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Gen_39:9 [There is] none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou [art] his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
Ver. 9. Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee.] As the beams of the sun shining upon fire doth discourage the burning of that, so should the shining of God’s mercies or man’s favours on us quench and quell lust and licentiousness in us.
Because thou art his wife.] In primitiva ecclesia Christiani animo animaque inter se miscebantur, et omnia, praeter uxores, indiscreta habebant, saith Tertullian. Community of wives is a monster in religion. {a}
How then can I do this great wickedness? &c.] So he calls it; not a trick of youth, a light offence, a peccadillo; but "wickedness," and "great wickedhess." Abhorred be that religion of Rome that licenseth it; nothing better herein than that of the Turks, whose Koran tells us, that God did not give men lusts and appetites to be frustrated, but enjoyed; as made for the enjoyment of man, and not for his torment, wherein his Creator delights not. {b}
And sin against God.] Who makes the marriage covenant, and keepeth the bonds. {Pro_2:17} Thus David, {Psa_51:4} "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned," &c. The trespass was against Uriah, but the transgression against God, who only can remove the guilt, remit the punishment. And here, though the iron entered into Joseph’s soul, sin could not; because it was fraught with: God’s fear. He had "set God at his right hand," with David, {Psa_16:8} and "therefore was not moved" by the importunate impudency of his wanton mistress. Satan knocked oft at that door, but there was none within to answer or open. He struck fire, but upon wet tinder. Joseph in Egypt, like a pearl in a puddle, keeps his virtue still, wherever he comes.
{a} Ensis, equus, mulier: caetera êïéíá öéëùí .
{b} Blunt’s Voyage into the Levant, 82.