B'reshith/Genesis
CHAPTER 37
1. But Yaaqov settled [yeshev] in the land of his father's sojournings—the land
of Kanaan.
Settled: or remained, in contrast with Esau, who left the Land. (36:6-8) Though Yitzhaq had never left, he was still considered a sojourner—almost a visitor, though he lived there his entire life! It was promised to him, but he lived there as a stranger, because it was still Kanaan's. But Yaaqov settled in. Our own children can settle where we have only been able to wander, if we train them properly. They have not had the wrong influences we had, and have been raised in the ways of YHWH. Yaaqov had been through much, and he had no intention of leaving again. Yaaqov could settle in because now all 12 of his sons had been born; the way Yehudah's government treats "settlers", it is clear that only when all twelve tribes together surrender to the Kingdom can there be a permanent dwelling in the Land, even by Yehudah.
2. These are the chronicles of Yaaqov:
When Yoseyf was 17 years old, he began tending the flock with his brothers. He
had spent his youth with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives, but
Yoseyf brought their father a bad report about them.
Chronicles: This may be the point where Yaaqov's account was appended to those who had passed the stories down before him. The term can also mean genealogy, yet only one son is listed here—the 11th, not the first, and he is already 17 years old. This is a strange way to begin a genealogy, so it makes us pay attention, because to YHWH this is pivotal to Torah understanding. Yaaqov's history begins with Yoseyf, because this is the story that will make the sons of Yaaqov into the true men of Israel. His progeny is defined by what is about to take place here. Indeed, despite all that went before, our history began when we found out that we were the sons of Yosef, for this changed everything about how we saw ourselves. Yoseyf's youth is emphasized here, because his immaturity precipitated these events. A bad report about them: His first recorded act is that he brings a negative report—we could possibly translate it "slander"—and since Moshe does not tell what he told Yaaqov about, apparently it is irrelevant or secondary to the fact that he was being a tattle-tale (not seeking justice or someone's safety, but just wanting to paint his brothers in a bad light so could look better). He ratted out the sons of the slave-girls. Rakhel was no longer there to teach him not to drag up negativity and cause problems. Such an attitude makes enemies quickly, and it was no different for him. The beginning of Yaaqov's genealogy is that his son was a "snitch", yet he was his favorite:
3. Now of all his sons, Israel preferred Yosef, because he was a son of his old
age, and he made him a long-sleeved robe reaching to his feet.
Son of his old age: the one chosen by an aged father to look after him onstantly. We would expect it to say it was Yaaqov (his worse side) that shows favoritism, since it usually leads to bad results, at least in the near term. But he only speaks to Yosef as Israel (his giving side). He has no selfishness toward him, but he also has no expectations toward him. In response to his telling on his brothers just to get them in trouble, he makes him a special new garment! It has been translated variously as "coat of many colors", "fine woolen tunic", "striped robe", or even "amazing Technicolor dreamcoat"! But it comes from a root word meaning the palms of the hands or the soles of the feet; i.e., it extended as far as both of them. Such a garment would be difficult to work in, especially as a shepherd who did not sit idyllically on a rock and play his harp while the sheep remained peaceful, but who had to run to chase down wandering sheep or fight off with his sling the predators that had a taste for mutton; it would get all tangled up in his sleeves! This indicates that the labor required of his brothers was not expected of him; in 2 Shmu'el 13:18ff, the same term is used of garments worn by the king's daughters, indicating a life of leisure—those who are served, not those who serve. Whether intentionally or not, he is sending an unfavorable message to his other children.
4. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, they hated him, and were not able to speak peaceably to him.
The coat made it very clear that Rakhel's firstborn was Yaaqov's choice as the next leader of the family. This was later forbidden (Deut. 21:17), probably because of all the trouble it caused here. It foreshadows Yahshua's "seamless garment, woven in one piece" (Yoch./John 19:23; Ps. 22:18), which represents the fact that He had no flaws in His righteousness. He also gave a bad report about his brothers (provoking his fellow Jews to jealousy). At his immersion, Yahshua was given a "garment" that his brothers did not have (compare Psalm 45:7)--the Holy Spirit (see Yochanan/John 7:39), and after this, his elders began trying to
discredit him. So YHWH clearly has His favorites too, and the Hebrew meaning of what Yosef brought to his father was more literally "their evil whispering or defamation". It could be that his brothers themselves were saying evil things about their father himself or about Leah's sons, and he only repeated what he had heard. It may be that by his report his father knew his other sons were unworthy of leadership. How could we expect Yaaqov to overlook the flaws of his older sons just to be "fair"? That would not be fair to those who did work harder and deserved to reap what they sowed.
