Genesis 37:12

Bishop's Bible

His brethren also went to kepe his fathers cattell in Sichem.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
His brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shekhem.

King James Version
And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

Lexham English Bible
Now his brothers went to pasture the flock of their father in Shechem.

New Century Version
One day Joseph's brothers went to Shechem to graze their father's flocks.

New English Translation
When his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem,

Amplified Bible
Then his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem.

New American Standard Bible
Then his brothers went to pasture their father's flock in Shechem.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then his brethren went to keepe their fathers sheepe in Shechem.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then his brothers went to pasture their father's flock in Shechem.

Contemporary English Version
One day when Joseph's brothers had taken the sheep to a pasture near Shechem,

Complete Jewish Bible
(ii) After this, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father's sheep in Sh'khem,

Darby Translation
And his brethren went to feed their father's flock at Shechem.

Easy-to-Read Version
One day Joseph's brothers went to Shechem to care for their father's sheep.

English Standard Version
Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem.

George Lamsa Translation
And Josephs brothers went to feed their fathers, flock in Shechem.

Good News Translation
One day when Joseph's brothers had gone to Shechem to take care of their father's flock,

Christian Standard Bible®
His brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem.

Literal Translation
And his brothers went to feed the flock of their father in Shechem.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Now wha his brethren were gone forth to kepe their fathers catell in Siche,

American Standard Version
And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

Bible in Basic English
Now his brothers went to keep watch over their father's flock in Shechem.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

King James Version (1611)
And his brethren went to feed their fathers flocke in Shechem.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And his brethren went to feed the sheep of their father to Sychem.

English Revised Version
And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

Berean Standard Bible
Some time later, Joseph's brothers had gone to pasture their father's flocks near Shechem.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and whanne his britheren dwelliden in Sichem, aboute flockis of the fadir `to be kept,

Young's Literal Translation
And his brethren go to feed the flock of their father in Shechem,

Update Bible Version
And his brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

Webster's Bible Translation
And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

World English Bible
His brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

New King James Version
Then his brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

New Living Translation
Soon after this, Joseph's brothers went to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem.

New Life Bible
Then his brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

New Revised Standard
Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now his brethren went their way, - to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And when his brethren abode in Sechem, feeding their father’s flocks,

Revised Standard Version
Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem.

THE MESSAGE
His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing their father's flocks. Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers are with flocks in Shechem. Come, I want to send you to them." Joseph said, "I'm ready."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then his brothers went to pasture their father's flock in Shechem.

Contextual Overview

¹² His brethren also went to kepe his fathers cattell in Sichem. ¹³ And Israel sayde vnto Ioseph: do not thy brethren kepe in Sichem? come, and I wyll sende thee to them. ¹⁴ He aunswered: here am I. And he sayde vnto hym: Go [I praye thee] see whether it be well with thy brethren and the cattell, and bryng me worde agayne. And so he sent hym out of the vale of Hebron, & he came to Sichem. ¹⁵ And a certayne man founde hym, and beholde he was wandryng out of his waye in the fielde, and the man asked hym: what sekest thou? ¹⁶ He aunswered: I seke my brethren, tell me I praye thee where they kepe [cattell] ¹⁷ And the man sayde, They are departed hence: for I haue hearde them say, let vs go vnto Dothan. Thus went Ioseph after his brethren, and founde them in Dothan. ¹⁸ And when they sawe hym a farre of, before he came at them, they toke councell agaynst hym for to slea hym. ¹⁹ For one sayde to another: behold, this notable dreamer commeth. ²⁰ Come nowe therefore and let vs slaye hym, and cast hym into some pit, and we wyll say, some naughtie beast hath deuoured hym: and we shall see what wyll come of his dreames. ²¹ When Ruben hearde that, he ryd hym out of their handes, and sayde: let vs not kyll hym.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

in Shechem: Genesis 37:1, Genesis 33:18, Genesis 34:25-31

Reciprocal: Genesis 46:34 - Thy servants' Joshua 17:7 - Shechem 2 Chronicles 10:1 - Shechem

Cross-References

Genesis 33:18
And Iacob came to Sale, a citie of Sichem, whiche is in the lande of Chanaan, after that he was come from Mesopotamia, and pitched before the citie.

Genesis 37:1
Iacob dwelt in the land wherin his father was long a straunger, euen in ye lande of Chanaan.

Genesis 37:25
And they sate them downe to eate bread: and as they lyft vp their eyes and loked about, and behold there came a company of Ismaelites from Gilead, and their camelles laden with spicerie, bawlme, and mirrhe, and were goyng downe ta cary it to Egypt.

Genesis 37:31
And they toke Iosephes coate, and kylled a kyd, and dipped the coate in the blood.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. Very probably some considerable time after the telling of the above dreams; it was usual to remove flocks from place to place for the sake of pasturage; and sometimes at a great distance, as Shechem was from Hebron, where Jacob now dwelt, said i to be about sixty miles; but this is not so much to be marvelled at as the place itself, whither they went, for though Jacob had bought a parcel of a field in this place, Genesis 33:19; which might be a reason for their going thither to feed their father's flocks in his own field; yet it was the place where they had committed a most outrageous action in destroying all, the males there, and therefore might fear the inhabitants of the neighbouring cities would rise upon them and cut them off.

i Bunting's Travels, p. 79. Ainsworth in loc.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

- Joseph Was Sold into Egypt

17. דתין dotayı̂n Dothain, “two wells?” (Gesenius)

25. נכאת n^eko'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 seed, 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.

Genesis 37:1-5

Joseph is the favorite of his father, but not of his brethren. “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. “The son of seventeen years;” in his seventeenth year Genesis 37:32. “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. “An evil report of them.” 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 out to view in the chosen family. “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. “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. “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.

Genesis 37:5-11

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. “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.

Genesis 37:12-17

Joseph is sent to Dothan. Shekem 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 Shekem, where he learns that they had removed to Dothan, a town about twelve miles due north of Shekem.

Genesis 37:18-24

His brothers cast him into a pit. “This master of dreams;” an eastern phrase for a dreamer. “Let us slay him.” They had a foreboding that his dreams might prove true, and that he would become their arbitrary master. This thought at all events 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.

Genesis 37:25-30

Reuben rips his clothes when he finds Joseph gone. “To eat bread.” This shows the cold and heartless cruelty of their deed. “A caravan” - a company of travelling merchants. “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 furthest. 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. “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. “Spicery.” This gum is called tragacanth, or goats-thorn gum, because it was supposed to be obtained from this plant. “Balm,” or balsam; an aromatic substance obtained from a plant of the genus Amyris, a native of Gilead. “Myrrh” 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 mere variations apparently 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. “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 man-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.

Genesis 37:31-36

The brothers contrive to conceal their crime; and Joseph is sold into Egypt. “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. “All his daughters.” Only one daughter of Jacob is mentioned by name. These are probably his daughters-in-law. “To the grave.” Sheol is the place to which the soul departs at death. It is so called from its ever craving, or being empty. “Minister.” This word originally means eunuch, and then, generally, any officer about the court or person of the sovereign. “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 manifest, 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 standeth sure, and fixed is his purpose to bring salvation to the whole race of man, by means of his special covenant with Abraham.