1Jaakob siedelte im Land der Gastschaft seines Vaters, im Land Kanaan. 2Dies sind die Zeugungen Jaakobs. Jossef, siebzehnjährig, war mit seinen Brüdern beim Weiden der Schafe, als Jungknecht mit den Söhnen Bilhas und den Söhnen Silpas, der Weiber seines Vaters. Jossef brachte ihren Ruf, einen bösen, vor ihren Vater. 3Es liebte aber Jissrael den Jossef über alle seine Söhne, denn ein Sohn des Alters war er ihm, und er machte ihm einen knöchellangen Leibrock. 4Als seine Brüder sahn, daß ihn ihr Vater über all seine Brüder liebte, haßten sie ihn, und sie vermochten nicht, ihn zum Frieden anzureden. 5Jossef träumte einen Traum und vermeldete ihn seinen Brüdern - seitdem haßten sie ihn noch mehr - , 6er sprach zu ihnen: Hört doch diesen Traum, den ich träumte: 7da, wir binden Garbenbündel inmitten des Felds, und da, meine Garbe richtet sich auf und steht auch schon, und da, eure Garben umringen sie und neigen sich vor meiner Garbe. 8Seine Brüder sprachen zu ihm: König sein möchtest gar, König über uns oder walten gern, walten du bei uns? Seitdem haßten sie ihn noch mehr, für seine Träume, für seine Reden. 9Er aber träumte nochmals, einen andern Traum, und erzählte ihn seinen Brüdern. Er sprach: Da, noch einen Traum habe ich geträumt: da, die Sonne und der Mond und elf Sterne neigen sich vor mir. 10Als ers seinem Vater und seinen Brüdern erzählte, schalt sein Vater ihn und sprach zu ihm: Was ist das für ein Traum, den du geträumt hast! kommen sollen wir, ich, deine Mutter und deine Brüder kommen, 11uns vor dir zur Erde zu neigen?! Seither neideten ihn seine Brüder. Aber sein Vater bewahrte die Rede. 12Seine Brüder gingen, die Schafe ihres Vaters in Sichem zu weiden. 13Jissrael sprach zu Jossef: Weiden nicht deine Brüder in Sichem? auf, ich will dich zu ihnen schicken. Er sprach zu ihm: Da bin ich.. 14Er aber sprach zu ihm: Geh doch, sieh nach dem Wohl deiner Brüder und nach dem Wohl der Schafe und erstatte mir Rede. So schickte er ihn aus dem Tal von Hebron, und er kam nach Sichem. 15Ein Mann fand ihn, da er auf dem Feld umirrte, und der Mann fragte ihn, sprechend: 16Was suchst du? Er sprach: Meine Brüder suche ich, melde mir doch, wo hier sie weiden. 17Der Mann sprach: Aufgebrochen sind sie von hinnen, denn ich hörte sie sprechen: Wir wollen nach Dotan gehn. Jossef ging seinen Brüdern nach und fand sie in Dotan. 18Sie sahen ihn von fern, und ehe er sich ihnen näherte, ränkelten sie wider ihn, ihn zu töten. 19Sie sprachen einer zum andern: Ach, da kommt ja jener Meister der Träume daher! 20und nun, auf, bringen wir ihn um und werfen wir ihn in eins der Wasserlöcher und sprechen: Ein böses Tier hat ihn gefressen! Dann laßt uns sehn, was aus seinen Träumen wird! 21Ruben hörte es und wollte ihn aus ihrer Hand retten, er sprach: Wir wollen ihn nicht am Leben schlagen. 22Ruben sprach zu ihnen: Nimmer sollt Blut ihr vergießen! werft ihn in dieses Loch in der Wüste, aber legt nicht Hand an ihn! - damit er ihn aus ihrer Hand rette, ihn zu seinem Vater zurückzuführen.. 23Es geschah, als Jossef zu seinen Brüdern kam: sie streiften Jossef seinen Leibrock ab, den knöchellangen Leibrock, den er anhatte, 24und nahmen ihn und warfen ihn ins Loch; das Loch aber war leer, kein Wasser drin. 25Und sie setzten sich, das Brot zu essen. Sie hoben ihre Augen und sahn: da kam ein Warenzug von Jischmaelitern einher, aus Gilad, ihre Kamele Tragant, Mastix und Ladanharz tragend, auf dem Gang, es hinab nach Ägypten zu führen. 26Jehuda sprach zu seinen Brüdern: Was ists für ein Gewinn, wenn wir unsern Bruder umbringen und sein Blut verhüllen? 27Auf, verkaufen wir ihn den Jischmaelitern, aber unsre Hand sei nicht an ihm, denn unser Bruder ist er, unser Fleisch! Und seine Brüder hörten zu. 28Derweil schritten Männer vorbei, Händler aus Midjan. Sie holten Jossef aus dem Loch herauf, und sie verkauften Jossef an die Jischmaeliter um zwanzig Silberstücke. Die aber ließen Jossef mitkommen nach Ägypten. 