Genesis 37

Such a record as this thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis excites the clamor of scoffing unbelief against the moral teachings of the Old Testament; and even suggests to some classes of Christians the theory that the Old Testament worship is of an inferior sort to that of the New Testament, because patriarchy and the chosen ones in the covenant of God are represented as guilty of great immoralities. It is sufficient to reply simply to this clamor that it rests entirely upon the misconceptions of the objector himself as to the plan and purpose of that Old Testament record. These objectors would have the inspired penman to sketch characters for us after the fashion of our modern biographies, which too often present us with mere ideal men that never existed, or rather the beatified ghosts of departed heroes. The Old Testament aims to furnish us a gallery of characters intended as often for our warning as for our example. It is not intended to set forth, merely for our admiration, perfect ideals of character in any single character but that character of the “Son of Man.” All others are pictures of living men and women, with all the blots and blurs of a fallen humanity upon them, and “the old man” still adhering to them, even after the work of Divine grace has begun in the soul, and that under the most favorable circumstances. These objectors seem to forget that this Old Testament sets out with the account of how humanity, at first perfect, has fallen and become degraded; and its purpose is not simply to inculcate moral maxims, but to trace the history of an intervention of divine grace to restore the fallen humanity instead of leaving it to its native gravitation toward utter brutishness, following its physical nature, or utter devilishness, following its spiritual nature. And its aim is to describe the conflict which ever comes from the attempt to develop out of this fallen humanity a new and regenerate humanity. If the Scriptures anywhere indorsed these heroes of the faith, and all the covenant people of God as perfect models of character for your imitation, then might you object to the picture of Noah and Lot as intoxicated; of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as guilty of falsehood; of Judah as driven by lust to incest; of Moses as guilty of manslaughter, and David of murder and adultery. Or if you can show that God is represented as approving of these outbreaks of wickedness, that would be another matter, and there would be some point to this objection. But intelligently read and candidly judged, the Old Testament nowhere represents God as approving of any moral principle that is not approved in the New Testament, and that does not meet the approval also of every enlightened conscience. Nor in any instance does this history, exhibiting such remarkable fidelity in portraying its characters in all their faults as well as their virtues, fail to exhibit the sins and failings and foibles of the noblest of its heroes, as bringing upon them the marks of God’s disapproval in the sorrow and suffering which infallibly followed—just as Jacob now is reaping in old age the fruits of the sins and foibles of his earlier years. S. R.

1. And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan. These are 2 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 3 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 4 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 5 dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto 6 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 7 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 8 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 9 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 10 thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father kept the saying in mind.

12. And his brethren went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph, 13 Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And 14 he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go now, see whether it be well with thy 15 brethren, and well with the flock; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale 16 of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was 17 wandering in the field; and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I 18 seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they are feeding the flock. And the man said, 19 They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after 20 his brethren, and found them in Dothan. And they saw him afar off, and before he came 21 near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Be- 22 hold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into one 23 of the pits, and we will say, An evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will be- 24 come of his dreams. And Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand; and said, 25 Let us not take his life. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood; cast him into this pit 26 that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him: that he might deliver him out of their 27 hand, to restore him to his father. And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his 28 brethren, that they stript Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colors that was on him; and 29 they took him, and cast him into the pit; and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. 30 And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a 31 travelling company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and 32 balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, What 33 profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the 34 Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother, our flesh. And his 35 brethren hearkened unto him. And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they 36 drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces 37 of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, 38 behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his breth- 39 ren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? And they took Joseph’s coat, and 40 killed a he-goat, and dipped the coat in the blood; and they sent the coat of many colors, and 41 they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy 42 son’s coat or not. And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured 43 him; Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces. And Jacob rent his garments, and put sack- 44 cloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his 45 daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will 46 go down to the grave to my son mourning. And his father wept for him. And the Midian- 37 ites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard.

