Chapter 40

Soon after this, it chanced that two of the king of Egypt’s courtiers, his cup-bearer and his pastrycook, fell into disgrace with their master.

The one was chief of all his cup-bearers, the other of all his pastrycooks, and Pharao, angry with both of them,

handed them over to the captain of the guard, to share Joseph’s prison.

So the gaoler put them in Joseph’s charge, and he saw to their needs. They had not been long in captivity

when, on a single night, either of them had a dream, portending what it portended to each.

Joseph, when he visited them next morning, found both of them downcast,

and enquired why they looked sadder than their wont.

We have been dreaming, they said, and we can find no interpreter. Why, said Joseph, it is God who interprets our dreams for us; tell me what it was you saw.

The chief cup-bearer related his dream first; I saw in front of me, he said, a vine,

which had three shoots. First they budded, and then, when they had flowered, grapes grew upon them.

I had Pharao’s cup in my hand; so I took the grapes and pressed them out into the cup I held, and gave Pharao the draught.

This, answered Joseph, is what thy dream meant; the three shoots stand for three days which have yet to pass,

after which Pharao will bethink himself that he has need of thee, and will restore thee to thy old office; then thou wilt hand the cup to him by right of thy office as thou ever didst.

Pray do not forget me, in that day of thy prosperity; as thou lovest me, win from Pharao my release from this prison of ours.

It was treachery brought me here, when I left the land of the Hebrews, and now I am in this dungeon for no fault of mine.

Hereupon the chief cook, finding that Joseph could interpret the first dream so well, reminded them that he had dreamt too; I was carrying three baskets of loaves on my head, said he,

and the top basket contained pastry of every kind; but the birds came and ate it.

Thy dream, answered Joseph, means this; the three baskets stand for three days which have yet to pass,

after which Pharao will take away thy life,1 and so hang thee on a gibbet, for the birds to come and prey on thy flesh.

The third day after was Pharao’s birthday, and he made a great feast for his servants. And as he sat feasting, he remembered the chief cup-bearer and the chief pastrycook.

The one he restored to his office of putting the cup in his hand;

the other he hung on a gallows, to prove the truth of the prophecy that had been made.

But the chief cup-bearer, in his new good fortune, thought no more of the man who had interpreted his dream.