Daily Text and Bible Reading: Monday, January 13 [Press play below]

38.1 About that time Judah left his brothers and pitched his tent near an Adullamite man named Hirah.
38.2 There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite named Shua. So he took her and had relations with her,
38.3 and she became pregnant. Later she bore a son, and he named him Er.
38.4 Again she became pregnant and bore a son and named him Onan.
38.5 Yet again she bore a son and named him Shelah. He was in Achzib when she bore him.
38.6 In time Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
38.7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was displeasing to Jehovah; so Jehovah put him to death.
38.8 In view of that, Judah said to Onan: “Have relations with your brother’s wife and perform brother-in-law marriage with her and raise up offspring for your brother.”
38.9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be considered his. So when he did have relations with his brother’s wife, he wasted his semen on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother.
38.10 What he did was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, so he also put him to death.
38.11 Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law: “Dwell as a widow in the house of your father until my son Shelah grows up,” for he said to himself: ‘He too may die like his brothers.’ So Tamar went and stayed in her own father’s house.
38.12 Some time passed, and Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. Judah kept the mourning period, and then he went to his sheepshearers in Timnah with his companion Hirah the Adullamite.
38.13 Tamar was told: “Here your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
38.14 With that she removed her widow’s clothing and veiled herself and covered herself with a shawl and sat down at the entrance of Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah, for she saw that Shelah had grown up and yet she had not been given to him as a wife.
38.15 When Judah caught sight of her, he at once took her for a prostitute, because she had covered her face.
38.16 So he turned aside to her by the road and said: “Allow me, please, to have relations with you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. However, she said: “What will you give me that you may have relations with me?”
38.17 To this he said: “I will send a young goat from my herd.” But she said: “Will you give a security until you send it?”
38.18 He continued: “What security should I give you?” to which she said: “Your seal ring and your cord and your rod that is in your hand.” Then he gave them to her and had relations with her, and she became pregnant by him.
38.19 After that she got up and went away and removed her shawl and clothed herself with her widow’s clothing.
38.20 And Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his companion the Adullamite, to get back the security from the hand of the woman, but he never found her.
38.21 He inquired of the men of her place, saying: “Where is that temple prostitute in Enaim along the road?” But they said: “No temple prostitute has ever been in this place.”
38.22 Finally he returned to Judah and said: “I never found her, and besides, the men of the place said, ‘No temple prostitute has ever been in this place.’”
38.23 So Judah said: “Let her take them for herself, in order that we may not fall into contempt. At any rate, I have sent this young goat, but you never found her.”
38.24 However, about three months later, Judah was told: “Tamar your daughter-in-law has acted as a prostitute, and she is also pregnant by her prostitution.” At that Judah said: “Bring her out and let her be burned.”
38.25 As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these belong.” Then she added: “Please examine to whom these belong, the seal ring and the cord and the rod.”
38.26 Then Judah examined them and said: “She is more righteous than I am, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.” And he had no further sexual relations with her after that.
38.27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.
38.28 As she was giving birth, one put out his hand, and the midwife immediately took a scarlet thread and tied it around his hand, saying: “This one came out first.”
38.29 But as soon as he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she exclaimed: “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was named Perez.
38.30 Afterward his brother came out, around whose hand the scarlet thread was tied, and he was named Zerah.
39.1 Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and an Egyptian named Potiphar, a court official of Pharaoh and chief of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there.
39.2 But Jehovah was with Joseph. As a result, he became successful and was put over the house of his master, the Egyptian.
39.3 And his master saw that Jehovah was with him and that Jehovah was making everything that he did successful.
39.4 Joseph kept finding favor in his eyes, and he became his personal attendant. So he appointed him over his house, and he put him in charge of all that was his.
39.5 From the time he appointed him over his house and in charge of all that was his, Jehovah kept blessing the house of the Egyptian because of Joseph, and Jehovah’s blessing came to be on all that he had in the house and in the field.
39.6 He eventually left everything that was his in Joseph’s care, and he gave no thought to anything except the food he was eating. Moreover, Joseph grew to be well-built and handsome.
