CHAPTER 39

39:1-23 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Petephres the eunuch of Pharao, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ismaelites, who brought him down thither. 2 And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house with his lord the Egyptian. 3 And his master knew that the Lord was with him, and the Lord prospers in his hands whatsoever he happens to do. 4 And Joseph found grace in the presence of his lord, and was well-pleasing to him; and he set him over his house, and all that he had he gave into the hand of Joseph. 5 And it came to pass after that he was set over his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the house of the Egyptian for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all his possessions in the house, and in his field. 6 And he committed all that he had into the hands of Joseph; and he knew not of anything that belonged to him, save the bread which he himself ate. And Joseph was handsome in form, and exceedingly beautiful in countenance. 7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and said, Lie with me. 8 But he would not; but said to his master’s wife, If because of me my master knows nothing in his house, and has given into my hands all things that belong to him: 9 and in this house there is nothing above me, nor has anything been kept back from me, but thou, because thou art his wife—how then shall I do this wicked thing, and sin against God? 10 And when she talked with Joseph day by day, and he hearkened not to her to sleep with her, so as to be with her, 11 it came to pass on a certain day, that Joseph went into the house to do his business, and there was no one of the household within. 12 And she caught hold of him by his clothes, and said, Lie with me; and having left his clothes in her hands, he fled, and went forth. 13 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his clothes in her hands, and fled, and gone forth, 14 that she called those that were in the house, and spoke to them, saying, See, he has brought in to us a Hebrew servant to mock us—he came in to me, saying, Lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice. 15 And when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, having left his clothes with me, he fled, and went forth out. 16 So she leaves the clothes by her, until the master came to his house. 17 And she spoke to him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, whom thou broughtest in to us, came in to me to mock me, and said to me, I will lie with thee. 18 And when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, having left his clothes with me, he fled and departed forth. 19 And it came to pass, when his master heard all the words of his wife, that she spoke to him, saying, Thus did thy servant to me, that he was very angry. 20 And his master took Joseph, and cast him into the prison, into the place where the king’s prisoners are kept, there in the prison. 21 And the Lord was with Joseph, and poured down mercy upon him; and he gave him favour in the sight of the chief keeper of the prison. 22 And the chief keeper of the prison gave the prison into the hand of Joseph, and all the prisoners as many as were in the prison; and all things whatsoever they do there, he did them. 23 Because of him the chief keeper of the prison knew nothing, for all things were in the hand of Joseph, because the Lord was with him; and whatever things he did, the Lord made them to prosper in his hands.

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. (Gen. 39:1). TRANSITION. — The Scripture goes on to repeat that Joseph was taken to Egypt and was bought by Potiphar, the eunuch of Pharaoh. With this phrase the sacred text returns to the order from where it had left, to narrate what we have exposed previously. [Question 130]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Now, if you are not tired, and you are willing, we will go on to the following, and we will come back to the story of the admirable Joseph, so that our talk today will help you understand all that this noble athlete endured as a result of dreams which promised him kingship and supremacy over his brethren, and wedges him under trial upon trial, temptation upon temptation; how nevertheless, in spite of the repeated efforts of the storm, the pilot did not allow himself to be submerged; how, when the storm redoubled violence, he remained at the helm, and continued to steer his ship; but it is necessary to hear the text itself, so that nothing escapes us: Joseph was led to Egypt, and the head of the house of Pharaoh bought it from the mayors of the Ishmaelites. (Gen. 39:1) Then, after his brethren had sold him to barbarians, to inhuman men, that they had yielded him, in their turn, to the captain of the house of Pharaoh. after having thus passed through the hands of several masters, he, raised in the arms of his father; so that we should not find it strange that he could endure this hard servitude; he, young, unaccustomed to such a rough life, and nurtured in the house of a father who cherished him, the Scripture goes on to say: And the Lord was with Joseph, and all things were successful. What to say, the Lord was with Joseph? It means that the grace from on high was with him and smoothed out all the difficulties. She presided over all the events of her life; she who conciliated to him the benevolence of these cruel merchants, who pushed them to sell him to the chief of the royal house, so that step by step and by degrees he could, through all these temptations, make his way to the throne . But you, my dear brother, on hearing that he was the slave of the merchants, and then the slave of the head of the royal household, ask yourself how he did not trouble himself, did not torment his mind, did not fall into uncertainty, did not say: Where are now the dreams that deceived me by promising me such a glory?