29Ruben kehrte ans Wasserloch zurück, da: Jossef war nicht mehr in dem Loch! Er zerriß seine Gewänder 30und kehrte zu seinen Brüdern und sprach: Das Kind ist nicht da! und ich, ach wo komme ich hin! 31Sie nahmen den Leibrock Jossefs, sie metzten einen Ziegenbock und tauchten den Leibrock ins Blut. 32Sie schickten den knöchellangen Leibrock fort,daß man damit zu ihrem Vater komme und spreche: Dies haben wir gefunden, betrachte doch, ob es deines Sohns Leibrock ist oder nicht. 33Er betrachtete ihn und sprach: Meines Sohns Leibrock! ein böses Tier hat ihn gefressen, zerfleischt, zerfleischt ist Jossef! 34Jaakob zerriß seine Gewänder, er legte das Sackleinen um seine Hüften und trauerte um seinen Sohn viele Tage. 35All seine Söhne und all seine Töchter standen auf, ihn zu trösten, er aber weigerte, sich trösten zu lassen. Er sprach: Nein, hinabfahren will ich zu meinem Sohn, trauernd, ins Gruftreich! So weinte sein Vater um ihn. 36Die Midjaniter aber hatten ihn nach Ägypten hin verkauft, dem Potifar, einem Höfling Pharaos, dem Obersten der Palastwache.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 Moses has no more to say of the Edomites, unless as they happen to fall in Israel's way; but now applies himself closely to the story of Jacob's family:
These are the generations of Jacob. His is not a bare barren genealogy as that of Esau (
Gen 36:1), but a memorable useful history. Here is, 1. Jacob a sojourner with his father Isaac, who has yet living,
Gen 37:1. We shall never be at home, till we come to heaven. 2. Joseph, a shepherd,
feeding the flock with his brethren, Gen 37:2. Though he was his father's darling, yet he was not brought up in idleness or delicacy. Those do not truly love their children that do not inure them to business, and labour, and mortification. The fondling of children is with good reason commonly called the spoiling of them. Those that are trained up to do nothing are likely to be good for nothing. 3. Joseph beloved by his father (
Gen 37:3), partly for his dear mother's sake that was dead, and partly for his own sake, because he was the greatest comfort of his old age; probably he waited on him, and was more observant of him than the rest of his sons; he was the
son of the ancient so some; that is, when he was a child, he was as grave and discreet as if he had been an old man, a child, but not childish. Jacob proclaimed his affection to him by dressing him finer than the rest of his children: He
made him a coat of divers colours, which probably was significant of further honors intended him. Note, Though those children are happy that have that in them which justly recommends them to their parents' particular love, yet it is the prudence of parents not to make a difference between one child and another, unless there be a great and manifest cause given for it by the children's dutifulness or undutifulness; paternal government must be impartial, and managed with a steady hand. 4. Joseph hated by his brethren, (1.) Because his father loved him; when parents make a difference, children soon take notice of it, and it often occasions feuds and quarrels in families. (2.) Because he
brought to his father their evil report. Jacob's sons did that, when they were from under his eye, which they durst not have done if they had been at home with him; but Joseph gave his father an account of their bad carriage, that he might reprove and restrain them; not as a malicious tale-bearer, to sow discord, but as a faithful brother, who, when he durst not admonish them himself, represented their faults to one that had authority to admonish them. Note, [1.] It is common for friendly monitors to be looked upon as enemies. Those that hate to be reformed hate those that would reform them,
Prov 9:8. [2.] It is common for those that are beloved of God to be hated by the world; whom Heaven blesses, hell curses. To those to whom God speaks comfortably wicked men will not speak peaceably. It is said here of Joseph,
the lad was with the sons of Bilhah; some read it, and he was
servant to them, they made him their drudge.
