Genesis 39:7 ¶
And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her
eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. 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 he
hath to my hand; 9 There is none greater
in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee,
because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin
against God? 10 And it came to pass, as
she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her,
or to be with her. 11 And it came to
pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and
there was none of the men of the house there within. 12 And she caught him by his garment, saying,
Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.
Potiphar’s wife
wants to have sex with Joseph. We use different euphemisms in our language for
sin such as this. We say she wants to have an
affair with him, or she wants to seduce
him or some other such drivel to make wickedness seem sophisticated. As he is
in an inferior position socially and powerless this is all about lust, a type
of attempted rape. It used to be more common than it is now in our culture
until sexual harassment laws, although much abused, worked to prevent even the
taint of it. But, in our history, for instance, under the racial slavery that
existed before the Civil War, no slave had any power to resist the advances of
their master or mistress except to flee as Joseph will. It is a barbarous and
uncivilized condition that exists still in some countries today, usually
afflicting women, where they have no choice but to submit to the humiliation
and physical danger or flee to an uncertain fate.
Joseph tells
Potiphar’s wife that everything Potiphar has except for her has been put into
his hands to care for and he is not about to violate the trust he has been
given. The woman continually pressed upon Joseph her desire to do wrong with
him daily and we might question why he didn’t tell Potiphar this but then it is
likely she would have called him a liar and his situation would have been no
better. Finally, she could stand his resistance no further and at a time when
he went into the house to work and there were no witnesses, she grabbed his
clothing and demanded that he have sex with her. Joseph ran, leaving that
clothing in her hand she held it so forcefully in her lust.
His business is not the idiom in English that some use
when referencing going to the bathroom. Here it is defined in the Bible as the
work that one does.
Nehemiah
13:30 Thus cleansed I them from all
strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business;
Proverbs
22:29 Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before
kings; he shall not stand before mean men.
The
word wotteth is a form of wot, to know.
Genesis
21:26 And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing:
neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.
Exodus
32:23 For they said unto me, Make us
gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us
up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not
what is become of him.
Joseph displays a
high level of character in holding the trust he has been given in honor. Most
men, if the lady of the house wasn’t hideous looking, would have succumbed to
her desires and used her favors as a means to gain advantage. Joseph shows
himself worthy of the trust he has been given.
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