Genesis 40

1After this, two men in the service of the king of Egypt, his cupbearer and his baker, did wrong against their master. 2Pharaoh’s anger was roused against these two officials of his, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. 3He placed them under guard at the house of the commander of the guard, in the very prison where Joseph was being held. 4The commander of the guard assigned Joseph to them, and he waited on them. They remained in custody for some time. 5Then, on the same night, both prisoners dreamed, the king of Egypt’s cupbearer and his baker. Each had his own dream, and each dream called for its own interpretation. 6Joseph came in to them the next morning and could see how troubled they looked. 7He questioned the two officials of Pharaoh who were confined with him in his master’s house: “Why are your faces so gloomy today?” 8“Each of us has had a dream,” they replied, “and we have no one to interpret them.” Joseph said, “Is it not God who gives interpretations? Please, tell me about them.” 9So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, saying, “There I was, dreaming, and before me stood a vine, 10with three branches on it. No sooner had it sprouted than it was in bloom, and its clusters were soon full of ripe grapes. 11In my hand I had Pharaoh’s cup. I gathered the grapes, pressed them out into the cup, and set it in Pharaoh’s hand.” 12Joseph said to him, “Here is the interpretation: the three branches stand for three days. 13Three days from now Pharaoh will lift up your head and reinstate you, and you will hand Pharaoh his cup as in the old days, when you served as his cupbearer. 14And once things go well for you, keep me in mind. Please do me this kindness: speak of me to Pharaoh and have me brought out of this place. 15The truth is that I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews. And here, too, I have done nothing wrong that should have landed me in this pit.” 16The chief baker, seeing that the interpretation was a good one, said to Joseph, “I also had a dream. I was carrying three baskets of white bread on my head. 17The top basket held every sort of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds kept pecking at it from the basket on my head.” 18Joseph replied, “Here is the interpretation: the three baskets stand for three days. 19Three days from now Pharaoh will lift up your head, right off your body, and hang you on a pole, and the birds will eat the flesh from your bones.” 20The third day came, and it was Pharaoh’s birthday. He held a banquet for all his officials, and with them all present he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker. 21He reinstated the chief cupbearer in his office, and the cupbearer went back to placing the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. 22The chief baker, though, he hanged, exactly as Joseph had explained to them. 23But the chief cupbearer gave no thought to Joseph; he put him out of his mind.