Genesis 39:8-9 - Exposition

But he refused ,—"it may be that the absence of personal charms facilitated Joseph's resistance (Kalisch); but Joseph assigns a different reason for his noncompliance with her utterly immoral proposition— and said unto his master's wife ,—"for her unclean solicitation he returneth pure and wholesome words" (Hughes)— Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house (literally, knoweth not, along with me, what is in the house ) , and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand, (literally, and all that is to him he hath given to or placed in my hand); there is none greater in this house than I neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin (cf. Genesis 20:6 ; 2 Samuel 12:13 ; Psalms 51:4 for the estimate of this act taken by God and good men) against God? —Elohim, since Jehovah would have been unintelligible to a heathen woman.