofim; v. 2). These officials are far more important than their names might suggest to modern readers; they have personal access to the king daily and are perhaps trusted to sample the king’s food before he eats it, to protect against poisoning. Since Pharaoh has absolute power, having his ear gives these men enormous influence (cf. Neh. 1:11).

The two have incurred Pharaoh’s anger because they have “committed an offense” (khateʾu, “sinned”) against their master, the king of Egypt (Gen. 40:1). This highlights the contrast between their reason for imprisonment and Joseph’s, who is there for refusing to sin (khataʾ) against his master, God (39:9).563 The nature of their offense is left unspecified, but the king of Egypt is angry (qatsaf) with them, a term commonly used of God’s anger against sinful humans. Since these two men are personal servants of Pharaoh and their fate has not been decided, it is not unreasonable that the prison governor would assign his most reliable man, Joseph, to watch over their needs.564

40:5–8 After they have been in custody for some time,565 with Joseph attending to them daily, the two Egyptian officials have simultaneous dreams (40:5). Egyptians placed a high value on the significance of dreams in general and the fact that both have ominous dreams at the same time would heighten their sense of the importance of these revelations; as Joseph will later say, the doubling of dreams indicates the certainty that the depicted events will in fact occur (41:32).566 The irony of these words’ coming from a man whose own doubled dream in Genesis 37 seems very far from likely to come true at this point should not be missed. Joseph’s faith in God’s revelation through dreams has not been disturbed by his own experience.

The Egyptian officials are deeply disturbed by their dreams,567 especially since there is no one available to interpret them (40:6). Since dreams typically pertain to future events, understanding the meaning of the dream leaves open the possibility that adverse events could be forestalled, or at least borne with stoic endurance, while positive outcomes might be encouraged. An uninterpreted dream means unidentified dangers hanging over the dreamer’s head, or potential triumphs that might slip through his fingers. It is not surprising, therefore, that the interpretation of dreams became an industry in Egypt, with many claiming the power to read and understand the symbology of such apparitions. As becomes clear in the next chapter, such professional dream interpreters were readily available at the royal court, but not in prison.

Joseph’s concern for the welfare of the men he is serving is such that he notices their downcast faces and inquires after the cause (v. 7). When they share it with him, he boldly attributes the interpretation of dreams to God,568 not professional dream interpreters, and invites them to share their dreams with him. He does not promise an interpretation, which lies in God’s hands, but invites them to be open to the possibility that God might speak even through him. Since Joseph is aware of the Lord’s presence with him, he may have a degree of confidence that the Lord will give him the required interpretation, just as Daniel does in Daniel 2:16–19.

40:9–19 The first to recount his dream is the cupbearer. The dream fits his calling, an element that would heighten his sense that the dream has a significant meaning concerning himself. It was common in Egyptian dream omens for the dreamer to be a central character in the dream and his actions within the dream to be significant.569 In the cupbearer’s dream he saw a vine with three branches, each of which budded, blossomed, and ripened immediately (Gen. 40:10). It was as though, under God’s blessing, the normal agricultural cycle had been dramatically accelerated—an image that would instantly remind Moses’ first audience of the budding and blossoming of Aaron’s rod in Numbers 17. The cupbearer then took the grapes in the dream, crushed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and gave the cup to his master (Gen. 40:11).

Joseph then gives his interpretation: the three branches represent three days,570 after which Pharaoh will lift up the cupbearer’s head and restore him to his former position (v. 13). To “lift up someone’s head” is an idiom from the world of the ancient court. It was customary, whenever the king made a public appearance, for the people to prostrate themselves in his presence; however, those that the king favored might be invited to lift up their heads and approach him.571 This expression can also be used to indicate a royal pardon, which would release a person from imprisonment (2 Kings 25:27).572 So Joseph interprets the dream to mean that Pharaoh will summon the cupbearer from prison into his presence and restore him to his office within a very short space of time.

