CONTEXT: Following the side story of Tamar in ch.
38, the Yosef narrative resumes with a small difference: here Yishm’elim (Ishmaelites)
bring him down to Mitsrayim (Egypt), instead of Midyanim (Midianites) as in
37:36.
The words v. 6, describing Yosef’s looks, a beauty
in shape, a beauty in appearance, are the same used to describe his mother, Rachel,
29:19.
GLOSSARY: Eunuch, (v.1) saris, סָרִיס, is the Hebrew cognate, or translation, of the
Akkadian title of office: ša rēši, “the one of
the (king’s) head.” The position was some sort of courtier and the usage points
to eunuch. Tanach translators tend to render “officer,” unless there is clear
reference to emasculation as in Isaiah 56:3, or in connection with harem
keepers as in Book of Esther. Assyriologist and Biblical Scholar Hayim Tadmor
argues convincingly that the title referred to eunuchs in early Akkadian
writings and biblical usage likely means the same.
(“Was the Biblical sārîs a Eunuch?” in Solving Riddles and Untying Knots, Eisenbrauns, 1995, pp.317-325.)
Potifar being a eunuch would certainly make sense in the present story.
Ivri,
עִבְרִי, vs. 14, 17, commonly rendered “Hebrew,” is mostly an outsider’s term
for B’neyYisrael, the insider term. The root, a-b-r, עבר, means “cross over,” referring to people who crossed
over a river to get here.
Roundhouse,
beyt hasohar, הַסֹהַר בּית, occurs
only in the Genesis Yosef stories. Sohar,
סֹהַר, signifying “round” has come to mean “jail/prison” in modern Hebrew.
1Yosef
was brought down to Mitsrayim. Potifar–eunuch of Paroh, chief slaughterer, Mitsri
man–bought him from the hand of the Yishm’elim who had brought him there.
2Yahh
was with Yosef and he was a successful man. He was at the house of his lord,
the Mitsri. 3His lord saw that Yahh was with him, bringing success
to his hand in everything he did. 4Yosef found favor in his eyes and
ministered to him. Potifar appointed him over his household, and all that he
had he gave into his hand. 5It happened, subsequent to his
appointing him in the house and all he had, that Yahh blessed the house of the
Mitsri on account of Yosef. Yahh’s blessing was on all he had in the house and
in the field. 6Apart from the bread he ate, Potifar left everything
he had in Yosef’s hand, not knowing anything along with him.
Yosef
was a beauty in shape, a beauty in appearance. 7It happened, after
these things, that his lord’s woman lifted her eyes towards Yosef. “Lie with
me,” she said.
8He
refused, and said to her, “After all, my lord does not know, along with me,
what is what in the house. Everything he has he has given into my hand. -9In
this house he is no greater than I. He has not withheld from me anything but
you, you being his woman. How can I do this great evil? I would be sinning
against God.”
10It
happened, with her speaking to Yosef daily, that he did not listen to her to
lie by her, to be with her. 11Then it happened on such a day as
this, that he came to the house to do his work and none of the men of the house
were there. 12She grabbed him by his clothing to say, “Lie with me!”
He left his clothing in her hand and fled. He went outdoors. 13When
she saw that he had left his clothing in her hand and had fled outdoors, 14she
called the men of the house and said to them, “See! He brought us an Ivri man
to sport with us. He came to me to lie together but I cried aloud. 15When
he heard my loud voice he left his clothing with me he fled and went outdoors.”
16She laid his clothing with herself till his lord’s
coming home 17and spoke to him about these things. “He came to me!
The Ivri slave that you brought us, to sport with me. 18Then when I
lifted my voice and cried out he left his clothing with me and fled outdoors.”
19It happened, when his lord heard the words his
woman spoke to him, “such things your slave did to me,” that his anger burned. 20Yosef’s lord
took him and gave him into the roundhouse, the place where the king’s prisoners
were imprisoned.
So
it was there in the roundhouse 21that Yahh was with Yosef. He extended
lovingkindness to him. He gave Yosef’s grace into the eyes of the roundhouse
chief.
©Rabbi David L. Kline
http://good-to-be-a-jew.blogspot.com/
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