The story of Joseph is simply the traditional account of the events which first led to the prolonged sojourn of the Israelites in a land which was neither their original nor their destined home, but one in which, in their own affecting phrase, they were strangers in a far country. Evidently, before it was written out in Genesis, the legend had often been repeated orally in their tents, at their camp-fires, and by the mothers of the tribe in teaching their children. And the story also had a strong local coloring; at that early day, the very dawn of the historical epoch of mankind, it would have been intelligible only to a people who knew all about Egypt, and had also heard much about Canaan, and the long journey through the desert between these two countries. It has the true ring of genuineness; it breathes the air of Egypt and the desert in the old, old times. F. Bowen.—The life and fortunes of Joseph, embracing one tenth of the book of Genesis, form a story of unrivalled attraction, whether we consider the simplicity and beauty of the narrative, the pathos of the events, or the moral lessons which it teaches. Viewed merely as a human composition, as a specimen of simple, graceful, eloquent, and pathetic narrative, it has no parallel. We find in it all that gives beauty to the finest drama—a perfect unity of design; a richness and variety of incident involving the plot in obscurity, yet gradually drawing to its intended development; and the whole issuing happily, rewarding pre-eminent virtue with appropriate honors and blessings, and visiting iniquity with deserved humiliation and punishment. It is a story which persons of all ages, and minds of all orders, peruse with equal interest; and the degree of secret moral influence which the spotless example of Joseph has exercised upon countless numbers of the readers of the Scriptures, can never be appreciated till the day of the revelation of all things. We behold in him one who in every period of life, in every change of condition, in every variety of relation, secures our confidence, our respect, our love. In adversity, we see him evincing exemplary patience and resignation; in temptation, inflexible firmness; in exaltation, unaffected simplicity, integrity, gentleness, and humility. Bush.

In the history of Joseph and his brethren, a train of events, apparently natural, and arising out of each other, is overruled to the accomplishment of the purposes and prophecies of God, without any interference with, or control over, the free agency of man; and the history furnishes us with a complete specimen of the mode in which an all-wise Providence still governs the world. G. T.—Without infringing individual liberty or diminishing the guilt of those who sought to thwart the purposes of Heaven, those results were brought about which had been foreordained by Him whose counsels run parallel with the ages. Free, yet instruments in the accomplishment of a divine plan! The incidents in Joseph’s life furnish an argument in favor of an overruling Providence so overwhelming that no sophistry can successfully blunt its force. J. S. V.

Joseph is frequently spoken of as a “type of Christ.” It may be doubted whether this is not too strong a statement of the case, since the Scriptures nowhere speak of him as any constituted type, and it is a wise maxim that nothing is properly a type except what the Scriptures make typical either directly or by very direct implication. But in the sense that the life of Joseph is the foreshadowing of things yet to come, it is a type of that of Jesus Christ. S. R.—It is the tendency of all history to be typical. We read it very inattentively if we do not see that it is constantly throwing itself up into representative men and events. This is the tendency, above all, of Divine history, for God’s providence guides it in a special manner outwardly, and God’s Spirit breathes through it all, with a grand unity of aspiration, to one central event. That there should be types in such a history is most natural. Ker.

When we come to the New Testament history, we find that a large part of this Old Testament historic record was intended to symbolize and shadow forth great historic truths of the future; just as the ritualism of the Old Testament worship was designed to shadow forth the great ideas of the redemption in the future for faith to lay hold upon. The infinite mind who prepresides in all this history prearranging all with reference to the coming Messiah to assume humanity, so that not only in the institutions of worship of the old church were they taught to see the shadowing of great truths, but in the history of God’s transaction all was fitted in like manner to foreshadow the coming of Christ. Of this pre-eminently is Lord Bacon’s saying true: “History is prophecy.” S. R.

2. These are the generations of Jacob.** The Toledoth, or genealogical history of Isaac began (ch. 25 : 19) after the death of his father Abraham, a few verses having been allotted (vv. 12-18) to dispose of the history of his brother Ishmael. In the same manner, the Toledoth of Jacob are given in this chapter after the death of his father Isaac, ch. 36 having intervened to account for Esau and his family. Many of the preceding chapters had been occupied with the history of Jacob and his sons, but Jacob’s Toledoth begin at this point, because now he has become the sole head and father of the chosen seed. The Toledoth, or family history, of Jacob continues now till his death.

Joseph, being seventeen years old. This history goes back a few years; for Isaac must have been living when Joseph was seventeen. But the historian had fully wound up the history of Isaac before commencing the Toledoth of Jacob; and he now gives unity to the history of the descent into Egypt by beginning with the adolescence of Joseph, his father’s fondness for him, and his brothers’ jealousy of him. E. H. B.

