What Does Genesis 39:22 Mean?

And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The elevation in the prison mirrors the elevation in Potiphar's household: from confined prisoner to overseer of all the others confined with him. "Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it" echoes the language of verse 4 in the household: Joseph attended Potiphar, was made overseer, and put in charge of all that he had. The same pattern, the same scope of authority, the same totality. In Potiphar's house: all that he had. In the prison: all the prisoners and all the work done there.

The administrative elevation in prison is significant for the narrative's next stage. Joseph, put in charge of all the prisoners, would have regular contact with and authority over the cupbearer and baker of Pharaoh when they arrive in Genesis 40. It is in his capacity as prison overseer that he attends them (40:4) and observes their troubled faces (40:6) and asks about their dreams (40:7). The elevation of verse 22 is the structural preparation for the Chapter 40 encounter. The LORD's presence produces favor; the favor produces elevation; the elevation produces the context for the dream interpretations; the dream interpretations produce the contact with Pharaoh. Each step is needed for the next.

There is a subtle irony in the prison elevation that the narrative does not highlight but the reader can observe: Joseph, unjustly imprisoned for fleeing an assault, is given authority over those justly imprisoned for their actual offenses against Pharaoh. The man who is innocent runs the prison that holds the guilty. The social reversal that runs through Joseph's story: the beloved son sold as a slave, the faithful slave imprisoned as an attacker, the wrongly imprisoned man elevated over all prisoners: is operating even in this verse. The prison, intended to end Joseph's influence, has become the platform for his next exercise of it.