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Genesis

About this book

Joseph in Potiphar's House

Chapter 39

1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, purchased him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.⁠ 2 The Lord was with Joseph. He was successful and lived in the household of his Egyptian master. 3 His master observed that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he was doing successful. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal attendant. Potiphar appointed Joseph overseer of his household and put him in charge of everything he owned. 5 From the time Potiphar appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s household for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both in his house and in his fields. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; he gave no thought to anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well built and good-looking.⁠ 7 Soon after these things, his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me.”⁠ 8 But he refused, saying to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not give any thought to his household with me here, and everything that he owns he has put into my care. 9 There is no one greater in this household than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”⁠ 10 Even though she continued to speak to Joseph day after day, he did not respond to her invitation to go to bed with her.⁠ 11 One day he went into the house to do his work when none of the household servants were there in the house.⁠ 12 She grabbed him by his outer garment, saying, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his outer garment in her hand and ran outside. 13 When she saw that he had left his outer garment in her hand and had run outside, 14 she called for her household servants and said to them, “See, my husband brought in a Hebrew man to us to humiliate us. He tried to go to bed with me, but I screamed loudly. 15 When he heard me raise my voice and scream, he left his outer garment beside me and ran outside.” 16 So she laid his outer garment beside her until his master came home. 17 This is what she said to him: “That Hebrew slave you brought to us tried to humiliate me, 18 but when I raised my voice and screamed, he left his outer garment and ran outside.” 19 When his master heard his wife say, “This is the way your slave treated me,” he became furious.

Joseph in Prison

20 Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him kindness. He granted him favor in the sight of the prison warden. 22 The warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care. He was in charge of whatever they were doing. 23 The warden did not concern himself with anything that was in Joseph’s care because the Lord was with him and whatever he was doing the Lord was making successful.

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 39:9 and Jubilees 39:6

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

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Summary

In Genesis, Joseph refuses his master’s wife by asking how he could sin against God. Jubilees expands on this, with Joseph saying he recalled Abraham’s teaching about adultery, already following the Torah before it was given at Sinai.

Passages

Genesis 39:9

Hebrew Bible
8 But he refused, saying to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not give any thought to his household with me here, and everything that he owns he has put into my care. 9 There is no one greater in this household than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?” 10 Even though she continued to speak to Joseph day after day, he did not respond to her invitation to go to bed with her.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Jubilees 39:6

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
5 And Joseph's appearance was handsome [and his appearance was very beautiful], and his master's wife looked up and saw Joseph, and she loved him and begged him to lie with her. 6 But he did not surrender his soul, and he remembered the Lord and the words which Jacob, his father, used to read from among the words of Abraham, that no man should commit adultery with a woman who has a husband; that for him the punishment of death has been ordained in the heavens before the Most High God, and the sin will be recorded against him in the eternal books continually before the Lord. 7 And Joseph remembered these words and refused to lie with her.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

... Joseph, of course, rejects her advances in both books, but in Genesis 39:8-9 he defends his refusal by citing the orders his master gave about his role in the household. There he concludes by saying to her: “He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (verse 9). In Jubilees he refuses to surrender himself to her lusts, not because Potiphar had ruled his wife off limits to Joseph. On the contrary, Joseph, apparently clarifying what Genesis meant by “do this great wickedness, and sin against God,” recalled his religious training and the law he had learned from Jacob. ...
James C. VanderKam, Jubilees 2: A Commentary on the Book of Jubilees Chapters 22-50 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2018), 1009.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 39:9 and Jubilees 39:6

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