World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 40
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
After these things, the butler of the king of and his baker offended their , the king of . was angry with his two officers, the chief bearer and the chief baker. He put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where was bound. The captain of the guard assigned them to , and he took care of them. They stayed in prison many days. They both dreamed a , each man his , in one night, each man according to the of his , bearer and the baker of the king of , who were bound in the prison. came in to them in the morning, and saw them, and saw that they were sad. He asked officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, saying, "Why do you look so sad today?" They said to him, "We have dreamed a , and there is no one who can it." said to them, "Don't interpretations belong to ? Please tell it to me." The chief bearer told his to , and said to him, "In my , behold, a was in front of me, 10and in were three . It was as though it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters produced ripe grapes. was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into , and I gave into hand." said to him, "This is its : the three are three days. Within three more days, will lift up your head, and restore you to your office. You will give into his hand, you did when you were his bearer. But remember me when it is well with you. Please show kindness to me, and make mention of me to , and bring me out of this house. For indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the , and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon." When the chief baker saw that the was good, he said to , "I also was in my , and behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head. In the uppermost basket there were all kinds of baked food for , and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head." answered, "This is its . The three baskets are three days. Within three more days, will lift up your head from off you, and will hang you ; and the birds will eat your from off you." On the third day, which was birthday, he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief bearer to his position again, and he gave into hand; but he hanged the chief baker, as had interpreted to them. Yet the chief bearer didn't remember , but forgot him.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis