Genesis 40:13

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Genesis 40:13. Lift up thy head — Raise thee from thy state of dejection and sorrow, and advance thee to thy former dignity; for in this sense, the same phrase is used, 2 Kings 25:27, and <19B007>Psalm 110:7. The expression, however, may be rendered, shall reckon thy head, that is, thy name or person, namely, among his servants, which interpretation seems to agree better with the verse where the same phrase is used also of the chief baker who was hanged. It is supposed to refer to a custom which the kings of Egypt, and probably other governors observed, of having the names of all their servants called over on their birthdays, and at other set times; when such as were judged to be guilty of great crimes were struck off the list and punished, and the less guilty were pardoned, and if they had been imprisoned, were released and restored to their former trusts and offices.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

40:1-19 It was not so much the prison that made the butler and baker sad, as their dreams. God has more ways than one to sadden the spirits. Joseph had compassion towards them. Let us be concerned for the sadness of our brethren's countenances. It is often a relief to those that are in trouble to be noticed. Also learn to look into the causes of our own sorrow. Is there a good reason? Is there not comfort sufficient to balance it, whatever it is? Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Joseph was careful to ascribe the glory to God. The chief butler's dream foretold his advancement. The chief baker's dream his death. It was not Joseph's fault that he brought the baker no better tidings. And thus ministers are but interpreters; they cannot make the thing otherwise than it is: if they deal faithfully, and their message prove unpleasing, it is not their fault. Joseph does not reflect upon his brethren that sold him; nor does he reflect on the wrong done him by his mistress and his master, but mildly states his own innocence. When we are called on to clear ourselves, we should carefully avoid, as much as may be, speaking ill of others. Let us be content to prove ourselves innocent, and not upbraid others with their guilt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The chief butler now recites his dream. "Pressed them into Pharaoh's cup." The imagery of the dream is not intended to intimate that Pharaoh drank only the fresh juice of the grape. It only expresses by a natural figure the source of wine, and possibly the duty of the chief butler to understand and superintend the whole process of its formation. Egypt was not only a corn, but a vine country. The interpretation of this dream was very obvious and natural; yet not without a divine intimation could it be known that the "three branches were three days." Joseph, in the quiet confidence that his interpretation would prove correct, begs the chief butler to remember him and endeavor to procure his release. "Stolen, stolen was I." He assures him that he was not a criminal, and that his enslavement was an act of wrongful violence - a robbery by the strong hand. "From the land of the Hebrews;" a very remarkable expression, as it strongly favors the presumption that the Hebrews inhabited the country before Kenaan took possession of it. "I have not done aught." Joseph pleads innocence, and claims liberation, not as an unmerited favor, but as a right. "The pit." The pit without water seems to have been the primitive place of confinement for culprits.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12-15. Joseph said, … This is the interpretation—Speaking as an inspired interpreter, he told the butler that within three days he would be restored to all the honors and privileges of his office; and while making that joyful announcement, he earnestly bespoke the officer's influence for his own liberation. Nothing has hitherto met us in the record indicative of Joseph's feelings; but this earnest appeal reveals a sadness and impatient longing for release, which not all his piety and faith in God could dispel.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Lift up thine head, i.e. advance thee to thy former dignity. So that phrase is used 2 Kings 25:27 Psalm 110:7. Or, reckon thy head, i.e. thy name or thy person, to wit, among his servants, which is added, Genesis 40:20. According to the custom, which was this: at set times governors of families used to take an account of their servants, and to have the names of their servants read to them, and they either left them in the catalogue, or put any of them out, as they saw fit, and inflicted such further punishments upon any of them as they deserved. This seems the truer interpretation, because it is said that Pharaoh lifted up the head of his butler, and of his baker, Genesis 40:20, and therefore the phrase must be so expounded, as to agree equally to both.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head,.... The Targum of Jonathan adds, with glory; and the sense is, either that Pharaoh would raise him up from the low estate in which he now was, to the same exalted station in which he had been before; or that he would reckon and number him among his servants, when he should take a catalogue of them, or make a new list, so Jarchi and Aben Ezra; and this phrase is used of taking the sum of persons, or the number of them, and is so rendered, Exodus 30:12; the allusion is thought to be to a custom used by great personages, to have the names of their servants called over on a certain day, as Pharaoh perhaps used to do on his birthday, Genesis 40:20; when they struck out of the list or put into it whom they pleased, and pardoned or punished such as had offended; and this sense is the rather inclined to, because Pharaoh is said to lift up the head of both the butler and the baker, Genesis 40:20; yet it may be observed, that the phrases used by Joseph concerning them differ; for of the baker he says, "Pharaoh shall lift up thy head from off thee", Genesis 40:19; wherefore, though the heads of them both were lift up, yet in a different sense: the one was lifted up to the gallows, and the other to his former dignity, as follows:

and restore thee unto thy place: to his office in ministering: to Pharaoh as his cup bearer:

and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler; which was signified in the dream, by squeezing the grapes into Pharaoh's cup he had in his hand, and gave unto him.

Geneva Study Bible

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. lift up thine head] i.e. “will lift it up with favour,” as in 2 Kings 25:27; Jeremiah 52:31. The “countenance,” which is sad, or in trouble, hangs down and needs to be lifted up: see note on Genesis 4:6-7. As the phrase is also used of “the chief baker” in an unfavourable sense (Genesis 40:19-20), it might conceivably be employed for the official notice of release to a prisoner, either for pardon or for punishment. But this is not probable; see note on Genesis 40:19.

Genesis 40:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Joseph then gave this interpretation: The three branches were three days, in which time Pharaoh would restore him to his post again ("lift up his head," i.e., raise him from his degradation, send and fetch him from prison, 2 Kings 25:27). And he added this request (Genesis 40:14): "Only think of me, as it goes well with thee, and show favour to me...for I was stolen (i.e., carried away secretly and by force; I did not abscond because of any crime) out of the land of the Hebrews (the land where the Ibrim live); and here also I have done nothing (committed no crime) for which they should put me into the hole." בּור: the cell, applied to a prison as a miserable hole, because often dry cess-pools were used as prisons.