After such beautiful dreams, here is servitude, a hard bondage: I change my master, I pass from one to the other, from this one to a third; I have to live among inhuman people. Am I abandoned? am I neglected by the grace of above? He did not say, thought nothing like it, he endured everything without complaint or murmur. For the Lord was with Joseph, and all things were successful. What to say: Everything was successful? Yes, the grace from on high made it easy for him, made all things plain to him, and that grace that crowned him was so manifest that his master himself, the head of the house, saw it: For his master knew that the Lord was with him, and he favored and blessed him in all his actions.

And Joseph found favor in the sight of his lord, who set him over all his house, and put into his hand all that pertained to him. Do you see what it is to be supported by the arm from above? Here is a young man, a stranger, a slave, and his master entrusts to him all his house: And he put everything in his hands. Why that? Because, apart from the divine assistance, he still displayed the qualities that were his own. It pleased him, says the text: it means that he managed everything in good servant. Then the good God who wanted to increase his security does not draw him from slavery, does not set him free. Indeed, it is his custom not to put virtuous men out of danger, not to deliver them temptations, but to assist them in the same temptations so effectively that these temptations become for them a subject of triumph. Whence this word of blessed David: In distress you put me off. (Ps. 4:2) You have not driven distress away from me, he means, you have not delivered me, to put me at rest, but, admirable and miraculous thing, in the midst of tribulations, you gave me security. This is still the conduct of this good Master. He blesses the Egyptian's house because of Joseph. (5) And the barbarian understood that this servant was of those whom God claims. And he put everything in his hands into Joseph's hands, and he knew nothing else but the bread that he ate. (6) He thus makes him, so to speak, the master of his whole house. And this slave, this captive had in his hands all the goods of his master. Such is the ascendency of virtue; wherever it shines, it triumphs, and nothing resists it. As the light in appearing puts the darkness to flight, so the brightness of virtue, as soon as it comes to shine, puts all vices in rout.

