the Second Week after Easter
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The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible
Genesis 37:32
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- CondensedParallel Translations
They took the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, "We have found this. Examine it, now, whether it is your son's coat or not."
And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.
Then they sent the robe with long sleeves and they brought it to their father and said, "We found this; please examine it. Is it the robe of your son or not?"
Then they brought the long-sleeved robe to their father and said, "We found this robe. Look it over carefully and see if it is your son's robe."
Then they brought the special tunic to their father and said, "We found this. Determine now whether it is your son's tunic or not."
and they brought the multicolored tunic to their father, saying, "We have found this; please examine it and decide whether or not it is your son's tunic."
and they sent the multicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, "We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son's tunic or not."
So they sent that particoloured coat, and they brought it vnto their father, and saide, This haue we founde: see nowe, whether it be thy sonnes coate, or no.
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."
After this, they took the coat to their father and said, "We found this! Look at it carefully and see if it belongs to your son."
Then they sent the long-sleeved robe and brought it to their father, saying, "We found this. Do you know if it's your son's robe or not?"
and they sent the vest of many colours and had it carried to their father, and said, This have we found: discern now whether it is thy son's vest or not.
Then the brothers showed the coat to their father. And the brothers said, "We found this coat. Is this Joseph's coat?"
And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, "This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not."
And they sent the robe with long sleeves, and they brought it to their father; and said, This we have found: know now whether it be your sons coat or not.
They took the robe to their father and said, "We found this. Does it belong to your son?"
They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it. Is it your son’s robe or not?”
And they sent the robe reaching to the soles of his feet, and they took it to their father, and said, We have found this. Now look, is it your son's robe?
and sent awaye that partie coloured cote, and caused it be brought vnto their father and sayde: This haue we founde, loke, whether it be thy sonnes coate, or no.
and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, This have we found: know now whether it is thy son's coat or not.
And they took the coat to their father, and said, We came across this; is it your son's coat or not?
And they sent that partie coloured coate, and caused it to be brought vnto their father, and sayde: This haue we founde, see whether it be thy sonnes coate, or no.
and they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said: 'This have we found. Know now whether it is thy son's coat or not.'
And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father, and said, This haue we found: know now whether it bee thy sonnes coat or no.
And they sent the coat of many colours; and they brought it to their father, and said, This have we found; know if it be thy son’s coat or no. And he recognised it, and said, It is my son’s coat, an evil wild beast has devoured him; a wild beast has carried off Joseph.
and they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or not.
and seiden, We han founde this coote, se, whether it is the coote of thi sone, ether nai.
and send the long coat, and they bring [it] in unto their father, and say, `This have we found; discern, we pray thee, whether it [is] thy son's coat or not?'
and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, This we have found: know now whether it is your son's coat or not.
And they sent the coat of [many] colors, and they brought [it] to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it [is] thy son's coat or not.
They took the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, "We have found this. Examine it, now, whether it is your son's coat or not."
Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, "We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son's tunic or not?"
They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message: "Look at what we found. Doesn't this robe belong to your son?"
They sent the coat of many colors to their father. And they said, "We found this. Is it your son's coat or not?"
They had the long robe with sleeves taken to their father, and they said, "This we have found; see now whether it is your son's robe or not."
and sent the long tunic and brought it in unto their father, and said This, have we found! Examine, we pray thee, whether it is the tunic of thy son, or not!
Sending some to carry it to their father, and to say: This we have found: see whether it be thy son’s coat, or not.
and they sent the long robe with sleeves and brought it to their father, and said, "This we have found; see now whether it is your son's robe or not."
and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, "We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son's tunic or not."
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
thy son's: Genesis 37:3, Genesis 44:20-23, Luke 15:30
Reciprocal: Genesis 4:9 - I know Genesis 38:25 - Discern Genesis 44:17 - in peace 2 Samuel 13:18 - a garment Job 1:19 - they are dead
Cross-References
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.
"Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams!"
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe-the robe of many colors he was wearing-
But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!'
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And they sent the coat of [many] colours,.... Which was what they dipped in the blood of the kid; this they sent to Jacob in such a condition, by the hand of some messenger; the Targum of Jonathan says, the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah; but more probably some of their servants, whom they instructed what to say to their father when they presented it to him; not caring to appear in person at first, lest they be thrown into such commotion and confusion at their father's distress, as might tend to lead on to a discovery of the whole affair:
and they brought [it] to their father, and said, this we have found; that is, the messengers carried to the father of Joseph's brethren, who were sent with it, and taught to say, that they found it in some field in this condition, but found no man near it, only that by itself, and suspected it might be the coat of his son Joseph, if he had sent him out in it:
know now whether it [be] thy son's coat or no; look upon it, see if any marks can be observed in it, by which it may with any certainty be known whether it his or not.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- Joseph Was Sold into Egypt
17. ×ת×× dotayıÌn Dothain, âtwo wells?â (Gesenius)
25. × ××ת neko't âtragacanthâ or goatâs-thorn gum, yielded by the âastragalus gummiferâ, a native of Mount Lebanon. ×¦×¨× tseÌrıÌy âopobalsamum,â the resin of the balsam tree, growing in Gilead, and having healing qualities. ×× lotÌ£, ληÍδον leÌdon, âledum, ladanum,â in the Septuagint ÏÏακÏÎ·Ì stakteÌ. The former is a gum produced from the cistus rose. The latter is a gum resembling liquid myrrh.
36. פ×××פר poÌṭıÌyphar Potiphar, âbelonging to the sun.â
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 Jacobâs 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. âIn the land of his fatherâs sojournings.â This contrasts Jacob with Esau, who removed to Mount Seir. This notice precedes the phrase, âThese are the generations.â The corresponding sentence in the case of Isaac is placed at the end of the preceding section of the narrative Genesis 25:11. âThe son of seventeen years;â in his seventeenth year Genesis 37:32. âThe sons of Bilhah.â 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. âAn evil report of them.â 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 Jacobâs 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. âLoved Joseph.â He was the son of his best-loved wife, and of his old age; as Benjamin had not yet come into much notice. âA Coat of many colors.â 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 ÏιÏÏÌν ÏοικιÌÎ»Î¿Ï chitoÌn poikilos, a motley coat. âCould not bid peace to him.â 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
Josephâs 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. âFor his dreams and for his words.â 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 (ש×××× shaÌlom âpeace,â 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. âThis master of dreams;â an eastern phrase for a dreamer. âLet us slay him.â 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. âTo eat bread.â This shows the cold and heartless cruelty of their deed. âA caravanâ - a company of travelling merchants. âIshmaelites.â Ishmael left his fatherâs 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. âCame from Gilead;â 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. âSpicery.â This gum is called tragacanth, or goats-thorn gum, because it was supposed to be obtained from this plant. âBalm,â or balsam; an aromatic substance obtained from a plant of the genus Amyris, a native of Gilead. âMyrrhâ is the name of a gum exuding from the balsamodendron myrrha, growing in Arabia Felix. âLot,â 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. âTwenty silver pieces;â 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. âTorn, torn in pieces is Joseph.â The sight of the bloody coat convinces Jacob at once that Joseph has been devoured by a wild beast. âAll his daughters.â Only one daughter of Jacob is mentioned by name. These are probably his daughters-in-law. âTo the grave.â Sheol is the place to which the soul departs at death. It is so called from its ever craving, or being empty. âMinister.â This word originally means eunuch, and then, generally, any officer about the court or person of the sovereign. âCaptain of the guards.â 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.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Genesis 37:32. Sent the coat of many colours - to their father — What deliberate cruelty to torture the feelings of their aged father, and thus harrow up his soul!
