a mnn\ found him, and, behold, he was stript 1oseph out of his coat, his coat of wandering in the field (obviously seeking many ooloura-i. e. his coat of i,nds, or coat eomo thing or person) : and the man asked of pieces (vide on ver. 3)-that was on him. him, saying, What aeekeat thou 1 And he Vel'S. 24, 25.-And they took him, and said, 1 seek my brethren :-or, more emphat- caat him into a pit: and the pit was empty, ically, My brethren I (sc. am) seeking-tell there was no water in it. Cisterns when me, 1 pray thee, where they feed their flocks empty, or only covered with mud at the bot- -or, Where (are) they shepheriling 1 to1;11, were someti~~s used as temporary Ver. 17.-And the man said, They are pnsons (Jer. xxxvm. 6; xL 15). And- departed hence; for I heard them say, Let leaving him, as they must have calculated, to us go to Dothan - Dothaim, " the Two perish by a painful death through starvation, Wells," a place twelve miles north of Samaria with exquisite cold-bloodedness, payin" 0 no in tho direction of the plain of Esdraelon, heed to his piteous outcries and appeals (eh. situated on the great caravan road from xii. 21)-they sat down (the callous com• ]\fount Gilead to Egypt, the scene of one of posure of the act indicates deplorable brutal- the greatest miracles of Elisha the prophet ity on the part of J oseph's brethren) to eat (2 Kings vi. 13-18), and, though now a bread (perhaps with a secret feeling of satis- deserted ruin, still called by its ancient faction, if not also exultation, that they had name. And 1 oseph went after his brethren, effectually disposed of the young man and and found them in Dothan. "Just beneath his dreams): and they lifted up their eyes Tell Dothan, which still preserves its name, and looked, and, behold, a company - or- is the littlo oblong plain, containing the best chath, from arach, to walk; a band of travel- pasturage in the country, and well chosen by lers, especially of merchantmen ; a caravan ; Jacob's sons when they had exhausted for e. IJ'IJJ10tia, 000,,ropo, (LXX.; cf. Job vi. 19)--ilf timo the wider plain of Shechem " (Tristram, lah.maelites-Arabs descended from Ishmael, 'Land of Israel,' p. 132 ; c£ Thom.ion, who occupied the district lying between • Land and Book,' p. 466). - Egypt and Assyria (eh. xxv. 18), and, as Ver. 18.-And when (literally, a11d) they appears from the record, carried on a trade BELW him afar oft', even (or, and) before he with the former country. That Ishmael's co.me near Ullto them, they (literally, and descendants should already have developed they) conspired against him (or, dealt with into a trading nation will not be surprising him fraudulently) to slay him. (Bohlen) if one reflects that Ishmael may have Ver. 19.-And they said one to another married in his eighteenth or twentieth year, (literally, a man to hi8 brother), :Behold, i. e. about 162 years before the date of the this dreamer-literally, thi8 lord of dream,s present occurrence, that four generations mar, (rf. eh. xiv. 13; Exod. xriv. 14)-cometh have b~en born in the interval, n.nd that, 1f -oxpressivo of rancour, contempt, and Ishmael's sons had only five sons each, his lrntred. posterity in the fifth generation (not reckon- Ver. 20. -Come now therefore, and let mg females) may have amounted to 15,000 us alay him, and oast him into some pit persons (Murphy). But in point of fact (litorally, into one of the pits or cutei-ns in the Ishmaelites spoken of o.re not describod the neighbourhood), and we will aay (sc. to as nations-simply as a company of mer- his father and ours), Bome (literally, an) evil chants, without saying how numerous it ,vas beast bath devoured him (which will ac- (Havemick, 'Introd.,' § 21)-came (literally, count for his disappearance); and we shall coming) from Gilead (vide eh. uxi. 21) with see what will beooma of his dreams-or, (literally, and) their camels bearing spicery whnt his drenms will be. -nl:(::l?, either an infinitive from K?~, to Vera. 21, 22.-And Reuben (tho oldest break, to grind (1), and signifying a voundiug, son, o.nd thorefore probably regariling himself breaking in pieces, hencA 1Lromo.tic po,vder as in somo degree responsible for Joseph's (Gesenius); or a contraction from mtt::i, safety) heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands ; and said, Let us not kill (Ewald), meaning that which is powdered ~r him-literally, Let us not destroy his life pulverised. Rendered 9uµ.,aµ.tiTn (LXX.), (11ephesh). And Reuben said (further) unto aromata (Vulgate), an,pu( (Aquila.), it was probably the gum tmgacanth, many kinds oC them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this which appear in Syria (Fiirst, Gesenius, pit that is in the wilderness (i. e. into a dry pit tlrnt was near), and lay no hand upon Rosenmliller, Keil, Kalisch, Lange, Murphy), him; that (the ndverb indicates the p111·- or storax, the resinous exudation of the pose Reuben had in view) he might rid him styrax ojfwinale, which abounds in Pales- (translated abovo deliver him) out of their tine aud the East (Aquila, Bochart, Bush, hands, to deliver him (or, more correctly, 'Speaker's Commentary,' lnglis)-and balm - 11i (in pause 111, after vau of union to return him) to his father again. 111), ·mentione<l 11s one of tho most prcciona Ver. 23.-And it came to pass, when Jo- seph waa come unto his brethren, tbat they fiuits of Palcfl inc (dt. xliii. 11 ), rl'a,k,·~<l Qf;NES!S, I' f 43-l THE BOOK OF GENESIS [en. XXXVII. 12-25,
{,11riv11 (LXX.) and i·fji,na (Vulgatc), and an odol'ifcrous gum fol'med upon the leaves of derived from i!W, to flow, to run (hence, the. cistus-rose, a . shrub_ growing in Arabia, literally, an oufj{o1uing, or out-dropping), Syna, and Palestmc (vide Herod., iii. 112 • wa.s unquestionably a balsam, but of what Pliny, '.N. H.,' xii. 37; Celsius, 'Hiorob.,' ~ tree cannot now be ascertained, distilling 2~0-288)-goi.ng-the caravan route from from a tf<'e or fruit growing in Gilead, and Gilead crossed the .lordan in the neigh hour- highly prized for its healing properties (Jer. hood of Bersan, and, sweeping through Jenin ,·iii. 22 ; xlvi. 11). Vide Lexicons (Gescnius and the plain of Dothan, joined nnother track and Fii.rst) sub voce; Michaelis, 'Suppl.,' leading southwards ~rom Damascus by way of p. 2142 ; Kalisch in loco-and myrrh,-OS, Ramleh and Gaza (vide Robinson, iii. 27, and "rn"r~ (LXX.), stacte (Vulgate), pi-stacia et. T~stram, 'Land of Israel,' p. 132)-to (Chaldee, Syriac, Michaelis, 'Suppl.,' p. earry it down to Egypt. At tb:at time the l 424), was more probably ladanum (Gesenius, land of the Pharaohs was the chief emporium Fii.rst, Rosenmiiller, Keil, Kalisch, et olii"), for the world's merchandise.