Joseph in Prison

Joseph committed all his affairs to God. He did not set about defending himself, or giving an account of exactly what had happened, but silently endured the chains and the hardship he was in, firmly believing that God, who knew the cause of his suffering and the truth of the matter, would prove more powerful than those who had punished him. He soon received proof of God’s providence. The keeper of the prison noticed his care and faithfulness in the tasks he set him, and the dignity of his face, so he loosened his chains and so made his heavy misfortune lighter and more bearable. He also allowed him better food than the rest of the prisoners had.

When their hard labor was over, his fellow prisoners would fall to talking among themselves, as people do who suffer alike, and would ask one another what had brought them to be condemned to prison. Among them was the king’s cupbearer, a man the king had held in high honor, who had been put in chains when the king grew angry with him. This man wore the same chains as Joseph and grew more familiar with him; and seeing that Joseph had better understanding than the rest, he told him of a dream he had had and asked him to interpret it, complaining that besides the afflictions he suffered from the king, God was adding to his troubles through dreams.

He said that in his sleep he had seen three clusters of grapes hanging on three branches of a vine, already large and ripe for picking, and that he squeezed them into a cup the king held in his hand; when he had strained the wine, he gave it to the king to drink, and the king received it from him with a pleasant face. This, he said, was what he saw, and he asked Joseph, if he had any understanding of such things, to tell him what the vision foretold. Joseph told him to take heart and expect to be freed from his chains within three days, because the king wanted his service and was about to restore him to it. For, he told him, God gives the fruit of the vine to people for good: wine is poured out to God, and it is the pledge of faithfulness and mutual trust among people; it ends their quarrels, takes anger and grief out of the minds of those who drink it, and makes them cheerful. “You say that you squeezed this wine from three clusters of grapes with your hands, and that the king received it. Know, then, that this vision is for your good. It foretells your release from your present distress within as many days as there were branches you gathered your grapes from in your sleep. But once you have found it true by experience, remember the one who foretold your good fortune. When you are in authority, do not forget us in this prison, where you will leave us when you have gone to the place we have foretold. We are not in prison for any crime. It is for the sake of our virtue and chastity that we are condemned to suffer the penalty of criminals, because we would not wrong the man who has brought us to this distress, even for our own pleasure.” The cupbearer, naturally enough, was delighted to hear such an interpretation of his dream, and waited for what had been shown him beforehand to be fulfilled. [a]

There was another of the king’s servants, who had been chief baker and was now in prison with the cupbearer. He too took hope from Joseph’s interpretation of the other’s vision, for he had also seen a dream; so he asked Joseph to tell him what the visions he had seen the night before might mean. They were these: “I dreamed I was carrying three baskets on my head. Two were full of loaves, and the third was full of pastries and other delicacies, such as are prepared for kings. But the birds came flying and ate them all up, and paid no attention to my attempts to drive them away.” He expected a prediction like the cupbearer’s. But Joseph, after thinking the dream over and reasoning about it, told him that he would gladly have been the interpreter of good things for him, and not of what his dream announced. But he told him that he had only two days in all left to live — that was what the baskets meant — and that on the third day he would be crucified and devoured by birds, unable to help himself. Both dreams turned out just as Joseph had foretold, for both men. On the third day, as he had said, when the king celebrated his birthday, he crucified the chief baker, but freed the cupbearer from his chains and restored him to his former service. [b]

But God freed Joseph from his confinement after he had endured his chains for two years without any help from the cupbearer, who did not remember what Joseph had said to him. And this was the way God devised for his release. Pharaoh the king had seen two visions in his sleep on the same night, and after them had been given the interpretations of both. He forgot the interpretations but remembered the dreams themselves. So, troubled at what he had seen — for it all seemed to him to be of a gloomy kind — he called together the wisest men of Egypt the next day, wanting to learn from them the meaning of his dreams. When they hesitated over them, the king was all the more disturbed. [d]

It was then, seeing Pharaoh’s confusion, that the king’s cupbearer remembered Joseph and his skill with dreams. So he came and told him about Joseph, and about the vision he himself had seen in prison and how it had turned out as Joseph said, and also that the chief baker had been crucified on that very same day, and that this too had happened to him as Joseph interpreted it. Joseph himself, he said, had been put in chains as a slave by Potiphar, the king’s chief cook; but Joseph said that he came of one of the foremost families of the Hebrews, and of a father of great renown. “So if you will send for him, and not despise him because of his misfortunes, you will learn what your dreams mean.” So the king ordered them to bring Joseph before him; and those who received the order brought him, having seen to it that his clothing was decent, as the king had told them to do.

The king took him by the hand and said, “Young man — for my servant testifies that you are the best and most skilled person I can consult — grant me the same favor you gave this servant of mine, and tell me what events the visions of my dreams foretell. I want you to hold nothing back out of fear, and not to flatter me with lies or with whatever might please me, even if the truth is gloomy. It seemed to me that as I walked by the river I saw cows, fat and very large, seven of them, going from the river to the marshes. And other cows, the same number, came out of the marshes to meet them, terribly thin and ugly. They ate up the fat, large cows, and yet were no better than before, and no less miserably pinched with hunger. After I had seen this vision I woke from my sleep. Being troubled, and wondering what this appearance could be, I fell asleep again and saw another dream, much more wonderful than the first, which frightened and disturbed me still more. I saw seven ears of grain growing from one root, their heads bowed down by the weight of the kernels and bending with the crop, which was now ripe and ready for reaping. And near these I saw seven other ears of grain, thin and weak for lack of dew, which fell to eating and consuming the ones ready for reaping, and left me utterly astonished.” [f]

Joseph replied, “This dream, Your Majesty, though seen in two forms, means one and the same thing. You saw the fat cows — an animal made for the plow and for labor — devoured by the poorer cows, and the ears of grain eaten up by the smaller ears. These foretell a famine and a lack of the fruits of the earth for as many years as Egypt was prosperous, and to such a degree that the plenty of those years will be used up in the same number of years of scarcity; and the shortage of what people need will be very hard to remedy. A sign of this is that the ugly cows, once they had devoured the better ones, could not be satisfied. Yet God shows people what is coming, not to grieve them, but so that, knowing it beforehand, they may by good sense make the experience of what is foretold more bearable. If you carefully manage the plentiful crops that will come in the first years, you will see to it that the coming disaster is not felt by the Egyptians.”

At this the king marveled at Joseph’s good judgment and wisdom, and asked him how he might manage the plentiful crops of the good years ahead so as to make the poor crops more bearable. Joseph then added this advice: to save the good crops, and not let the Egyptians spend them extravagantly, but to put aside what they would have spent on luxury beyond their needs, against the time of want. He also urged him to take the farmers’ grain and store it, giving them only as much as would be enough for their food. Pharaoh was struck with admiration for Joseph, not only for his interpretation of the dream but for the advice he had given, and entrusted him with the distribution of the grain, with power to do whatever he thought best for the people of Egypt and for the king, believing that the man who had first discovered this plan would make the best overseer of it. Having received this power from the king, with leave to use his seal and to wear purple, Joseph drove in his chariot through the whole land of Egypt and took the farmers’ grain, allotting to each as much as would be enough for seed and for food, but without telling anyone why he was doing so. [g]