3. The Hebrew words mean simply, “a tunic reaching to the extremities.” They describe a garment such as was commonly worn in Egypt and the adjacent lands—a long white linen robe extending to the ankles and wrists, and embroidered with a narrow stripe of color round the edge of the skirt and the sleeves. And if this white linen garment be but a poor substitute for the rich, gorgeous robe which has so long held its place in our thoughts, it has its compensations. For it helps us to understand the envy, the fierce murderous jealousy, of Joseph’s brethren. That they should be moved to kill him, or even to sell him for a slave, because he wore a gay coat and went fine, is almost inconceivable; but this long linen tunic meant more than a mere coat of many hues. It was worn, as a rule, only by the most noble and opulent classes, by kings’ sons and daughters, by priests and scribes, by those who were exempt from manual labor. Cox — A full-length garment; covering the whole person, the body of the garment extending to the feet, and the sleeves to the wrists. Such garments were worn only by persons exempted from manual labor, and were indicative of rank and wealth. The injudicious partiality of Jacob conferred this distinction on the favorite child of his old age. On the contrary, the ordinary dress, such as was worn by persons engaged in active employments, extended but a little below the knee, the sleeves reaching only to the elbow. T. J. C.

4. 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 good-will. M.—We are taught here the evil of favoritism in the family. The balance, as between the different children in the same household, must be held evenly by the parents. One may be brighter, or more amiable, or more companionable than another, but before the discipline of the family they ought to be all on a level. They are all alike children of the father, and should be dealt with by him on principles of the strictest equity. In some respects their differences of disposition will require differences of treatment, but they should be all kept on an equality. W. M. T.

10. Joseph’s dream came true, though his white tunic was soon soiled with the sand of the desert pit and with the blood of the goat’s kid. Joseph’s dream came true, though it was fulfilled in a way and by means too wonderful for him to anticipate. Instead of simply succeeding to his father’s inheritance, and ruling his eleven brethren, he stood next to Pharaoh, and governed busy, populous Egypt. His father and brothers did make obeisance unto him. Nay, the very sun and moon, which govern the tides and rains, and mete out years of famine and years of plenty, even these served him and helped him to the throne. Through the pit and the prison, by the path of sorrow and captivity, he rose to be the very centre of the world; for “all the world went down into Egypt to buy corn of Joseph.” Cox.

11. Envied him. Envy is the breath of the old serpent. It is pure devil, as it is also purely spiritual. It needs no body, no concupiscent organization, no appetites or fleshly motions, no nerves even, for the exercise of its devilish energies. It is a soul-poison, yet acting fearfully upon the body itself, bringing more death into it than seemingly stronger and more tumultuous passions that have their nearer seat in the fleshly nature. It is “rottenness in the bones.” T. L.

Kept the saying in mind. There is something very impressive in the silent thoughtfulness fulness of Jacob. It is like the pondering in her heart by Mary of the things that were told her. This is the third time in which Jacob is introduced as thinking what he did not speak, but laid up in silence. It accords with the policy of his character. T. C.

12-14. By a remarkable combination of events and interweaving of their life-web by the hand of Providence, the opportunity is offered for the development of their hatred of Joseph by his brethren. The immense flocks of Jacob, combined with those of Isaac, his father, are too numerous to find pasturage in the vale of Hebron, where Isaac has always resided, and to which Jacob has come. Some larger provision must be made for pasturage. Nothing more natural than that Jacob should think of sending his flocks to his former range at foot of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, for there he had purchased most excellent land about a mile and a half from Shechem, and he would avail himself of its advantages. Perhaps it is now the latter part of summer, and the pastures in the south about Hebron are more parched than sixty miles north in the shady nooks and hills about Shechem. S. R.

15-17. Joseph found not his brethren at Shechem itself, but a stranger directed him to “Dothan,” the two wells, whither they had gone. Dothan was beautifully situated, about twelve miles north from Samaria. Northward spread richest pasture-lands; a few swelling hills separated it from the great plain of Esdraelon. From its position it must have been the key to the passes of Esdraelon, and so, as guarding the entrance from the north, not only of Ephraim, but of Palestine itself. On the crest of one of those hills the extensive ruins of Dothan are still pointed out, and at its southern foot still wells up a fine spring of living water. From these hills Gideon afterward descended upon the host of Midian. It was here that Joseph overtook his brethren, and was cast into the dry well. And it was from that height that the sons of Jacob must have seen the Arab caravan slowly winding from Jordan on its way to Egypt, when they sold their brother, in the vain hope of binding the word and arresting the hand of God. A. E.

