Albert Barnes Commentary Genesis 37:1-36
Albert Barnes Commentary
Genesis 37:1-36
Albert Barnes Commentary
Genesis 37:1-36
SCRIPTURE
"And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father`s sojournings, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and he was a lad with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father`s wives: and Joseph brought the evil report of them unto their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. And his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren; and they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: for, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves came round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed yet a dream: and, behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren; and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father kept the saying in mind. And his brethren went to feed their father`s flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph, Are not thy brethren feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go now, see whether it is well with thy brethren, and well with the flock; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I am seeking my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they are feeding [the flock]. And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. And they saw him afar off, and before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, And evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, Let us not take his life. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood; cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him: that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colors that was on him; and they took him, and cast him into the pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brethren hearkened unto him. And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? And they took Joseph`s coat, and killed a he-goat, and dipped the coat in the blood; and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, This have we found: know now whether it is thy son`s coat or not. And he knew it, and said, It is my son`s coat: an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces. And Jacob rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning. And his father wept for him. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh`s, the captain of the guard." — Genesis 37:1-36 (ASV)
17. דתין dotayı̂n Dothain, “two wells?” (Gesenius)
25. נכאת neko't “tragacanth” or goat’s-thorn gum, yielded by the “astragalus gummifer,” a native of Mount Lebanon. צרי tsērı̂y “opobalsamum,” the resin of the balsam tree, growing in Gilead, and having healing qualities. לט loṭ — λῆδον lēdon — “ledum, ladanum,” in the Septuagint στακτή staktē. The former is a gum produced from the cistus rose. The latter is a gum resembling liquid myrrh.
36. פוטיפר pôṭı̂yphar Potiphar, “belonging to the sun.”
The sketch of the race of Edom, given in the preceding piece, we have seen, reaches down to the time of Moses. Accordingly, the history of Jacob’s descendants, which is brought before us in the present document, reverts to a point of time not only before the close of that piece, but before the final record of what precedes it. The thread of the narrative is here taken up from the return of Jacob to Hebron, which was seventeen years before the death of Isaac.
Joseph is the favorite of his father, but not of his brothers. In the land of his father’s sojournings. This contrasts Jacob with Esau, who removed to Mount Seir. This notice precedes the phrase, These are the generations. The corresponding sentence in the case of Isaac is placed at the end of the preceding section of the narrative (Genesis 25:11).
Joseph was the son of seventeen years; in his seventeenth year (Genesis 37:32). He associated with the sons of Bilhah. The sons of the handmaids were nearer his own age, and perhaps more tolerant of the favorite than the sons of Leah, the free wife. Benjamin at this time was about four years of age. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father. The unsophisticated child of home is prompt in the disapproval of evil and frank in the avowal of his feelings.
What the evil was we are not informed; but Jacob’s full-grown sons were now far from the paternal eye and prone, as it seems, to give way to temptation. Many scandals come to view in the chosen family. Jacob loved Joseph. He was the son of his best-loved wife and of his old age, as Benjamin had not yet come into much notice. His father made him A coat of many colors. This was a coat reaching to the hands and feet, worn by persons not much occupied with manual labor, according to the general opinion.
It was, we conceive, variegated either by the loom or the needle, and is therefore well rendered χιτὼν ποικίλος, chitōn poikilos, a motley coat. His brothers saw their father’s partiality and Could not bid peace to him. The partiality of his father, exhibited in so weak a manner, provokes the anger of his brothers, who cannot bid him good-day, or greet him in the ordinary terms of goodwill.
Joseph’s dreams excite the jealousy of his brothers. His frankness in reciting his dream to his brothers marks a spirit devoid of guile, and only dimly conscious of the import of his nightly visions. The first dream represents by a figure the humble submission of all his brothers to him, as they rightly interpret it. They hated him yet the more For his dreams and for his words. The meaning of this dream was offensive enough, and his telling of it rendered it even more disagreeable.
A second dream is given to express the certainty of the event (Genesis 41:32). The former serves to interpret the latter. There the sheaves are connected with the brothers who bound them, and thereby indicate the parties. The eleven stars are not so connected with them. But here Joseph is introduced directly without a figure, and the number eleven, taken along with the eleven sheaves of the former dream, makes the application to the brothers plain.
