Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the [royal] guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there. The LORD was with Joseph, and he [even though a slave] became a successful and prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to prosper (succeed) in his hand. [Gen 21:22; 26:27, 28; 41:38, 39] So Joseph pleased Potiphar and found favor in his sight and he served him as his personal servant. He made Joseph overseer over his house, and he put all that he owned in Joseph’s charge. It happened that from the time that he made Joseph overseer in his house and [put him in charge] over all that he owned, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph; so the LORD’S blessing was on everything that Potiphar owned, in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left all that he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with Joseph there he did not [need to] pay attention to anything except the food he ate.
N ow Joseph was handsome and attractive in form and appearance. [Gen 43:32] Then after a time his master’s wife looked at Joseph with desire, and she said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me in the house, my master does not concern himself with anything; he has put everything that he owns in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God [and your husband]?” And so it was that she spoke to Joseph [persistently] day after day, but he did not listen to her [plea] to lie beside her or be with her. Then it happened one day that Joseph went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the men of the household was there in the house. She caught Joseph by his [outer] robe, saying, “Lie with me!” But he left his robe in her hand and ran, and got outside [the house]. When she saw that he had left his robe in her hand and had run outside, she called to the men of her household and said to them, “Look at this, your master has brought a Hebrew [into the household] to mock and insult us; he came to me to lie with me, and I screamed. When he heard me screaming, he left his robe with me and ran outside [the house].” So she left Joseph’s [outer] robe beside her until his master came home. Then she told her husband the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you brought among us, came to me to mock and insult me; then as soon as I raised my voice and screamed, he left his robe with me and ran outside [the house].”
And when Joseph’s master heard the words of his wife, saying, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger burned. So Joseph’s master took him and put him in the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined; so he was there in the prison. But the LORD was with Joseph and extended lovingkindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the warden.
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