Genesis 37:25

37:25 When they sat down to eat their food, they looked up 1  and saw 2  a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh down to Egypt. 3 

Genesis 37:27-28

37:27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not lay a hand on him, 4  for after all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed. 5  37:28 So when the Midianite 6  merchants passed by, Joseph’s brothers pulled 7  him 8  out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites 9  then took Joseph to Egypt.

1 tn Heb “lifted up their eyes.”

2 tn Heb “and they saw and look.” By the use of וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and look”), the narrator invites the reader to see the event through the eyes of the brothers.

3 tn Heb “and their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh, going to go down to Egypt.”

4 tn Heb “let not our hand be upon him.”

5 tn Heb “listened.”

6 sn On the close relationship between Ishmaelites (v. 25) and Midianites, see Judg 8:24.

7 tn Heb “they drew and they lifted up.” The referent (Joseph’s brothers) has been specified in the translation for clarity; otherwise the reader might assume the Midianites had pulled Joseph from the cistern (but cf. NAB).

8 tn Heb “Joseph” (both here and in the following clause); the proper name has been replaced both times by the pronoun “him” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

9 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Ishmaelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.