Genesis 40:11

Gen 40:11 And Pharaoh’s cup [was] in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.

Ver. 11. And pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup.] That he might have his wine fresh and new.

“Dulcius ex ipso fonte bibuntur aquae.”

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 11. And I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup] From this we find that wine anciently was the mere expressed juice of the grape, without fermentation. The saky, or cup-bearer, took the bunch, pressed the juice into the cup, and instantly delivered it into the hands of his master. This was anciently the יין yain of the Hebrews, the οινος of the Greeks, and the mustum of the ancient Latins.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(11) And pressed them.—Plutarch, Is. et Osir. § 6, says that before the time of Psammetichus the Egyptians did not drink wine, nor make libations of it to the gods. This statement has been abundantly disproved, and probably arose from the writer supposing that the custom of, possibly, one district was the universal rule. Nevertheless, the king’s drink here does not seem to have been fermented wine, but a sort of sherbet made of fresh grape-juice and water. It is a pleasant beverage, still much used in the East, but sometimes the grape juice is left till fermentation has just begun when it acquires a pleasant briskness, and is less cloying.

Into Pharaoh’s hand.—Heb., I placed the cup upon Pharaoh’s palm. The word is used in Gen_32:25 of the hollow of Jacob’s thigh (see Note there). Here it means the hollow produced by bending the fingers inwards. Now the Hebrews always spoke of placing the cup in a person’s hand (Eze_23:31, and see Psa_75:8; Jer_51:7); and even here Joseph, though probably speaking the Egyptian language, nevertheless used the Hebrew idiom, saying, thou wilt give Pharaoh’s cup into his hand. It is the Egyptian cup-bearer, who, using the idiom of his own country, speaks of placing the cup upon Pharaoh’s palm, the reason being that Egyptian cups had no stems, but were flat bowls or saucers, held in the very way which the cup-bearer describes.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup] The cupbearer did not squeeze grapes into his master’s cup in order to make wine. He squeezed, and at once the cup was full of wine. This is one of the fancies occurring in a dream. Dream-land is true to experience, and yet possesses, here and there, odd fantastic features. It is a feature in this dream that all the difficulties are successfully overcome; the chief butler, at the end of it, holds Pharaoh’s cup.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Pharaoh's cup was in his hand,.... So it seemed to him in his dream, as it often had been when in his office:

and I took the grapes; from off the vine that was before him:

and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup; which some think was the custom of those times, to take a bunch of grapes and squeeze them into a cup, especially when they would make trial of what sort of wine they would produce; for it can hardly be thought that this was usually done, or that it was customary to drink such new wine; but it is more probable that the grapes were first pressed into another vessel, and so made wine of, and then poured into Pharaoh's cup, or mixed in it, though this circumstance is omitted. Indeed Herodotus (a) relates of the Egyptian priests, that wine pressed out of the vine is given them:

and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand; as he had used to do.

(a) Euterpe sive, l. 2. c. 37.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

ואשחט translate it as the Targum AND I PRESSED — The word occurs frequently in the Mishna (but only here in the Bible).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

וכוס...ואשחט, the word שחט signals closing something off. It occurs also in this sense in Shabbat 143 אין שוחטים את הפירות, that it is forbidden to squeeze the juice out of fruit on the Sabbath.

אל כוס, not “to the cup,” but “into the cup,” as for instance in Exodus 25,21 where the words ואל הארון תתן do not mean “you are to give it to the Ark,” but “you are to place it inside the Ark.”

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.