Jacob, Joseph & Egypt

When his master heard what his wife said as she showed him, "Here's what your slave did to me," he became furious.

Yosef's master took him and put him in prison, in the place where the king's prisoners were kept; and there he was in the prison.

But ADONAI was with Yosef, showing him grace and giving him favor in the sight of the prison warden.

The prison warden made Yosef supervisor of all the prisoners in the prison; so that whatever they did there, he was in charge of it.

The prison warden paid no attention to anything Yosef did, because ADONAI was with him; and whatever he did, ADONAI prospered.

Some time later it came about that the Egyptian king's cupbearer and baker gave offense to their lord the king of Egypt.

Pharaoh became angry with his two officers the chief cupbearer and the chief baker.

So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, in the same place where Yosef was kept.

The captain of the guard charged Yosef to be with them, and he became their attendant while they remained in prison.

One night the two of them, the king of Egypt's cupbearer and his baker, there in prison, both had dreams, each dream with its own meaning.

Yosef came in to them in the morning and saw that they looked sad.

He asked Pharaoh's officers there with him in the prison of his master's house, "Why are you looking so sad today?"

They said to him, "We each had a dream, and there's no one around who can interpret it."Yosef said to them, "Don't interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please."

Then the chief cupbearer told Yosef his dream: "In my dream, there in front of me was a vine,

and the vine had three branches. The branches budded, then it suddenly began to blossom, and finally clusters of ripe grapes appeared.

Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, so I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and gave the cup to Pharaoh."

Yosef said to him, "Here is its interpretation: the three branches are three days.

Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office: you will be giving Pharaoh his cup as you used to when you were his cupbearer.

But remember me when it goes well with you; and show me kindness, please; and mention me to Pharaoh, so that he will release me from this prison.

For the truth is that I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and here too I have done nothing wrong that would justify putting me in this dungeon."

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Yosef, "I too saw in my dream: there were three baskets of white bread on my head.

In the uppermost basket there were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds ate them out of the basket on my head."

Yosef answered, "Here is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days.

Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from off of you -he will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh off you."

On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he gave a party for all his officials, and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his officials.