In lieu of payment for his interpretation, after Joseph predicts the cupbearer’s release and restoration to power, he says to him, “Only remember me [zakar in the Qal], when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness [khesed] to mention me [zakar in the Hiphil] to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house” (Gen. 40:14). In Genesis 39:21 we were told that the Lord had showed khesed to Joseph, a combination of love and loyalty that meant God had not forgotten him, even in prison. Now Joseph asks the cupbearer to remember him when he is released from prison and to take the appropriate action that goes with that memory; that is, he should use his access to Pharaoh to put in a good word and get Joseph released from the prison (40:14).

As further justification for his request, Joseph boldly proclaims the undeserved nature of his situation on two grounds: he had become a slave not through indebtedness or as a prisoner of war, which were generally regarded in the ancient world as legitimate grounds to enslave a person, but rather through manstealing, which was a capital offense in many ancient law codes (v. 15).573 This highlights Joseph’s brothers’ crime against him and in turn makes it all the more striking that, when he later has the opportunity for vengeance against the brothers, he does not execute them. Moreover, Joseph has done nothing at all during his time in Egypt to deserve his imprisonment (v. 15)—indeed, quite the opposite, as chapter 39 makes clear. Joseph’s life has gone from a literal pit (37:24) to a metaphorical pit (40:15) through no fault of his own. Unfortunately, it is necessary to God’s plan that Joseph not yet be delivered from the pits, so the cupbearer does not remember Joseph for quite some time (v. 23).

Emboldened by the favorable interpretation that Joseph gives the royal cupbearer, the chief baker then recounts his own dream, carefully making it match the other dream as much as possible (v. 16). It also depicted his return to his old task, in his case bringing baked goods for Pharaoh to enjoy. Sarna points out that the Egyptians were justifiably renowned for their baking, with references found in hieroglyphic texts to fifty-seven varieties of bread and thirty-eight different types of cake.574 However, in a scene evoking the classic film of Alfred Hitchcock, the baker dreamed that, as he walked along with three baskets of baked goods on his head,575 he was assaulted by marauding birds (v. 17). Ominously, the baker was powerless to protect the baked goods against the birds, which ate from the uppermost basket, presumably because the baskets were stacked, protecting the lower two layers. The baker’s failure to protect Pharaoh’s food contrasts with Abraham’s successful defense of the sacrifices against predatory birds in the night vision of Genesis 15:11.

Joseph’s interpretation of the chief baker’s dream begins exactly like that of the cupbearer: the three baskets represent three days, after which Pharaoh will lift up the baker’s head (Gen. 40:19). Yet the baker must surely suspect that the final significance will be very different. Whereas the cupbearer will have his head “lifted up” in the sense that he will be restored to his previous position of power and influence, the baker’s head will be “lifted up” in the sense of being hanged on a tree (v. 19). In an Egyptian context it is unlikely that being hanged means death by strangulation on the gallows. More probably this punishment means that his body will be impaled on a wooden spike and left to die or his corpse will be publicly displayed in this way after death by some other means.576 Such a fate was a sign of being under an enduring curse throughout the ancient world (Deut. 21:22–23) but was perhaps a particular horror for Egyptians, for whom the proper care of dead bodies was a necessary prerequisite to a comfortable afterlife. It was thus an Egyptian’s worst nightmare to have his body left after death to become food for the birds of the air—exactly what will happen to the chief baker in a gruesome real-life fulfillment of the birds’ assault in the dream (Gen. 40:19).

40:20–23 Joseph’s interpretation of the three branches and three baskets as three days may earlier have seemed arbitrary, or even simply a vague representation of a short period of time,577 but it turns out to be an exact prediction of events. We are not told whether Joseph knew ahead of time that Pharaoh’s birthday was three days away (v. 20),578 but it turns out to be the decisive moment for both the cupbearer and the chief baker: both of their heads are “lifted up” among his servants (v. 20), with opposite outcomes, exactly as Joseph had predicted. The cupbearer is restored to his position, while the chief baker is impaled on a tree (vv. 21–22). However, the cupbearer does not show khesed to Joseph, as requested. On the contrary he forgets Joseph, leaving him languishing in the pit (v. 23). What must earlier have seemed to Joseph to be God’s providential means of securing his release from prison ends with profound disappointment. Yet what really matters is not whether the cupbearer remembers Joseph but whether God remembers him.579 Though it is not yet God’s time for Joseph to be delivered, he has not forgotten Joseph.