Potiphar’s Wife in the Bible

Potiphar’s wife was an unnamed Egyptian woman in Genesis 39. Her husband was the officer who bought Joseph. She repeatedly demanded that Joseph sleep with her, grabbed his garment when he fled, and then falsely accused him of attempting to assault her.

The Bible does not give Potiphar’s wife a name. Genesis refers to her only as “his master’s wife” or Potiphar’s wife.

Zuleika, Zulaikha, and similar spellings come from later Jewish, Persian, and Islamic storytelling traditions. The name is not found in Genesis, and the Quran itself also leaves the woman unnamed.

She set her eyes on Joseph and told him to sleep with her. After he refused, she continued speaking to him day after day. She later seized his garment; when he escaped, she kept the garment and used it to support a false accusation.

Joseph said Potiphar had entrusted everything to him except his wife. Sleeping with her would betray that trust, commit great wickedness, and sin against God.

No. Genesis repeatedly states that Joseph refused her. When she caught his garment and demanded that he lie with her, he left it in her hand and fled outside.

Genesis does not explicitly explain her inner motive. The narrative sequence strongly suggests retaliation after Joseph rejected her and escaped, but that motive should be identified as an inference rather than a direct statement.

She told the household servants and later Potiphar that the Hebrew servant had come in to mock, insult, or assault her and that he fled when she cried out. This reversed the roles presented by the narrator.

After Joseph fled and left the garment in her hand, she placed it beside her until Potiphar returned. She then presented it while repeating her accusation, turning a sign of Joseph’s escape into apparent evidence against him.

Potiphar heard her account, became angry, and placed Joseph in prison. The text does not explicitly say what he believed in full, whom his anger targeted, or why he chose imprisonment rather than another punishment.

The Bible does not say. Genesis follows Joseph into the royal prison and never records whether Potiphar’s wife confessed, was exposed, was punished, or met Joseph again.

The Bible gives no age for Potiphar’s wife. It also does not record her ancestry, children, death, or burial place.

No. Potiphar’s wife is the unnamed wife of Joseph’s master. Asenath is the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, whom Pharaoh gives to Joseph as his wife. Potiphar and Potiphera are not identified as the same man in Scripture.

The episode shows persistent sexual pressure, Joseph’s integrity, the need to flee some temptations, and the damage false testimony can cause. It also warns readers not to turn one woman’s wrongdoing into a stereotype about women or accusations generally.