In the afternoon we came out upon a plain of rich meadow-land. It is a crescent-shaped plain, hill-encirceled, unbroken by fence or hedge or wall. Not a house enlivens its broad, still expanse. On the farther side is a hill, steep, but not very high. At its foot is a grand well, with a building enclosing it. We look about us on well and plain with a rare delight. This is Tell Dothan — the Dothan to which that Joseph whom we have loved ever since, in childhood, his story fell upon eager ears, wandered in search of his brethren. No wonder that the sons of Jacob led their flocks and herds hither, for it is a charming plain. The pasturage would suffice for even their thousands of sheep, of goats and cattle. Later in Jewish history Dothan appears as the residence of the prophet Elisha. Benhadad the Syrian encircled the hill with his army, that he might capture this troublesome prophet, but the host was smitten with confusion of sight and led away from Dothan to Samaria. The reply of Elisha to his terrified attendant, “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them,” has become one of the watchwords of the Christian life. It first rang bravely out at this Dothan. Dalles.

It is a striking illustration of how, when God has a general purpose to accomplish, as this sending Joseph into Egypt, he overrules and directs all the little things which as second causes operate to accomplish his purpose. Had these brethren of Joseph remained near Shechem they would probably not have accomplished their crime. They could not have so easily concealed it from their father. And no caravans to Egypt passed that way to offer a chance to sell him into slavery. Thus this incidental departure to Dothan was a mesh of the web. S. R.

18. They conspired against him to slay him.** Envy has completed its work; now they coolly contemplate murder. 22. Their plan meets opposition from an unexpected source. Reuben said, “Shed no blood; but cast him into this pit, that he might rid him out of their hands and deliver him to his father again.” Reuben is the last of the ten from whom we would have expected mercy. His sincerity seems to be fully attested by his subsequent anguish, by his vivid remembrance of the painful incidents of this tragic scene and by his offer to assume the responsibility of Benjamin’s safe return from Egypt. J. S. V.

Reuben, of all the brothers, had most reason to be jealous of Joseph, for he was the first-born, and so entitled to those distinguishing favors which Jacob was conferring on Joseph; yet he proves his best friend. Reuben’s temper seems to have been soft and effeminate, which had betrayed him to the sin of uncleanness; while the temper of the two next brothers, Simeon and Levi, was fierce, which betrayed them to the sin of murder, a sin which Reuben startled at the thought of. Our natural consticonstitution should be guarded against those sins to which it is most inclinable, and improved (as Reuben’s here) against those sins to which it is most averse. Reuben made a proposal which they thought would effectually answer their intention of destroying Joseph, and yet which he designed should answer his intention of rescuing Joseph out of their hands, and restoring him to his father, probably hoping thereby to recover his father’s favor, which he had lately lost; but God overruled all to serve his own purpose of making Joseph an instrument to save much people alive. H.

Crime begets crime. Envy brought forth malice, deceit, lying, the intent of murder, and the kindred crime of man stealing. Such a fountain of iniquity is the heart of man! What a dreadful secret had these ten men to carry all their lives! And poor old Jacob!—his final retribution for the deception practised upon his brother comes in this cruel deception, that shall carry him mourning down into the grave! God, indeed, had better thoughts for him; but the guilt of men remains the same, however God may overrule it for good. As we cannot charge upon God our own evil-doings, neither can we credit ourselves with the good which God brings out of evil. J. P. T.

24. The numerous rock-hewn cisterns that are found everywhere would furnish a suitable pit in which they might have thrust him; and as these cisterns are shaped like a bottle, with a narrow mouth, it would be impossible for any one imprisoned within it to extricate himself without assistance. These cisterns are now all cracked and useless; they are, however, the most undoubted evidences that exist of the handiwork of the inhabitants in ancient times. Lieut. Anderson.

25. They sat down to eat bread.** In this heartless meal Reuben can have taken no part. It appears from verse 29, that he must have left his brethren, perhaps with the very purpose of seeking means to rescue Joseph. The simplicity and truthfulness of the narrative are all the more apparent by the indifference of the writer to the question how and why it was that Reuben was absent at this point of the history. A forger would have been likely to tell all about it. E. H. B. — The heartless barbarity with which the brethren of Joseph sat down to eat and drink the very dainties he had brought them from his father, while they left him, as they thought, to starve, has been regarded by all later generations as the height of hard-hearted indifference. Amos, at a loss to describe the recklessness of his own generation, falls back upon this incident, and cries woe upon those “that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointment, but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” Dals.

