Commentary - Genesis 37:18-36

Bird's-eye view

This passage is a hinge in the history of redemption. It is a story of rank treachery, of familial hatred boiling over into a murderous plot, and of the cold-blooded execution of a lesser, but still wicked, plan. But behind the wickedness of men, we see the intricate and unstoppable providence of God. The brothers meant it for evil, as Joseph will later testify, but God meant it for good (Gen. 50:20). This is not a platitude; it is the bedrock of our faith. God is not in Heaven wringing His hands over the sinful choices of men. He is the grand playwright, and even the villains in His story are hitting their marks perfectly, all to His glory. The hatred of the brothers for Joseph is the dark velvet on which God will display the diamond of His sovereign grace, setting in motion the events that will save the family of the covenant, and ultimately bring the Messiah into the world.

The central conflict is driven by envy. Joseph is the favored son, marked out by his father's foolish partiality with a special tunic, and marked out by God with prophetic dreams. The brothers despise him for both. Their hatred is not a small thing; it is a murderous rage that sees his approach as an opportunity for fratricide. We see different degrees of wickedness among them, from Reuben's weak attempt to save Joseph to Judah's pragmatic proposal to profit from him, but none of them are righteous. They are a band of sinners, and their actions here demonstrate the depth of depravity that lurks in the heart of man. Yet, in the midst of this sordid affair, God is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph. 1:11), guiding the Ishmaelite caravan, positioning Judah to speak, and steering Joseph toward the house of Potiphar, all as part of His great plan to save His people.

Outline

Context In Genesis

This chapter is a turning point. The focus of the Genesis narrative, which has been on the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, now shifts decisively to Joseph and his generation. The family of the covenant is a mess. Jacob's poor leadership, his blatant favoritism, and the resulting sibling rivalry have created a toxic environment. This is not a model family; it is a case study in dysfunction. And yet, this is the family through whom God has chosen to bring salvation to the world. God does not choose perfect people to accomplish His purposes; He chooses sinners, and His grace is magnified against the backdrop of their sin.

The events here set the stage for the next major movement in redemptive history: Israel's sojourn in Egypt. Joseph's descent into Egypt, though orchestrated by the malice of his brothers, is the means by which God will preserve the covenant line from a coming famine. This is a classic example of what we call hard providence. The events are brutal and unjust, but God is sovereign over them, weaving them into His perfect plan. This story is a microcosm of the gospel itself: the beloved son is hated, rejected by his own brothers, cast into a pit, and sold for the price of a slave, all of which leads to the salvation of his people.

Key Issues

Beginning: The Treachery of the Heart

18 And they saw him from a distance, and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. The distance gave them time. Time for the poison of their envy to work. Time for the seed of hatred to sprout into a fully-formed conspiracy. This was not a crime of passion, a sudden flare-up. This was premeditated murder, conceived in cold blood. The sight of Joseph, likely wearing that ridiculous coat, was enough to set them off. Their hearts were already prepared for this kind of wickedness.

19 Then they said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer! The title is meant as a sneer. They despise his dreams because they despise the God who gave them. The dreams spoke of their submission to him, and their pride could not stomach it. They are not just mocking Joseph; they are mocking the revelation of God. This is the heart of all rebellion against God. We don't like what He says, we don't like His plans, and so we seek to eliminate the messenger.

20 So now, come and let us kill him and cast him into one of the pits; and we will say, ‘A wild beast devoured him.’ Then let us see what will become of his dreams!” Here is the logic of sinful men laid bare. First, the violent act: "let us kill him." Second, the cover-up: "cast him into one of the pits" and invent a lie. Third, the defiant challenge to God: "Then let us see what will become of his dreams!" They believe that by killing the dreamer, they can kill the dream. They think their violence can thwart the declared purpose of Almighty God. This is the folly of every sinner, from Cain to the Pharisees who plotted against Christ. They think they can win a fight against providence. They cannot.

21 But Reuben heard this and delivered him out of their hands and said, “Let us not strike down his life.” Reuben, as the firstborn, had a responsibility to lead, and here he makes a feeble attempt. He is not motivated by righteousness, but likely by a desire to avoid the primary guilt and perhaps to curry favor with his father later. His intervention is a half-measure. He doesn't confront the sin of his brothers head-on. He doesn't rebuke their murderous hatred. He just tries to mitigate the damage.

22 Reuben further said to them, “Shed no blood. Cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not put forth your hands against him”, that he might deliver him out of their hands to return him to his father. Reuben's plan is clever, but weak. He appeals to their desire to avoid the direct stain of bloodshed, a kind of superstitious piety that wicked men often have. They don't want blood on their hands, literally, but they are fine with leaving their brother to die of exposure or starvation in a pit. Reuben's private intention is to rescue Joseph later. But his compromised leadership fails. He is not there when the real decision is made.