5. One night Yoseyf had a dream, and he related it to his brothers, but it only made them hate him even more:
One treated as a favorite is often unconsciously presumptuous. Yet in a pastoral society, dreams were something out of the ordinary, and were often shared as a means of entertainment. The more detail one could give about them, the more the recounting was enjoyed. But their meanings were taken seriously, and Yosef's seemed more significant than usual. The native American cultures, for which more and more evidence is turning up that they are descended from Yosef, have preserved the emphasis on the importance of dreams.
6. He said to them, "Please listen to this dream which I have dreamed!
7. "Here we were out in the middle of the field binding up sheaves, when, lo and behold! My sheaf began to rise, and stood all the way up! And then, behold! Your sheaves came around and bowed down to my sheaf!"
8. But his brothers said to him, "Will you indeed reign over us? Will you really rule over us?" And they resented him still more for his dreams and for his words.
9. Still, he had yet another dream, and he related it to his brothers. He said, "I have dreamed another dream, and even the sun, moon, and eleven stars [themselves] were bowing themselves to me."
10. He also related it to his father and to his brothers, but his father reproved him, saying to him, "What kind of dream is this one that you have dreamed? Shall we indeed come and bow ourselves to the earth before you—I, your mother, and your brothers?"
The first dream was fulfilled during Yosef's lifetime, but this included his mother, who was already dead by this time, and the time they did bow to him was not in the Land of Israel, so clearly part of the prophecy must have a later fulfillment, relating to Yoseyf's descendants.
11. His brothers also were jealous of him, but his father kept what he said [in mind].
Kept in mind: observed, paid attention to, and safeguarded the matter. Yosef never even suggested an interpretation; Yaaqov, having the prophetic gift himself, knew immediately it was to be taken seriously. Being a prophet himself, Yaaqov may have recognized by this that Yosef was the one among all his sons who had the prophetic gifts. He knew there was probably some truth to it, but if Yosef had asked his father in private what this meant, he could have warned him warned Yosef not to tell his brothers all he knew, since he knew how this was likely to hurt them. This would have been a season to remain silent. He should have weighed how profitable it would be to speak about this to those who would not be understanding. He was a man of tents, but to fully understand what this means, he needed to live the life of a shepherd rather than stay home and be spoiled. He needed balance. He was not yet ready to exercise his prophetic gift. While Yosef was bearing some fruit, a tree’s fruit is not to be eaten of for the first few years (Lev. 19:23ff), and it was not until Yosef was the same age at which Yahshua (like the priests) began his public role that he would be given actual authority.
12. Now his brothers went out to pasture their father's flock in Sh'khem.
Sh'khem: in a mountainous area about 50 miles north of Hevron; modern-day Nablus. Josephus says it was particularly rich pasture-land. This is the land Yaaqov had purchased. (33:19) The flocks they had plundered from those in this town whom they had killed may have simply been left there, alternately under the family's care and under the care of the city's children who survived. Shim'on and Levi had returned to where they had done this, and Yaaqov may have thought they needed someone to watch them, or he may have expected them to be back by now.
13. Then Israel said to Yosef, "Aren't your brothers pasturing the flock in Sh'khem? Come, then, I will send you to them." So he said, "Here I am."
The name Sh'khem relates to shouldering a burden, such as caring for our Father's flocks. Yaaqov may have feared for their safety because of the events in chapter 34. Here I am: ready to do your bidding. Yahshua also went willingly to do his unpleasant task (Psalm 40:7-8), since it pleased his Father. (Yeshayahu 53:10)
14. So he told him, "Please go and look into your brothers' welfare, and the welfare of the flock, and bring word back to me." Now he sent him out from the
depth of Hevron, and he arrived at Sh'khem.
