Genesis 40:11

11 I was holding Pharaoh’s wine cup in my hand, so I took a cluster of grapes and squeezed the juice into the cup. Then I placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”

Genesis 40:11 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 40:11

And Pharaoh's cup [was] in his hand
So it seemed to him in his dream, as it often had been when in his office: and I took the grapes;
from off the vine that was before him: and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup;
which some think was the custom of those times, to take a bunch of grapes and squeeze them into a cup, especially when they would make trial of what sort of wine they would produce; for it can hardly be thought that this was usually done, or that it was customary to drink such new wine; but it is more probable that the grapes were first pressed into another vessel, and so made wine of, and then poured into Pharaoh's cup, or mixed in it, though this circumstance is omitted. Indeed Herodotus F1 relates of the Egyptian priests, that wine pressed out of the vine is given them: and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand;
as he had used to do.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 Euterpe sive, l. 2. c. 37.

Genesis 40:11 In-Context

9 So the chief cup-bearer told Joseph his dream first. “In my dream,” he said, “I saw a grapevine in front of me.
10 The vine had three branches that began to bud and blossom, and soon it produced clusters of ripe grapes.
11 I was holding Pharaoh’s wine cup in my hand, so I took a cluster of grapes and squeezed the juice into the cup. Then I placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”
12 “This is what the dream means,” Joseph said. “The three branches represent three days.
13 Within three days Pharaoh will lift you up and restore you to your position as his chief cup-bearer.
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