Genesis 40:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
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.
three · cardinal number, both genders singular construct
days
יָמִ֗יםya.Mim
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Pharaoh
פַרְעֹה֙far.'Oh
H6547
Paroh · noun, masculine singular absolute
up
יִשָּׂ֤אyi.Sa'
H5375
to lift · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
head
רֹאשֶׁ֔ךָro.She.kha
H7218
the head (as most easily shaken) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
restore
וַהֲשִֽׁיבְךָ֖va.ha.shi.ve.Kha
H7725
to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
place
כַּנֶּ֑ךָka.Ne.kha
H3653
a stand · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
deliver
וְנָתַתָּ֤ve.na.ta.Ta
H5414
to give · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
Pharaoh’s
פַּרְעֹה֙par.'Oh
H6547
Paroh · noun, masculine singular absolute
cup
כוֹסkhos-
H3563
a cup (as a container) · noun, common feminine singular construct
hand
בְּיָד֔וֹbe.ya.Do
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
former
הָֽרִאשׁ֔וֹןha.ri.Shon
H7223
first · definite article + ordinal number, masculine singular absolute
manner
כַּמִּשְׁפָּט֙ka.mish.Pat
H4941
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
butler
שָׁקָהshâqâh
H8248
to quaff
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
2 Kings 25:27 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twe…
Psalms 3:3 But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
Jeremiah 52:31 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twen…
Genesis 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will…
Genesis 40:19-22 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from of…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 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, in dreams, Job 33:15. Things to come were thus foretold, but very obscurely.
II. The impression which was made upon these prisoners by their dreams (Gen 40:6): They were sad. It was not the prison that m…
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.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 40:12
The three branches are three days - That is, The three branches signify three days; so, this Is my body, that is, this bread signifies or represents my body; this cup is my blood, Represents my blood; a form of speech frequently used in the sacred writings, for the Hebrew has no proper word by which our terms signifies, represents, etc., are expressed; therefore it says such a thing Is, for represents, points out, etc. And because several of our ancestors would understand such words in their true, genuine, critical, and sole meaning, Queen Mary, Bishops Gardiner, Bonner, and the rest of that demoniacal crew, reduced them to ashes in Smithfield and elsewhere!
John Gill on 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 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…
The Church Fathers
I do not wish to speak of someone else's dream. You certainly remember my words, that even then I refused to interpret it because I fear its outcome, the death that I dread. Let us first speak of the man who, when he was in charge of wine, seemed to be happy and believed that this was the pinnacle of power because he gave the cup to the king. This was his glory, this was his magnificence in this world, and he grieved being deprived of it; he rejoiced when it was restored to him. But this is a dream, and all worldly power is a dream, not truth. Finally, through the dream, he saw his authority restored to him. And Isaiah says that such are the people who delight in the things of this world, just as one who eats and drinks in dreams seems to himself to be filled with food or drink, while he sleeps; but when he wakes up, he begins to hunger even more; and then he understands how empty that food and drink of the dreamer were: so does one who sleeps in this world, not opening his eyes to the divine mysteries, as long as he is burdened by the sleep of the body, think that this worldly power is of some importance, as if he sees it in dreams; but when he wakes up, he realizes how empty this worldly pleasure is. Consider now that true Hebrew, not of a dream but of truth and splendid vision, interpreter, who has come from the fullness of divinity, from the freedom of heavenly grace into this earthly prison, whom the allurements of this world could not change, no worldly corruption could overthrow, who, though tempted, did not fall, did not desire forbidden things, finally seized by the deceitful hand of the Synagogue in a deceptive garment of the body, shed the flesh, ascended free from death. The prostitute has been falsely accused. She was unable to hold the man whom prison did not frighten, whom even the underworld did not hold. Moreover, where he had descended as if to be punished, from there he freed others. Where the chains of death were binding them, there he himself loosened the chains of the dead.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Butler — Properly a servant in charge of the wine (Gen. 40:1-13; 41:9). The Hebrew word, mashkeh, thus translated is rendered also (plural) “cup-bearers” (1 Kings 10:5; 2 Chr. 9:4). Nehemiah (1:11) was…
Cup-bearer — An officer of high rank with Egyptian, Persian, Assyrian, and Jewish monarchs. The cup-bearer of the king of Egypt is mentioned in connection with Joseph’s history (Gen. 40:1-21; 41:9). Rabshakeh…
Dreams · Mentioned in scripture of: Pharaoh’s butler and baker — Mentioned in scripture of: Pharaoh’s butler and baker
Egypt · History of Israel in: Joseph interprets the chief baker’s and the chief butler’s dreams — History of Israel in: Joseph interprets the chief baker’s and the chief butler’s dreams
Head · Illustrative: (Lifted up,) of exaltation — Illustrative: (Lifted up,) of exaltation
Joseph · .Of the two pri — .Of the two pri
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).
The three branches are three days. Joseph does not here offer what he thought to be probable, like some ambiguous conjecturer; but asserts, by the revelation of the Spirit, the meaning of the dream. For why does he say, that by the three branches, three days rather than years are signified, unless because the Spirit of God had suggested it? Joseph, therefore, proceeds, by a special impulse above nature, to expound the dream; and by immediately commending himself to the butler, as if he was already restored, shows how certain and indubitable was the truth of his interpretation: as if he had said, "Be convinced that what thou hast heard of me has come from God." Where also he shows how honorab…
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, Kg2 25:27). And he added this request (Gen 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 u…
Joseph listened to the dreams and offered their interpretations. These dreams were not trivial; they were ominous warnings from God about what everyone was going to face. These two dreams prepared for Pharaoh’s two dreams, which revealed the periods of life and death that the nation would soon experience.
Rashi on Genesis 40:13
ישא פרעה את ראשך PHARAOH SHALL LIFT UP THY HEAD — The words נשא ראש denote to count (cf. Exodus 30:12). When he musters his other servants to wait upon him during the meal he will count you also among them.
כנך means THY POST and thy place.
