Genesis 40:12

12 And Joseph saith to him, `This [is] its interpretation: the three branches are three days;

Genesis 40:12 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 40:12

And Joseph said unto him, this [is] the interpretation of it,
&c.] Of the dream: the three branches [are] three days;
signify three days, or, as Jarchi expresses it, are a sign of three days; which Joseph could know only by divine revelation; for there is no more likeness between branches and days, than between them and months or years, and bid as fair to signify one as the other, if the interpretation depended on similarity, or bare conjecture.

Genesis 40:12 In-Context

10 and in the vine [are] three branches, and it [is] as it were flourishing; gone up hath its blossom, its clusters have ripened grapes;
11 and Pharaoh's cup [is] in my hand, and I take the grapes and press them into the cup of Pharaoh, and I give the cup into the hand of Pharaoh.'
12 And Joseph saith to him, `This [is] its interpretation: the three branches are three days;
13 yet, within three days doth Pharaoh lift up thy head, and hath put thee back on thy station, and thou hast given the cup of Pharaoh into his hand, according to the former custom when thou wast his butler.
14 `Surely if thou hast remembered me with thee, when it is well with thee, and hast done (I pray thee) kindness with me, and hast made mention of me unto Pharaoh, then hast thou brought me out from this house,
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.