Genesis 40
About Genesis
Genesis means beginnings. It opens with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Chapters 1 to 11 tell the story of the whole world: creation, the first sin, the flood and the tower of Babel. From chapter 12 the story narrows to one family, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, and God promises that “all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” The rest of the Bible grows out of that promise.
Before you read Genesis 40Written by AI
In prison Joseph meets Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker, both troubled by dreams. Joseph says interpretations belong to God, then explains them: one will be restored, the other executed. It all happens as he says, but the cupbearer forgets Joseph.
The Cupbearer and the Baker
Some time later, the king’s cupbearer and baker offended their master, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and imprisoned them in the house of the captain of the guard, the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he became their personal attendant.
After they had been in custody for some time, both of these men—the Egyptian king’s cupbearer and baker, who were being held in the prison—had a dream on the same night, and each dream had its own meaning.
When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were distraught. So he asked the officials of Pharaoh who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why are your faces so downcast today?”
“We both had dreams,” they replied, “but there is no one to interpret them.”
Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”
So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream: “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine were three branches. As it budded, its blossoms opened and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into his cup, and placed the cup in his hand.”
Joseph replied, “This is the interpretation: The three branches are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore your position. You will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you did when you were his cupbearer. But when it goes well for you, please remember me and show me kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh, that he might bring me out of this prison. For I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing for which they should have put me in this dungeon.”
When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: There were three baskets of white bread on my head. 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.”
Joseph replied, “This is the interpretation: The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree. Then the birds will eat the flesh of your body.”
On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he held a feast for all his officials, and in their presence he lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. Pharaoh restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. But Pharaoh hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had described to them in his interpretation.
The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot all about him.