Joseph was brought down to Egypt (Genesis 39:1). Lamentations gives the frame: "Good is the man who sits alone and is silent, for he will bear the yoke upon himself. He will put his mouth to the dust and hope that there may be hope, because the Lord will not cast off forever" (Lamentations 3:27-29). The rabbis read this as Joseph's biography in three verses.
He sat alone — seventeen years old in a foreign country, sold by his brothers, property of an Egyptian officer. He was silent — the Torah does not record Joseph complaining about what happened to him, not in the pit, not in Potiphar's house, not in the prison. He bore the yoke upon himself — everything that was given to him to carry, he carried. And he hoped. Even in prison, after Potiphar's wife lied and Pharaoh's butler forgot him, he kept his interpretation of dreams sharp, his faith unbroken.
Job's friends gave him the same counsel they later gave Job: your suffering is temporary; your end will be peaceful. The midrash reports that Joseph's suffering, too, was a preparation — not punishment, but tempering. God does not cast off forever. The darkness in Joseph's story is absolute, and the reversal — from prisoner to viceroy in a single day — is the most dramatic in Genesis. The yoke in the dark is the condition for the throne in the light. The rabbis told this story again and again because it is the story of every exile.