Osnat: How Can the Daughter of an Immoral Priest Become Yosef’s Wife?

“And Pharaoh named Joseph Zaphenath Pa’neach, and he gave him Osnat (Asenath) the daughter of Potiphera, the governor of On, for a wife, and Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt.”¹

Osnat is arguably one of the most mysterious characters in the Tanach. She seemingly comes out of left field from the house of an idolatrous priest and yet is not only meritorious to marry one of the greatest tzaddikim but to be the mother of two great nations: “Before the years of famine came, Joseph became the father of two sons, whom Osnat (Asenath) daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.”² 

According to the Gemara in Sota³ “Potiphar”, the official who purchased Yosef from the Ismaelites, and “Potiphera” are the same person. Therefore, on a basic level, Yosef and Osnat met while they were both in the house of Potiphar. Later on when Yosef was powerful he was able to take Osnat to be his wife despite the misunderstanding that had occurred with her mother. But why would Yosef want to marry into a family who’s matriarch had tried to abuse him and who’s patriarch had thrown him in prison as a result?

Rabbi Moshe Davis⁴, based on the Bechor Shor, explains that by the time Yosef became the second in command in Egypt, he had gone through many trials and tribulations and had learned much about the ups and downs of life, particularly in politics. Yosef was concerned that one day his children would be stripped of their aristocratic status and his former owner, Potiphar, would try to claim them as slaves since he was the one who paid for Yosef in the first place. As a precaution, Yosef married the daughter of his former owner, knowing Potiphar would never enslave his own grandchildren. 

While Yosef might have been strategic in his marriage choice, the question still stands as to how the daughter of an idolatrous priest could become one of the leading female figures in the Tanach. According to Targum Yonathan⁵, Osnat was actually the product of Dinah’s rape by Shechem. The Yalkut Shimoni⁶ explains further that after Dinah gave birth to Osnat, the brothers had plotted to kill her because they did not want the story of her conception to tarnish their reputation in the land. Therefore, Ya’akov placed a gold tassel he had written on around her neck and gave her to the angel Michael who then took her to Egypt. Once in Egypt, Osnat was adopted by Potiphar because his wife was barren. 

It is a common theme in the Tanach of leaders marrying converts; Moshe and Tziporrah, Yehoshua and Rachav, and Ruth and Boaz. While Osnat was not a convert, she followed the same path to Torah as a convert does. Those who choose Torah tend to cleave more strongly to their belief in it. 

Chizkuni⁷ explains that when Ya’akov blessed Yosef for “finding the rock of Israel” among the gifts and temptations that were being thrown at him by the women of Egypt, he was not only blessing his son for remaining moral. Rather, he was hinting at how Yosef and Osnat Found each other. According to the Chizkuni, when the women of Egypt would throw gifts at Yosef, Osnat threw the golden pendant that Ya’akov had given her and that is how Yosef knew she was the one because she was actually a child of Israel. 

On a deeper level, Yosef must have understood that he and Osnat shared similar pain and could be sturdy support for each other. Both had been sent to Egypt to be amongst idolaters. Not only did they have to try and maintain a sense of identity in a foreign land but they needed to do so after being rejected by their own family; not just rejected, almost killed. Nevertheless, at the same time, their journeys were very different. Yosef grew up in the moral house of Ya’akov and then was sent to the hedonistic house of Potiphar, but for Osnat it was vice-versa. She had little to no knowledge of her identity, she needed to discover the truth for herself. 

It is a common theme in the Tanach of leaders marrying converts; Moshe and Tziporrah, Yehoshua and Rachav, and Ruth and Boaz. While Osnat was not a convert, she followed the same path to Torah as a convert does. Those who choose Torah tend to cleave more strongly to their belief in it. 

By the time Yosef was rising in power, he had already fallen far and hard away from Torah and was working on coming back. Therefore, it would make sense that the best wife for him would be the one person who could understand the spiritual struggle he must be going through and support him. Those who grew up around Torah, like Yosef and other leaders, will have a stronger foundation in their belief. But sometimes when that foundation is shaken, they need to turn to those who chose to build their entire connection to Torah for stability. Perhaps so many Jewish leaders have married strong women who chose to dedicate their lives to serving Hashem, to remind themselves why they chose to lead such difficult people in dedication of the Torah. Women like Osnat, led from behind the scenes, by supporting their men. Similar to the thousands of women today, supporting their men on the front lines. 

1. Genesis 41:45  ↩︎
2. Genesis 41:50 ↩︎
3. Sota 13b ↩︎
4. https://outorah.org/p/45926/  ↩︎
5. Targum Yonatan on Genesis 41:45 ↩︎
6. Yalkut Shimoni on the Torah 134:1 ↩︎
7. Chizkuni on Genesis 41:45 ↩︎