5 Here, I. Joseph relates the prophetical dreams he had,
Gen 37:6,
Gen 37:7,
Gen 37:9,
Gen 37:10. Though he was now very young (about seventeen years old), yet he was pious and devout, and well-inclined, and this fitted him for God's gracious discoveries of himself to him. Joseph had a great deal of trouble before him, and therefore God gave him betimes this prospect of his advancement, to support and comfort him under the long and grievous troubles with which he was to be exercised. Thus Christ had a
joy set before him, and so have Christians. Note, God has ways of preparing his people beforehand for the trials which they cannot foresee, but which he has an eye to in the comforts with which he furnishes them. His dreams were, 1. That his brethren's sheaves all bowed to his, intimating upon what occasion they should be brought to do homage to him, namely, in seeking to him for corn; their empty sheaves should bow to his full one. 2. That the sun, and moon, and eleven stars, did obeisance to him,
Gen 37:9. Joseph was more of a prophet than a politician, else he would have kept this to himself, when he could not but know that his brethren did already hate him and that this would but the more exasperate them. But, if he told it in his simplicity, yet God directed it for the mortification of his brethren. Observe, Joseph dreamed of his preferment, but he did not dream of his imprisonment. Thus many young people, when they are setting out in the world, think of nothing but prosperity and pleasure, and never dream of trouble.
II. His brethren take it very ill, and are more and more enraged against him (
Gen 37:8):
Shalt thou indeed reign over us? See here, 1. How truly they interpreted his dream, that he should reign over them. Those become the expositors of his dream who were enemies to the accomplishment of it, as in Gideon's story (
Judg 7:13,
Judg 7:14); they perceived that he spoke of them,
Matt 21:45. The event exactly answered to this interpretation,
Gen 42:6, etc. 2. How scornfully they resented it:
Shalt thou, who are but one,
reign over us, who are many? Thou, who are the youngest, over us who are older? Note, The reign and dominion of Jesus Christ, our Joseph, have been, and are, despised and striven against by a carnal and unbelieving world, who cannot endure to think that this man should reign over them. The dominion also of the upright, in the morning of the resurrection, is thought of with the utmost disdain.
III. His father gives him a gentle rebuke for it, yet observes the saying,
Gen 37:10,
Gen 37:11. Probably he checked him for it, to lessen the offence which his brethren would be apt to take at it; yet he took notice of it more than he seemed to do: he insinuated that it was but an idle dream, because his mother was brought in, who had been dead some time since; whereas
the sun, moon, and eleven stars, signify no more than the whole family that should have a dependence upon him, and be glad to be beholden to him. Note, The faith of God's people in God's promises is often sorely shaken by their misunderstanding the promises and then suggesting the improbabilities that attend the performance; but God is doing his own work, and will do it, whether we understand him aright or no. Jacob, like Mary (
Luke 2:51), kept these things in his heart, and no doubt remembered them long afterwards, when the event answered to the prediction.
