Bible Strands
Genesis 39:7
and after some time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Potiphar’s wife speaks to Joseph after an unspecified interval, making a direct sexual proposal. The moment follows Potiphar’s full delegation of household management and the narrator’s observation of Joseph’s physical appearance.
The words — The text records וַתּשׂא (va-tisa), meaning “and she lifted up,” describing her deliberate gaze before issuing the command. This verb of visual initiation establishes the intent behind her subsequent words.
The thread — The motif of initiated illicit desire appears in 2 Samuel 13:11 and 2 Peter 2:14, while Ezekiel 16:34 contrasts this behavior against cultural norms. These references trace a consistent biblical pattern of unsolicited sexual pursuit.
Why it lands — The verse presents a direct confrontation between entrusted authority and personal desire. It requires the reader to identify the precise moment a relationship shifts from professional stewardship to moral testing.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 13:11 And when she had brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her and said, “Come lie with me, my sister!”
- Ezekiel 16:34 So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite!
- 2 Peter 2:14 Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.
- Job 31:1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?
- Ezekiel 16:32 You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband!
- Ezekiel 23:5 Oholah prostituted herself while she was still Mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians—warriors
- Ezekiel 23:12 She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors dressed in splendor, horsemen riding on steeds, all desirable young men.
- Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
- 1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.
- Genesis 6:2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose.