a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
day
י֑וֹםYom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
hearkened
שָׁמַ֥עsha.Ma'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
lie
לִשְׁכַּ֥בlish.Kav
H7901
to lie down (for rest · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
her
אֶצְלָ֖הּ'etz.Lah
H681
a side · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Peter 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
1 Corinthians 15:33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
2 Timothy 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Genesis 39:8 But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that…
Proverbs 2:16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
Proverbs 1:15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 39:7-12
Here is, I. A most shameful instance of impudence and immodesty in Joseph's mistress, the shame and scandal of her sex, perfectly lost to all virtue and honour, and not to be mentioned, nor thought of, without the utmost indignation. It was well that she was an Egyptian; for we must have shared in the confusion if such folly had been found in Israel. Observe,
I. Her sin began in the eye: She cast her eyes upon Joseph (Gen 39:7), who was a goodly person, and well-favoured, Gen 39:6. Note, (1.) Remarkable beauty, either of men or women, often proves a dangerous snare both to themselves and others, which forbids pride in it and commands constant watchfulness against the temptation that attends…
How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?--This remonstrance, when all inferior arguments had failed, embodied the true principle of moral purity--a principle always sufficient where it exists, and alone sufficient.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 39:9
How then - ואיך veeik, and how? Joseph gives two most powerful reasons for his noncompliance with the wishes of his mistress:
1. Gratitude to his master, to whom he owed all that he had.
2. His fear of God, in whose sight it would be a heinous offense, and who would not fail to punish him for it.
With the kindness of his master and the displeasure of God before his eyes, how could he be capable of committing an act of transgression, which would at once have distinguished him as the most ungrateful and the most worthless of men?
John Gill on Genesis 39:10
And it came to pass, that as she spake to Joseph day by day,.... Continually, incessantly, hoping in time to prevail upon him to comply with her desires; so that the temptation, as it was strong, and very ensnaring, it was urgent, and frequent, and pressed with great importunity; which required the more grace and spiritual strength to resist:
that he hearkened not unto her; not only did not yield to her, but would not give her an hearing, at least as little as possible he could, lest he should be overcome by her persuasions:
to lie by her, or to be with her; she might tempt him to lie by her, if he would not lie with her; or to lie, as Aben Ezra interprets it, in a place near her, in a cha…
The Church Fathers
For us to learn the surpassing virtue of the good man and the fact that not once or twice but many times he endured this pressure and resisted the invitation by ceaselessly counseling her, Scripture says, "Although she kept inviting him day after day, he did not yield to her." When she observed him performing his duties in the house, she fell upon the young man like a wild animal grinding its teeth and grabbed his clothing to lay hold of him. Let us not pass this passage idly by. Instead, let us consider how much pressure the good man endured. I mean, in my view at any rate, it was not so remarkable that the three children survived unharmed in the middle of the Babylonian furnace and sustained no harm from the fire as it was remarkable and unprecedented that this remarkable young man had his clothes torn from him by this frenzied and intemperate woman without yielding to her. Instead, Joseph left the clothes in her hands and fled the scene in that condition. You see, just as those three children on account of their virtue enjoyed grace from on high and were seen to prove superior to the fire, so this man too, after making whatever effort he could and giving evidence of his struggle for continence with great intensity, enjoyed abundant help from on high. He all at once prevailed, thanks to such cooperation from God's right hand, and slipped from the clutches of that lustful woman. Then one could see this remarkable man emerging, divested of his clothes but garbed in the vesture of chastity, as though escaping unharmed from some fiery furnace, not only not scorched by the flames but even more conspicuous and resplendent.
The young man is desired by his mistress but is not provoked to lust. He is asked and runs away. She who commanded in other matters, in this one thing coaxes and pleads. She loved him, or was it rather herself? I think that it was neither him nor herself. If she loved him, why did she want to ruin him? If she loved herself, why did she want to perish? Behold, I have proved that she did not love: she burned with the poison of lust but did not shine with the flame of charity. He, however, knew how to see what she did not know. Joseph was more beautiful within than without, fairer in the light of his heart than in the beauty of his body. Where the eye of that woman could not penetrate, there he enjoyed his own beauty. Therefore, as he beheld the interior beauty of chastity in the mirror of his conscience, when would he allow it to be stained or violated by the temptation of that woman? For this reason what he saw you too can see if you will—namely, the interior and spiritual beauty of chastity—provided that you have eyes for it. I will tell you something by way of an example. You love it in your wife; therefore do not hate in the wife of another what you love in your own. What do you love in your own wife? Chastity, of course. You hate it in another's wife, when you are willing to destroy chastity by intimacy with her. What you love in your own wife you want to kill in the wife of another. How can you have a prayer of devotion, O murderer of chastity? Therefore preserve in the wife of another what you want to protect in your own, for in your wife you love her chastity rather than her body.
Dictionary and topics
Joseph — Remover or increaser. (1.) The elder of the two sons of Jacob by Rachel (Gen. 30:23, 24), who, on the occasion of his birth, said, “God hath taken away [Heb. ‘asaph] my reproach.” “The Lord shall add…
Temptation — (1.) Trial; a being put to the test. Thus God “tempted [Gen. 22: 1; R.V., ‘did prove’] Abraham;” and afflictions are said to tempt, i.e., to try, men (James 1:2, 12; comp. Deut. 8:2), putting their…
Accusation, False · .Against Joseph by Potiphar’s wife — .Against Joseph by Potiphar’s wife
Chastity · .Joseph — .Joseph
Conscience · .Of Joseph, when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him — .Of Joseph, when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him
Continence · .Joseph — .Joseph
Decision · .JOSEPH — .JOSEPH
Egypt · History of Israel in: Joseph unjustly cast into prison — History of Israel in: Joseph unjustly cast into prison
Integrity · .Joseph, in resisting Potiphar’s wife — .Joseph, in resisting Potiphar’s wife
Master · .Potiphar’s wife to Joseph — .Potiphar’s wife to Joseph
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
As she spake to Joseph day by day. The constancy of Joseph is commended; from which it appears that a real fear of God reigned in his mind. Whence it came to pass that he not only repelled one attack, but stood forth, to the last, the conqueror of all temptations. We know how easy it is to fall when Satan tempts us through another: because we seem exempt from blame, if he who induces us to commit the crime, bears a part of it. [146] Holy Joseph, therefore, must have been endowed with the extraordinary power of the Spirit, seeing that he stood invincible to the last, against all the allurements of the impious woman. So much the more detestable is the wickedness of her, who is neither correcte…
But after she had repeated her enticements day after day without success, "it came to pass at that time (הזּה כּהיּום for the more usual הזּה כּיּום (Gen 50:20), lit., about this day, i.e., the day in the writer's mind, on which the thing to be narrated occurred) that Joseph came into his house to attend to his duties, and there were none of the house-servants within." And she laid hold of him by his garment and entreated him to lie with her; but he left his garment in her hand and fled from the house.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 39:6-10
One of the major motifs of wisdom literature (see study note on 37:2–50:26) is to warn young people that immorality will lead them to disaster (cp. Prov 5–7). Joseph was able to resist temptation because he had godly wisdom—he was guided by the fear of the Lord (Prov 1:7; 9:10).
Rashi on Genesis 39:10
לשכב אצלה TO LIE BY HER — even without sinning (Genesis Rabbah 87:6).
להיות עמה TO BE WITH HER, in the world to come (Gehinnom) (Genesis Rabbah 87:6).