And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;

The chief butler first told his dream: I saw before me a vine,

Then the chief of the cup-bearers told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;

And the chief of the butlers recounteth his dream to Joseph, and saith to him, 'In my dream, then lo, a vine is before me!

Then the chief wine-servant gave Joseph an account of his dream, and said, In my dream I saw a vine before me;

The chief cupbearer explained his dream first. "I saw before me a vine,

Et narravit princeps pincernarum somnium suum ipsi Joseph, et dixit ei, Me somniante, ecce, vitis erat coram me.

And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph,.... He listened to what Joseph said, and paid a regard to it, and began to think he might be able to interpret his dream, and therefore was forward, and the first to tell him it at once; whereas the chief baker did not seem disposed to do it, until he observed the good interpretation given of the butler's dream, Genesis 40:16,
and said unto him, in my dream, behold, a vine was before me; it appeared to him in his dream, as if a vine sprung up at once, and stood before him; which was very suitable to his office as a butler, wine being the fruit of the vine, which he provided for the king his master, and presented to him at table.

THE BUTLER'S DREAM. (Genesis 40:9-15)
In my dream, behold, a vine was before me--The visionary scene described seems to represent the king as taking exercise and attended by his butler, who gave him a cooling draught. On all occasions, the kings of ancient Egypt were required to practice temperance in the use of wine [WILKINSON]; but in this scene, it is a prepared beverage he is drinking, probably the sherbet of the present day. Everything was done in the king's presence--the cup was washed, the juice of the grapes pressed into it; and it was then handed to him--not grasped; but lightly resting on the tips of the fingers.

The cup-bearer gave this account: "In my dream, behold there was a vine before me, and on the vine three branches; and it was as though blossoming, it shot forth its blossom (נצּהּ either from the hapax l. נץ = נצּה, or from נצּה with the fem. termination resolved into the 3 pers. suff.: Ewald, 257d), its clusters ripened into grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand." In this dream the office and duty of the royal cup-bearer were represented in an unmistakeable manner, though the particular details must not be so forced as to lead to the conclusion, that the kings of ancient Egypt drank only the fresh juice of the grape, and not fermented wine as well. The cultivation of the vine, and the making and drinking of wine, among the Egyptians, are established beyond question by ancient testimony and the earliest monuments, notwithstanding the statement of Herodotus (2, 77) to the contrary (see Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses, pp. 13ff.).