In the previous study of Joseph’s life in Potiphar’s house, we found out that Potiphar’s wife had staged what seems to have been a last-ditch effort to have Joseph lay with her. First, she had all the males of the house leave to work outside the premises and tend to the gardens or on some errand (Genesis 39:11). When Joseph entered to do his business, he found her alone. Immediately, she caught him by his garment in an effort to keep him from fleeing her grasp, but he broke free, leaving his outer garment with her, while he fled probably wearing only a loincloth. No doubt he would have been seen by the male servants, whom Potiphar’s wife had sent to work outside. Therefore, a plan had to be devised, which would protect her interests, which was to retain her position as Potiphar’s wife.
Angered over this last insult to her sexual advances, but also aware that some explanation would be needed for Joseph fleeing the premises, wearing nothing but a loincloth, she formulated an explanation to excuse herself and incriminate Joseph. Immediately, she called in the male servants, telling them that Joseph had sexually assaulted her, perhaps demanding they keep Joseph from reentering the house. The proprietress of the house wouldn’t have owed an explanation to any of her servants, but this development had put in question her position as Potiphar’s wife. If one of these men would tell her husband secretly what they saw occur, without her first offering him an explanation that she wanted him to believe, she would be suspect of an adulterous affair. Therefore, she had to offer the servants a context for his leaving the house, wearing only a loincloth. Therefore, she put it in their minds that Joseph was in the wrong and attacked her, offering Joseph’s outer garment as evidence for her story (Genesis 39:14-15).
Assured that she was believed by the servants, the stage was set. She left Joseph’s garment lay, where she had placed it for the servants to see, and she awaited Potiphar’s return in the evening (Genesis 39:16). When he arrived, she told him the story, which she had already told the male servants. Interestingly, her words remind us of the first thing Adam said to the Lord, “The woman whom you gave me… (Genesis 3:12), placing blame on the Lord. She told her husband, “That Hebrew slave you brought to us…” In other words, Adam blamed God, and Potiphar’s wife blamed her husband for the great wrong, which she was actually guilty of committing. Adam’s efforts to excuse himself didn’t work with God, but Potiphar believed his wife, no doubt because her story was logical, and, in effect, blamed himself for what had occurred.
Potiphar was made a eunuch, when he was taken to Egypt. Such a thing is not only humiliating, it takes away all future hope to produce a descendant, which was how one believed his life would continue after death. It would continue in a son or a daughter, but all this was lost, if the man were a eunuch. He was considered a dry tree (Isaiah 56:3). Potiphar’s wife made this sensitive subject the point of her story. She said Joseph had mocked her, and in doing so, mocked Potiphar, her husband (Genesis 39:17). The meaning is clear. The tale has Joseph laughed at the idea that Potiphar couldn’t fulfill the sexual desires of his own wife!
Potiphar’s wife then told her husband that Joseph fled, when she screamed in a loud voice, and he left his outer garment, where he had taken it off (verse-18). Yet, she didn’t cry out in the text. After Joseph had already left (Genesis 39:13), she called to the men of the house (Genesis 39:14), who were at that time outside (Genesis 39:11). No one heard a cry! She only told the servants that she cried out (Genesis 39:14). If they heard her call them into the house, why didn’t they hear her loud cry for help? Clearly, Potiphar’s wife had enough time after Joseph fled the house to devise a plan that would be believable to her husband and ensure the safety of her current position, as the wife of a powerful man in Egypt.
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