Kejadian 39:17-20

39:17 This is what she said to him: ¹  “That Hebrew slave ²  you brought to us tried to humiliate me, ³  39:18 but when I raised my voice and screamed, he left his outer garment and ran outside.”

39:19 When his master heard his wife say, ⁴  “This is the way ⁵  your slave treated me,” ⁶  he became furious. ⁷  39:20 Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, ⁸  the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison. ⁹ 

Kejadian 39:1

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

39:1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. ¹⁰  An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, ¹¹  purchased him from ¹²  the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.

Kisah Para Rasul 21:20

21:20 When they heard this, they praised ¹³  God. Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews ¹⁴  there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers ¹⁵  of the law. ¹⁶ 

[39:17]  ¹ tn Heb “and she spoke to him according to these words, saying.”

[39:17]  ² sn That Hebrew slave. Now, when speaking to her husband, Potiphar’s wife refers to Joseph as a Hebrew slave, a very demeaning description.

[39:17]  ³ tn Heb “came to me to make fun of me.” The statement needs no explanation because of the connotations of “came to me” and “to make fun of me.” See the note on the expression “humiliate us” in v. 14.

[39:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “and when his master heard the words of his wife which she spoke to him, saying.”

[39:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “according to these words.”

[39:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “did to me.”

[39:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “his anger burned.”

[39:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “the house of roundness,” suggesting that the prison might have been a fortress or citadel.

[39:20]  ⁹ sn The story of Joseph is filled with cycles and repetition: He has two dreams (chap. 37), he interprets two dreams in prison (chap. 40) and the two dreams of Pharaoh (chap. 41), his brothers make two trips to see him (chaps. 42-43), and here, for the second time (see 37:24), he is imprisoned for no good reason, with only his coat being used as evidence. For further discussion see H. Jacobsen, “A Legal Note on Potiphar’s Wife,” HTR 69 (1976): 177.

[39:1]  ¹⁰ tn The disjunctive clause resumes the earlier narrative pertaining to Joseph by recapitulating the event described in 37:36. The perfect verbal form is given a past perfect translation to restore the sequence of the narrative for the reader.

[39:1]  ¹¹ sn Captain of the guard. See the note on this phrase in Gen 37:36.

[39:1]  ¹² tn Heb “from the hand of.”

[21:20]  ¹³ tn Or “glorified.”

[21:20]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “how many thousands there are among the Jews.”

[21:20]  sn How many thousands of Jews. See Acts 2-5 for the accounts of their conversion, esp. 2:41 and 4:4. Estimates of the total number of Jews living in Jerusalem at the time range from 20,000 to 50,000.

[21:20]  ¹⁵ tn Or “are all zealous for the law.” BDAG 427 s.v. ζηλωτής 1.a.β has “of thing…τοῦ νόμου an ardent observer of the law Ac 21:20.”

[21:20]  ¹⁶ sn That is, the law of Moses. These Jewish Christians had remained close to their Jewish practices after becoming believers (1 Cor 7:18-19; Acts 16:3).