the Third Week after Easter
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The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible
Genesis 37:15
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A certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, "What are you looking for?"
And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
And a man found him, and behold, he was wandering about in a field. And the man asked him, "What do you seek?"
a man found him wandering in the field and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
When Joseph reached Shechem, a man found him wandering in the field, so the man asked him, "What are you looking for?"
Now a certain man found Joseph, and saw that he was wandering around and had lost his way in the field; so the man asked him, "What are you looking for?"
A man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field; and the man asked him, "What are you looking for?"
Then a man found him: for lo, hee was wandring in the fielde, and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
And a man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field; and the man asked him, "What are you seeking?"
and wandering through the fields, when a man asked, "What are you looking for?"
where a man found him wandering around in the countryside. The man asked him, "What are you looking for?"
And a man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the country; and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
At Shechem, Joseph got lost. A man found him wandering in the fields. The man said, "What are you looking for?"
And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, "What are you seeking?"
And a certain man found him while he was wandering in the field; and the man asked him, and said to him, What are you seeking?
and was wandering around in the country when a man saw him and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
A man found him there, wandering in the field, and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
And a man found him. And, behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, What do you seek?
Then a certayne man founde him, wandringe out of his waye in the felde, which axed him, and sayde: Whom sekest thou?
And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
And a man saw him wandering in the country, and said to him, What are you looking for?
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?
And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying: 'What seekest thou?'
And a certaine man found him, and behold, hee was wandring in the field, and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
And a man found him wandering in the field; and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
and a man foond hym errynge in the feeld, and `the man axide, what he souyte.
And a man findeth him, and lo, he is wandering in the field, and the man asketh him, saying, `What seekest thou?'
And a certain man found him, and, look, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What do you seek?
And a certain man found him, and behold [he was] wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
A certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, "What are you looking for?"
Now a certain man found him, and there he was, wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, "What are you seeking?"
When he arrived there, a man from the area noticed him wandering around the countryside. "What are you looking for?" he asked.
A man found him walking through a field, and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, "What are you seeking?"
And a man found him, and to! he was wandering about in the field, so the man asked him saying - What seekest thou?
And a man found him there wandering in the field, and asked what he sought.
And a man found him wandering in the fields; and the man asked him, "What are you seeking?"
A man met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
A man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field; and the man asked him, "What are you looking for?"
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
he was: Genesis 21:14
What: Judges 4:22, 2 Kings 6:19, John 1:38, John 4:27, John 18:4, John 18:7, John 20:15
Cross-References
Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar's shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to greet him and said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera dead, with a tent peg through his temple.
And Elisha told them, "This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are seeking." And he led them to Samaria.
Jesus turned and saw them following. "What do you want?" He asked. They said to Him, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are You staying?"
Just then, His disciples returned and were astonished that He was speaking with a woman. But no one asked Him, "What do You want from her?" or, "Why are You talking with her?"
Jesus, knowing all that was coming upon Him, stepped forward and asked them, "Whom are you seeking?"
So He asked them again, "Whom are you seeking?" "Jesus of Nazareth," they answered.
"Woman, why are you weeping?" Jesus asked. "Whom are you seeking?" Thinking He was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried Him off, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him."
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And a certain man found him,.... Many of the Jewish writers l say, this was an angel, the angel Gabriel, in the likeness of a man; but according to Aben Ezra, it was a traveller he met on the road; but it is more probable, as Schimidt observes, that it was some man at work in the field that came upon him and took notice of him:
and, behold, [he was] wandering in the field; in some field near Shechem, perhaps the same his father Jacob had purchased, and where he expected to have found his brethren, and was looking out for them, going to and fro in search of them; which the labouring man in the field observed:
and the man asked him, saying, what seekest thou? seeing him walking about, and first looking one way, and then another, concluded he was in search of something, either of some man or of some creature, a sheep or an ox that was lost; and therefore put this question to him, with a view to give him what direction and assistance he could.
l Pirke Eliezer, c. 38. Targum Jon. & Jarchi in loc.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- Joseph Was Sold into Egypt
17. ×ת×× dotayıÌn Dothain, âtwo wells?â (Gesenius)
25. × ××ת neko't âtragacanthâ or goatâs-thorn gum, yielded by the âastragalus gummiferâ, a native of Mount Lebanon. ×¦×¨× tseÌrıÌy âopobalsamum,â the resin of the balsam tree, growing in Gilead, and having healing qualities. ×× lotÌ£, ληÍδον leÌdon, âledum, ladanum,â in the Septuagint ÏÏακÏÎ·Ì stakteÌ. The former is a gum produced from the cistus rose. The latter is a gum resembling liquid myrrh.
36. פ×××פר poÌṭıÌyphar Potiphar, âbelonging to the sun.â
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 Jacobâs 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. âIn the land of his fatherâs sojournings.â This contrasts Jacob with Esau, who removed to Mount Seir. This notice precedes the phrase, âThese are the generations.â The corresponding sentence in the case of Isaac is placed at the end of the preceding section of the narrative Genesis 25:11. âThe son of seventeen years;â in his seventeenth year Genesis 37:32. âThe sons of Bilhah.â 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. âAn evil report of them.â 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 Jacobâs 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. âLoved Joseph.â He was the son of his best-loved wife, and of his old age; as Benjamin had not yet come into much notice. âA Coat of many colors.â 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 ÏιÏÏÌν ÏοικιÌÎ»Î¿Ï chitoÌn poikilos, a motley coat. âCould not bid peace to him.â 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
Josephâs 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. âFor his dreams and for his words.â 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 (ש×××× shaÌlom âpeace,â 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. âThis master of dreams;â an eastern phrase for a dreamer. âLet us slay him.â 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. âTo eat bread.â This shows the cold and heartless cruelty of their deed. âA caravanâ - a company of travelling merchants. âIshmaelites.â Ishmael left his fatherâs 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. âCame from Gilead;â 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. âSpicery.â This gum is called tragacanth, or goats-thorn gum, because it was supposed to be obtained from this plant. âBalm,â or balsam; an aromatic substance obtained from a plant of the genus Amyris, a native of Gilead. âMyrrhâ is the name of a gum exuding from the balsamodendron myrrha, growing in Arabia Felix. âLot,â 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. âTwenty silver pieces;â 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. âTorn, torn in pieces is Joseph.â The sight of the bloody coat convinces Jacob at once that Joseph has been devoured by a wild beast. âAll his daughters.â Only one daughter of Jacob is mentioned by name. These are probably his daughters-in-law. âTo the grave.â Sheol is the place to which the soul departs at death. It is so called from its ever craving, or being empty. âMinister.â This word originally means eunuch, and then, generally, any officer about the court or person of the sovereign. âCaptain of the guards.â 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.