27,28. Whatsoever they thought, God never meant that Joseph should perish in that pit; and therefore he sends very Ishmaelites, to ransom him from his brethren; the seed of him that persecuted his brother Isaac shall now redeem Joseph from his brethren’s persecution. Bp. H.—There was much commerce between Egypt and Asia. The spices and resins so much used in Egypt for embalming were brought from the East. Slaves, too, were always in demand. The route of caravans crossing the Jordan at Beisan lay near Dothan; so that these Ishmaelitish traders naturally passed that way. Thus every incident of the narrative is verified by the geographical features of the country, and by the commercial customs of the times. J. P. T.

The same company of men in v. 27 are called “Ishmaelites,” in v. 28, “Midianites,” and in v. 36 (Hebrew), “Medanites;” this diversity of appellation being designed to intimate that they were a mixed people, made up of different races, and perhaps for that reason called in the Chaldean “Arabians,” which signifies mixed. “Here,” says Dr. Vincent (Com. and Nav. of the Anc.), “upon opening the oldest history in the world, we find the Ishmaelites from Gilead conducting a caravan loaded with the spices of India, the balsam and myrrh of Hadramaut; and in the regular course of their traffic proceeding to Egypt for a market. The date of this transaction is more than seventeen centuries before the Christian era, and notwithstanding its antiquity, it has all the genuine features of a caravan crossing the Desert at the present hour.” The route of these Ishmaelites toward Egypt may be easily traced. They passed the Jordan, which is fordable in many places during the summer months, then took their way through the valley of Jezreel or Esdraelon, which lay but little northward from Dothan—a valley running from east to west, and leading from the Jordan, in the most convenient way, to the shores of the Mediterranean. Hence they could journey in the safest and most speedy manner to Egypt. Bush.

It is worth while to note specially here the remarkable undesigned coincidences and agreements of the record with the entire topography of the scene of this transaction, which Moses never saw, and with the facts developed by the recently discovered monuments of that era in Egypt. In the first place, on travelling over the country in which these events are recorded to have taken place, you will be struck with the exactness with which the history fits in with the entire topography of the country. Here is still Jacob’s well and Shechem, and the fertile piece of ground, and here, following the tract of Joseph northward from it is Dothan; here are the pits or bottle-shaped wells, like Jacob’s well, and dry in the late summer, into which Joseph was put, and so constructed that it would be impossible to get out without assistance, since they swell out to eight or nine feet in the middle. And here just at Dothan is the juncture of the narrow valleys leading north from Esdraelon, along which runs the highway from the East, between the plains of the Euphrates and the Nile. Nowhere but just along that line would any Ishmaelitish caravan have passed by to which they could sell a slave. And there to-day may be seen the long camel train passing east and west along the point of Gilboa, reminding one when seen in the distance of a long railway train, each camel led by a halter attached to the saddle of the one before it. And, on the other hand, on the monuments and in the paintings during this century, disentombed from the ruins of Egypt and collected in the galleries at London, Paris, Berlin, Cairo, are displayed the life and manners and customs of those ancient civilizations in Egypt arranged according to their successive dynasties and ages, exhibiting precisely the same facts which this record implies. Pictures of these very caravans of merchants coming from the East to Egypt, as their great mart; of slaves brought in with them, and slaves sent in as tribute from subject provinces; of slaves of all colors, at their various sorts of service—those such as the boy Joseph occupying business positions in their master’s service, sturdy Africans doing the drudgery, Arab runners, etc. S. R.

Full little did Joseph think when he went to seek his brethren, that this was the last time he should see his father’s house; full little did his brethren think when they sold him to the Ishmaelites, to have once seen him in the throne of Egypt. God’s decree runs on; and, while we either think not of it or oppose it, is performed. Bp. H.—They thought that if he were sold for a slave, he would never be a lord, if sold into Egypt would never be their lord; yet all this was working toward it. The wrath of man shall praise God, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain (Ps. 76:10). Joseph’s brethren were wonderfully restrained from murdering him, and their selling him as wonderfully turned to God’s praise. H.

From this history of Joseph, we might conclude that he was himself quite passive in the whole transaction. Yet when the brothers talk together upon this same subject many years afterward in Egypt, they say one to another, “We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear.” These fervent entreaties are sunk in the direct history of the event, and only come out by accident after all. Blunt.

