What Does Genesis 37:17 Mean?

Potiphar's wife used the garment Joseph left behind as the evidence for a false accusation. "The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house." The accusation is carefully constructed: she identifies Joseph as "the Hebrew servant" (which emphasizes his foreignness and low status), implicates Potiphar ("whom you have brought among us": you are responsible for this), and presents herself as the victim who resisted and cried out.

The garment that saves Joseph from Potiphar's wife becomes the evidence Potiphar's wife uses against Joseph. This is the second time in the chapter that a garment is used as false evidence: Jacob's sons used Joseph's robe to manufacture the story of his death; Potiphar's wife uses Joseph's garment to manufacture the story of his assault. The garments that Joseph has worn: the robe of many colors, the garment he wore in Potiphar's house: are both stripped from him and used to destroy his reputation. The pattern of garment-stripping in Joseph's story tracks his descents: robe stripped before the pit, garment stripped before the prison.

Potiphar's anger burns, and he puts Joseph in prison: in the prison where the king's prisoners are confined. The narrative places a quietly significant detail here: Potiphar, an Egyptian officer who has just been told his trusted slave tried to assault his wife, does not have Joseph executed. He puts him in prison. The relative restraint of the punishment: imprisonment rather than death for a slave who supposedly attacked his master's wife: may reflect Potiphar's own uncertainty about the story, or God's providential restraint on the punishment. Either way, prison rather than death keeps Joseph alive for the next stage of his providential ascent.