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Genesis 39

1Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian, an official of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2Yahweh was with Joseph, and he became a successful man. He was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3His master saw that Yahweh was with him and that Yahweh made everything he did succeed in his hand. 4Joseph found favor in his eyes and attended him. He put him over his household and placed everything he owned in his hand. 5From the time he put him over his household and everything he owned, Yahweh blessed the Egyptian's household because of Joseph. Yahweh's blessing was on everything he owned, in the house and in the field. 6He left everything he owned in Joseph's hand. With him in charge, he concerned himself with nothing except the bread he ate.

Joseph was handsome in form and handsome in appearance. 7After these things his master's wife lifted her eyes toward Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” 8But he refused. He said to his master's wife, “Look, with me here my master concerns himself with nothing in the house. He has put everything he owns in my hand. 9He is no greater in this house than I am, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do this great evil and sin against God?” 10Though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her, to lie beside her or be with her. 11One day he came into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there in the house. 12She caught him by his garment and said, “Lie with me.” He left his garment in her hand, fled, and went outside. 13When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, 14she called to the men of her household and said to them, “Look, he has brought us a Hebrew man to make sport of us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I called out loudly. 15When he heard me raise my voice and call out, he left his garment beside me, fled, and went outside.” 16She kept his garment beside her until his master came home. 17She spoke to him in these words: “The Hebrew slave you brought us came in to me to make sport of me. 18When I raised my voice and called out, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.”

19When his master heard his wife's words, “This is what your slave did to me,” his anger burned. 20Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. He remained there in the prison. 21But Yahweh was with Joseph and extended steadfast kindness to him. He gave him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22The prison warden put all the prisoners in the prison into Joseph's hand. Whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. 23The prison warden inspected nothing in Joseph's hand, because Yahweh was with him, and Yahweh made whatever he did succeed.

Translation notes 4

39:1–6 — Slavery and success. Joseph has been bought and is owned by his master. His responsibility for the household does not make his status that of a freely hired employee. His success here describes his work, not personal ownership of Potiphar's wealth.

39:7–18 — Sexual pressure and accusation. “Lie with me” is a demand for sex. Joseph repeatedly refuses the woman who holds power in his master's household. Her subsequent speech reverses the account's description of what happened. “Make sport of” carries the sense of humiliating or abusing someone in this sexual context.

39:19–20 — Anger and imprisonment. The account says that the master's anger burned, but does not explicitly name its target or explain why imprisonment was chosen. The traditional reading of the variant spelling in verse 20 is “prisoners”; both forms concern people held in confinement.

39:21–23 — Yahweh was with Joseph. The repeated statement frames Joseph's service and imprisonment. The translation retains the divine name and does not treat adversity as evidence that this presence has ceased.