Worthy.Bible » DARBY » Genesis » Chapter 40 » Verse 5

Genesis 40:5 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

5 And they dreamed a dream, both of them in one night, each his dream, each according to the interpretation of his dream, the cup-bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were imprisoned in the tower-house.

Cross Reference

Genesis 41:11 DARBY

And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each according to the interpretation of his dream.

Genesis 12:1-7 DARBY

And Jehovah had said to Abram, Go out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, to the land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. And Abram departed as Jehovah had said to him. And Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the souls that they had obtained in Haran, and they went out to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there he built an altar to Jehovah who had appeared to him.

Genesis 20:3 DARBY

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art [but] a dead man, because of the woman that thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.

Genesis 37:5-10 DARBY

And Joseph dreamed a dream, and told [it] to his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. And he said to them, Hear, I pray you, this dream, which I have dreamt: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the fields, and lo, my sheaf rose up, and remained standing; and behold, your sheaves came round about and bowed down to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Wilt thou indeed be a king over us? wilt thou indeed rule over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamt another dream, and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me. And he told [it] to his father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him, and said to him, What is this dream which thou hast dreamt? Shall we indeed come, I and thy mother and thy brethren, to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

Genesis 40:8 DARBY

And they said to him, We have dreamt a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said to them, [Do] not interpretations [belong] to God? tell me [your dreams], I pray you.

Genesis 41:1-7 DARBY

And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed, and behold, he stood by the river. And behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fine-looking and fat-fleshed, and they fed in the reed-grass. And behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, bad-looking and lean-fleshed, and stood by the kine on the bank of the river. And the kine that were bad-looking and lean-fleshed ate up the seven kine that were fine-looking and fat. And Pharaoh awoke. And he slept and dreamed the second time; and behold, seven ears of corn grew up on one stalk, fat and good. And behold, seven ears, thin and parched with the east wind, sprung up after them. And the thin ears devoured the seven fat and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke; and behold, it was a dream.

Numbers 12:6 DARBY

And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I Jehovah will make myself known to him in a vision, I will speak to him in a dream.

Judges 7:13-14 DARBY

When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade; and he said, "Behold, I dreamed a dream; and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Mid'ian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat." And his comrade answered, "This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Jo'ash, a man of Israel; into his hand God has given Mid'ian and all the host."

Esther 6:1 DARBY

On that night sleep fled from the king. And he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.

Job 33:15-17 DARBY

In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he openeth men's ears, and sealeth their instruction, That he may withdraw man [from his] work, and hide pride from man.

Daniel 2:1-3 DARBY

And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep went from him. And the king commanded to call the scribes, and the magicians, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to shew the king his dreams; and they came and stood before the king. And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.

Daniel 4:5 DARBY

I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

Daniel 4:9 DARBY

O Belteshazzar, master of the scribes, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret is too hard for thee, tell me the visions of my dream which I have seen, and the interpretation of it.

Daniel 4:19 DARBY

Then Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar, was astonied for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him. The king spoke and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream, nor its interpretation, trouble thee. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and its interpretation to thine enemies!

Daniel 7:1-8 DARBY

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream; he told the sum of the matters. Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heavens broke forth upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, different one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till its wings were plucked; and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon two feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second, like unto a bear, and it raised up itself on one side; and [it had] three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and they said thus unto it: Arise, devour much flesh. After this I saw, and behold, another, like a leopard, and it had four wings of a bird upon its back; and the beast had four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and exceeding strong; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the rest with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another, a little horn, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 40

Commentary on Genesis 40 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verses 1-4

The head cup-bearer and head baker had committed crimes against the king of Egypt, and were imprisoned in “ the prison of the house of the captain of the trabantes, the prison where Joseph himself was confined; ” the state-prison, according to Eastern custom, forming part of the same building as the dwelling-house of the chief of the executioners. From a regard to the exalted position of these two prisoners, Potiphar ordered Joseph to wait upon them, not to keep watch over them; for את פּקד does not mean to appoint as guard, but to place by the side of a person.


