Chapter Forty
Joseph Interprets Two Dreams
40:1 Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, 3 and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. 4 The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody.
In this chapter we are introduced to a royal staff position known as the cupbearer. The Hebrew word ‘mǎš·qē(h)’,[1] refers to a trusted servant who served the king his beverages, but he was more than a wine steward, he assured that drinks were both safe and of the highest quality. Since the root of the word infers a liquid that is consumed, it is most often translated as cupbearer, however, since they often had other duties, the word can be translated as ‘butler’. The royal baker had similar responsibilities with food rather than drink. The Hebrew word for baker (‘ō·pě(h)’)[2] can include any food that is prepared over fire. Both men “committed an offense” against the Pharaoh. The Hebrew word that is translated as “committed an offense,” is ‘ḥǒṭ·’û’,[3] a guttural sounding verb that is more often translated as “sin” or “sinned against.” The text does not offer any explanation as to why we see both the generic word ‘king’ and the specific title of an Egyptian Pharaoh, but they are both referring to the same person.
Both men were suspected of committing some form of offense to the Pharaoh, so they were both placed in the same prison as Joseph, who was assigned to attend them. Even though their guilt had not been determined yet, they remained in custody for some undefined period.
40:5 And one night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. 6 When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” 8 They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”
Joseph undoubtedly got to know these two men well, the morning after they both had dreams, he could tell something was bothering them. So, he asked them why they were seemingly depressed. They said that they both had dreams that neither one could understand. The dreams apparently were so vivid that both believed that the dreams were of supernatural origin, with significant meanings, but the message was eluding them. Since Joseph had experience with dreams in the past, he knew that the ultimate source of dreams was God. Plus, since God alone knows the future, only He could provide the correct interpretation. So, Joseph immediately offered to interpret the dreams for them, but first made it clear that any correct interpretation belongs to God.
Joseph’s response was similar to Daniel’s response when he offered to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: “there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries” (Daniel 2:28). There are a lot of parallels between the story of Joseph and the story of Daniel. The central theme for both of their lives was to remain faithful to God, and they were.
40:9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, 10 and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. 11 Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” 12 Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. 13 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. 14 Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. 15 For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.”
The chief cupbearer goes first, he told his unusual dream to Joseph, who immediately interprets it to mean that in three days the cupbearer will be exonerated and cleared of all charges and will resume his role as chief cupbearer. Knowing that he would be soon released and would have the opportunity to talk to the Pharaoh, Joseph asks the cupbearer to remember to mention him before the Pharaoh. Joseph then briefly reiterates how he was improperly incarcerated. The word translated here as ‘pit’, is the Hebrew word ‘bôr’,[4] which indeed refers to either a pit, well, or cistern, but it is also used to describe a dungeon or prison, making the use of the term a double entendre, referring to both the pit his brothers threw him in and the prison he was currently in.
40:16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, 17 and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.” 18 And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. 19 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.”
Seeing how the interpretation of the cupbearer’s dream was indeed good news, the baker was anxious to learn more about his own dream. After sharing the details of his dream, Joseph again immediately interprets it, except this time the meaning is not so favorable. In the same period of time, Pharaoh will have the baker executed.
40:20 On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. 21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. 22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Just as Joseph interpreted, three days later the cupbearer was freed, and the baker was executed. It was also Pharaoh’s birthday, apparently a time of great celebration, as Pharaoh offered a feast for all of his servants. During the celebration he “lifted up the head” of both the cupbearer and the baker, this is not a reference to showing only their heads to everyone, it is simply a calling attention to them, much like lifting a glass to offer a toast, getting everyone’s attention. He publicly restored the chief cupbearer to his previous position but hanged the baker.
There is a lot of published speculation as to why the cupbearer forgot about Joseph, however the reasons are unimportant, this was God’s way. Undoubtedly between the joy of being released and the desire to do his job with a renewed enthusiasm, the cupbearer simply forgot. There is no reason to believe that he intentionally decided to not discuss the matter with the Pharaoh.
Considerations
This chapter contains the first appearance of the Hebrew word ‘ṯā·lā(h)’[5] (see verses 19 and 22), which is almost always translated, depending on context, either hang, hanged, or hung. The verb essentially means “to hang,” like a utensil on a peg (see Isaiah 22:24; Ezekiel 15:3) or a weapon on a wall (see Ezekiel 27:10). However, more frequently the word is used in relation to an execution or some form of public display of the body after the execution.
It is believed that the process of hanging was different than the hangings of recent history, like what we might see in the movies or on television today. Hanging for punishment was typically done by suspending the bodies on a tall, sharpened pole that impaled the body in the upper chest forcing the head to slump over the top of the pole. The historian Herodotus records that impaling was the preferred form of execution in Babylon (Persia), not hanging[6] (but often referred to as a hanging, see also Ezra 6:11). Plus, the Septuagint translates this word as the Greek word ‘stauroō’,[7] meaning to impale or pierce in Esther 7:9 (can also be translated as ‘crucified’). Then once dead, the bodies were often placed on a tree or other object (hung) to further humiliate and sometimes to serve as an example for others. However, the body was not allowed to remain on that tree overnight (see Deuteronomy 21:22-23).
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[1] Strong’s Hebrew 4945.
[2] Strong’s Hebrew 644.
[3] Strong’s Hebrew 2398.
[4] Strong’s Hebrew 953.
[5] Strong’s Hebrew 8518.
[6] Herodotus. (1920). Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. (A. D. Godley, Ed.). Medford, MA: Harvard University Press.
[7] Strong’s Greek 4717.