Look into: evaluate and care for. Now he is being made their overseer as well. Most people do not like their work checked on, audited, or judged, especially when they need it most. Valley? Hevron is the city with the highest elevation in Israel! But there is a valley running westward directly from it which is the greenest area in that whole vicinity—probably the only decent place to pasture flocks. Yahshua also had these two missions: check on your brothers and check on the flocks. Sh’khem was also the first town among the non-Jews where he began to look for his Father’s lost sheep. (Yochanan 4)
15. But a [certain] man met him, because here he was wandering around the field, so the man asked him, "What are you looking for?"
Wandering around in the field: like Esau. Yahshua uses "the field" as an idiom for the world at large. (Mat. 13:38)
16. He replied, "I am looking for my brothers! Can you tell me where they are pasturing the sheep?"
This is another prophetic moment: Yosef is seeking his brothers. He identifies them as the people who are feeding the sheep—not the "pastors" as such, because in trhe right kind of flock, we will all feed and care for one another. This is the litmus test of how we can find Yoseyf's descendants today as they come alive today.
17. So the man said, "I'm sure they have left here, because I heard them say, `Let's go to Dothayin.'" So Yosef went after his brothers, and he did find them at Dothan.
Dothayin/Dothan: alternate spellings (the first Aramaic) for a town 12 miles north of Sh'khem. Later the home of the prophet Elisha, its name means "a pair of wells" or cisterns—probably close together and fed from the same source of water. They were supposed to be at the place of shouldering the burden (the meaning of Sh’khem), but they moved on to what they thought were greener pastures, probably thinking no one knew about it. Yet YHWH made their secret known to Yosef. Because Dothan is like the Hebrew word dat, meaning “religious law”, today we find our brothers drawing water from two wells fed by the same source--Rabbinic Judaism and the Church, the two great religions that draw from the source of living water, Torah, but which no longer allow it to flow. This is where we will find our brothers today, but neither has the water the flocks need, and they keep them split into two flocks when they are meant to be one. We need to leave them and draw from the original source, the underlying river, rather than the carefully-controlled buckets that may also include the trash that fell into the wells.
18. But they saw him coming from a distance, and before he approached them, they
conspired against him, to kill him.
19. Each of them said to his brother, "Here comes this 'master' of those dreams!
20. "So, come on, let's kill him now and throw him into one of these pits, and say a wild beast has devoured him! Then we'll see what will become of his dreams!"
Though they were tired of Yosef, they must have had at least a little respect for these dreams, because they want to make sure they do not come true. Christianity looks at our return to Torah as being in the pit; they do not want to drink from the same bucket again. These pits: probably the two cisterns there (v. 17).
21. But Re'uven heard them, and rescued him from their hands, saying, "Let's not
strike him with a mortal blow."
Re'uven, the eldest, had a certain respect from his brothers.
22. Re'uven told them further, "Don't shed blood. Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him." (He said this because he intended to later deliver him from their hands and return him to his father.)
In the wilderness: where they assumed no one would hear his cries. Knowing he had displeased his father already by what he had done with his concubine, Re'uven may have been eager to get back into his father's graces, or at least avoid getting in even deeper disfavor. In any case, he decided to still act according to his role as the eldest brother, the protector of his siblings, and save the life of his favorite son.
23. So when Yosef reached his brothers, they stripped him of his long coat—the
embroidered one that reached to his feet—
They feared his dreams and visions, so the first thing they wanted to do was
take away his authority to prophesy.
24. and they picked him up and threw him into the pit (since it was an empty
one, having no water in it).
Yosef probably assumed his brothers would eventually calm down, come back, and pull him out, because if they did not, “Daddy would kill them!” But they ignored him because he talked too much, tattled on them, and tried to convince them of what he had seen. He had sold them out before, so they were not so sure they could trust him not to tell his father about this as well. He thought he was royalty and had no need to work; they could finance their whole family enterprise if they sold him! But they will need his insights and abilities sooner than they think. This cistern (one of the twin wells) had dried up. The Torahless environment of the Church is one of the "broken cisterns" of Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 2:13. It held water at one time, but now, like Yosef, we find ourselves naked and without water if we stay in it. We cannot get anyone else out of the pit if we stay in it ourselves. Your presence is interpreted as your approval. The other cistern must have still held some water, or the brothers would not have stayed there (and indeed, in contrast with Christianity, Judaism did at least retain the importance of the Torah, though it does not always follow it precisely).
