Kejadian 39:20

39:20 Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, ¹  the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison. ² 

Kejadian 42:17

42:17 He imprisoned ³  them all for three days.

Kejadian 40:3

40:3 so he imprisoned them in the house of the captain of the guard in the same facility where Joseph was confined.

Kejadian 39:22

39:22 The warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care. He was in charge of whatever they were doing. ⁴ 

[39:20]  ¹ tn Heb “the house of roundness,” suggesting that the prison might have been a fortress or citadel.

[39:20]  ² 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.

[42:17]  ³ sn The same Hebrew word is used for Joseph’s imprisonment in 40:3, 4, 7. There is some mirroring going on in the narrative. The Hebrew word used here (אָסַף, ’asaf, “to gather”) is not normally used in a context like this (for placing someone in prison), but it forms a wordplay on the name Joseph (יוֹסֵף, yosoef) and keeps the comparison working.

[39:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “all which they were doing there, he was doing.” This probably means that Joseph was in charge of everything that went on in the prison.