Holman Christian Standard Bible (14 page)

25
 Then they sat down to eat a meal. They looked up, and there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying aromatic gum, balsam, and resin, going down to Egypt. 

26
 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
27
 Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh,” and they agreed.
28
 When Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for 20 pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took Joseph to Egypt. 

29
 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 
30
 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do? ” 
31
 So they took Joseph's robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.
32
 They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it. Is it your son's robe or not? ”

33
 His father recognized it. “It is my son's robe,” he said. “A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces! ” 
34
 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put
•sackcloth
around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
35
 All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to
•Sheol
to my son, mourning.” And his father wept for him.

36
 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard.

Genesis

Judah and Tamar

38
At that time Judah left his brothers and settled near an Adullamite named Hirah.
2
 There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua; he took her as a wife and slept with her.
3
 She conceived and gave birth to a son, and he named him Er. 
4
 She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and named him Onan.
5
 She gave birth to another son and named him Shelah. It was at Chezib that she gave birth to him.

6
 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
7
 Now Er, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the
Lord
's sight, and the
Lord
put him to death. 
8
 Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother's wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and produce
•offspring
for your brother.” 
9
 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, so whenever he slept with his brother's wife, he released his semen on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother.
10
 What he did was evil in the
Lord
's sight, so He put him to death also.

11
 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He might die too, like his brother.” So Tamar went to live in her father's house.

12
 After a long time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah to the sheepshearers.
13
 Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
14
 So she took off her widow's clothes, veiled her face, covered herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife.
15
 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

16
 He went over to her and said, “Come, let me sleep with you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. 

She said, “What will you give me for sleeping with me? ”

17
 “I will send you a young goat from my flock,” he replied.

But she said, “Only if you leave something with me until you send it.”

18
 “What should I give you? ” he asked.

She answered, “Your signet ring, your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she got pregnant by him.
19
 She got up and left, then removed her veil and put her widow's clothes back on.

20
 When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get back the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her.
21
 He asked the men of the place, “Where is the cult prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim? ”

“There has been no cult prostitute here,” they answered.

22
 So the Adullamite returned to Judah, saying, “I couldn't find her, and furthermore, the men of the place said, ‘There has been no cult prostitute here.' ”

23
 Judah replied, “Let her keep the items for herself; otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send this young goat, but you couldn't find her.”

24
 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law, Tamar, has been acting like a prostitute, and now she is pregnant.”

“Bring her out! ” Judah said. “Let her be burned to death! ” 

25
 As she was being brought out, she sent her father-in-law this message: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Examine them. Whose signet ring, cord, and staff are these? ”

26
 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her intimately again.

27
 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.
28
 As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand, and the midwife took it and tied a scarlet thread around it, announcing, “This one came out first.”
29
 But then he pulled his hand back, and his brother came out. Then she said, “You have broken out first! ” So he was named Perez.
30
 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread tied to his hand, came out, and was named Zerah. 

Genesis

Joseph in Potiphar's House

39
Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.
2
 The
Lord
was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.
3
 When his master saw that the
Lord
was with him and that the
Lord
made everything he did successful, 
4
 Joseph found favor in his master's sight and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority. 
5
 From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the
Lord
blessed the Egyptian's house because of Joseph. The
Lord
's blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields.
6
 He left all that he owned under Joseph's authority; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. 
7
 After some time his master's wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

8
 But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master's wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. 
9
 No one in this house is greater 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
 Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her.
11
 Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there. 
12
 She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me! ” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.
13
 When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside,
14
 she called the household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “my husband brought a Hebrew man to make fools of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, and I screamed as loud as I could.
15
 When he heard me screaming for help, he left his garment with me and ran outside.”

16
 She put Joseph's garment beside her until his master came home.
17
 Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me,
18
 but when I screamed for help, he left his garment with me and ran outside.”

19
 When his master heard the story his wife told him — “These are the things your slave did to me” — he was furious
20
 and had him thrown into prison, where the king's prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.

Joseph in Prison

21
 But the
Lord
was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 
22
 The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph's authority, and he was responsible for everything that was done there.
23
 The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph's authority, because the
Lord
was with him, and the
Lord
made everything that he did successful. 

Genesis

Joseph Interprets Two Prisoners' Dreams

40
After this, the Egyptian king's cupbearer and baker offended their master, the king of Egypt.
2
 Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,
3
 and 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 assigned Joseph to them, and he became their personal attendant. And they were in custody for some time. 

5
 The Egyptian king's cupbearer and baker, who were confined in the prison, each had a dream. Both had a dream on the same night, and each dream had its own meaning.
6
 When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they looked distraught.
7
 So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were in custody with him in his master's house, “Why do you look so sad today? ” 

8
 “We had dreams,” they said to him, “but there is no one to interpret them.”

Then Joseph said to them, “Don't interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.” 

9
 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph: “In my dream there was a vine in front of me.
10
 On the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms came out and its clusters ripened into grapes.
11
 Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.”

12
 “This is its interpretation,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days.
13
 In just three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position. You will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand the way you used to when you were his cupbearer.
14
 But when all goes well for you, remember that I was with you. Please show kindness to me by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this prison.
15
 For I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing that they should put me in the dungeon.” 

16
 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was positive, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream. Three baskets of white bread were on my head.
17
 In the top basket were all sorts of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”

18
 “This is its interpretation,” Joseph replied. “The three baskets are three days.
19
 In just three days Pharaoh will lift up your head — from off you — and hang you on a tree. Then the birds will eat the flesh from your body.” 

20
 On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he gave a feast for all his servants. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. 
21
 Pharaoh restored the chief cupbearer to his position as cupbearer, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.
22
 But Pharaoh hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had explained to them.
23
 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph; he forgot him. 

Genesis

Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams

41
Two years later Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing beside the Nile, 
2
 when seven healthy-looking, well-fed cows came up from the Nile and began to graze among the reeds.
3
 After them, seven other cows, sickly and thin, came up from the Nile and stood beside those cows along the bank of the Nile.
4
 The sickly, thin cows ate the healthy, well-fed cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
5
 He fell asleep and dreamed a second time: Seven heads of grain, plump and ripe, came up on one stalk.
6
 After them, seven heads of grain, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up.
7
 The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven plump, ripe ones. Then Pharaoh woke up, and it was only a dream.