Genesis 40:18
Ver. 18. And Joseph answered and said,.... Immediately, directly, without any further thought and meditation, being divinely instructed:this [is] the interpretation thereof; of the above dream:the three baskets [are] three days; signify three days. Genesis 40:19Ver. 19. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head from off thee,.... Order thee to be beheaded; so the Targum of Jonathan and Ben Melech interpret it,"Pharaoh shall remove thy head from thy body with a sword:''and shall hang thee on a tree; his body after his head was severed from it, this should be hung upon a gallows or gibbet, and there continue:and the birds shall eat the flesh from off thee; as they usually do when bodies are thus hung up, see 2Sa 21:9; this was signified by the birds eating the bakemeats out of the uppermost basket when upon his head, as it seemed to him in his dream. Genesis 40:20Ver. 20. And it came to pass the third day, [which was] Pharaoh's birthday,.... The third day from the time the dreams were told, and the interpretation of them given, was the birthday of Pharaoh; either the day in which a son of his was born, or in which he himself was born, as Ben Melech observes; but the latter is more probable, since the former could not with propriety be called Pharaoh's birthday; and this might be either the day of his natural birth, or of his political birth, the time of his accession to the throne, which with the Romans was called "natalis imperii", and was observed with feasting and rejoicing {c}, as well as the former, both among them and other nations: it is most likely this was Pharaoh's natural birthday, which was observed among the Egyptians as birthdays were among the Persians {d}, and as Herod's was at his court in the days of Christ, Mt 14:6; and as is usual in our times in most countries:that he made a feast unto all his servants; his ministers of state, his courtiers, and all in his palace:and he lifted up the head of his chief butler and of his chief baker,among his servants; that is, among his servants, when their names were called over; or at this festival, these two were taken notice of, as being charged with crimes, and their cases were looked into and examined, and their heads were lifted up in a different sense: they were both lifted out of prison, but the one was lifted up to his former post and place in Pharaoh's court, and the other was lifted up to a gallows or gibbet, as follows; though perhaps this lifting of them both may only signify the trial of them, when they were set on high to be seen by the judge and all the court, see 1Ki 21:9.{c} Plin. Ep. l. 1. ep. 61. Herodot. Calliope, sive, l. 9. c. 109. {d} Herodot. Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 133. Genesis 40:21Ver. 21. And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again,.... Put him into the same office he was in before:and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand; ministered to him in his office the same day, according to his dream and the interpretation of it: the Targum of Jonathan adds this as a reason of his being restored,"because he found that he was not in that counsel,''in which it was consulted to poison Pharaoh, See Gill on "Ge 40:1". Genesis 40:22Ver. 22. But he hanged the chief baker,.... The is, he ordered him to be hanged; because, as the same Targum says, he consulted to kill him (Pharaoh):as Joseph had interpreted to them; the events as to both answered to the interpretation Joseph had given of their several dreams. Genesis 40:23Ver. 23. Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph,.... To speak of him to Pharaoh, neither on that day in which he was restored, nor for a long time after, even for the space of two years, as seems from the following chapter:but forgot him; never more thought of him, of the favour he had done him in interpreting his dream; of the request he made to him, and of the promise which he had probably given him; which was an instance of great ingratitude, and is frequently the case and character of courtiers, who being in high places themselves, neglect others, their petitions to them, and their own promises to do all they can for them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.