Genesis 37:18-30

To J we may assign Genesis 37:18 b (and before, etc.), Genesis 37:21 (substituting Judah for Reuben), Genesis 37:23; Genesis 37:25; Genesis 37:27 (and sold to silver), to E Genesis 37:18 a, Genesis 37:19 f., Genesis 37:22; Genesis 37:24; Genesis 37:28 (And there. pit, And they. Egypt), Genesis 37:29 f. According to J the brothers, seeing Joseph coming, conspire to murder him. Judah dissuades them from actual murder. When Joseph arrives, they strip off his hated coat. While at food, they see approaching an Ishmaelite caravan, travelling to Egypt with gums (used for embalming). Judah urges the tie of brotherhood and the more profitable course of selling him for a slave than killing him, and then covering the blood to stifle its cry for vengeance (Genesis 4:10 *). So they sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels, and the Ishmaelites take him to Egypt. According to E, the brothers, seeing Joseph in the distance, plot to murder him and cast him into a pit, and ascribe his death to a wild beast, then they will see what will become of his dreams. Reuben proposes that they should put him in a pit and leave him to die, to avoid the risk they will incur by shedding blood, intending to return when his brothers had left, and to rescue him. So Joseph was put into the pit [and the brothers abandoned him to his fate. After their departure] Midianite merchants pass by, discover Joseph, lift him out of the pit and take him to Egypt, where they sell him to Potiphar, (Genesis 37:36). Reuben returns that he may rescue Joseph, only to find him gone, and then goes back to his brothers with a despairing cry. Observe that this representation of Joseph as kid- napped rather than sold by his brothers is confirmed by Genesis 40:15, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews.

Genesis 37:31. The analysis is uncertain. According to one narrative, the brothers seem to have sent Joseph's coat to Jacob, after dipping it in goat's blood, according to the other to have brought the coat to him as it was; but possibly, according to one, they brought the stained coat, according to the other sent the unstained. On Genesis 37:34 see p. 110. vv. Genesis 37:36 concludes E's narrative; the Midianites sold Joseph into Egypt to Potiphar. If the text were a unity the Midianites would have been the Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:28). The Ishmaelites are mentioned as selling him in Genesis 39:1. Potiphar probably represents the Egyptian Pedephrç, He whom the sun-god gives. He was a eunuch (not officer as RV), and chief of the court cooks or butchers. They seem to have become the royal bodyguard.