25. Then they sat down to eat bread. Then they looked up and noticed a caravan of Yishmaelites coming from Gil'ad. Their camels were carrying spices, balsam resin, and myrrh, on the way to take them to Egypt.
This was cold; they had to truly hate him to do so. But they did not know what to do to him, because to them he is a spoiled brat who would take over the meal. Yehudah rarely offers the bread of fellowship to us, but can you blame them? Those who made the decision to execute Yahshua also immediately ate the Passover meal in peace, oblivious to his suffering. They probably felt like they had just been freed from another oppressor, and incidentally, Yosef would later essentially “become” Pharaoh to his brothers. Yishmaelites: Today they are called Arabs. Usually they only carried foul-smelling wares like tar and kerosene, but Rabbi Chaim Richman notes, based on Rashi, that this nicer-smelling cargo was YHWH’s sign to Yosef that even in these circumstances, He was watching over him and had a beneficial purpose in this too. Gil'ad: across the Yarden River east of Dothan, on the same trade route. They would have been traveling by way of the Yizre’el Valley. Balsam resin: the famed "balm of Gil'ad”.
26. So Yehudah said to his brothers, "What profit is there for us to kill our
brother and conceal his blood?
Yehudah's mind was on profit. Yet he was already showing himself to be the leader who would father the tribe from which the kings would come. And his tribe needs to ask again, this time, “Is it worth keeping Yoseyf alive? Or is this immature, mouthy child too much trouble?” Some are already welcoming us home, but will the majority? Either way, we are coming out of the pit, because YHWH has said it is time. We can make it take much longer than it needs to, or we can put our hands to it and focus our energy on accomplishing this.
27. "Come on, let's sell him to the Yishmaelites, but don't let our own hand be
upon him—because he is, after all, our brother, our own flesh!" And his brothers
accepted [this alternative plan].
28. Just then [some] men—Midyanite traders—came by. They pulled Yoseyf up, and
got him out of the pit, and they sold Yoseyf to the Yishmaelites for twenty
pieces of silver, and they took Yoseyf to Egypt.
Midyanites were descendants of Avraham's later wife Keturah, and Moshe would marry one of them. But Yishmaelites were also absorbed by the tribes into which they married, becoming hard to distinguish from them. They were the ones who pulled him up from the pit, though somehow the brothers still profited, because Yosef later tells them, “You sold me.” They may have come along while the brothers were still debating what to do. Twenty pieces of silver: YHWH later codified this apparently-standard price of a male temple slave between the ages of five and twenty years (Lev. 27:3). He was paid a common price for, though as a prophet he was worth much more; his true value would come out through his suffering and his faithfulness to YHWH in the midst of both trouble and success. All of these mniddlemen were sons of Avraham; they were all tent-dwellers who knew something of YHWH. Thus YHWH made sure that he was kept safe all the way to Egypt. Yet they were not sons of the covenant, so they may have seen Yosef only as a son of Yaaqov, not as a fellow son of Avraham.
29. When Re'uven came back to the pit, lo and behold, Yoseyf wasn't there! So
he tore his garment.
Tore his garment: an expression of extreme emotion and despair. Re’uven (“Behold, a son!”) had apparently left before Yosef arrived, not wanting anything to do with their plans. Yosef was a dreamer; he should not have expected them to treat him like a brother. Re’uven was not with the other nine when they sold him, and thus did not share in the profit. Though his father would curse him for what he did with his concubine, Moshe reversed this in Deut. 33:6, saying, “Let Re’uven live and not die”, probably precisely because Re’uven had said, “Let Yosef live and not die!” But he was not quick enough to carry out his plan. Avram had run to meet his guests and show hospitality; Rivqah had run to water the camels. But there was another “son” who cared about returning Yosef to his Father. He was drinking living water and he cared about redeeming his kinsmen. He sent people to pull Yosef up from the pit. For the most part, they, too, failed, yet somehow he has renewed this call in our day. We are being pulled out of the pit, know who we are, and we are recognizing that the responsibility to find the lost sheep of Israel has passed to us. Because of that, some lost sheep have already been found! Just because he failed doesn’t mean we must. Failures are recorded in Scripture so we can know what to do to fix them. In a way, we are at least a part of Yahshua’s “second coming”. He did not have the type of worldwide communication that is now at our fingertips. The way he told us to find them is to light a light and set it on a lampstand. One does not carry a menorah from place to place, or it will be extinguished. But set it in place, and people will be able to see where it is and come find refuge. There must be a place for the lost sheep to come home to, which is why we must establish Israelite communities. As we love one another as ourselves (which can only be accomplished face to face), the light shines more brightly, just as Yosef would reveal himself only when his brothers needed him most. This cannot be accomplished from a distance, but face to face. We must be there for one another. That way, we will not make Yosef’s mistake of having a wonderful relationship with our Father but none with our brothers. And if we as parents hold our children to Kingdom standards, correcting them and giving better advice, they may not have to make the mistake Yosef made and go through “Egypt”. Keep them out of the pit we were once in. Let them settle into Torah so they can be at home in the community where we have only been able to sojourn thus far. It is up to us.
