Joseph Tells the Meaning of the Prisoners' Dreams

^1-2-3While Joseph was in prison, both the king's personal servant and his chief cook made the king angry. So he had them thrown into the same prison with Joseph.[#40.1-3 See the note at 12.15.; #40.1-3 The Hebrew text has “cup bearer,” an important and trusted official in the royal court, who personally served wine to the king.]

⁴They spent a long time in prison, and the official in charge of the palace guard, made Joseph their servant.[#40.4 Possibly Potiphar (see 39.1).]

⁵One night each of the two men had a dream, but their dreams had different meanings.

⁶The next morning, when Joseph went to see the men, he could tell they were upset,

⁷and he asked, “Why are you so worried today?”

⁸“We each had a dream last night,” they answered, “and there is no one to tell us what they mean.”

Joseph replied, “Doesn't God know the meaning of dreams? Now tell me what you dreamed.”

⁹The king's personal servant told Joseph, “In my dream I saw a vine

¹⁰with three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its grapes became ripe.

¹¹I held the king's cup and squeezed the grapes into it, then I gave the cup to the king.”

¹²Joseph said:

¹⁶When the chief cook saw that Joseph had given a good meaning to the dream, he told Joseph, “I also had a dream. In it I was carrying three breadbaskets stacked on top of my head.

¹⁷The top basket was full of all kinds of baked things for the king, but birds were eating them.”

¹⁸Joseph said:

²⁰Three days later, while the king was celebrating his birthday with a dinner for his officials, he sent for his personal servant and the chief cook.

²¹He put the personal servant back in his old job

²²and had the cook put to death.

Everything happened just as Joseph had said it would,

²³but the king's personal servant completely forgot about Joseph.