4. But the devil, that wicked beast, on seeing the glory of the righteous and the new brightness that his apparent tribulations were worth to him, the devil cringes, becomes furious, and can not resign himself to seeing this just growing up by day. In the daytime, he digs before him a deep abyss, a precipice where, he thought, a dreadful death awaited him; he amassed a storm capable of causing him the most appalling shipwreck, but he soon convinced himself that he was only playing against the sting and working against himself. Joseph was handsome and charming with a face. Why tell us about this beauty? It is to make us understand that the beauty was not only in his soul, that it was also spread over his body. He was young, in the prime of life, handsome, charming with a face. Divine Scripture takes care to inform us in advance to explain to us how the Egyptian woman, in love with the beauty of this young man, could provoke him to an illicit trade. And it happened after that. (7) After that, that is to say, when the government of the whole house had been entrusted to him, when his master had judged him worthy of a function so honorable, that the wife of his master cast his eyes on Joseph. Do you see the effrontery of this dissolute woman? She did not reflect that she had the rank of mistress, that Joseph was a servant: seduced by her beauty, inflamed with the flames of Satan, she thinks of throwing herself into the arms of this young man: and nourishing in her mind this Perverse thought, she seeks the opportunity, the solitude favorable to the execution of her criminal enterprise. But he, said the Scripture, did not want to: he did not allow himself to be seduced, he did not like these propositions. For he knew that it would have been lost; and, not content with thinking of himself, he was still trying, according to his means, to cure this woman of his madness, of his detestable passion. He gives her advice that can bring her back into herself, and return to more wise thoughts. He says to the wife of his master (it is the slave who advises his mistress): You see that my master this cause of me, knows nothing of what is happening in his house, and that he put back between my hands all that is his. (8) O recognition! Consider how he enumerates the benefits of his master, in order to make this woman feel how ungrateful she is towards her husband. You see, it seems, that I, who am only a servant, a stranger, a captive, have found enough credit with him to put everything in my hands, so that everything depends on me, except yourself: all recognize in me their superior, you alone are above me, and out of my power. Then, in order to strike her at the sensible place, to remind her of her husband's tenderness, to prevent her from showing herself ungrateful to her husband, he said to her: And here is why you are out of my power; It's because you are his wife. Now, if you are his wife, how could I commit such a great crime, and sin against God? (Ibid. 9) She sought solitude, she spied on the moment, in order to escape the eyes of her husband and all the servants of the house. But Joseph: How could I commit such a great crime and sin against God? What is your thought? Even if we could escape the sight of everyone, we can not escape the ever-open eye. It is he alone whom we must fear and fear; it is before him that we must tremble to commit prevarication. And to make us understand the high virtue of this just, to show us that it is not once or twice, but often that he resisted such an assault, that he heard this language without being shaken, that he The Scripture adds: And as it began several days in succession, and Joseph did not yield to it (Ibid., 10): she spies a moment when one was busy in the house, throws herself on him like a fierce beast who sharpens his teeth, draws her towards her and holds him by her clothes. Let us not pass lightly on this: let us represent the trial our righteous man had to sustain. There is no reason to be astonished, in my opinion, that in the midst of the furnace of Babylon the three young men suffered no harm and remained insensitive to the fire, that it is admirable and marvelous to to see this incomparable adolescent, when this criminal and dissolute woman seized him by his clothes, to flee instead of yielding to him, and to leave his clothes between his hands. Unless you find your children triumphantly, make sure you have a good time, rebuff yourself: even Joseph, when you know who was at work, when he ejected the untold courage of his chastity.

Consider here, I pray you, the goodness of the common Master of all men. He had snatched it from his brethren who wanted to kill him: he had provided that first, according to the advice of Reuben, Joseph should go down into the cistern, and then, according to the counsel of Judah, sold to the merchants, that the fulfillment of dreams made it plain to see the truth of what had been announced to it: and now it is still the arm from above that holds back this barbarian, which prevents him from consummating the murder on the spot. field. What could stop him, indeed, once warned of the attempt of adultery? But God, who can do anything, disposed him to show so much clemency, that, thrown into prison, and giving there new proofs of his virtue, Joseph rose in this way to the first rank of the kingdom. His master became angry (Ibid.19), and had Joseph thrown into the prison, where the king's prisoners were kept. (Ibid. 20) If he had not faith in the report, Joseph should not be put in prison: if, on the contrary, he believed in the words of the Egyptian, in this case again, Joseph did not deserve the prison, he deserved the last punishment, decapitation. But as soon as the arm from above manifests its providence, everything becomes easy and easy, and the most savage soften. Now, it is when we have shown ourselves of a great virtue that grace from above is especially lavished on us. Joseph fought valiantly; he was magnificently rewarded. After such a noble exploit, he is taken to prison; he suffers all in silence. You are not ignorant that the innocent who are condemned as if they were guilty, give themselves a free career to revolt, to rebel against those who have struck them with an unjust judgment. Nothing like it in Joseph: he remained silent, he endures everything without complaining, he expects divine grace in perfect resignation. And here in the depths of his prison he receives full power again from his jailer. Should we be surprised? The Lord was with Joseph, and poured out on him his mercy. (Ibid. 21) What does it say, Spreading over him his mercy? That is to say, he inclined toward the pity the soul of the governor, and disposed him to show great favor to Joseph. He made him grateful to the governor. Truly, nothing is happier than the protected man from above. The governor handed the prison over to Joseph. See how this guardian gives him the place, gives him absolute power, remits in his discretion all the prisoners. And the governor knew nothing of what was happening: for everything was in the hands of Joseph, because the Lord was with him and the Lord blessed all that passed through his hands. (Ibid. 23) Notice how faithful was the grace from on high, how it abounded in all its actions. [Homilies on Genesis]