Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/243

XXVIII.] hand of three shepherds. As for the cup thou didst give into Pharaoh's hand, it is the vial of the wrath of God, which Pharaoh is to drink at the last. But thou, the chief butler, shalt receive a good reward: the three branches to thee are three days until thy liberation."

Joseph, leaving his higher trust in God, now turned and reposed it in man, for he added, "Be thou mindful of me when it shall be well with thee, and obtain my release from this prison-house."

And the chief baker, seeing that Joseph had interpreted well, began to speak with an impatient tongue, and said to Joseph, "I also saw in my dream, and, behold, three baskets of hot loaves were upon my head; and in the upper basket of all, delicious meat for Pharaoh, made by the confectioner; and the birds ate them from the basket upon my head."

Joseph answered, "This is its interpretation. The three baskets are the three enslavements with which the house of Israel are to be enslaved. But thou, the chief baker, shalt receive an evil award. At the end of three days, Pharaoh shall take away thy head from thy body, and will hang thee upon a gibbet, and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee." And it fell out as Joseph had foretold. But, because Joseph had withdrawn from putting his trust in God, and had laid it on man, therefore he was forgotten by the butler and left in prison for two years more. Joseph had now been seven years in prison, and this is why he had been so long there. Potiphar's wife persuaded her friends to bring against Joseph the same accusation that she had laid against him, and their husbands complained to Pharaoh; so he was kept in prison that he might not cause strife and evil in the city.

When the seven years were elapsed, one day the butler came to the prison and bade Joseph follow him, as the King had been troubled with a dream, and desired to have it explained. But Joseph refused to leave till his innocence was proclaimed. He named to the butler the ladies who had attended the banquet of Zuleika, and before whom she had confessed that she loved him, and besought that they might be called as witnesses before the king. Pharaoh agreed; the ladies, when