the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Genesis 37:26
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- CondensedParallel Translations
Yehudah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
Then Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and hide his death?
Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
Judah said to his brothers, "What do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood (murder)?
And Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood?
Then Iudah said vnto his brethren, What auaileth it, if we slay our brother, though wee keepe his blood secret?
And Judah said to his brothers, "What gain is it that we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
So Judah said, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and hide his body?
Y'hudah said to his brothers, "What advantage is it to us if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
And Judah said to his brethren, What profit is it that we kill our brother and secrete his blood?
Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up the murder?
Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
And Judah said to his brothers, What gain is it that we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
Then saide Iuda vnto his brethre: what helpeth it vs, that we sleye oure brother, and hyde his bloude?
And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?
And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in putting our brother to death and covering up his blood?
And Iuda sayde vnto his brethren: What auayleth it yf we slay our brother, and kepe his blood secrete?
And Judah said unto his brethren: 'What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?
And Iudah saide vnto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceale his blood?
And Judas said to his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?
Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
Therfor Judas seide to hise britheren, What schal it profite to vs, if we schulen sle oure brother, and schulen hide his blood?
And Judah saith unto his brethren, `What gain when we slay our brother, and have concealed his blood?
And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?
And Judah said to his brethren, What profit [is it] if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood.
Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
So Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain by killing our brother? We'd have to cover up the crime.
Judah said to his brothers, "What do we get by killing our brother and covering his blood?
Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
So Judah said unto his brethren, - What profit that we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
And Juda said to his brethren: What will it profit us to kill our brother, and conceal his blood?
Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?
Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood?
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
What profit: Genesis 25:32, Psalms 30:9, Jeremiah 41:8, Matthew 16:26, Romans 6:21
conceal: Genesis 37:20, Genesis 4:10, Deuteronomy 17:8, 2 Samuel 1:16, Job 16:18, Ezekiel 24:7
Reciprocal: Genesis 44:31 - servants shall Esther 7:4 - But if we Psalms 76:10 - Surely Proverbs 12:10 - but Jeremiah 36:25 - made Zechariah 11:5 - sell Matthew 26:15 - thirty
Cross-References
Then the Lord said, "What have you done? You killed your brother and the ground opened up to take his blood from your hands. Now his blood is shouting to me from the ground. So you will be cursed from this ground.
Esau said, "I am almost dead with hunger, so what good are these rights to me now?"
We should kill him now while we can. We could throw his body into one of the empty wells and tell our father that a wild animal killed him. Then we will show him that his dreams are useless."
"There might be some problems that are too hard for your courts to judge. It might be a murder case or an argument between two people. Or it might be a fight in which someone was hurt. When these cases are argued in your towns, your judges there might not be able to decide what is right. Then you must go to the special place that the Lord your God will choose.
"Earth, don't hide the wrong things that were done to me. Don't let my begging for fairness be stopped.
I said, "What good is it if I die and go down to the grave? The dead just lie in the dirt. They cannot praise you. They cannot tell anyone how faithful you are.
Jerusalem is like a pot with rust on it. This is because the blood from the murders is still there! She put the blood on the bare rock. She did not pour the blood on the ground and cover it with dirt.
It is worth nothing for you to have the whole world if you yourself are lost. You could never pay enough to buy back your life.
You did evil things, and now you are ashamed of what you did. Did those things help you? No, they only brought death.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And Judah said unto his brethren,.... In sight of the Ishmaelites, a thought came into his mind to get Joseph sold to them;
what profit [is it] if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? it could be no advantage to them even if they could have concealed his blood from men; and if it was discovered, as it would, in all likelihood, by come means or another, then they must be answerable for it; and if not, God would take vengeance on them, from whom they could never conceal it; and therefore it would be most profitable and advantageous to them to sell him, and not destroy him, or take away his life; and to suffer him to lie in the pit and die was the same thing.
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.
