Atlas Biblica

    Genesis · 36 verses

    Genesis 37

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    A bloodied robe does the work of a whole witness: Joseph’s brothers send it home, and Jacob supplies the vicious animal before anyone asks.

    The dreamer in the splendid robevv. 1–11

    Jacob lives in Canaan, where Joseph, seventeen and tending the flock with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, brings a bad report to their father. Israel answers by loving Joseph conspicuously and clothing him in a robe of many colors; the brothers answer by losing even the ability to speak kindly. Then Joseph dreams twice: first of sheaves bowing, then of the sun, moon, and eleven stars. His brothers’ hatred grows, Israel rebukes him, and yet keeps the matter in mind—a small, intriguing corner in which disapproval and attention sit together.

    The pit becomes a marketvv. 12–28

    Israel sends Joseph from the Valley of Hebron to check on his brothers and the flocks. Joseph wanders in Shechem, asks a man for directions, and finds the brothers at Dothan—rather like a parcel arriving precisely where nobody wishes to receive it. They plot to kill him, but Reuben diverts the plan into an empty pit, intending to rescue him. While the brothers eat, a caravan appears from Gilead. Judah then presents sale as the merciful option because Joseph is their brother and they will not lay a hand on him; the Midianite traders pull him out, and Joseph is sold for twenty shekels to the Ishmaelites, who take him to Egypt.

    A robe sent homevv. 29–36

    Reuben returns to the pit, discovers the boy gone, and tears his clothes. The brothers now perform the second half of their arrangement: a young goat is slaughtered, Joseph’s robe is dipped in its blood, and it is sent to their father with an invitation to examine it. Jacob recognizes the robe and supplies the prepared explanation at once: a vicious animal has devoured Joseph. He mourns, refuses comfort, and speaks of going down to Sheol mourning for his son. Meanwhile, with the chapter’s briskest change of scene, Joseph is sold in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

    The text

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Gen 37:1Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had resided, the land of Canaan.

    2. Gen 37:2This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

    3. Gen 37:3Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors.

    4. Gen 37:4When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

    5. Gen 37:5Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

    6. Gen 37:6He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:

    7. Gen 37:7We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.”

    8. Gen 37:8“Do you intend to reign over us?” his brothers asked. “Will you actually rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and his statements.

    9. Gen 37:9Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

    10. Gen 37:10He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream that you have had? Will your mother and brothers and I actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”

    11. Gen 37:11And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what he had said.

    12. Gen 37:12Some time later, Joseph’s brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks near Shechem.

    13. Gen 37:13Israel said to him, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them.” “I am ready,” Joseph replied.

    14. Gen 37:14Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. And when Joseph arrived in Shechem,

    15. Gen 37:15a man found him wandering in the field and asked, “What are you looking for?”

    16. Gen 37:16“I am looking for my brothers,” Joseph replied. “Can you please tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”

    17. Gen 37:17“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

    18. Gen 37:18Now Joseph’s brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him.

    19. Gen 37:19“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to one another.

    20. Gen 37:20“Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams!”

    21. Gen 37:21When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue Joseph from their hands. “Let us not take his life,” he said.

    22. Gen 37:22“Do not shed his blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this so that he could rescue Joseph from their hands and return him to his father.

    23. Gen 37:23So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the robe of many colors he was wearing—

    24. Gen 37:24and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.

    25. Gen 37:25And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt.

    26. Gen 37:26Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

    27. Gen 37:27Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed.

    28. Gen 37:28So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

    29. Gen 37:29When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes,

    30. Gen 37:30returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?”

    31. Gen 37:31Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.

    32. Gen 37:32They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe or not.”

    33. Gen 37:33His father recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!”

    34. Gen 37:34Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

    35. Gen 37:35All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him.

    36. Gen 37:36Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 339 passages were voted onto 36 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 2Genesis 35:25–26The sons of Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali.
    • 5Genesis 28:12And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder.
    • 7Genesis 44:14When Judah and his brothers arrived at Joseph’s house, he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him.
    • 7Genesis 42:6Now Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
    • 11Acts 7:9Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him
    • 172 Kings 6:13So the king said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send men to capture him.” On receiving the report, “Elisha is in Dothan,”
    • 18Acts 23:12When daylight came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.
    • 1Genesis 17:8And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”
    • 4Genesis 27:41Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
    • 7Genesis 43:26When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought, and they bowed to the ground before him.
    • 5Genesis 42:9Joseph remembered his dreams about them and said, “You are spies! You have come to see if our land is vulnerable.”
    • 11Luke 2:19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
    • 11Luke 2:51Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
    • 20Titus 3:3For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
    • 25Genesis 37:28So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
    • 25Jeremiah 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

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