12 Here is, I. The kind visit which Joseph, in obedience to his father's command, made to his brethren, who were feeding the flock at Shechem, many miles off. Some suggest that they went thither on purpose, expecting that Joseph would be sent to see them, and that then they should have an opportunity to do him a mischief. However, Joseph and his father had both of them more of the innocence of the dove than of the wisdom of the serpent, else he had never come thus into the hands of those that hated him: but God designed it all for good. See in Joseph an instance, 1. Of dutifulness to his father. Though he was his father's darling, yet he was made, and was willing to be, his father's servant. How readily does he wait his father's orders!
Here I am, Gen 37:13. Note, Those children that are best beloved by their parents should be most obedient to their parents; and then their love is well-bestowed and well-returned. 2. Of kindness to his brethren. Though he knew they hated him and envied him, yet he made no objections against his father's commands, either from the distance of the place or the danger of the journey, but cheerfully embraced the opportunity of showing his respect to his brethren. Note, It is a very good lesson, though it is learnt with difficulty and rarely practised,
to love those that hate us; if our relations do not their duty to us, yet we must not be wanting in our duty to them. This is thank-worthy. Joseph was sent by his father to Shechem, to see whether his brethren were well there, and whether the country had not risen upon them and destroyed them, in revenge of their barbarous murder of the Shechemites some years before. But Joseph, not finding them there, went to Dothan, which showed that he undertook this journey, not only in obedience to his father (for then he might have returned when he missed them at Shechem, having done what his father told him), but out of love to his brethren, and therefore he sought diligently till he found them. Thus, let brotherly love continue, and let us give proofs of it.
II. The bloody and malicious plot of his brethren against him, who rendered good for evil, and, for his love, were his adversaries. Observe, 1. How deliberate they were in the contrivance of this mischief: when they
saw him afar off, they conspired against him, Gen 37:18. It was not in a heat, or upon a sudden provocation, that they thought to slay him, but from malice prepense, and in cold blood. Note, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; for he will be one if he have an opportunity,
1John 3:15. Malice is a most mischievous thing, and is in danger of making bloody work where it is harboured and indulged. The more there is of a project and contrivance in a sin the worse it is; it is bad to do evil, but worse to devise it. 2. How cruel they were in their design; nothing less than his blood would satisfy them:
Come, and let us slay him, Gen 37:20. Note, The old enmity hunts for the precious life. It is the
blood-thirsty that
hate the upright (
Prov 29:10), and it is the blood of the saints that the harlot is drunk with. 3. How scornfully they reproached him for his dreams (
Gen 37:19):
This dreamer cometh; and (
Gen 37:20),
We shall see what will become of his dreams. This shows what it was that fretted and enraged them. They could not endure to think of doing homage to him; this was what they were plotting to prevent by the murder of him. Note, Men that fret and rage at God's counsels are impiously aiming to defeat them; but they imagine a vain thing,
Pss 2:1-
Pss 2:3. God's counsels will stand. 4. How they agreed to keep one another's counsel, and to cover the murder with a lie:
We will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him; whereas in thus consulting to devour him they proved themselves worse than the most evil beasts; for evil beasts prey not on those of their own kind, but they were tearing a piece of themselves.
III. Reuben's project to deliver him,
Gen 37:21,
Gen 37:22. Note, God can raise up friends for his people, even among their enemies; for he has all hearts in his hands. Reuben, of all the brothers, had most reason to be jealous of Joseph, for he was the first-born, and so entitled to those distinguishing favours which Jacob was conferring on Joseph; yet he proves his best friend. Reuben's temper seems to have been soft and effeminate, which had betrayed him to the sin of uncleanness; while the temper of the next two brothers, Simeon and Levi, was fierce, which betrayed them to the sin of murder, a sin which Reuben startled at the thought of. Note, Our natural constitution should be guarded against those sins to which it is most inclinable, and improved (as Reuben's here) against those sins to which it is most averse. Reuben made a proposal which they thought would effectually answer their intention of destroying Joseph, and yet which he designed should answer his intention of rescuing Joseph out of their hands and restoring him to his father, probably hoping thereby to recover his father's favour, which he had lately lost; but God overruled all to serve his own purpose of making Joseph an instrument to save much people alive. Joseph was here a type of Christ. Though he was the beloved Son of his Father, and hated by a wicked world, yet the Father sent him out of his bosom to visit us in great humility and love. He came from heaven to earth, to seek and save us; yet then malicious plots were laid against him. He came to his own, and his own not only received him not, but consulted against him:
This is the heir, come let us kill him; Crucify him, crucify him. This he submitted to, in pursuance of his design to redeem and save us.
