Genesis 40:8-23 BSB

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 40:5-19

Observe, I. The special providence of God, which filled the heads of these two prisoners with unusual dreams, such as made extraordinary impressions upon them, and carried with them evidences of a divine origin, both in one night. Note, God has immediate access to the spirits of men, which he can make serviceable to his own purposes whenever he pleases, quite beyond the intention of those concerned. To him all hearts are open, and anciently he spoke not only to his own people, but to others,... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 40:20-23

Here is, 1. The verifying of Joseph's interpretation of the dreams, on the very day prefixed. The chief butler and baker were both advanced, one to his office, the other to the gallows, and both at the three days? end. Note, Very great changes, both for the better and for the worse, often happen in a very little time, so sudden are the revolutions of the wheel of nature. The occasion of giving judgment severally upon their case was the solemnizing of Pharaoh's birth-day, on which, all his... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:8

And they said unto him, we have dreamed a dream ,.... Each of them: and there is no interpreter of it ; in that place in which they were, the prison; otherwise there were persons enough in the land that pretended to the interpretation of dreams, Genesis 41:8 ; but they could not come at them, being in prison: and Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God ? that is, of dreams, and to him only, meaning the true God whom he worshipped; for as dreams themselves,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:9

And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph ,.... He listened to what Joseph said, and paid a regard to it, and began to think he might be able to interpret his dream, and therefore was forward, and the first to tell him it at once; whereas the chief baker did not seem disposed to do it, until he observed the good interpretation given of the butler's dream, Genesis 40:16 , and said unto him, in my dream, behold, a vine was before me ; it appeared to him in his dream, as if a vine... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:10

And in the vine were three branches ,.... Which shot out from the root or body of it: and it was as though it budded ; the branches seemed to sprout out: and her blossoms shot forth ; it knotted, and the flowers of the vine appeared, which blowing off, the tender grapes were seen: and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes ; all which is agreeably to the order nature observes, from the first putting forth of the vine, to its producing ripe fruit; and which in this... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:11

And Pharaoh's cup was in his hand ,.... So it seemed to him in his dream, as it often had been when in his office: and I took the grapes ; from off the vine that was before him: and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup ; which some think was the custom of those times, to take a bunch of grapes and squeeze them into a cup, especially when they would make trial of what sort of wine they would produce; for it can hardly be thought that this was usually done, or that it was customary to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:12

And Joseph said unto him, this is the interpretation of it ,.... Of the dream: the three branches are three days ; signify three days, or, as Jarchi expresses it, are a sign of three days; which Joseph could know only by divine revelation; for there is no more likeness between branches and days, than between them and months or years, and bid as fair to signify one as the other, if the interpretation depended on similarity, or bare conjecture. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:13

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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:14

But think on me, when it shall be well with thee ,.... He desires no reward for the interpretation of his dream, only that he would remember him in adversity, when he should be in prosperity in Pharaoh's court, and speak a good word for him, which was the least he could do; and though Joseph knew by his own dreams that he should be raised from his low estate to a very high and advanced one, yet he thought proper, in a dependence on God, to make use of all lawful means for his deliverance;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:15

For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews ,.... Not the whole land of Canaan, so called, either from the Hebrews sojourning: in it, or from its being given unto them by God; neither of which could be a reason why Joseph, when talking with an Egyptian, should give it this name, and which, it must be supposed, was known to him; but that part of the land of Canaan where the Hebrews had sojourned for three generations, where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had lived, even at or near... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 40:5-19

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 40:20-23

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:8

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:9

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:10

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:11

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:12

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:13

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:14

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 40:15

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