30. Then he returned to his brothers and said, "The young lad is not [here]! So as for me, where will I go?"
As the eldest, the responsibility for Yosef, when with his brothers, fell on him. He would not be able to answer for this, so they had to devise a plan to conceal their irresponsibility:
31. So they took Yoseyf's long cloak, killed a male goat, and dipped the cloak in the blood.
This was an alibi that would not implicate any of them; they chose a goat because its blood resembles human blood.
32. Then they dispatched some messengers with the long coat reaching to the feet, and they brought it to their father, saying, "We found this. Please examine it carefully: is it your son's long coat [or not]?"
They now possessed the covering that showed he was more loved than they, and with the profit in their “pockets”, they take it back to their father. This is a bad time in the history of our family. This is an eerie payback: just as Yaaqov had fooled his father by a garment made from a goat, (chapter 27), his sons are fooling him with a garment dipped in a goat’s blood.
33. He recognized it, and said, "It is my son's long coat! A wild beast has eaten him! Yoseyf has been torn to pieces for sure!"
This is his assumption. The deeper root word for the term used to describe his coat here means to vanish or disperse like a dream, and indeed he (and later his descendants after him) did disappear. They were "torn to pieces" in that they were scattered all over the world. (Notice Yahshua’s prophecy about this in Matithyahu 7:6.) But this scattering was also a "sowing" (see Hoshea 1). A wild beast: literally, an evil living thing, and Yosef later actually told them, “You meant it for evil, but YHWH intended it for benefit.” They specifically sat down to eat bread, and the way they would pass it to one another would involve tearing pieces off. So the evil living thing was not actually an animal, though he did not know this. Thus the words of Yaaqov the prophet did not fall to the ground even though they were not true in the way he expected.
34. And Yaaqov tore his clothing and tied sackcloth around his loins, and mourned many days for his son.
35. And all his sons and daughters rose up to comfort him. But he refused to be comforted, saying, "I will go down into She'ol still mourning for my son." And his father bewailed him.
Daughters: if not some heretofore unmentioned, they would refer to either daughters-in-law or possibly some adopted from Sh’khem. He says, “Don’t tell me it’s going to be all right, that this will pass; nothing will ever bring things back to normal.” Now he wants to die, too. And meanwhile Yosef was taken to a place with a fixation on death:
36. Meanwhile the Medanites sold him into slavery in Egypt—to one Potifar, an official in the Pharaoh's court, [specifically] the chief of the executioners.
Medanites: Apparently he was passed off in several trade deals along the way, for these were the descendants of Midyan’s brother Medan. (25:2) Though there are some in Yehudah who say the Yosef is gone forever and never coming back, or that all that was left of them became Jews, and ask where his royalty is now. But we have only been sold downriver; Yosef is still alive! And it is YHWH’s will that we return. It does not matter how many rabbinic rulings there may be, for when Rakhel begins weeping like Yaaqov, thinking her children are no more (Yirmeyahu/Jer. 31:15), YHWH says, “Stop! Your work will be rewarded after all. Your children will come back from the land of the enemy. I have heard Efrayim (Yosef’s son) repenting and asking for restoration, and I will have mercy on him! So set up signposts so he can find his way back!”
Commentary on
Parashat VaYeshev
Let Yosef Live and Not Die!
