And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners [were] bound: and he was there in the prison.
Ver. 20. And Joseph's master took him.] It was a providence that he had not presently slain him upon that false accusation. The devil is first a liar, and then a murderer; Joh 8:44 but he is limited by God. Joseph is imprisoned in the round tower, where "they hurt his feet with fetters; the iron entered into his soul." Psalms 105:18 , marg. He, meanwhile, either pleads not, or is not heard. Doubtless he denied the fact; but durst not accuse the offender. His innocency might afterwards appear, and thereupon the chief keeper show him favour. Gen 39:21 But his master should have been better advised. If he lived till Joseph was advanced, he had as good cause to fear his power, as ever Joseph's brethren had. Cardinal Wolsey was first schoolmaster of Magdalen School in Oxford; after that, beneficed by Marquess Dorset, whose children he had there taught; where he had not long been, but one Sir James Paulet, upon some displeasure, set him by the heels: which affront was afterwards neither forgotten nor forgiven. For when the schoolmaster became Lord Chancellor of England, he sent for him; and after a sharp reproof, imprisoned him: a a good precedent for men in authority which work their own wiles without wit; not to punish out of humour, &c. Discite iustitiam moniti, &c. Despise not any man's lowness; we know not his destiny.
a Negotiations of Card. Wols., p. 2.