How long was Joseph in prison?
The Bible does not date Joseph's arrest, but it does mark one stretch of his imprisonment with exact care: two full years passed between the cupbearer's release and Pharaoh's dream. That silence about the total, set beside the precision about the two years, raises the real question — how long did the whole descent last, and why was the waiting drawn out so far?
The two years Scripture counts
The clock in Genesis 41 starts at the moment the cupbearer walked free and forgot the man who had read his dream. One writer ties the delay directly to the testing of Joseph's faith, and to the ingratitude that caused it:
William KellyIt was right for the cupbearer to remember the striking service the prophet had done him in the dungeon. But as happens far too often in this world of sin and self, his spiritual benefactor was completely forgotten. We are expressly told that two full years passed to test Joseph's faith, until God worked in His providence to make the same difficulty felt in the royal court as in the tower-house. In this way the ingratitude of the cupbearer was rebuked — he had forgotten the man who had been stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and who had done nothing to deserve being put into the dungeon. "They hurt his feet with fetters; his soul came into iron, until the time his word came to pass. The saying of the Lord tested him." Yet the one who sowed in tears would in due time reap with rejoicing.
The full span from Canaan to the palace
The two years are only the last part of a much longer stretch. Joseph's age at each end of the story gives the total, and one commentator does the arithmetic:
Leslie M. GrantAt this time we are told Joseph's age was 30 years (v.46), the same as that of the Lord Jesus when He began His public ministry (Luke 3:23). So his combined time as a slave and in prison was 13 years.
Scripture does not split those thirteen years into so much for Potiphar's house and so much for the cell. Writers therefore speak of the whole period as one experience of bondage:
A J PollockFor thirteen long years Joseph knew what bitter slavery meant. Sold into Egypt by his envious brothers, thrown into prison unjustly because he rightly resisted the advances of Potiphar's wife, his was a truly dreadful experience.
Two years that felt like a life sentence
Numbers on a page are not the same as time served. Joseph had asked the cupbearer to speak for him, and had every reason to expect release within days:
A J PollockWhen the chief cupbearer left the prison to be restored to his former position with Pharaoh, no doubt Joseph's heart beat high with hope of his own release, as the cupbearer would surely be grateful and bring his case to Pharaoh's notice. His disappointment must have been bitter as two long weary years went by with no sign of release. He might have lived and died in prison, but for the incident we are about to relate.
Why the release waited
The wait was not an accident of a poor memory. Commentators read the timing as deliberate, and the chain of people involved as chosen:
Hamilton SmithGod's plans, however, must be carried out in God's time, by God's instruments, and in God's way. Joseph had probably looked forward to immediate release when the cupbearer was restored to his position in Pharaoh's household. But two full years had to pass before God's time arrived. When the right time had come, the last instrument in God's hand was ready to complete the work leading to Joseph's exaltation. God had already used the king's captain, the king's jailer, and the king's cupbearer; now He would use the king himself.
What the years produced
Long imprisonment could have hollowed him out. Instead the record shows him trusted and busy inside the jail, and one writer draws the principle from it:
The Bible TreasuryThe one who is really cast on God makes the best of the trying circumstances he is in, whether they are temporary or permanent. No hostile circumstances can crush true living energy; they may limit and shape it… And before long Joseph is found to be as useful in prison as he was in the house of the captain of the guard… In every trial, however dark, there are gleams of light and relief; but full deliverance is often delayed by our anxiety to get it. God is to be the satisfaction of His servant, rather than the deliverance; so deliverance is often postponed until we have no prospect or expectation of it.
Summary
- Two years. Genesis dates only the final stretch of Joseph's imprisonment: two full years passed after the cupbearer's release, and that delay is said to have tested Joseph's faith.
- Thirteen years. Sold at seventeen and standing before Pharaoh at thirty, his combined time as a slave and prisoner was thirteen years — Scripture never divides it between Potiphar's house and the cell.
- Forgotten. The cupbearer's ingratitude, not any crime, kept him there; he had done nothing to deserve the dungeon, and might have died in it.
- Timed. The release came in God's time, by God's instruments, and in God's way — captain, jailer, cupbearer, and finally the king himself.
- Fruitful. Delay was not waste: Joseph was as useful in prison as in Potiphar's house, because God Himself, not the deliverance, was to be his satisfaction.