5072. Genesis 40

1. And so it was after these words, ¹ that they sinned - the cupbearer of the king of Egypt, and the baker - against their lord the king of Egypt.

2. And Pharaoh was incensed with his two courtier-ministers, with the chief of the cupbearers and with the chief of the bakers.

3. And he put them in the custody of the house of the chief of the attendants, at the prison-house, the place where Joseph was bound.

4. And the chief of the attendants set Joseph over them and he ministered to them; and they were in custody for days. ²

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

6. And Joseph came to them in the morning, and he saw them, and behold, they were troubled.

7. And he asked Pharaoh's courtier-ministers who were with him in the custody of his lord's house, saying, Why are your faces sad ³ today?

8. And they said to him, We have dreamed a dream and there is no interpreter for it. And Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, I beg you.

9. And the chief of the cupbearers told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, and behold, a vine before me.

10. And on the vine three shoots, and it was as though budding; its blossom came up, and 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 put the cup onto Pharaoh's palm.

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

13. In yet three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and will restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup into his hand, according to the former manner when you were his cupbearer.

14. But remember me when it is well with you, and show, I beg you, mercy to me, and make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.

15. For I have indeed been taken by theft out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have not done anything for which they should put me in the pit.

16. And the chief of the bakers saw that he had interpreted what was good, and he said to Joseph, I also was in my dream, and behold, three baskets with holes in them were on my head.

17. And in the highest basket there was some of every kind of food for Pharaoh, the work of the baker, and the birds were eating them out of the basket, from 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 Pharaoh will lift up your head from upon you, and will hang you on wood; and the birds will eat your flesh from upon you.

20. And it happened on the third day, Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief of the cupbearers, and the head of the chief of the bakers, in the midst of his servants.

21. And he restored the chief of the cupbearers to his supervision over [Pharaoh's] drink, and he put the cup onto Pharaoh's palm.

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

23. And the chief of the cupbearers did not remember Joseph, and forgot him.

CONTENTS

The internal sense of this chapter continues to deal with the state of temptations, by means of which bodily things could be brought into a state of agreement. Rightly called bodily ones, those things are the powers of the senses, of which there are two kinds, some sensory powers being subordinate to the understanding part of the mind, others to the will part. Those subordinate to the understanding part are represented by the cupbearer of the king of Egypt, and those subordinate to the will part by the baker. The eventual retention of the former but casting away of the latter is represented by the fact that the cupbearer returned to the position he had held previously, whereas the baker was hanged. Everything else will become evident from the train of thought.

Poznámky pod čarou:

5075. 'After these words' means after the things prior to this. This is clear from the meaning of 'words' in the original language, in which the same expression also means things. This therefore is why 'after these words' here means after these things, and so after those that happened prior to this. The reason words ¹ in the original language also means things is that in the internal sense 'words' means the truths of doctrine, on account of which all Divine Truth in general is called the Word; and in the highest sense the Lord Himself, the source of all Divine Truth, is the Word, 1288. A further reason is that no thing which comes into being anywhere in the world has any existence, that is, any reality, unless it has been created by Divine Good acting through Divine Truth. It explains why in Hebrew the same expression is used for things as for words. The truth that no thing anywhere in the world has any existence, that is, any reality, unless it has been created by Divine Good acting through Divine Truth, that is, through the Word, is evident in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. John 1:1, 3.

[2] The interior meanings that words possess have their origin for the most part in the interior man, which dwells with spirits and angels. For as to his spirit, that is, as to his true self which lives after the death of his body, everyone lives in communion with angels and spirits, though the external man is not conscious of this. Living in communion with them he is also among those who use a universal language and so use that which is the origin of verbal expressions. It is for this reason that words have many spiritual meanings attached to them which to outward appearance seem to be out of keeping with them; but inwardly they are in keeping, as with the meaning of 'words' here as things. The same is true of very many other expressions, as when for instance a person's understanding is called his inner sight and is said to possess light, or as when his apprehension of and obedience to something is called hearing and listening, or as when his detection of something is called smelling, and so on.