The BibleTruth.cc Torah Study Series

Parashat Vayeishev

"And He Settled"

Bereshith [Genesis] 37:1-40:23

Parashat Veyeishev begins with Ya'acov settling in the land of Cana'an.  The beginning of the trials of Yoseph are discussed at length.

Theme

The theme of Parashat

Sedarim

Yoseph's Dreams of Greatness

Yoseph is Sold By His Brothers

Yehudah and Tamar

Yoseph and Potiphar's Wife

The Dreams of the Cupbearer and the Baker

Prophetic Pictures in this Week's Torah Portion

Messiah in the Torah Parashah

Prophetic End Time Shadows in the Torah Parashah

Yoseph's Dreams of Greatness

37:1 Ya'acov lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
2 This is the account of Ya'acov. Yoseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
3 Now Yisrael loved Yoseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.
4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
5 Yoseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.
6 He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had:
7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it."
8 His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?"
11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Yoseph is Sold By His Brothers

12 Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem,
13 and Yisrael said to Yoseph, "As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them." "Very well," he replied.
14 So he said to him, "Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me." Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Yoseph arrived at Shechem,
15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
16 He replied, "I'm looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?"
17 "They have moved on from here," the man answered. "I heard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan.'" So Yoseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.
18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.
19 "Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other.
20 "Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams."
21 When Re'uven heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said.
22 "Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." Re'uven said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.
23 So when Yoseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe-- the richly ornamented robe he was wearing--
24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Mitzrayim.
26 Yehudah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
27 Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.
28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Yoseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Mitzrayim.
29 When Re'uven returned to the cistern and saw that Yoseph was not there, he tore his clothes.
30 He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy isn't there! Where can I turn now?"
31 Then they got Yoseph's robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.
32 They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe."
33 He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Yoseph has surely been torn to pieces."
34 Then Ya'acov tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.
35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son." So his father wept for him.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Yoseph in Mitzrayim to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

Yehudah and Tamar

38:1 At that time, Yehudah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah.
2 There Yehudah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her;
3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er.
4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan.
5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.
6 Yehudah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
7 But Er, Yehudah's firstborn, was wicked in Yahuwah's sight; so Yahuwah put him to death.
8 Then Yehudah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother."
9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.
10 What he did was wicked in Yahuwah's sight; so he put him to death also.
11 Yehudah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." For he thought, "He may die too, just like his brothers." So Tamar went to live in her father's house.
12 After a long time Yehudah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Yehudah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.
13 When Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,"
14 she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
15 When Yehudah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, "Come now, let me sleep with you." "And what will you give me to sleep with you?" she asked.
17 "I'll send you a young goat from my flock," he said. "Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?" she asked.
18 He said, "What pledge should I give you?" "Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand," she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.
19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes again.
20 Meanwhile Yehudah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her.
21 He asked the men who lived there, "Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?" "There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here," they said.
22 So he went back to Yehudah and said, "I didn't find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, 'There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here.'"
23 Then Yehudah said, "Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn't find her."
24 About three months later Yehudah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant." Yehudah said, "Bring her out and have her burned to death!"
25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. "I am pregnant by the man who owns these," she said. And she added, "See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are."
26 Yehudah recognized them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah." And he did not sleep with her again.
27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.
28 As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, "This one came out first."
29 But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, "So this is how you have broken out!" And he was named Perez.
30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out and he was given the name Zerah.

Yoseph and Potiphar's Wife

39:1 Now Yoseph had been taken down to Mitzrayim. Potiphar, an Mitzrayim who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
2 Yahuwah was with Yoseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Mitzrayim master.
3 When his master saw that Yahuwah was with him and that Yahuwah gave him success in everything he did,
4 Yoseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.
5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, Yahuwah blessed the household of the Mitzrayim because of Yoseph. The blessing of Yahuwah was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.
6 So he left in Yoseph's care everything he had; with Yoseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Yoseph was well-built and handsome,
7 and after a while his master's wife took notice of Yoseph and said, "Come to bed with me!"
8 But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.
9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against Elohim?"
10 And though she spoke to Yoseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside.
12 She caught him by his cloak and said, "Come to bed with me!" But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,
14 she called her household servants. "Look," she said to them, "this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.
15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.
17 Then she told him this story: "That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me.
18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, "This is how your slave treated me," he burned with anger.
20 Yoseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Yoseph was there in the prison,
21 Yahuwah was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
22 So the warden put Yoseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.
23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Yoseph's care, because Yahuwah was with Yoseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

The Dreams of the Cupbearer and the Baker

40:1 Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Mitzrayim offended their master, the king of Mitzrayim.
2 Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,
3 and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Yoseph was confined.
4 The captain of the guard assigned them to Yoseph, and he attended them. After they had been in custody for some time,
5 each of the two men-- the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Mitzrayim, who were being held in prison-- had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.
6 When Yoseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected.
7 So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with him in his master's house, "Why are your faces so sad today?"
8 "We both had dreams," they answered, "but there is no one to interpret them." Then Yoseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to Elohim? Tell me your dreams."
9 So the chief cupbearer told Yoseph his dream. He said to him, "In my dream I saw a vine in front of me,
10 and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes.
11 Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup and put the cup in his hand."
12 "This is what it means," Yoseph said to him. "The three branches are three days.
13 Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer.
14 But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.
15 For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon."
16 When the chief baker saw that Yoseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Yoseph, "I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread.
17 In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head."
18 "This is what it means," Yoseph said. "The three baskets are three days.
19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat away your flesh."
20 Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials:
21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh's hand,
22 but he hanged the chief baker, just as Yoseph had said to them in his interpretation.
23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Yoseph; he forgot him.

Messiah in the Torah Parashah

Prophetic End Time Shadows in the Torah Parashah