23 Now it happened, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him; The first thing they do is strip him of the symbol of his father's favor. This is an act of pure spite. That coat was a constant reminder of their father's sin of partiality and of their own secondary status. By tearing it from him, they are symbolically tearing down his position in the family. It is an act of degradation and humiliation.

24 and they took him and cast him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it. They follow Reuben's compromised plan. The detail that the pit was empty and dry is significant. It means he would not drown immediately, but it also means he had no source of water. It was a sentence of a slower, more agonizing death. This was their "compromise." This was their idea of mercy.

The Price of a Brother

25 And they sat down to eat a meal. This is one of the most chilling verses in the entire story. Their brother is in a pit, likely crying out to them, and they sit down to have lunch. Their consciences are so seared that they can commit this heinous act and then calmly eat a sandwich. This reveals a depth of callousness that is truly staggering. It is a picture of hearts completely hardened by sin.

Then they lifted up their eyes and saw, and behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, going to bring them down to Egypt. And here, providence walks onto the stage disguised as a camel caravan. The brothers see a business opportunity. God sees the chariot that will carry His chosen one to his destiny. The timing is not an accident. God is working all things together. The spices they carry are for embalming and preservation, a subtle hint that this journey, which looks like death, is actually for the preservation of life.

26 And Judah said to his brothers, “What gain is it that we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Judah now steps forward. His reasoning is not based on morality or brotherly affection, but on pragmatism. "What profit is in it?" This is the language of the marketplace, not the family. He sees Joseph not as a brother, but as an asset to be liquidated. His argument is that murder is a waste of a perfectly good opportunity to make some money.

27 Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. He acknowledges that Joseph is "our brother, our own flesh" in the same breath that he proposes selling him like a head of cattle. This is how sin works. It allows us to hold two completely contradictory thoughts in our minds at the same time. We can justify the most wicked actions with a veneer of sentimentality. And the brothers, being men of like mind, agree. Selling him is cleaner than murder, and it turns a profit.

28 Then some Midianite traders passed by, so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt. The transaction is completed. The price, twenty shekels of silver, was the standard price for a male slave under the age of twenty according to the Law of Moses (Lev. 27:5). They sold the beloved son for the price of a slave. The parallel to Christ, sold by one of his own for thirty pieces of silver, is unmistakable. Joseph's journey into Egypt, into the heart of the gentile world, begins. He is being sent ahead by God to prepare a place for his people.

A Father Deceived

29 Then Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he tore his garments. Reuben's plan has failed. His half-hearted attempt at righteousness has come to nothing. His distress seems genuine, but it is the distress of a man whose self-serving plan has been thwarted. He is not mourning for Joseph so much as he is mourning his own failure and the predicament he is now in.

30 Then he returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?” His cry is telling. "Where am I to go?" It is a cry of self-pity. He is concerned about how he, the eldest, will face his father. The focus is on himself, not on the fate of his brother or the sin of the others.

31 So they took Joseph’s tunic and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood; Having committed one great sin, they now commit another to cover it up. Deceit is the natural child of violence. They use the symbol of their father's sinful favoritism, the tunic, as the instrument of their deception. The goat's blood is a lie, a counterfeit for their brother's blood, which they had originally intended to shed.

32 and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, “We found this; please recognize it, whether it is your son’s tunic or not.” Their cruelty to their father is as profound as their cruelty to their brother. They don't even have the courage to tell the lie directly. They present the "evidence" with a feigned innocence, forcing Jacob to draw the conclusion they want him to draw. It is a masterpiece of manipulative cruelty.

33 And he recognized it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” Jacob leaps to the conclusion they had engineered. His words are a cry of utter devastation. The man who once deceived his own father with a goat's skin is now himself deceived by the blood of a goat. The chickens of his past sins are coming home to roost. God is a God of justice, and the seeds of deceit we sow will often yield a bitter harvest in our own lives.

34 So Jacob tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. Jacob's grief is total and consuming. Tearing clothes and wearing sackcloth were the traditional signs of the deepest mourning. He is utterly broken by the loss of his favorite son.

35 Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, “Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him. The supreme hypocrisy continues. The very sons who caused his grief now offer him comfort. It is a hollow, worthless comfort, and Jacob rightly refuses it. His grief is so profound that he sees no end to it but the grave itself. He is inconsolable. And all the while, his sons watch him suffer, knowing the truth but keeping their secret locked away in their wicked hearts.

36 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard. The chapter ends not with Jacob's grief, but with Joseph's arrival in Egypt. While the family of the covenant is wrapped in sin, deception, and sorrow, God's plan is moving forward silently and inexorably. The word "meanwhile" is freighted with theological significance. It tells us that God's story is bigger than our immediate circumstances. Joseph is exactly where God wants him to be. He has been placed in the household of a high-ranking Egyptian official, the perfect position from which God will eventually elevate him to save a nation. The brothers thought they were ending Joseph's story. They were, in fact, just turning the page to the chapter God had already written.