Discovery BoxGenesis 37:25 
Context37:25 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
Context37:27 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.
Genesis 39:1
Context39:1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. 10 An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, 11 purchased him from 12 the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.
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.
10 tn The disjunctive clause resumes the earlier narrative pertaining to Joseph by recapitulating the event described in 37:36. The perfect verbal form is given a past perfect translation to restore the sequence of the narrative for the reader.
11 sn Captain of the guard. See the note on this phrase in Gen 37:36.
12 tn Heb “from the hand of.”
