to sell · conjunction + verb, qal, 1st person common plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Ishmeelites
לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִ֗יםlai.yish.me.'e.Lim
H3459
a Jishmaelite or descendant of Jishmael · preposition with the article + noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
hand
וְיָדֵ֙נוּ֙ve.ya.De.nu
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix
brother
אָחִ֥ינוּ'a.Chi.nu
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
flesh
בְשָׂרֵ֖נוּve.sa.Re.nu
H1320
flesh (from its freshness) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
brethren
אֶחָֽיו'e.Chav
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
content
וַֽיִּשְׁמְע֖וּvai.yish.me.'U
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 42:21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and…
Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
1 Samuel 18:17 And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the LORD’s batt…
Genesis 29:14 And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month.
Genesis 37:22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid…
Exodus 21:16 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
Exodus 21:21 Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.
2 Samuel 11:14-17 And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 37:23-30
We have here the execution of their plot against Joseph. 1. They stripped him, each striving to seize the envied coat of many colours, Gen 37:23. Thus, in imagination, they degraded him from the birthright, of which perhaps this was the badge, grieving him, affronting their father, and making themselves sport, while they insulted over him. "Now, Joseph, where is the fine coat?" Thus our Lord Jesus was stripped of his seamless coat, and thus his suffering saints have first been industriously divested of their privileges and honours, and then made the off-scouring of all things. 2. They went about to starve him, throwing him into a dry pit, to perish there with hunger and cold, so cruel were t…
Judah said, . . . What profit is it if we slay our brother?--The sight of these travelling merchants gave a sudden turn to the views of the conspirators; for having no wish to commit a greater degree of crime than was necessary for the accomplishment of their end, they readily approved of Judah's suggestion to dispose of their obnoxious brother as a slave. The proposal, of course, was founded on their knowledge that the Arabian merchants trafficked in slaves; and there is the clearest evidence furnished by the monuments of Egypt that the traders who were in the habit of bringing slaves from the countries through which they passed, found a ready market in the cities of the Nile.
they . . .…
They sat down to eat bread - Every act is perfectly in character, and describes forcibly the brutish and diabolic nature of their ruthless souls.
A company of Ishmaelites - We may naturally suppose that this was a caravan, composed of different tribes that, for their greater safety, were traveling together, and of which Ishmaelites and Midianites made the chief. In the Chaldee they are called Arabians, which, from ערב arab, to mingle, was in all probability used by the Targumist as the word Arabians is used among us, which comprehends a vast number of clans, or tribes of people. The Jerusalem Targum calls them סרקין Sarkin, what we term Saracens. In the Persian, the clause stands thus: karav…
The Church Fathers
Also, to signify the figure of the Lord's Passion, Judah the patriarch says: Let us sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites: but let not our hands be upon him. And earlier he had said well: But let not our hands be upon him. What the Jews said in the Lord's Passion: It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. This is to fulfill Jesus' words, signifying by what death He would die.
And so that we may understand that all this concerning the people and the mystery of the Lord Jesus: Come, he says, let us sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites. What is the interpretation of the name Joseph, except that it signifies divine grace and the expression of the highest God? Who, therefore, is sold, except he who, while being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God: but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant? For we would not have sent him, if they had not sold him. Those who sold him did a bad job, those who bought him did even worse. They sold a good odor to merchants, they bought a traitor. Judas sold him, the Ishmaelites bought him, who are called in Latin interpretation, hating their God. Therefore, in one place we find him bought for twenty, in another place for twenty-five gold coins, in another place for thirty; because Christ is not valued by everyone at the same price. To some less, to others more. Faith is the increase of goods: to the religious, God is more precious, to the sinner, the redeemer is more precious. He is also more worth to whom more grace has been given; but even to whom many things have been given, he is more worth; because to whom more has been forgiven, he loves more, as the Lord himself pronounced in the Gospel concerning that woman who poured ointment on his feet, and washed them with her tears, and wiped them with her hair, and dried them with kisses, of whom he said to Simon: For which reason I say to you: Her many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much. But to whom less is forgiven, less He loves.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ishmael — God hears. (1.) Abraham’s eldest son, by Hagar the concubine (Gen. 16:15; 17:23). He was born at Mamre, when Abraham was eighty-six years of age, eleven years after his arrival in Canaan (16:3;…
Ishmeelite — (1 Chronicles 2:17) and Ish’me-elites (descendants of Ishmael), (Genesis 37:25,27,28; 39:1) the form in which the descendants of Ishmael are given in a few places in the Authorized Version.