23 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 their tender mercies,
Gen 37:24. Note, Where envy reigns pity is banished, and humanity itself is forgotten,
Prov 27:4. So full of deadly poison is malice that the more barbarous any thing is the more grateful it is. Now Joseph begged for his life, in
the anguish of his soul (
Gen 42:21), entreated, by all imaginable endearments, that they would be content with his coat and spare his life. He pleads innocence, relation, affection, submission; he weeps and makes supplication, but all in vain. Reuben alone relents and intercedes for him,
Gen 42:22. But he cannot prevail to save Joseph from the horrible pit, in which they resolve he shall die by degrees, and be buried alive. Is this he to whom his brethren must do homage? Note, God's providences often seem to contradict his purposes, even then they are serving them, and working at a distance towards the accomplishment of them. 3. They slighted him when he was in distress, and were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph; for when he was pining away in the pit, bemoaning his own misery, and with a languishing cry calling to them for pity,
they sat down to eat bread, Gen 37:25. (1.) They felt no remorse of conscience for the sin; if they had, it would have spoiled their appetite for their meat, and the relish of it. Note, A great force put upon conscience commonly stupefies it, and for the time deprives it both of sense and speech. Daring sinners are secure ones. But the consciences of Joseph's brethren, though asleep now, were roused long afterwards,
Gen 42:21. (2.) They were now pleased to think how they were freed from the fear of their brother's dominion over them, and that, on the contrary, they had turned the wheel upon him. They made merry over him, as the persecutors over the two witnesses that had tormented them,
Revel 11:10. Note, Those that oppose God's counsels may possibly prevail so far as to think they have gained their point, and yet be deceived. 4. They sold him. A caravan of merchants very opportunely passed by (Providence so ordering it), and Judah made the motion that they should sell Joseph to them, to be carried far enough off into Egypt, where, in all probability, he would be lost, and never heard of more. (1.) Judah proposed it in compassion to Joseph (
Gen 37:26):
What profit is it if we slay our brother? it will be less guilt, and more gain, to sell him. Note, When we are tempted to sin, we should consider the unprofitableness of it. It is what there is nothing to be got by. (2.) They acquiesced in it, because they thought that if he were sold for a slave he would never be a lord, if sold into Egypt he would never be their lord; yet all this was working towards it. Note, The wrath of man shall praise God, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain,
Pss 76:10. Joseph's brethren were wonderfully restrained from murdering him, and their selling him was as wonderfully turned to God's praise. As Joseph was sold by the contrivance of Judah for twenty pieces of silver, so was our Lord Jesus for thirty, and by one of the same name too,
Judas. Reuben (it seems) had gone away from his brethren, when they sold Joseph, intending to come round some other way to the pit, and to help Joseph out of it, and return him safely to his father. This was a kind project, but, if it had taken effect, what had become of God's purpose concerning his preferment in Egypt? Note, There are many devices in man's heart, many devices of the enemies of God's people to destroy them and of their friends to help them, which perhaps are both disappointed, as these were; but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. Reuben thought himself undone, because the child was sold:
I, whither shall I go? Gen 37:30. He being the eldest, his father would expect from him an accounts of Joseph; but, as it proved, they would all have been undone if he had not been sold.
