Genesis 40 - Introduction
_THE CHIEF BUTLER AND CHIEF BAKER OF PHARAOH RELATE THEIR DREAMS TO JOSEPH. HE INTERPRETS THE DREAMS, WHICH AFTER THREE DAYS ARE FULFILLED ACCORDING TO HIS INTERPRETATION._... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE CHIEF BUTLER AND CHIEF BAKER OF PHARAOH RELATE THEIR DREAMS TO JOSEPH. HE INTERPRETS THE DREAMS, WHICH AFTER THREE DAYS ARE FULFILLED ACCORDING TO HIS INTERPRETATION._... [ Continue Reading ]
BUTLER—AND—BAKER— This _chief butler_ and _chief baker,_ Genesis 40:2 were two distinguished officers of the crown; _cup-bearer_ and _master of the household_ to the king; see Nehemiah 1:11. Diodorus Siculus informs us, that "all officers who immediately served the ancient kings of AEgypt, were take... [ Continue Reading ]
JOSEPH WAS BOUND— Rather read, _had been_ bound.... [ Continue Reading ]
A SEASON— _They were days,_ ימים, _iamim,_ the Hebrew has it; that is, say some, a whole year. It is thought by the generality of commentators, that the _captain of the guard_ here mentioned, was Potiphar: it is a point of no great consequence, but I should rather conceive that he was a different pe... [ Continue Reading ]
ACCORDING TO THE INTERPRETATION, &C.— That is, each man dreamed a _significative_ dream, according to the explanation which Joseph afterwards gave of it. Houbigant would render it, after the Samaritan, _each man his dream, according to the interpretation of it, i.e._. each of whose dreams had its pr... [ Continue Reading ]
DO NOT INTERPRETATIONS, &C.— That is, says Calmet, "the explanation of your dreams depends not on a diviner; it is God who reveals it to the diviner himself, [if it be revealed] and who can reveal it to me as well as to him, if he think proper." Joseph reasons here upon a principle universally allow... [ Continue Reading ]
THE THREE BRANCHES ARE THREE DAYS— i.e.. Signify or represent three days. See Genesis 40:18 ch. Genesis 41:26.... [ Continue Reading ]
LIFT UP THINE HEAD— _To lift up the head of another,_ is _to shew him honour and respect;_ to raise him from the downcast state in which he is, and so to give him confidence and encouragement. See Parkhurst and Stockius on the word נשׁא. Grief or adversity is expressed by hanging down the head; and... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THINK ON ME, &C.— The confidence which Joseph had in the certainty of the event which the dream foretold, is manifest from hence; nor can he be blamed for this application to human means, in order to clear himself and be delivered from confinement. He most probably informed the butler of his who... [ Continue Reading ]
DUNGEON— i.e._._ by synecdoche, the prison in general; not the place in prisons peculiarly so called; for Joseph, who was so much employed in the prison, cannot be supposed to have been confined in one place, much less in the dungeon.... [ Continue Reading ]
THREE WHITE BASKETS— White wicker baskets full of holes. It was usual with the ancients to serve their bread at table in baskets; and Herodotus tells us, that among the AEgyptians the women carried burdens on their shoulders, and the men on their heads; hence the baker said, _I had three baskets_ [o... [ Continue Reading ]
LIFT UP THY HEAD— It is added, _from off thee:_ shall take off thy head, _and shall hang thee_ (thy carcase afterwards) _on a tree;_ for it was usual first to behead the criminal, and then to hang him up: hence Jeremiah says, _princes were hanged up by their hands,_ Lamentations 5:12 intimating, tha... [ Continue Reading ]
PHARAOH'S BIRTH-DAY— The antiquity of celebrating birth-days is hence observable. Some think that the phrase _lifted up the head,_ as applied to the elevation of one officer and the destruction of the other, is ambiguous, like the word _tollo_ in the Latin tongue, under which Cicero is said to have... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE RESTORED, &C.— Calmet and Chais both observe, that as Joseph was an illustrious type of our Saviour, so these two officers of Pharaoh clearly mark out the two thieves, between whom our Lord was crucified; the Saviour pardoned one, and condemned the other, as Joseph predicted the butler's re-e... [ Continue Reading ]
YET DID NOT, &C.— How easily doth men's own prosperity make them forget either the deservings in miseries of others! The behaviour of the butler represents strongly the conduct of too many in prosperity. However, it must be observed that God would not deliver Joseph out of prison immediately by mean... [ Continue Reading ]