These brothers of Joseph were bent on making the realization of his dreams impossible, and yet the thing which they did was one step toward the bringing about of the elevation of their brother. They were made to see it afterward; and they were working under no constraint. Nobody compelled them to give up their first idea of putting Joseph to death. The proposal to put him into a pit was purely spontaneous with Reuben, and they were at liberty to act upon it or not as they chose. The same thing was true of the suggestion of Judah about selling him to the Ishmaelites. Each party was seeking its own ends, and yet they were all contributing to bring about the purpose of God concerning Joseph. We cannot explain the “law” of it, but we clearly see the fact. Oh the marvellous wisdom of that providence of God which thus, without doing violence to the will of any human being, lays all their actions under tribute for the furtherance of its designs! W. M. T.

29. And Reuben returned unto the pit.** From this it is evident that Reuben was absent when Joseph was sold, and consequently did not consent at the time to the deed. He mourns bitterly on finding his plan defeated. Joseph is now lost to his father forever, and he pictures to himself the anguish of that new affliction which threatened to fall upon the good old man after the severe griefs which he had already sustained from his own misbehavior and that of his brethren. He pours out his bitter complaints to his hard-hearted brethren, but to little purpose. They could not well undo what was done, nor had they any wish to undo it. Bush.

Reuben intends to deliver Joseph from the vengeance of his brothers, and secretly to send him back to his father. Beside his natural kindness, as the firstborn, Reuben would feel himself more particularly responsible to his father. Judah also wished to preserve the life of Joseph, but he agrees with his other brothers in deeming it necessary that he should be removed, so that thereby the possibility of having his dreams realized should be set aside. As they probably thought that the realization of these dreams was dependent on his investiture with the rights of primogeniture, it appeared the most sure means of attaining their object to sell him as a slave into a distant country. Thus, we conclude with Ranke: “The narrative has now reached the point when it seems as if the direct contrary of Joseph’s former prophetic dreams should take place. He whose superiority his parents and brothers were to acknowledge, now lives as a slave in a foreign land.” K.

35. Daughters.** Of whom, besides Dinah, he perhaps had several. Daughters, when not the subjects of any remarkable history, are not enumerated in the genealogical register. Gert.

I will go down to the grave to my son mourning. A more correct version is, “I will go down to my son mourning into Sheol.” This is the first of the sixty-five instances in which the proper name Sheol occurs in the Old Testament. It is a precise equivalent of the Greek Hades, which is found ten times in the New Testament. The word never means grave, for which the Hebrew has a term uniformly used to denote the earthly receptacle of a dead body, but always the place of departed spirits, whether good or evil. It thus distinctly conveyed the idea of the soul’s existence after death. The patriarch’s conceptions of this unseen world were doubtless dim and vague, but he expected to meet Joseph there, and his use of the word is quite inconsistent with the notion that death is the extinction of the whole man.

… According to Old Testament usage, Sheol (or Hades) was the receptacle of all the dead without exception. Thither went the patriarch Jacob, and thither also went such men as the unscrupulous Joab and the malignant Shimei (1 Kings 2 : 6-9). The primary idea is that it is the realm of the dead, and as such concentrates in itself whatever terror death has for man. Hence the combination of the two terms as in the 18th Psalm, “the sorrows of Sheol (Hades), and the snares of death” (comp. Ps. 116 : 3 ; Job 17 : 16 ; Prov. 5 : 5) And as natural death is a symbol of spiritual death, and images that remoteness from God, the fountain of life, which is the worst of all evils, so the region called Sheol (or Hades) came to be regarded as the place to which especially the ungodly belong (Ps. 9 : 17 ; 49 : 14). This accounts for the dread with which the Old Testament believers, such as David (Ps. 6 : 5) and Hezekiah (Is. 38 : 18), usually thought and spoke of it; although in their better moments they had an assured conviction that God would show them the path of life where there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16:11), that he would redeem them from Sheol (49:15), that after guiding them by his counsel here he would receive them to glory (73:24), and therefore that even in death he was their portion forever (73:20). . . . The grave and the p’t refer primarily to the body, and so miss the very point of Sheol, which refers to the spirit. The only safe way is to transliterate the word throughout, and then the English reader, studying all the passages in which it occurs, can arrive at his own conclusion as to its meaning. Chambers.

