Genesis 40:16-17 - Exposition

When (literally, and) the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he (literally, and he, encouraged by the good fortune predicted to his fellow-prisoner) sa id unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three (literally, and behold three ) white baskets —literally, baskets of white bread; LXX ; κανᾶ χονδριτῶν ; Vulgate, canistra farince; Aquila, κόφινοι γύρεως (Onkolos, Pererius, Gesenius, Furst, Keil, Kalisch, Murphy, et alii ); though the rendering "baskets of holes," i.e. wicker baskets, is preferred by some (Symmachus Datbius, Rosenmüller, and others), and accords with the evidence of the monuments, which frequently exhibit baskets of wickerwork— on my head. According to Herodotus (2.35), Egyptian men commonly carried on their heads, and Egyptian women, like Hagar ( Genesis 21:14 ), on their shoulders. And in the uppermost basket (whose contents alone are described, since it alone was exposed to the depredations of the birds) there was of all manner of bake-meats for Pharaoh —literally, all kinds of food for Pharaoh, the work of a baker . The monuments show that the variety of confectionery used in Egypt was exceedingly extensive. And the birds —literally, the bird; a collective, as in Genesis 1:21 , Genesis 1:30 (cf. Genesis 1:19 )— did eat them out of the basket upon my head.