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Genesis 40

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1 And it came to pass after these things, [that] the cup-bearer of the king of Egypt and the baker offended their lord the king of Egypt.

2 And Pharaoh was wroth with his two chamberlains -- with the chief of the cup-bearers and with the chief of the bakers;

3 and he put them in custody into the house of the captain of the life-guard, into the tower-house, into the place where Joseph was imprisoned.

4 And the captain of the life-guard appointed Joseph to them, that he should attend on them. And they were [several] days in custody.

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.

6 And Joseph came in to them in the morning, and looked on them, and behold, they were sad.

7 And he asked Pharaoh's chamberlains that were with him in custody in his lord's house, saying, Why are your faces [so] sad to-day?

8 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.

9 Then the chief of the cup-bearers 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: its blossoms shot forth, its clusters ripened into grapes.

11 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.

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

13 In yet three days will Pharaoh lift up thy head and restore thee to thy place, and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his cup-bearer.

14 Only bear a remembrance with thee of me when it goes well with thee, and deal kindly, I pray thee, with me, and make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house;

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

16 And when the chief of the bakers saw that the interpretation was good, he said to 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 were all manner of victuals for Pharaoh that the baker makes, and the birds ate them out of the basket upon my head.

18 And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation of it: the three baskets are three days.

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

20 And it came to pass the third day -- Pharaoh's birthday -- that he made a feast to all his bondmen. And he lifted up the head of the chief of the cup-bearers, and the head of the chief of the bakers among his bondmen.

21 And he restored the chief of the cup-bearers to his office of cup-bearer again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.

22 And he hanged the chief of the bakers, as Joseph had interpreted to them.

23 But the chief of the cup-bearers did not remember Joseph, and forgot him.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Genesis 40

Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff

Here is an excerpt from Swedenborg's "Arcana Coelestia" that helps explain the inner meaning of this chapter:

AC 5072. In the internal sense of this chapter the subject is continued of a state of temptations, by which even bodily things might be brought into correspondence. Bodily things properly so called are sensuous things, which are of two kinds, some being subordinate to the intellectual part, and some to the will part. Those which are subordinate to the intellectual part are represented by the butler of the king of Egypt, and those which are subordinate to the will part are represented by his baker; that the former are for a time retained, but the latter cast out, is represented by the butler returning to his place, and the baker being hanged. The rest will be plain from the series in the internal sense.

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 5071

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5071. The reason why the expression 'cursed' is used of those on the left and why their punishment is called 'eternal fire' in the following statements -'Then He will also say to those on the left, Depart from Me, O cursed ones, into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels' and 'these will go away into eternal punishment' - is that they have turned away from good and truth and have turned towards evil and falsity. 'Cursing' in the internal sense of the Word means a turning away, 245, 379, 1427, 3570, 3584. The eternal fire into which they were to depart is not material fire, nor is it a tormented conscience, but a craving for evil. For cravings like this in a person are spiritual fires which consume him during the life of the body and torment him in the next life. Because of these fires burning within them, the inhabitants of hell use dreadful methods to torture one another.

[2] Eternal fire is clearly not material fire; and the reason it is not a tormented conscience is that none who are governed by evil have any conscience; and those who have had no conscience during their lifetime cannot have any in the next life. But the reason eternal fire is a craving is that the entire fire of life in a person is fuelled by his loves, a heavenly fire by the love of what is good and true, a hellish fire by the love of what is evil and false. Or what amounts to the same, a heavenly fire is fuelled by love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, and a hellish fire by self-love and love of the world. Anyone can see, if he stops to think, that all the fire or heat burning within a person is fuelled by his loves. This also explains why love is called spiritual heat and why in the Word fire and heat have no other meaning, 934 (end), 1297, 1527, 1528, 1861, 2446, 4906. The fire of life in the evil is also such that when they feel very strong cravings, a kind of fire is also burning in them, which inflames them with an intense and furious desire to torment others. But the fire of life in the good is such that when a higher level of affection exists with them, a kind of fire is alight in them too. But this fire inflames them with a loving and zealous desire to do good to others.

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