a head person (of any rank or class) · noun, common masculine singular construct
butler
שָׁקָהshâqâh
H8248
to quaff
Pharaoh
פַּרְעֹ֖הpar.'Oh
H6547
Paroh · noun, masculine singular absolute
saying
לֵאמֹ֑רle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
remember
מַזְכִּ֥ירmaz.Kir
H2142
properly · verb, hiphil active participle, masculine singular absolute
faults
חֲטָאַ֕יcha.ta.'Ai
H2399
a crime or its penalty · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
day
הַיּֽוֹםhai.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
Genesis 40:14 But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me…
Genesis 40:23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.
Genesis 40:1-3 And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 41:9-16
Here is, 1. The recommending of Joseph to Pharaoh for an interpreter. The chief butler did it more in compliment to Pharaoh, to oblige him, than in gratitude to Joseph, or in compassion for his case. He makes a fair confession (Gen 41:9): "I remember my faults this day, in forgetting Joseph." Note, It is best to remember our duty, and to do it in its time; but, if we have neglected that, it is next best to remember our faults, and repent of them, and do our duty at last; better late than never. Some think he means his faults against Pharaoh, for which he was imprisoned; and then he would insinuate that, though Pharaoh had forgiven him, he had not forgiven himself. The story he had to tell wa…
then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults--This public acknowledgment of the merits of the young Hebrew would, tardy though it was, have reflected credit on the butler had it not been obviously made to ingratiate himself with his royal master. It is right to confess our faults against God, and against our fellow men when that confession is made in the spirit of godly sorrow and penitence. But this man was not much impressed with a sense of the fault he had committed against Joseph; he never thought of God, to whose goodness he was indebted for the prophetic announcement of his release, and in acknowledging his former fault against the king, he was practising t…
I do remember my faults - It is not possible he could have forgotten the circumstance to which he here alludes; it was too intimately connected with all that was dear to him, to permit him ever to forget it. But it was not convenient for him to remember this before; and probably he would not have remembered it now, had he not seen, that giving this information in such a case was likely to serve his own interest. We are justified in thinking evil of this man because of his scandalous neglect of a person who foretold the rescue of his life from imminent destruction, and who, being unjustly confined, prayed to have his case fairly represented to the king that justice might be done him; but this…
The Church Fathers
See God's wonderful design. First he let him have recourse to all those considered wise in those parts so that, when their ignorance was demonstrated, then this prisoner, this captive, this slave, this Hebrew, might be brought forward and unravel what was a mystery to so many, and thus Joseph might make clear to everyone the grace that had descended on him from above. So when all the wise men arrived and were unable to say anything or even open their mouths, then the chief cupbearer's memory returned, and he informed Pharaoh of what had happened to him, saying, "Today I'm going to bring to light my fault."
Therefore, being warned in a dream by the king, he said: I remember my sin. Indeed, it is late, but I wish it were a true confession! After the sin, you confess what you should have guarded against before the sin. How quickly you had forgotten: Remember me. You certainly know that at that time this was the discourse: but you had deaf ears due to the pride of power, and being drunk with wine, you did not hear the words of sobriety. Even now, remember me, as you confess your sin late. Why do you ask the servant of Christ, why do you deny the Lord? Be intoxicated not with wine, but with the Holy Spirit. Remember what he suffered, with whom you slept your sleep, and dreamed your dream. And he himself was in charge, and in charge of the king's banquets, which pertained to the work of the bakers. He believed himself to be exalted because he had the power over the king's bread: he did not know the many twists and turns of this power. He threatened others, soon to be handed over to the extreme punishment himself; and he did not listen to him, who, although a servant of the Lord, still spoke as an oracle: that by the king's command, the very king he flattered the most, he would lose his head and become food for birds. And you should have recalled this example in order not to believe in treachery.
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…
Captain — (1.) Heb. sar (1 Sam. 22:2; 2 Sam. 23:19). Rendered “chief,” Gen. 40:2; 41:9; rendered also “prince,” Dan. 1:7; “ruler,” Judg. 9:30; “governor,’ 1 Kings 22:26. This same Hebrew word denotes a…
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…
Cupbearer — an officer of high rank with Egyptian, Persian and Assyrian as well as Jewish monarchs. (1 Kings 10:5) It was his duty to fill the king’s cup and present it to him personally. (Nehemiah 1:11) The…
Famine — The first mentioned in Scripture was so grievous as to compel Abraham to go down to the land of Egypt (Gen. 26:1). Another is mentioned as having occurred in the days of Isaac, causing him to go to…
Kine — (Heb. sing. parah, i.e., “fruitful”), mentioned in Pharaoh’s dream (Gen. 41: 18). Here the word denotes “buffaloes,” which fed on the reeds and sedge by the river’s brink.
Pharaoh — The official title borne by the Egyptian kings down to the time when that country was conquered by the Greeks. (See EGYPT.) The name is a compound, as some think, of the words Ra, the “sun” or…
Heathen · .Pharaoh — .Pharaoh
Intercession · .Pharaoh’s chief baker for Joseph — .Pharaoh’s chief baker for Joseph
Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh,.... When the magicians and wise men could not interpret his dreams, he was in distress of mind on that account:
saying, I do remember my faults this day; which some interpret of his forgetfulness of Joseph and his afflictions, and of his ingratitude to him, and breach of promise in not making mention of him to Pharaoh before this time; but they seem rather to be faults he had committed against Pharaoh, and were the reason of his being wroth with him, as in Genesis 41:10; and these were either real faults, which the king had pardoned, or however such as he had been charged with, and cleared from; and which he now in a courtly manner takes to himself,…
Then spake the chief butler. Although the Lord took pity on Egypt, yet he did it not for the sake of the king, or of the country, but that Joseph might, at length, be brought out of prison; and further, that, in the time of famine, food might be supplied to the Church: for although the produce was stored with no design beyond that of providing for the kingdom of Egypt; yet God chiefly cared for his Church, which he esteemed more highly than ten worlds. Therefore the butler, who had resolved to be silent respecting Joseph, is constrained to speak for the liberation of the holy man. In saying, I do remember my faults this day, he is understood by some as confessing the fault of ingratitude, be…
In this dilemma the head cup-bearer thought of Joseph; and calling to mind his offence against the king (Gen 40:1), and his ingratitude to Joseph (Gen 40:23), he related to the king how Joseph had explained their dreams to him and the chief baker in the prison, and how entirely the interpretation had come true.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 41:9-13
The chief cup-bearer finally remembered Joseph and testified that his interpretations were true.
Promotion · .Joseph, from impri — .Joseph, from impri
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).