Verses 5-7

After some time (“days,” Genesis 40:4, as in Genesis 4:3), and on the same night, these two prisoners had each a peculiar dream, “ each one according to the interpretation of his dream; ” i.e., each one had a dream corresponding to the interpretation which specially applied to him. On account of these dreams, which seemed to them to have some bearing upon their fate, and, as the issue proved, were really true omens of it, Joseph found them the next morning looking anxious, and asked them the reason of the trouble which was depicted upon their countenances.


Verse 8

On their replying that they had dreamed, and there was no one to interpret the dream, Joseph reminded them first of all that “interpretations are God's,” come from God, are His gift; at the same time he bade them tell him their dreams, from a consciousness, no doubt, that he was endowed with this divine gift.


Verses 9-11

The cup-bearer gave this account: “ In my dream, behold there was a vine before me, and on the vine three branches; and it was as though blossoming, it shot forth its blossom ( נצּהּ either from the hapax l. נץ = נצּה , or from נצּה with the fem. termination resolved into the 3 pers. suff.: Ewald , §257 d ), its clusters ripened into grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand .” In this dream the office and duty of the royal cup-bearer were represented in an unmistakeable manner, though the particular details must not be so forced as to lead to the conclusion, that the kings of ancient Egypt drank only the fresh juice of the grape, and not fermented wine as well. The cultivation of the vine, and the making and drinking of wine, among the Egyptians, are established beyond question by ancient testimony and the earliest monuments, notwithstanding the statement of Herodotus (2, 77) to the contrary (see Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses , pp. 13ff.).


Verses 12-15

Joseph then gave this interpretation: The three branches were three days, in which time Pharaoh would restore him to his post again (“lift up his head,” i.e., raise him from his degradation, send and fetch him from prison, 2 Kings 25:27). And he added this request (Genesis 40:14): “ Only think of me, as it goes well with thee, and show favour to me...for I was stolen (i.e., carried away secretly and by force; I did not abscond because of any crime) out of the land of the Hebrews (the land where the Ibrim live); and here also I have done nothing (committed no crime) for which they should put me into the hole .” בּור : the cell, applied to a prison as a miserable hole, because often dry cess-pools were used as prisons.


Verses 16-19

Encouraged by this favourable interpretation, the chief baker also told his dream: “ I too,...in my dream: behold, baskets of white bread upon my head, and in the top basket all kinds of food for Pharaoh, pastry; and the birds ate it out of the basket from my head .” In this dream, the carrying of the baskets upon the head is thoroughly Egyptian; for, according to Herod . 2, 35, the men in Egypt carry burdens upon the head, the women upon the shoulders. And, according to the monuments, the variety of confectionary was very extensive (cf. Hengst . p. 27). In the opening words, “ I too, ” the baker points to the resemblance between his dream and the cup-bearer's. The resemblance was not confined to the sameness of the numbers-three baskets of white bread, and three branches of the vine-but was also seen in the fact that his official duty at the court was represented in the dream. But instead of Pharaoh taking the bread from his hand, the birds of heaven ate it out of the basket upon his head. And Joseph gave this interpretation: “ The three baskets signify three days: within that time Pharaoh will take away thy head from thee (“lift up thy head,” as in Genesis 40:13, but with מעליך “away from thee,” i.e., behead thee), and hang thee on the stake (thy body after execution; vid., Deuteronomy 21:22-23), and the birds will eat thy flesh from off thee .” However simple and close this interpretation of the two dreams may appear, the exact accordance with the fulfilment was a miracle wrought by God, and showed that as the dreams originated in the instigation of God, the interpretation was His inspiration also.


Verses 20-22

Joseph's interpretations were fulfilled three days afterwards, on the king's birth-day. הלּדת יום : the day of being born; the inf. Hoph . is construed as a passive with the accus . obj ., as in Genesis 4:18, etc. Pharaoh gave his servants a feast, and lifted up the heads of both the prisoners, but in very different ways. The cup-bearer was pardoned, and reinstated in his office; the baker, on the other hand, was executed.


Verse 23

But the former forgot Joseph in his prosperity, and did nothing to procure his liberation.