Genesis 40:13

13 Yet three days and Pharao shall remember thy office, and he shall restore thee to thy place of chief cupbearer, and thou shalt give the cup of Pharao into his hand, according to thy former high place, as thou wast wont to be cupbearer.

Genesis 40:13 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 40:13

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head
The Targum of Jonathan adds, with glory; and the sense is, either that Pharaoh would raise him up from the low estate in which he now was, to the same exalted station in which he had been before; or that he would reckon and number him among his servants, when he should take a catalogue of them, or make a new list, so Jarchi and Aben Ezra; and this phrase is used of taking the sum of persons, or the number of them, and is so rendered, ( Exodus 30:12 ) ( Numbers 4:2 Numbers 4:22 ) ; the allusion is thought to be to a custom used by great personages, to have the names of their servants called over on a certain day, as Pharaoh perhaps used to do on his birthday, ( Genesis 40:20 ) ; when they struck out of the list or put into it whom they pleased, and pardoned or punished such as had offended; and this sense is the rather inclined to, because Pharaoh is said to lift up the head of both the butler and the baker, ( Genesis 40:20 ) ; yet it may be observed, that the phrases used by Joseph concerning them differ; for of the baker he says, "Pharaoh shall lift up thy head from off thee", ( Genesis 40:19 ) ; wherefore, though the heads of them both were lift up, yet in a different sense: the one was lifted up to the gallows, and the other to his former dignity, as follows: and restore thee unto thy place:
to his office in ministering: to Pharaoh as his cup bearer: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former
manner when thou wast his butler;
which was signified in the dream, by squeezing the grapes into Pharaoh's cup he had in his hand, and gave unto him.

Genesis 40:13 In-Context

11 And the cup of Pharao was in my hand; and I took the bunch of grapes, and squeezed it into the cup, and gave the cup into Pharao's hand.
12 And Joseph said to him, This is the interpretation of it. The three stems are three days.
13 Yet three days and Pharao shall remember thy office, and he shall restore thee to thy place of chief cupbearer, and thou shalt give the cup of Pharao into his hand, according to thy former high place, as thou wast wont to be cupbearer.
14 But remember me of thyself, when it shall be well with thee, and thou shalt deal mercifully with me, and thou shalt make mention of me to Pharao, and thou shalt bring me forth out of this dungeon.
15 For surely I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here I have done nothing, but they have cast me into this pit.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.