Chapter 37

The generations of Jacob.

Joseph is tending the sheep at the age of 17, and brings his father a bad report of the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah.  Israel makes him a coat of many colors.  His brothers hate him so much they cannot even speak peacefully to him.  Joseph dreams that his brothers will bow down to him, and he tells his brothers about the dream.  They hate him still more.  He doesn't really help himself much in this.  He has a second dream, and in it, not only his brothers but his father and mother bow to him.  He tells them all about the dream.  His father rebukes him, but remembers the dream.  His brothers are jealous of him.  2021 - It is interesting that in both cases, they all knew the interpretation of the dream.  No mystery.  They just resented the dream.

2024 - It seems Joseph had inherited a lot of his father's character traits.  He was younger, but saw himself as the rightful heir, the oldest, the one to be served.  He tried to tell them that because of these "mystical, prophetic dreams of the future" that they might as well start paying homage now, and not waste the time.  He has no idea how his words and actions will be perceived by others, no foresight or wisdom.  He seems a bit of a narcissist....or at least might be diagnosed as such in our day.  Though I guess being so open about his "rightful" position is not a very good narcissistic tactic, and in fact might get you sold to the Midianites!

Israel sends Joseph to check on his brothers at Dothan.  Not really a very wise idea...but it turns out God was behind it.  His brothers see him coming and plot to kill him.  But Reuben rescues him by having them throw Joseph in a pit instead of killing him outright.  Reuben's plan is to go back and rescue him from the pit and send him home.  While they are still there, a caravan of Ismaelites goes by.  Judah decides to sell Joseph as a slave to them, rather than to kill their own brother. 

Are Midianites and Ishmaelites the same?  Because it says:

28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. [Gen 37:28 ESV]

The pronouns are very confusing.  Does it mean Midianites came by.  Joseph's brothers, or Judah? pulled him up from the pit and sold him to the traders (the guys descended from Ishmael who now live in Midian?), and the traders, or the buyers or somebody, took Joseph to Egypt.

2021 - other translations imply that Midianite traders are Ishmaelites.  Midian shows up often as we go along.  Try to remember where they came from.  Same with Amalekites, descended from Amalek, Esau's grandson by a concubine.

Reuben comes to rescue Joseph, as planned, but he is not in the pit.  So Reuben was not with the other brothers when they also decide not to kill Joseph.  Reuben goes back to his brothers and tells them Joseph is gone.  But they apparently don't tell him that they sold him down the river.  Either that, or Judah had made the decision to sell Joseph all on his own, and none of them knew about it.  Does it matter to the story later?  They are all afraid when they learn Joseph's true identity in Egypt...but because they sold him, or because they didn't know what had really happened to him?  They all decide to put blood on Joseph's coat of many colors.  They take it to Israel, but don't technically lie to him about it all.  They ask Israel if this is Joseph's coat, and Israel identifies it as such.  He says that a wild animal doubtless tore him to pieces, and the brothers don't argue with him.

2025 - In vs 22 we see Reuben's plan.  He intended to return Joseph to Jacob.  Reuben first talks them out of killing Joseph outright and throwing him into a pit already dead, but agrees to throw Joseph in a pit alive.  Reuben's plan, all by his lonesome, is to go back and rescue Joseph from the pit and take him home.  Reuben was not in his father's favor at all.  Perhaps he thought by this means to recover some of the ground that he had previously lost. 

2025 - The Ishmaelites just happen to come along.  Judah decides it would be better to sell Joseph and get some money and send him far away as a slave than to kill him in the pit.  So even though Joseph is alive in the pit, they are apparently still arguing a bit over whether to go ahead and kill him or not.  Being his father's favorite, they cannot really let Joseph out of the pit at this point.  They can't let him go home or he will tattle on them as he always does. 

2025 - As it reads in the NASB95, "a caravan of Ismaelites" and "some Midianite traders" are essentially the same thing.  Or perhaps both Midianites AND Ismaelites passed by and they sold Joseph to the highest bidder - the Ishmaelites. 

2025 - Vs 29 confirms for us that Reuben had separated from his brothers, probably on some pretext, so he could rescue Joseph from the pit.  We know that Reuben is innocent of this move, because "behold" he was not in the pit.  Reuben is surprised to find Joseph missing.  He returns to his brothers greatly distressed.  He does not want to return to Jacob without Joseph.  He does not want to tell the true story of what has happened.  I cannot tell from the text whether the other brothers told Reuben what they had done.  It may well be that as far as Reuben knows, Joseph has disappeared from the pit and Reuben has no idea where to find him, and as the oldest - presumably the one in charge of his brothers and the flocks - this will all be considered Reuben's failure.  And he already has enough problems with Jacob.  So watch for any mention of Reuben as the story unfolds.  We might be able to piece together a little more of his role in all this.

2021 - vss 26, 27 make it clear that Judah proposes selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites.   So Judah gets credit for persuading his brothers not to murder Joseph.  They were all in on selling him into slavery.   Where was Reuben?  Why was Reuben acting alone, and why was he trying to rescue Joseph?  Rueben had convinced his brothers to throw Joseph into the pit, intending to rescue Joseph later.  To do that, Reuben would have had to separate himself from them.  But the Bible doesn't fill us in on these specifics.   We do know Reuben was successful and returns alone to the pit but Joseph is gone, and it does not seem like the others inform Rueben of the sale.  Is that right?  Just let Reuben wonder what had become of Joseph?  Because they didn't want to give him a share of the 20 shekels?  And did they keep this conspiracy quiet for the next, what, 20 years or so?  How does Reuben react when Joseph reveals himself?  Do we see a difference?

In the last verse of the chapter, it says the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh.  So this looks very much like the Ishmaelites they saw were from Midian.  And Joseph is now in the sphere of the Pharaoh of Egypt.