The noun “Sheol” is made from the verb Shaal, having the sense, to ask, to demand; and conceives of the place as evermore demanding, insatiable; that which is never full; never has enough. The current Hebrew conceptions of the word may be seen in Prov. 30:15, 16, and Isa. 5:14, and Hab. 2:5. “There are three things that are never satisfied; yea four say not, It is enough: the grave” (Sheol). “Therefore hell (Sheol) hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it.” “Who enlargeth his desire as hell” (Sheol) “and is as Death, and cannot be satisfied.” As to the location of Sheol it seems clear that they thought of it as an under-world, as somehow beneath the surface of the earth. We see this in the case of Korah and his company (Num. 16:28-34), and in De. 32:22. In regard to their conceptions of Sheol as a state of being for the righteous and the wicked dead, it is easy to see that holy men of the oldest time lacked the clear light of the gospel age. H. C.

The under-world. By this term is meant (of course only in figurative conception) the abode of the departed, the world of spirits. It is conceived of as beneath (Is. 14:9), as under the earth (Rev. 5:3, 13; Philip. 2:10), as reached by digging into it (Amos 9:2); men are said to go down into it (Num. 16:33); its depth below is contrasted with the height of heaven above (Job 11:8). Such expressions are intended to accommodate what is said to common apprehension, and not to teach us anything respecting the locality of the abode of departed spirits. T. J. C.

[For a different view of the meaning of “Sheol,” see Dr. Shedd’s recent book, “Endless Punishment of the Wicked.”]

Moses constantly spoke of the death of the godly patriarchs as a being “gathered to their people.” He said this of Abraham (Gen. 25:8); of Ishmael (25:17); of Isaac (35:29); of Jacob (49:33). And he records these as Jacob’s words when he supposed Joseph to have died: “I will go down into Sheol to my son mourning” (37:35). In the face of these facts can it be said that Moses knew nothing of the future life? Did he think the fathers—the righteous people—had passed by death into non-existence—into what was not life in any sense whatever? H. C.

36. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt.** Hebrew, the Medanites. These were the descendants of Medan, the son of Abraham (Gen. 25:2). Both these and the Midianites seem to have lived intermingled with the Ishmaelites, by which general name they are called (v. 25). Bush.—Joseph’s history belongs henceforth to a wider sphere. The glimpse of Egypt, opened to us for a moment in the life of Abraham, now spreads into a vast and permanent prospect. A. P. S.

We seem to have sufficient grounds for the belief that the Egypt of Joseph’s time was that of the Middle Empire or Hyksos, an Asiatic people who held Egypt in subjection for some centuries before the great rising under Aahmes, which re-established a native dynasty upon the old throne of the Pharaohs. M. Chabas remarks that the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, after a time became “Egyptianized.” “The science and the usages of Egypt introduced themselves among them. They surrounded themselves with learned men, built temples, encouraged statuary, while at the same time they inscribed their own names on the statues of the Old Empire, which were still standing, in the place of those of the Pharaohs who had erected them. It is this period of civilization which alone has left us the sphinxes, the statues, and the inscriptions which recall the art of Egypt; the manners of the foreign conquerors had by this time been sensibly softened.” And again, “Apepi, the last shepherd king, was an enlightened prince, who maintained a college of men skilled in sacred lore, after the example of the Pharaohs of every age, and submitted all matters of importance to them for examination before he formed any decision.” The Pharaoh of Joseph, according to the Syncellus, was this very Apepi, the last shepherd king, the predecessor of the Aahmes, who, after a long and severe struggle, expelled the Hyksos, and re-established in Egypt the rule of a native dynasty. G. R. ("Babylon and Egypt").

By the time that Joseph was sold into Egypt there was little outward difference between the court at Zoan and the court of the native princes at Thebes. The very names and titles borne by

the Hyksos officials had become Egyptian; and though they still regarded the god Set as the chief object of their worship, they had begun to rebuild the Egyptian temples and pay honor to the Egyptian deities. Potiphar, to whom Joseph was sold, bore a purely Egyptian name, meaning “the gift of the risen one,” while the name of Potipherah, the high priest of On, whose daughter, Asenath, was married by Joseph, is equally Egyptian, and signifies “the gift of the Sun-God.” The Sun-God was the special deity of On; to him the great temple of the city was dedicated, and the name by which the place was known to the Greeks was Heliopolis, “the city of the sun.” Sayce.