Genesis 40:15

My Notes

What Does Genesis 40:15 Mean?

"For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon." Joseph protests his innocence to the restored butler: I'm doubly unjust. First: stolen from my homeland (the brothers sold him). Second: imprisoned for nothing (Potiphar's wife lied). The protest is honest and heartbreaking: a man who has done nothing wrong is in prison because of two separate injustices committed by two separate groups of people. The brothers stole him. The wife framed him. And the dungeon holds him.

The phrase "done nothing" (lo asithi me'umah) is Joseph's claim of complete innocence — not just regarding Potiphar's wife but regarding his entire Egyptian imprisonment. He has committed no crime. The dungeon is unjust.

Reflection Questions

• 1.How do you maintain faith when doing everything right produces imprisonment rather than freedom?
• 2.What does Joseph's honest protest of innocence ('done nothing') model about speaking truth about your situation?
• 3.When has the person who could help you forgotten about you — and how did you handle the waiting?
• 4.What does Joseph's two-year forgotten wait teach about God's timing versus human timing?

Devotional

Stolen. Imprisoned. For nothing. Joseph's two-sentence biography of injustice: taken from where I belong and locked up where I don't. Both injustices committed by other people. Both consequences borne by Joseph.

I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews. Stolen — gunnov gunnabti, an emphatic doubling: I was absolutely stolen. Joseph doesn't say 'I came to Egypt' or 'I ended up here.' He identifies the mechanism: theft. His brothers stole his freedom. The Ishmaelites transported him. And he's been living with the consequences of other people's crimes ever since.

Here also have I done nothing. The 'also' connects two injustices: stolen from home AND imprisoned for nothing. The word 'also' says: on top of the first injustice, a second one. The first injustice (brothers selling him) at least had a motivation (jealousy). The second injustice (Potiphar's wife framing him) compounds the first without even that twisted logic. He refused the sin and got punished for the refusal.

That they should put me into the dungeon. Joseph challenges the justice of his imprisonment: what did I do that justifies this cell? The answer he knows and the butler knows: nothing. The dungeon isn't a consequence of Joseph's behavior. It's a consequence of someone else's lie about Joseph's behavior.

The protest is addressed to the butler — the man whose dream Joseph just correctly interpreted, the man about to be restored to Pharaoh's service, the man Joseph asks to remember him (v. 14). The butler will forget Joseph for two full years (v. 23). The man who heard Joseph's honest plea of innocence goes back to the palace and forgets the prisoner who helped him.

Joseph's innocence is confirmed by the narrator (who never suggests Joseph did anything wrong), by God (who blesses everything Joseph touches), and by Joseph's own testimony. The dungeon holds an innocent man. The innocent man will be forgotten by the one person who could help. And the innocence won't be vindicated for two more years.

Sometimes doing everything right produces the dungeon anyway. Sometimes the stolen and the innocent end up in the same cell. And sometimes the person who could free you forgets about you. And you wait. Innocent. Forgotten. In the dungeon. Until God's timing — which operates on a different schedule than yours — opens the door.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture