Joseph in Potiphar's house; falsely accused and imprisoned

One sentence structures the whole of this stretch and appears four times in it: the LORD was with Joseph. It is stated when he arrives in Potiphar's house, when he is put in charge of it, when he is thrown into prison, and when he is given responsibility there. The same words cover a promotion and a wrongful conviction.

Potiphar is an Egyptian official, the captain of the guard, and Joseph does well enough to be put in charge of everything he owns, with his master keeping track of nothing except the food he ate. Egyptian estates of the period were run by stewards, and administrative papyri record foreign slaves holding such positions, so the arrangement is unremarkable in its setting.

Then a detail is supplied that has been used once before, of his mother: he was well-built and handsome. Rachel was described in almost the same words.

Potiphar's wife propositions him, and she speaks to him day after day, so the situation runs for a long time before it breaks. His refusal is given in full and rests on two grounds. His master has withheld nothing from him except her, so the act would be a betrayal of a trust. And, he says, how could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God. A slave in a foreign country with no legal protection frames the question in terms of what he owes rather than what he can get away with.

The end comes when the house is empty. She catches his cloak, he leaves it in her hand and runs, and she is holding a garment that will do the work of an accusation. It is the second time his clothing has been taken from him and used as false evidence, and the first time it was his brothers who did it.

Her account to the household repays close reading. She calls him that Hebrew who was brought to us to make sport of us, which spreads the blame to her husband for buying him, and says he came in to sleep with her and she screamed. When she repeats it to Potiphar she says that Hebrew slave you brought us. She is prosecuting her husband's judgement as much as Joseph's conduct.

Potiphar burns with anger and puts him in prison, and the choice is worth noticing. As captain of the guard he could have had a slave executed for such a charge without difficulty. Imprisonment rather than death is a lighter response than the accusation warranted, which has often been read as a sign that he did not entirely believe his wife. That is an inference from the sentence rather than something stated.

One phrase recurs in the descriptions of him and repays attention: everything he touched prospered, and the people over him kept handing him more. A slave becomes a steward, a prisoner becomes the warden's deputy, and a foreigner eventually becomes second in Egypt. In each case somebody in authority notices competence and delegates. What is being described is not luck but a pattern that other people can see, and it is the only thing that survives every reversal in his life.

The prison is identified as where the king's prisoners were held, which is why he will shortly be sharing a cell with two members of Pharaoh's household. The warden puts everything under his control, and the stretch ends where it began, with a man who has now lost everything twice being trusted with everything he can see.