Genesis 40

2 chief, etc. That is, the principal cup-bearer, and the chief cook: both officers of high rank at the Egyptian court. Rabshakeh, Sennacherib’s general (see 2 Kings xviii. 17, and note), was, as his name imports, “chief cup-bearer” in the Assyrian court; and cp. Nehemiah (Neh. i. 11).

8 no interpreter. “Being in prison we cannot have recourse to a diviner.” The Egyptian sages prided themselves upon their interpretation of dreams.

9 before me. It has been objected to this, on the authority of Herodotus (ii. 77) and Plutarch (Isis and Osiris, vi.), that the vine was not cultivated, nor wine drunk, in Egypt. Monuments of the oldest dynasties, however, abundantly prove the objection to be groundless.

15 dungeon. Or, “pit,” the word used in xxxvii. 16. This accounts for the expression “lift up,” in vers. 13, 19.

16 white baskets. Or, “baskets of white bread.”

17 head. A scene illustrated by many Egyptian monuments. The dishes were carried in baskets on the heads of the cooks from the kitchen to the dining-room, across a wide open court, open to birds.

19 from off thee. The addition of these last words to those used in ver. 13 marks the difference between the two. The chief cook was probably beheaded, and the corpse gibbeted to be devoured by birds.