And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
What does Genesis 37:25 mean?
They threw Joseph into a pit, to perish there with hunger and cold; so cruel were their tender mercies.
Key themes
Read with
Keep this verse inside Genesis 37:23-26 and alongside a few nearby related passages.
Commentary on Genesis 37:25
Reuben rips his clothes when he finds Joseph gone. "To eat bread." This shows the cold and heartless cruelty of their deed. "A caravan" - a company of travelling merchants. "Ishmaelites." Ishmael left his father's house when about fourteen or fifteen years of age. His mother took him a wife probably when he was eighteen, or twenty at the furthest. He had arrived at the latter age about one hundred and sixty-two years before the date of the present occurrence. He had twelve sons Genesis 25:13-15 , and if we allow only four other generations and a fivefold increase, there will be about fifteen thousand in the fifth generation.
Key words
- caravans
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caravans. (w) Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 12. col. 532.
- caravans
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caravans. (w) Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 12. col. 532.
Context in Genesis 37
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Genesis 37 belongs to the middle movement of the book, especially the section often described as the family line through Isaac and Jacob. Genesis opens the whole Bible with creation, fall, flood, Babel, and the long patriarchal story that carries the reader from Eden to Egypt. Read this chapter with the wider themes of creation, fall, and covenant in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.
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