Joseph was five years in prison, and then the King of the Greeks, who was warring against Egypt, sent an ambassador to Rajjan desiring peace. But his true purpose was to throw him off his guard, that he might with treachery destroy him. The ambassador sought the advice of an old Greek woman who had long lived in Egypt. She said, “I know of only one way of accomplishing what you desire, and that is to bribe the butler or the baker of the king to poison him; but it would be better to put the drug in the wine than in the bread.”
The ambassador then bribed the chief baker with much gold, and he promised to put poison in Pharaoh’s meat. After that he told the old woman that one of the two she had named to him had been persuaded to destroy the king.
Then the ambassador returned, and when he was gone, the woman disclosed all to Pharaoh, and she said, “Either the butler or the baker has taken a bribe to poison thee, O king.” Thereupon the king cast both into prison, till it should be made manifest which was guilty. Now the name of the baker was Mohlib, and that of the butler was Kamra.
After they had been in prison some time, they had dreams; and they told their dreams to Joseph.
The chief butler said, “I saw in my dream, and, behold, a vine was before me. And in the vine were three branches: and as it sprouted it brought forth buds, and immediately they ripened into clusters, and became grapes. And I saw till they gave the cup of Pharaoh into my hand, and I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.”
And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of the dream. The three branches are the three Fathers of the world, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose children are to be enslaved in Egypt in clay and brickwork, and in all labors of the face of the field; but afterward shall they be delivered by the hand of three shepherds. As for the cup thou didst give into Pharaoh’s hand, it is the vial of the wrath of God, which Pharoah is to drink at the last. But thou, the chief butler, shalt receive a good reward: the three branches to thee are three days until thy liberation.”
Joseph, leaving his higher trust in God, now turned and reposed it in man, for he added, “Be thou mindful of me when it shall be well with thee, and obtain my release from this prison-house.”
And the chief baker, seeing that Joseph had interpreted well, began to speak with an impatient tongue, and said to Joseph, “I also saw in my dream, and, behold, three baskets of hot loaves were upon my head; and in the upper basket of all, delicious meat for Pharaoh, made by the confectioner; and the birds ate them from the basket upon my head.”
Joseph answered, “This is its interpretation. The three baskets are the three enslavements with which the house of Israel are to be enslaved. But thou, the chief baker, shalt receive an evil award. At the end of three days, Pharoah shall take away thy head from thy body, and will hang thee upon a gibbet, and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.”
And it fell out as Joseph had foretold. But because Joseph had withdrawn from putting his trust in God, and had laid it on man, therefore he was forgotten by the butler and left in prison for two years more.[419]