39.7 Now after these things, the wife of his master began to cast her eyes on Joseph and say: “Lie down with me.”
39.8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife: “Here my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has entrusted everything he has into my care.
39.9 There is no one greater in this house than I am, and he has not withheld from me anything at all except you, because you are his wife. So how could I commit this great badness and actually sin against God?”
39.10 So day after day she spoke to Joseph, but he never consented to lie with her or to remain with her.
39.11 But on one of the days when he went into the house to do his work, none of the household servants were in the house.
39.12 Then she grabbed hold of him by his garment and said: “Lie down with me!” But he left his garment in her hand and fled outside.
39.13 As soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside,
39.14 she began to cry out to the men of her house and to say to them: “Look! He brought to us this Hebrew man to make us a laughingstock. He came to me to lie down with me, but I began to cry out at the top of my voice.
39.15 Then as soon as he heard me raising my voice and screaming, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.”
39.16 After that she laid his garment beside her until his master came to his house.
39.17 Then she told him the same thing, saying: “The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came to me to make me a laughingstock.
39.18 But as soon as I raised my voice and began to scream, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.”
39.19 As soon as his master heard the words his wife spoke to him, saying: “These are the things your servant did to me,” his anger blazed.
39.20 So Joseph’s master took him and gave him over to the prison, the place where the prisoners of the king were kept under arrest, and he remained there in the prison.
39.21 But Jehovah continued with Joseph and kept showing loyal love to him and granting him favor in the eyes of the chief officer of the prison.
39.22 So the chief officer of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners in the prison, and everything that they were doing there, he was the one having it done.
39.23 The chief officer of the prison was looking after absolutely nothing that was in Joseph’s care, for Jehovah was with Joseph and Jehovah made whatever he did successful.
40.1 After these things, the chief cupbearer of the king of Egypt and the chief baker sinned against their lord, the king of Egypt.
40.2 So Pharaoh grew indignant at his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,
40.3 and he committed them to the jail of the house of the chief of the guard, to the place where Joseph was a prisoner.
40.4 Then the chief of the guard assigned Joseph to be with them and to take care of them, and they remained in jail for some time.
40.5 The cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each had a dream on the same night, and each dream had its own interpretation.
40.6 The next morning, when Joseph came in and saw them, they looked dejected.
40.7 So he asked the officers of Pharaoh who were in custody with him in his master’s house: “Why are your faces gloomy today?”
40.8 At this they said to him: “We each had a dream, but there is no interpreter with us.” Joseph said to them: “Do not interpretations belong to God? Relate it to me, please.”
40.9 So the chief cupbearer related his dream to Joseph, saying to him: “In my dream, there was a vine before me.
40.10 And on the vine, there were three twigs, and as it was sprouting shoots, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes.
40.11 And Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and squeezed them out into Pharaoh’s cup. After that I put the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”
40.12 Then Joseph said to him: “This is its interpretation: The three twigs are three days.
40.13 Three days from now, Pharaoh will bring you out, restoring you to your office, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup into his hand as you did before when you were his cupbearer.
40.14 Nevertheless, you must remember me when things go well with you. Please show me loyal love and mention me to Pharaoh, in order to get me out of this place.
40.15 I was, in fact, kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and I have not done anything here for which they should put me in prison.”
40.16 When the chief baker saw that Joseph had interpreted something good, he said to him: “I too was in my dream, and there were three baskets of white bread on my head,
40.17 and in the top basket, there were all sorts of baked goods for Pharaoh, and there were birds eating them out of the basket on top of my head.”
40.18 Then Joseph answered, “This is its interpretation: The three baskets are three days.
40.19 Three days from now, Pharaoh will behead you and will hang you on a stake, and the birds will eat your flesh from you.”
40.20 Now the third day was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he made a feast for all his servants, and he brought out both the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his servants.
40.21 And he returned the chief cupbearer to his post of cupbearer, and he continued to hand the cup to Pharaoh.
40.22 But he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.
40.23 However, the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph; he kept forgetting him.