Genesis 37:30

_AND REUBEN RETURNED UNTO THE PIT; AND, BEHOLD, JOSEPH WAS NOT IN THE PIT; AND HE RENT HIS CLOTHES._ Reuben returned unto the pit. He seems to have designedly taken a circuitous route, with a view of secretly rescuing the poor lad from a lingering death by starvation. By the law of the go'el, the oldest was constituted protector of his younger brother; hence, finding that Joseph was not in the pit, he rent his clothes, and uttered that wail which, in Hebrew, is so touching from its sounds: "The child is not, and I, whither shall I go." His excessive grief arose from a sense of his personal responsibility. His intentions were excellent, and his feelings no doubt painfully lacerated, when he discovered what had been done in his absence. But the thing was of God, who had designed that Joseph's deliverance should be accomplished by other means than his....

30._And he returned_. We may hence gather that Reuben, under pretense of some other business, stole away from his brethren, that, unknown to them all, he might restore his brother, drawn out of the pit, to his father; and that therefore he was absent at the time when Joseph was sold. And there is no wonder that he was anticipated, when he had taken his course in a different direction from theirs, intending to reach the pit by a circuitous path. But now at length Reuben having lost all hope, unfolds to his brethren the intention which before he dared not confess, lest the boy should be immediately murdered....

23-30 They threw Joseph into a pit, to perish there with hunger and cold; so cruel were their tender mercies. They slighted him when he was in distress, and were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph, see Amos 6:6; for when he was pining in the pit, they sat down to eat bread. They felt no remorse of conscience for the sin. But the wrath of man shall praise God, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain, Psalms 76:10. Joseph's brethren were wonderfully restrained from murdering him, and their selling him as wonderfully turned to God's praise....

Verse Genesis 37:30. _THE CHILD_ IS _NOT; AND I, WHITHER SHALL I GO?_] The words in the original are very plaintive, הילד איננו ואני אנה אני בא _haiyeled einennu, vaani anah, ani ba_!...

- Joseph Was Sold into Egypt 17. דתין _dotayı̂n_ Dothain, “two wells?” (Gesenius) 25. נכאת _n__e__ko'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

EXPOSITION GENESIS 37:26, GENESIS 37:27 AND JUDAH (apparently shrinking from the idea of murder) SAID UNTO HIS BRETHREN, WHAT PROFIT is it if (literally, _what of advantage that_)_ _WE SLAY OUR BROTHER, AND CONCEAL HIS BLOOD? (i.e. and hide the fact of his murder). COME, AND LET US SELL HIM TO THE ISHMAELITES, AND LET NOT OUR HAND BE UPON HIM (literally, _and our hand, let it not_ _be upon him_, i.e. to slay him); FOR HE IS OUR BROTHER AND OUR FLESH—or, more expressly, our brother and our flesh he (cf....

AND HE RETURNED UNTO HIS BRETHREN,.... From the pit, and whom he suspected had took him and killed him, as was their first design, not being with them when they proposed to sell him, and did: AND SAID, THE CHILD [IS] NOT; not in the pit, nor in the land of the living, but is dead, which is sometimes the meaning of the phrase, Jeremiah 31:15; he calls him a child, though seventeen years of age, because the youngest brother but one, and he himself was the eldest, and also because of his tender concern for him: AND I, WHITHER SHALL I GO? to find the child or flee from his father's face, which he could not think of seeing any more; whom he had highly offended already in the case of Bilhah, and now he would be yet more incensed against him for his neglect of Joseph, who, he might have expected, would have taken particular care of him, being

XII. THE GENERATIONS OF JACOB CHAPTER 37 The Story of Joseph _ 1. Jacob dwelling in Canaan (Genesis 37:1)_ 2. Joseph's character and feeding the flock (Genesis 37:2) 3. Beloved of his father (Genesis 37:3) 4. Hated by his brethren (Genesis 37:4) 5. The dream of the sheaves (Genesis 37:5) 6. The dream of the sun, moon and stars (Genesis 37:9) 7. Joseph seeks his brethren ...

To J we may assign Genesis 37:18_ b_ (and before, etc.), Genesis 37:21 (substituting Judah for Reuben), Genesis 37:23; Genesis 37:25; Genesis 37:27 (and sold to silver), to E Genesis 37:18_ a_, Genesis 37:19 f., Genesis 37:22;...

WHITHER SHALL. GO? His exclamation shows that he thinks Joseph dead, probably taken from the pit and slain by his ferocious brethren. What could be done? How could he return to his aged and doting father, and give an account of the awful transaction?...