Commentaria in Genesim
Chapter Thirty-seven
Joseph relates his dreams; his brothers envy him and plot his death, but Reuben delivers him. Whence in verse 26, at the counsel of Juda, Joseph is sold to the Madianites, and these sell him to Putiphar in Egypt.
1. And Jacob dwelt in the land of Chanaan, where his father sojourned. 2. And these are his generations: Joseph, when he was sixteen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, being but a boy: and he was with the sons of Bala and Zelpha, his father’s wives: and he accused his brethren to his father of a most wicked crime. 3. Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had him in his old age: and he made him a coat of divers colours. 4. And his brethren seeing that he was loved by his father more than all his sons, hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. 5. Now it happened also that he told his brethren a dream that he had dreamed: which was the occasion of greater hatred. 6. And he said to them: Hear my dream which I have dreamed. 7. I thought we were binding sheaves in the field: and my sheaf arose, as it were, and stood, and your sheaves standing about, bowed down before my sheaf. 8. His brethren answered: Shalt thou be our king? or shall we be subject to thy dominion? Therefore this matter of dreams and words ministered the more fuel of envy and hatred. 9. He dreamed also another dream, which he told his brethren, saying: I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars worshipping me. 10. And when he had told this to his father and brethren, his father rebuked him, and said: What meaneth this dream that thou hast dreamed? shall I and thy mother, and thy brethren adore thee upon the earth? 11. His brethren therefore envied him: but his father considered the thing with himself. 12. And when his brethren abode in feeding their father’s flocks in Sichem, 13. Israel said to him: Thy brethren feed the sheep in Sichem: come, I will send thee to them. And when he answered: 14. Ready, he said to him: Go, and see if all be well with thy brethren, and the cattle: and bring me word again what is doing. So being sent from the vale of Hebron, he came to Sichem: 15. And a man found him there wandering in the field, and asked what he sought. 16. But he answered: I seek my brethren, tell me where they feed the flocks. 17. And the man said to him: They are departed from this place: for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothain. And Joseph went forward after his brethren, and found them in Dothain. 18. And when they saw him afar off, before he came nigh them, they thought to kill him. 19. And said one to another: Behold, the dreamer cometh: 20. Come, let us kill him, and cast him into some old pit: and we will say: Some evil beast hath devoured him: and then it shall appear what his dreams avail him. 21. And Ruben hearing this, endeavoured to deliver him out of their hands, and said: 22. Do not take away his life, nor shed his blood: but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and keep your hands guiltless: now he said this, being desirous to deliver him out of their hands, and to restore him to his father. 23. And as soon as he came to his brethren, they forthwith stripped him of his outer coat, that was of divers colours: 24. And cast him into an old pit, where there was no water. 25. And sitting down to eat bread, they saw some Ismaelites on their way coming from Galaad, with their camels, carrying spicery, and balm, and myrrh to Egypt. 26. And Juda said to his brethren: What will it profit us to kill our brother, and conceal his blood? 27. It is better that he be sold to the Ismaelites, and that our hands be not defiled: for he is our brother and our flesh. His brethren agreed to his words. 28. And when the Madianite merchants passed by, they drew him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ismaelites, for twenty pieces of silver: and they led him into Egypt. 29. And Ruben returning to the pit, found not the boy: 30. And rending his garments he went to his brethren, and said: The boy doth not appear, and whither shall I go? 31. And they took his coat, and dipped it in the blood of a kid, which they had killed: 32. Sending some to carry it to their father, and to say: This we have found: see whether it be thy son’s coat, or not. 33. And the father acknowledging it, said: It is my son’s coat, an evil wild beast hath eaten him, a beast hath devoured Joseph. 34. And tearing his garments, he put on sackcloth, mourning for his son a long time. 35. And all his children being gathered together to comfort their father in his sorrow, he would not receive comfort, but said: I will go down to my son into hell, mourning. And while he continued weeping, 36. The Madianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Putiphar, an eunuch of Pharao, master of the soldiers.
2. THESE ARE HIS GENERATIONS,—of Jacob, as if to say: Henceforth I shall relate the posterity of Jacob, their cases, events and deeds, especially those of Joseph, as I did for Esau in the preceding chapter. For here begins the history of Joseph, most innocent, most chaste and most patient. See St. Ambrose, book On Joseph.
These things therefore befell Joseph a little after the death of his mother Rachel and the birth of Benjamin, namely in the same or the following year, when Jacob was 107 years old, that is, in the year of the world 2216.
for eighty years, until his death; for he died in the 110th year of his age: thus Joseph was an express type of Christ suffering and rising again. See St. Chrysostom.
On Joseph: “Learn, says Ambrose, in Abraham the ready devotion of faith; in Isaac the sincere purity of mind; in Jacob the endurance of labours; and in Joseph a mirror of chastity”: add also of patience and constancy in bearing hatreds, persecutions, calumnies, servitude, prison, and the like.
STILL A BOY—both in age, and in manners and innocence.
AND HE WAS WITH THE SONS OF BALA AND ZELPHA.—It seems that Jacob divided his flock into two, gave one to be fed by the six sons of Lia, and committed the other to the sons of Bala and Zelpha, the handmaids, with whom he joined Joseph; because these easily suffered Joseph to be preferred to themselves, which the sons of Lia did not suffer. For as there was rivalry between Rachel and Lia, so also between their sons; for the sons of Lia thought, Rachel being dead especially, that the first place was due to themselves, as the elders, born of the elder mother, and she still surviving.
AND HE ACCUSED.—So have the Hebrew, the Chaldee, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion. But the Septuagint in the Roman edition have “they accused,” namely that the brothers accused Joseph himself; and so read Theodoret, St. Chrysostom, Diodorus and Cyril. But it should be corrected to “he accused”; for so have the Septuagint in the Royal edition, and this the Hebrew demands, and the very series of the history.
Note: Joseph, being innocent and holy, observed the order of fraternal correction, which natural reason itself dictates, namely that one’s neighbour be admonished in secret about his sin before he is reported to a superior. Joseph therefore first admonished his brothers; but when he saw that his admonition was neglected by them, he reported them to his father. So Abulensis.
HIS BRETHREN—especially the sons of Bala and Zelpha, says St. Cyril, as being those with whom he lived and fed the sheep.
OF A MOST WICKED CRIME,—against nature, namely a sin either of Sodom, as Rupert holds; or of bestiality with the sheep which they were feeding, as St. Thomas, Abulensis and Hugh of St. Victor hold, which accordingly, because shameful, horrible and infamous, Moses would not name here; for this sin is a dumb one, to be buried in silence on account of its enormity. The Hebrew has dibba raa, that is, an evil report; whence this sin of Joseph’s brothers seems to have been unspeakable, infamous and public.
Others, like Pererius, understand by the most wicked crime quarrels and mutual hatreds; others understand murmuring against their father, for preferring Joseph, the younger, to themselves. But these are not “dibba,” that is, infamy, an infamous thing, foul, and unspeakable. Some Jews think that Joseph accused only Reuben of his incest with Bala. But this is contradicted by what is said here, that he accused not a brother but brethren, as if he accused several of them. So Abulensis.