Genesis 40:13

13 In three days Pharaoh will 1lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer.

Genesis 40:13 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 40:13

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head
The Targum of Jonathan adds, with glory; and the sense is, either that Pharaoh would raise him up from the low estate in which he now was, to the same exalted station in which he had been before; or that he would reckon and number him among his servants, when he should take a catalogue of them, or make a new list, so Jarchi and Aben Ezra; and this phrase is used of taking the sum of persons, or the number of them, and is so rendered, ( Exodus 30:12 ) ( Numbers 4:2 Numbers 4:22 ) ; the allusion is thought to be to a custom used by great personages, to have the names of their servants called over on a certain day, as Pharaoh perhaps used to do on his birthday, ( Genesis 40:20 ) ; when they struck out of the list or put into it whom they pleased, and pardoned or punished such as had offended; and this sense is the rather inclined to, because Pharaoh is said to lift up the head of both the butler and the baker, ( Genesis 40:20 ) ; yet it may be observed, that the phrases used by Joseph concerning them differ; for of the baker he says, "Pharaoh shall lift up thy head from off thee", ( Genesis 40:19 ) ; wherefore, though the heads of them both were lift up, yet in a different sense: the one was lifted up to the gallows, and the other to his former dignity, as follows: and restore thee unto thy place:
to his office in ministering: to Pharaoh as his cup bearer: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former
manner when thou wast his butler;
which was signified in the dream, by squeezing the grapes into Pharaoh's cup he had in his hand, and gave unto him.

Genesis 40:13 In-Context

11 Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand."
12 Then Joseph said to him, "This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days.
13 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer.
14 Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.
15 For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit."

Cross References 1

  • 1. 2 Kings 25:27; Jeremiah 52:31; [ver. 19, 20, 22; Psalms 3:3]
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.