Genesis 40:19

19 In three days Pharaoh will lift your head from you and hang you on a pole, and the birds will eat your flesh from you."

Genesis 40:19 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 40:19

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head from
off thee
Order thee to be beheaded; so the Targum of Jonathan and Ben Melech interpret it,

``Pharaoh shall remove thy head from thy body with a sword:''

and shall hang thee on a tree;
his body after his head was severed from it, this should be hung upon a gallows or gibbet, and there continue: and the birds shall eat the flesh from off thee;
as they usually do when bodies are thus hung up, see ( 2 Samuel 21:9 2 Samuel 21:10 ) ; this was signified by the birds eating the bakemeats out of the uppermost basket when upon his head, as it seemed to him in his dream.

Genesis 40:19 In-Context

17 And in the upper basket [were] all sorts of baked foods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket upon my head."

18 Then Joseph answered and said, "This [is] its interpretation: The three baskets, they [are] three days.

19 In three days Pharaoh will lift your head from you and hang you on a pole, and the birds will eat your flesh from you."

20 And it happened [that] on the third day, [which was] Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants. And he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker in the midst of his servants.

21 And he restored the chief cupbearer to his cupbearing [position]. And he placed the cup in the hand of Pharaoh.

Footnotes

• [a] Or "tree"