Joseph told two other prisoners the meaning of their dreams

1Some time later, two of the king of Egypt’s officials did things that displeased him. One was his chief ◄drink-server/man who prepared the wine and served it to the king►, and the other was his chief ◄baker/man who baked bread for the king►.

2The king became angry with both of them.

3So he had them put in prison, in the house of the captain of the palace guards. That was the place where Joseph was being kept.

4The two men were in prison for a long time. And during that time the captain of the palace guards appointed Joseph to be their servant, to take care of their needs.

5One night while the king’s drink-server and his baker were there in the prison, each of them had a dream. Each dream had a different meaning.

6The next morning, when Joseph came to them, he saw that both of them were dejected/worried.

7So he asked them, “Why do you look so sad today?”

8One of them answered, “We both had dreams last night, but there is no one who can tell us the meaning of the dreams.” Joseph said to them, “God is the only one who can [RHQ] tell the meaning of dreams. So tell me what you dreamed, and God will tell me the meaning.”

9So the king’s chief drink-server told his dream to Joseph. He said, “In my dream I saw a grapevine in front of me.

10On the vine there were three branches. After the branches budded, they blossomed, and then they produced clusters of grapes.

11I was holding the king’s cup, so I took the grapes and squeezed the juice into the cup. Then I gave the cup to the king to drink the juice.”

12God immediately told Joseph what the dream meant. So Joseph said to him, “This is the meaning of your dream: The three branches of the vine represent three days.

13Within three days the king will release you from prison. He will let you do the work that you did before. You will take cups of wine to the king as you did before, when you were his drink-server.

14But when you are out of prison and everything goes well for you, please do not forget me.

15People took me away forcefully from the land where my fellow Hebrews live. I did nothing wrong there, and also while I have been here in Egypt, I have done nothing for which I deserved to be put in prison. So be kind to me and tell the king about me, so that he will release me from this prison!”

16When the chief baker heard that the meaning of the dream of the king’s drink-server was very favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream. In the dream I was surprised to see three baskets of bread stacked on my head.

17In the top basket there were many kinds of baked goods for the king, but birds were eating them from the top basket that was on my head!”

18God again told Joseph what the dream meant, so he said, “The three baskets also represent three days.

19Within three days the king will command that your head be cut off. Then your body will be hung on a tree, and vultures will come and eat your flesh.”

20The third day after that was the ◄king’s birthday/day they celebrated when the king became one year older►. On that day the king invited all his officials to celebrate his birthday. During the celebration, while they were all gathered there, the king summoned his chief drink-server and chief baker from the prison.

21He said that his chief drink-server could have his previous job again, so that again he took cups of wine to the king.

22But he commanded that the chief baker should be killed by being hanged, just as Joseph had said would happen when he told the two men the meaning of their dreams.

23But the chief drink-server did not think about Joseph. He forgot to do what Joseph asked him to do.