John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 37:30
And he returned unto his brethren ,.... From the pit, and whom he suspected had took him and killed him, as was their first design, not being with them when they proposed to sell him, and did: and said, the child is not ; not in the pit, nor in the land of the living, but is dead, which is sometimes the meaning of the phrase, Jeremiah 31:15 ; he calls him a child, though seventeen years of age, because the youngest brother but one, and he himself was the eldest, and also because of... read more
John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 37:29
And Reuben returned unto the pit ,.... It is very probable he had pretended to go somewhere on business, with an intention to take a circuit, and come to the pit and deliver his brother, and go home with him to his father. The Jews say F2 Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c. 38.) he departed from his brethren, and sat down on a certain mountain, that he might descend in the night and take Joseph out of the pit, and accordingly he came down in the night, and found him not. So Josephus F3 ... read more