Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.
Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph ... out of the dungeon, х habowr (H953)] - (see the note at Genesis 40:15). Now that God's set time had come (Psalms 105:19), no human power nor policy could detain Joseph in prison. During his protracted confinement, he might have often been distressed with perplexing doubts; but the mystery of Providence was about to be cleared up, and all his sorrows forgotten in the course of honour and public usefulness in which his services were to be employed.
Shaved himself. The Egyptians were the only Oriental nation that liked a smooth chin. All slaves, and foreigners who were reduced to that condition, were obliged, on their arrival in that country, to conform to the cleanly habits of the natives, by shaving their beards and heads, the latter of which were covered with a close cap. Thus prepared, Joseph was conducted to the palace, where the king seemed to have been anxiously waiting his arrival.