THE WORD OF ELOHIM
GENESIS
Chapter 39
When Yehoseph was taken down to Mitzramah; a certain Mitzrayim, Potiphar, a courtier of Paroh and his chief steward; bought him from the Yishmeeli, who had brought him there. Yehovah was with Yehoseph and he was a successful man and he stayed in the house of his Mitzrayim master. And when his master saw that Yehovah was with him and that Yehovah lent success to everything he undertook, he took a liking to Yehoseph. He made him his personal attendant and put him in charge of his household, placing in his hands all that he owned. And from the time that the Mitzrayim put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, Yehovah blessed his house for Yehoseph’s sake; so that the blessing of Yehovah was upon everything that he owned, in the house and outside. He left all that he had in Yehoseph’s hands and with him there, he paid attention to nothing save the food that he ate. Now Yehoseph was well built and handsome.
After a time, his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Yehoseph and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused. He said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master gives no thought to anything in this house, and all that he owns he has placed in my hands. He yields no more authority in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except yourself, since you are his wife. How then could I do this most wicked thing and sin before Elohim?” And much as she coaxed Yehoseph, day after day, he did not yield to her request to lie beside her, to be with her. One such day, he came into the house to do his work. None of the household being there inside, she caught hold of him by his garment and said, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand and got away and fled outside. When she saw that he had left it in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to her servants and said to them, “Look, he had to bring us a Hebrew to dally with us! This one came to lie with me; but I screamed loud. And when he heard me screaming at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and got away and fled outside.” She kept his garment beside her, until his master came home. Then she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew slave whom you brought into our house came to me to dally with me; but when I screamed at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and fled outside.”
When his master heard the story that his wife told him, namely, “Thus and so your slave did to me,” he was furious. So Yehoseph’s master had him put in prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. But even while he was there in prison, Yehovah was with Yehoseph. He extended kindness to him and disposed the chief jailer favorably toward him. The chief jailer put in Yehoseph’s charge, all the prisoners who were in that prison, and he was the one to carry out everything that was done there. The chief jailer did not supervise anything that was in Yehoseph’s charge, because Yehovah was with him, and whatever he did Yehovah made successful.