Genesis 37:31

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Then they took Joseph's robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
They took Yosef's coat, and killed a male goat, and dipped the coat in the blood.

King James Version
And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;

Lexham English Bible
Then they took the robe of Joseph and slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood.

New Century Version
The brothers killed a goat and dipped Joseph's robe in its blood.

New English Translation
So they took Joseph's tunic, killed a young goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood.

Amplified Bible
Then they took Joseph's tunic, slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood;

New American Standard Bible
So they took Joseph's tunic, and slaughtered a male goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood;

Geneva Bible (1587)
And they tooke Iosephs coate, and killed a kidde of the goates, and dipped the coate in the blood.

Legacy Standard Bible
So they took Joseph's tunic and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood;

Contemporary English Version
Joseph's brothers killed a goat and dipped Joseph's fancy coat in its blood.

Complete Jewish Bible
They took Yosef's robe, killed a male goat and dipped the robe in the blood.

Darby Translation
And they took Joseph's vest, and slaughtered a buck of the goats, and dipped the vest in the blood;

Easy-to-Read Version
The brothers killed a goat and put the goat's blood on Joseph's beautiful coat.

English Standard Version
Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.

George Lamsa Translation
And they took Josephs robe, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the robe in the blood;

Good News Translation
Then they killed a goat and dipped Joseph's robe in its blood.

Christian Standard Bible®
So they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a male goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.

Literal Translation
And they took Joseph's robe, and killed a ram of the goats, and dipped the robe in the blood.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Then toke they Iosephs cote & slewe a goate, and dypped the cote in ye bloude,

American Standard Version
And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a he-goat, and dipped the coat in the blood;

Bible in Basic English
Then they took Joseph's coat, and put on it some of the blood from a young goat which they had put to death,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And they toke Iosephes coate, and kylled a kyd, and dipped the coate in the blood.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a he-goat, and dipped the coat in the blood;

King James Version (1611)
And they tooke Iosephs coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And having taken the coat of Joseph, they slew a kid of the goats, and stained the coat with the blood.

English Revised Version
And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a he-goat, and dipped the coat in the blood;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Forsothe thei token his coote, and dippiden in the blood of a kide, which thei hadden slayn; and senten men that baren to the fadir,

Young's Literal Translation
And they take the coat of Joseph, and slaughter a kid of the goats, and dip the coat in the blood,

Update Bible Version
And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a he-goat, and dipped the coat in the blood;

Webster's Bible Translation
And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood:

World English Bible
They took Joseph's coat, and killed a male goat, and dipped the coat in the blood.

New King James Version
So they took Joseph's tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood.

New Living Translation
Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph's robe in its blood.

New Life Bible
So they took Joseph's coat, killed a male goat, and put the blood on the coat.

New Revised Standard
Then they took Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And they took Joseph's tunic, - and slaughtered a buck of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they took his coat, and dipped it in the blood of a kid, which they had killed:

Revised Standard Version
Then they took Joseph's robe, and killed a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood;

THE MESSAGE
They took Joseph's coat, butchered a goat, and dipped the coat in the blood. They took the fancy coat back to their father and said, "We found this. Look it over—do you think this is your son's coat?"

New American Standard Bible (1995)
So they took Joseph's tunic, and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood;

Contextual Overview

³¹Then they took Joseph's robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.³²They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe or not." ³³His father recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!" ³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said. "I will go down to Sheol mourning for my son." So his father wept for him. ³⁶Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Genesis 37:3, Genesis 37:23, Proverbs 28:13

Cross-References

Genesis 37:3
Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors.

Genesis 37:23
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe-the robe of many colors he was wearing-

Proverbs 28:13
He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they took Joseph's coat,.... After they had told Reuben what they had done with him, who being willing to make the best of things as it was, joined with them in the following scheme: by this it appears, that when they took Joseph out of the pit they did not put his coat on him, but sold him naked, or almost so, to the merchants:

and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; that being, as the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi observe, most like to human blood.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

- Joseph Was Sold into Egypt

17. דתין dotayı̂n Dothain, “two wells?” (Gesenius)

25. נכאת n^eko't “tragacanth” or goat’s-thorn gum, yielded by the “astragalus gummifer”, a native of Mount Lebanon. צרי tsērı̂y “opobalsamum,” the resin of the balsam tree, growing in Gilead, and having healing qualities. לט loṭ, λῆδον lēdon, “ledum, ladanum,” in the Septuagint στακτή staktē. The former is a gum produced from the cistus rose. The latter is a gum resembling liquid myrrh.

36. פוטיפר pôṭı̂yphar Potiphar, “belonging to the sun.”

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 Jacob’s 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. “In the land of his father’s sojournings.” This contrasts Jacob with Esau, who removed to Mount Seir. This notice precedes the phrase, “These are the generations.” The corresponding sentence in the case of Isaac is placed at the end of the preceding section of the narrative Genesis 25:11. “The son of seventeen years;” in his seventeenth year Genesis 37:32. “The sons of Bilhah.” 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. “An evil report of them.” 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 Jacob’s 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. “Loved Joseph.” He was the son of his best-loved wife, and of his old age; as Benjamin had not yet come into much notice. “A Coat of many colors.” 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 χιτὼν ποικίλος chitōn poikilos, a motley coat. “Could not bid peace to him.” 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

Joseph’s 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. “For his dreams and for his words.” 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 (שׁלום shālom “peace,” 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. “This master of dreams;” an eastern phrase for a dreamer. “Let us slay him.” 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. “To eat bread.” This shows the cold and heartless cruelty of their deed. “A caravan” - a company of travelling merchants. “Ishmaelites.” Ishmael left his father’s 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. “Came from Gilead;” 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. “Spicery.” This gum is called tragacanth, or goats-thorn gum, because it was supposed to be obtained from this plant. “Balm,” or balsam; an aromatic substance obtained from a plant of the genus Amyris, a native of Gilead. “Myrrh” is the name of a gum exuding from the balsamodendron myrrha, growing in Arabia Felix. “Lot,” 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. “Twenty silver pieces;” 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. “Torn, torn in pieces is Joseph.” The sight of the bloody coat convinces Jacob at once that Joseph has been devoured by a wild beast. “All his daughters.” Only one daughter of Jacob is mentioned by name. These are probably his daughters-in-law. “To the grave.” Sheol is the place to which the soul departs at death. It is so called from its ever craving, or being empty. “Minister.” This word originally means eunuch, and then, generally, any officer about the court or person of the sovereign. “Captain of the guards.” 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.