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From: Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28

Joseph and His Brothers

[3] Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was
the son of his old age; and he made him a long robe with sleeves. [4] But when
his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated
him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

Joseph is Sold to Egyptians as a Slave

[12] Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. [13a]
And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at She-
chem? Come, I will send you to them.”

[17b] So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. [18] They
saw him afar off, and before he came near to them they conspired against him
to kill him. [19] They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. [20] Come
now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a
wild beast has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.”
[21] But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let
us not take his life.” [22] And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; cast him in-
to this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him” — that he might res-
cue him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. [23] So when Joseph came
to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he
wore; [24] and they took him and cast him into a pit. The pit was empty, there
was no water in it.

[25] Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites
coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their
way to carry it down to Egypt. [26] Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit
is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? [27] Come, let us sell him to
the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own
flesh.” And his brothers heeded him. [28] Then Midianite traders passed by; and
they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites
for twenty shekels of silver; and they took Joseph to Egypt.

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Commentary:

37:2-50:26. From here to the end of the book of Genesis, with the exception of
chapters 38 and 49, we have the story of Joseph. This concludes the “history of
the patriarchs”, leaving them not exactly in the promised land, Canaan, but in
Egypt. This sets the scene for the narrative of the great Exodus. The story of Jo-
seph is, thus, the link between patriarchal history and the departure from Egypt,
and it therefore constitutes an important stage in the development of salvation
history as recorded in the Old Testament.

In the story of Joseph we can see, on the one hand, the testimony borne by
ancient accounts about the Israelites going down into Egypt and, on the other,
the skill of the narrator who describes the acts of a drama full of emotion, which
comes to a happy ending and from which the reader can draw one fundamental
lesson: God is guiding everything that happens (even events which seem nega-
tive) towards good, towards salvation. “Omnia in bonum” might well be the title
of the story of Joseph (cf. 50:20).

The original source of this section may have been quite different from the patriar-
chal traditions we have seen so far: there is no reference to places of worship, no
explanations as to the meaning of names of places and people, no direct divine
interventions (except in the case of Jacob in 46:2-4); it assumes that Joseph’s
mother is still living (cf. 37:10) and shows Jacob to have a number of daughters
(cf. 37:35).

From the information provided in the story of Joseph and from other biblical tra-
ditions (cf. for example, Gen 15:16; Ex 12:40-41), it is not possible to say ex-
actly when the Israelites went down into Egypt. The most likely period is when
Egypt was under the control of the Hyksos (1720-1580 BC), invaders who were
partly Semitic. The Hyksos had their capital in Avaris, in the Nile delta, and this
is where the capital is in the biblical account. The account reminds us of past
events and their significance. The whole story of Joseph, as told in the Bible, is
very instructive about how God guided the steps of Israel’s ancestors, to work
wonders among them, redeeming them from slavery and making them into a
people, the chosen people of God. The literary skill with which this last part of
the story is told, not only does not take from the historical value of the account:
it helps us to grasp the true meaning of all that happened to the “fathers” of Is-
rael, and shows us how the Word of God is able to express itself in language
which it knows will hold the reader’s attention.

37:3-4. The tunic with long sleeves made Joseph look like a prince, in some way
foretelling his glorious future. Although Jacob’s preferential love for Joseph is due
to human causes, behind it we can see something which occurs throughout the
Bible — how some people, gratuitously, enjoy special favor, including special di-
vine favor and love, without this meaning that the love shown to others is dimi-
nished. Joseph, the object of Jacob’s special love, thereby becomes a figure of
Jesus Christ, the Beloved of the Father (cf. Mt 1:11). The sin of Jacob’s sons,
like Cain’s in some way (cf. Gen 4:5), begins with their reacting against God’s
preferential love; it then turns into hatred and envy (cf. vv. 8-11) and ends up with
their getting rid of their brother (cf. v. 20).

37:12-36. This episode deals with the horrible crime of disposing of their brother
and the providential events which take Joseph to Egypt. We can see that the
narrative is drawing on two sources: one emphasizes the intervention of Judah (v.
26), the other that of Reuben. The true key to what is happening will emerge at
the end of the story: “You meant evil against me,” Joseph tells his brothers, “but
God meant it for good” (50:20). In the light of the whole narrative we can see the
way God’s plan is being put into operation: “Joseph,” comments St Gregory the
Great, “was sold by his brothers because they did not want to do him honor; but
that is exactly what they do, by the very fact of selling him. [...] So too, when
one wants to avoid the divine will, that is when it is fulfilled” (”Moralia”, 6, 18,20).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.