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Genesis 40

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1 And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt.

2 And Pharaoh was wroth against his two officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.

3 And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.

4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he ministered unto them: and they continued a season in ward.

5 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were bound in the prison.

6 And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and saw them, and, behold, they were sad.

7 And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in ward in his master's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sad to-day?

8 And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell it me, I pray you.

9 And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;

10 and in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it budded, [and] its blossoms shot forth; [and] the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes:

11 and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.

12 And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it: the three branches are three days;

13 within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head, and restore thee unto thine office: and thou shalt give Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.

14 But have me in thy remembrance when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house:

15 for indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.

16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head:

17 and in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of baked food for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.

18 And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: the three baskets are three days;

19 within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.

20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand:

22 but he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.

23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 5110

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5110. 'And the chief of the cupbearers told his dream to Joseph' means that the celestial of the spiritual discerned what the outcome would be for the sensory impressions subject to the understanding part of the mind, which until then were cast aside. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the celestial of the spiritual, dealt with in 4286, 4585, 4592, 4594, 4963; from the meaning of 'a dream' as foresight and consequently the outcome, dealt with above in 5091, 5092, 5104, and so as foresight or discernment of the outcome; and from the meaning of 'the chief of the cupbearers' as the powers of the senses in general that are subject to the understanding part, dealt with in 5077, 5082, a casting aside being meant by being in custody, 5083, 5101. All this shows that the internal sense of the words used here is as has been stated, in addition to which it is clear from what follows below that 'Joseph', representing the celestial of the spiritual, discerned what the outcome would be.

[2] When the expression 'the celestial of the spiritual' is used, the Lord is meant by it. But it may also be used to refer to an abstract quality in Him, for He is the Celestial itself and the Spiritual itself, that is, He is Good itself and Truth itself. No one, it is true, can have any conception of an abstract quality separate from an actual person because what is natural enters into every individual idea present in his thought. But even so, if one holds in mind the idea that everything within the Lord is Divine and that the Divine transcends one's entire thought, altogether transcending even what angels can comprehend; and if as a consequence one removes from one's mind everything comprehensible, one is left with the idea of pure Being (Esse) and the Manifestation (Existere) of that Being. That is to say, one then has an idea of the Celestial itself and the Spiritual itself, which are Good itself and Truth itself.

[3] However, the human being is such that he cannot form in his mind any idea at all of abstract realities unless he associates with them some natural imagery that has come to him from the world through his senses; for without any such imagery his thought becomes lost so to speak in an abyss and is dissipated. Therefore to prevent the idea of the Divine becoming lost in the case of a person immersed in bodily and worldly interests, and to prevent the defilement of this idea, and at the same time of everything celestial or spiritual from the Divine, by foul thoughts in the case of anyone with whom it remained, Jehovah has been pleased to make Himself known as He exists essentially and as He manifests Himself in heaven, namely as a Divine Man. For the whole of heaven combines together and presents itself in the human form, as may be seen from what has been shown at the ends of chapters dealing with the correspondence of all parts of the human being with the Grand Man, which is heaven. This Divine, that is, Jehovah's manifestation of Himself in heaven, is the Lord from eternity. It is also the appearance assumed by the Lord when He glorified, that is, made Divine, the Human within Him, as is also quite evident from the form in which He appeared before Peter, James, and John at His transfiguration, Matthew 17:1-2, and in which He appeared on a number of occasions to prophets. All this being so, anyone can think of the Divine itself as Man, and at the same time of the Lord in whom the entire Divine and perfect Trinity dwell; for within the Lord the Divine itself is the Father, the Divine that manifests itself in heaven is the Son, and the Divine proceeding from these is the Holy Spirit - from which it is clear that these three are one, as He Himself teaches.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.