Judah — Praise, the fourth son of Jacob by Leah. The name originated in Leah’s words of praise to the Lord on account of his birth: “Now will I praise [Heb. odeh] Jehovah, and she called his name Yehudah”…
Reuben — Behold a son!, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:32). His sinful conduct, referred to in Gen. 35:22, brought down upon him his dying father’s malediction (48:4). He showed kindness to Joseph,…
Commerce · General references — General references
Intercession · . — .
Ishmaelites · Merchants of, buy Joseph — Merchants of, buy Joseph
Jealousy · .Joseph’s brothers, of Joseph — .Joseph’s brothers, of Joseph
Joseph · .His father’s partiality for, excites the jealousy of his brethren — .His father’s partiality for, excites the jealousy of his brethren
Judah · kill him, and proposes that they sell him to the Ishmaelites — kill him, and proposes that they sell him to the Ishmaelites
Reuben · Adroitly seeks to save Joseph from the conspiracy of his brothers — Adroitly seeks to save Joseph from the conspiracy of his brothers
Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites,.... For a slave, and that will defeat his dream; and as these were going down to Egypt, where they would sell him, he would be far enough from them, and there would be no probability of his ever being lord over them:
and let not our hand be upon him; to take away his life, either by stabbing or starving him:
for he is our brother, and our flesh; they had all one father, though different mothers, and therefore, as the relation was so near, some sympathy and compassion should be shown; some degree of tenderness at least, and not savageness and cruelty:
and his brethren were content; they agreed to the motion, inasmuch as they supposed it would a…
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; yea, 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 lest, by the righteous anger of God, the same lethargy should seize upon 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…
Reuben had saved Joseph's life indeed by his proposal; but his intention to send him back to his father was frustrated. For as soon as the brethren sat down to eat, after the deed was performed, they saw a company of Ishmaelites from Gilead coming along the road which leads from Beisan past Jenin (Rob. Pal. iii. 155) and through the plain of Dothan to the great caravan road that runs from Damascus by Lejun (Legio, Megiddo), Ramleh, and Gaza to Egypt (Rob. iii. 27, 178). The caravan drew near, laden with spices: viz., נכאת, gum-tragacanth; צרי, balsam, for which Gilead was celebrated (Gen 43:11; Jer 8:22; Jer 46:11); and לט, ladanum, the fragrant resin of the cistus-rose. Judah seized the opp…
Judah began to exercise leadership that he would continue to develop as events unfolded (see 43:8-10).
Rashi on Genesis 37:27
וישמעו AND THEY HEARKENED — The Targum renders this by “and they accepted it from him” (i.e., they agreed with him). Wherever the verb שמע means agreeing with a person’s statement — obeying — as here, and as (28:7) “and Jacob had hearkened (וישמע) to his father”, and (Exodus 24:7) “We will do and we will obey (ונשמע)” it is translated in the Targum by קבל “accepting”, but wherever it merely means hearing with the ear, as e. g. (3:8) “And they heard (וישמעו) the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden”, and (27:5) “and Rebecca heard (שומעת;”, and (31:1) “And Israel heard (וישמע)”, and (Exodus 16:12) “I have heard (שמעתי) the murmurings of the children of Israel”, — all such cases are rend…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
