John Calvin Commentary Genesis 37:25

"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." — Genesis 37:25 (ASV)

And they sat down to eat bread. This was an astonishing barbarity, that they could quietly feast while, in intention, they were guilty of their brother’s death: for, had there been one drop of humanity in their souls, they would at least have felt some inward compunctions; indeed, commonly, the very worst men are afraid after the commission of a crime.

Since the patriarchs fell into such a state of insensibility, let us learn from their example to fear that, by the righteous anger of God, the same lethargy should seize our senses. Meanwhile, it is proper to consider the admirable progress of God’s counsel. Joseph had already passed through a double death: and now, as if by a third death, he is, beyond all expectation, rescued from the grave.

For what was it less than death, to be sold as a slave to foreigners? Indeed, his condition was rendered worse by this circumstance; because Reuben, secretly drawing him out of the pit, would have brought him back to his father: whereas now he is dragged to a distant part of the earth, without hope of return.

But this was a secret turn, by which God had determined to raise him on high. And at length, he shows by the event how much better it was that Joseph should be led far away from his own family, than that he should remain in safety at home. Moreover, the speech of Judah, by which he persuades his brothers to sell Joseph, is somewhat more reasonable.

For he ingenuously confesses that they would be guilty of homicide if they allowed him to perish in the pit. "What gain will we make," he says, "if his blood is covered; for our hands will nevertheless be polluted with blood." By this time their fury was in some degree abated, so that they listened to more humane counsel; for though it was outrageous perfidy to sell their brother to strangers, yet it was something to send him away alive, so that, at least, he might be nourished as a slave.

We see, therefore, that the diabolical flame of madness, with which they had all burned, was abating when they acknowledged that they could profit nothing by hiding their crime from the eyes of men; because homicide must of necessity come into view before God. For at first, they absolved themselves from guilt, as if no Judge sat in heaven.

But now the sense of nature, which the cruelty of hatred had previously benumbed, begins to exert its power. And certainly, even in the reprobate, who seem entirely to have cast off humanity, time shows that some residue of it remains. When wicked and violent passions rage, their tumultuous fervor hinders nature from acting its part.

But no minds are so stupid that a consideration of their own wickedness will not at times fill them with remorse: for, so that people may come inexcusable to the judgment-seat of God, it is necessary that they first be condemned by themselves. Those who are capable of cure, and whom the Lord leads to repentance, differ from the reprobate in this: while the latter obstinately conceal the knowledge of their crimes, the former gradually return from the indulgence of sin to obey the voice of reason.

Moreover, what Judah here declares concerning his brother, the Lord, by the prophet, extends to the whole human race. Whenever, therefore, depraved lust impels to unjust violence or any other injury, let us remember this sacred bond by which the whole of society is bound together, so that it may restrain us from evil deeds. For a person cannot injure others without becoming an enemy to his own flesh, and violating and perverting the whole order of nature.