The sun and moon clearly point out the father and mother. The mother is to be taken, we conceive, in the abstract, without nicely inquiring whether it means the departed Rachel, or the probably still living Leah. Not even the latter seems to have lived to see the fulfillment of this prophetic dream (Genesis 49:31).
The second dream only aggravated the hatred of his brothers; but his father, while rebuking him for his speeches, yet marked the saying. The rebuke seems to imply that the dream, or the telling of it, appears to his father to indicate the lurking of a self-sufficient or ambitious spirit within the breast of the youthful Joseph. The twofold intimation, however, came from a higher source.
Joseph is sent to Dothan. Shechem belonged to Jacob; part of it by purchase, and the rest by conquest. Joseph is sent to inquire of their welfare (שׁלום shālom, peace,Genesis 37:4). With obedient promptness the youth goes to Shechem, where he learns that they had removed to Dothan, a town about twelve miles due north of Shechem.
His brothers cast him into a pit. They called him “This master of dreams.” They said, Let us slay him. They had a foreboding that his dreams might prove true and that he would become their arbitrary master. This thought, in any case, would abate somewhat of the barbarity of their designs. It is implied in the closing sentence of their proposal.
Reuben dissuades them from the act of murder and advises merely to cast him into the pit, to which they consent. He had a more tender heart, and perhaps a more tender conscience than the rest, and intended to send Joseph back safe to his father. He doubtless took care to choose a pit that was without water.
Reuben rips his clothes when he finds Joseph gone. The brothers sat down To eat bread. This shows the cold and heartless cruelty of their deed. The text mentions “A caravan” – a company of traveling merchants – of Ishmaelites. Ishmael left his father’s house when about fourteen or fifteen years of age. His mother took him a wife probably when he was eighteen, or twenty at the latest. He had arrived at the latter age about one hundred and sixty-two years before the date of the present occurrence.
He had twelve sons (Genesis 25:13–15), and if we allow only four other generations and a fivefold increase, there will be about fifteen thousand in the fifth generation. The caravan Came from Gilead; celebrated for its balm (Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 46:11). The caravan road from Damascus to Egypt touches upon the land of Gilead, goes through Beth-shean, and passes by Dothan.
The goods they carried included Spicery. This gum is called tragacanth, or goat’s-thorn gum, because it was supposed to be obtained from this plant. Also, Balm, or balsam, an aromatic substance obtained from a plant of the genus Amyris, a native of Gilead. And Myrrh, which is the name of a gum exuding from the balsamodendron myrrha, growing in Arabia Felix. “Lot,” however, is supposed to be the resinous juice of the cistus or rock rose, a plant growing in Crete and Syria.
Judah, relenting, and revolting perhaps from the crime of fratricide, proposes to sell Joseph to the merchants.
Midianites and Medanites (Genesis 37:36) are apparently mere variations of the same name. They seem to have been the actual purchasers, though the caravan takes its name from the Ishmaelites, who formed by far the larger portion of it. Midian and Medan were both sons of Abraham, and during one hundred and twenty-five years must have increased to a small clan. Thus, Joseph is sold to the descendants of Abraham.
The price was Twenty silver pieces; probably shekels. This is the rate at which Moses estimates a male from five to twenty years old (Leviticus 27:5). A male servant was valued by him at thirty shekels (Exodus 21:32). Reuben, finding Joseph gone, rends his clothes, in token of anguish of mind for the loss of his brother and the grief of his father.
The brothers contrive to conceal their crime; and Joseph is sold into Egypt. Jacob cried, Torn, torn in pieces is Joseph. The sight of the bloody coat convinces Jacob at once that Joseph has been devoured by a wild beast.
The text mentions All his daughters comforting him. Only one daughter of Jacob is mentioned by name. These are probably his daughters-in-law. Jacob said he would go down To the grave mourning. Sheol is the place to which the soul departs at death. It is so called from its ever craving, or being empty.
Potiphar is called a “Minister.” This word originally means eunuch, and then, generally, any officer about the court or person of the sovereign. He was also Captain of the guards. The guards are the executioners of the sentences passed by the sovereign on culprits, which were often arbitrary, summary, and extremely severe.
It is clear, from this dark chapter, that the power of sin has not been extinguished in the family of Jacob. The name of God does not appear, and His hand is at present only dimly seen among the wicked designs, deeds, and devices of these unnatural brothers.
Nevertheless, His counsel of mercy stands sure, and fixed is His purpose to bring salvation to the whole human race, by means of His special covenant with Abraham.