31 I. Joseph would soon be missed, great enquiry would be made for him, and therefore his brethren have a further design, to make the world believe that Joseph was torn in pieces by a wild beast; and this they did, 1. To clear themselves, that they might not be suspected to have done him any mischief. Note, We have all learned of Adam to cover our transgression,
Job 31:33. When the devil has taught men to commit one sin, he then teaches them to conceal it with another, theft and murder with lying and perjury; but he that covers his sin shall not prosper long. Joseph's brethren kept their own and one another's counsel for some time, but their villany came to light at last, and it is here published to the world, and the remembrance of it transmitted to every age. 2. To grieve their good father. It seems designed by them on purpose to be revenged upon him for his distinguishing love of Joseph. It was contrived on purpose to create the utmost vexation to him. They sent him Joseph's coat of many colours, with one colour more than it had had, a bloody colour,
Gen 37:32. They pretended they had found it in the fields, and Jacob himself must be scornfully asked,
Is this thy son's coat? Now the badge of his honour is the discovery of his fate; and it is rashly inferred from the bloody coat that
Joseph, without doubt, is rent in pieces. Love is always apt to fear the worst concerning the person beloved; there is a love that casteth out fear, but that is a perfect love. Now let those that know the heart of a parent suppose the agonies of poor Jacob, and put their souls into his soul's stead. How strongly does he represent to himself the direful idea of Joseph's misery! Sleeping or waking, he imagines he sees the wild beast setting upon Joseph, thinks he hears his piteous shrieks when the lion roared against him, makes himself tremble and grow chill, many a time, when he fancies how the beast sucked his blood, tore him limb from limb, and left no remains of him, but the coat of many colours, to carry the tidings. And no doubt it added no little to the grief that he had exposed him, by sending him, and sending him all alone, on this dangerous journey, which proved so fatal to him. This cuts him to the heart, and he is ready to look upon himself as an accessory to the death of his son. Now, (1.) Endeavours were used to comfort him. His sons basely pretended to do it (
Gen 37:35); but miserable hypocritical comforters were they all. Had they really desired to comfort him, they might easily have done it, by telling him the truth, Joseph is alive, he is indeed sold into Egypt, but it will be an easy thing to send thither and ransom him. This would have
loosened his sackcloth, and girded him with gladness presently. I wonder their countenances did not betray their guilt, and with what face they could pretend to condole with Jacob on the death of Joseph, when they knew he was alive. Note, The heart is strangely hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. But, (2.) It was all in vain:
Jacob refused to be comforted, Gen 37:35. He was an obstinate mourner, resolved to go down to the grave mourning. It was not a sudden transport of passion, like that of David,
Would God I had died for thee, my son, my son! But, like Job, he hardened himself in sorrow. Note, [1.] Great affection to any creature does not prepare for so much the greater affliction, when it is either removed from us or embittered to us. Inordinate love commonly ends in immoderate grief; as much as the sway of the pendulum throws one way, so much it will throw the other way. [2.] Those consult neither the comfort of their souls nor the credit of their religion that are determined in their sorrow upon any occasion whatsoever. We must never say, We will go to our grave mourning, because we know not what joyful days Providence may yet reserve for us, and it is our wisdom and duty to accommodate ourselves to Providence. [3.] We often perplex ourselves with imaginary troubles. We fancy things worse than they are, and then afflict ourselves more than we need. Sometimes there needs no more to comfort us than to undeceive us: it is good to hope the best.
II. The Ishmaelites and Midianites having bought Joseph only to make their market of him, here we have him sold again (with gain enough to the merchants, no doubt) to Potiphar,
Gen 37:36. Jacob was lamenting the loss of his life; had he known all he would have lamented, though not so passionately, the loss of liberty. Shall Jacob's freeborn son exchange the best robe of his family for the livery of an Egyptian lord, and all the marks of servitude? How soon was the land of Egypt made a house of bondage to the seed of Jacob! Note, It is the wisdom of parents not to bring up their children too delicately, because they know not to what hardships and mortifications Providence may reduce them before they die. Jacob little thought that ever his beloved Joseph would be thus bought and sold for a servant.
