Joseph Falsely Imprisoned
Seeing the cloak in her hand, Potiphar's wife invents a charge against Joseph and repeats it first to the servants and then to her husband. She uses Joseph's flight as proof of the story she has made.
W13hen she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14she called her household servants. “Look,” she said, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, but I screamed as loud as I could. 15When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” 16So Potiphar’s wife kept Joseph’s cloak beside her until his master came home. 17Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me, 18but when I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
Potiphar hears his wife's account, burns with anger, and has Joseph thrown into the prison where the king's prisoners are kept.
19When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is what your slave did to me,” he burned with anger. 20So Joseph’s master took him and had him thrown into the prison where the king’s prisoners were confined.
In prison the LORD stays with Joseph, gives him favor with the warden, and places the prison under his care. The same pattern of trust and success returns even there.
21While Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him and extended kindness to him, granting him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22And the warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care, so that he was responsible for all that was done in the prison. 23The warden did not concern himself with anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.