Genesis 37:25-28

Dothan lay on a caravan route that ran from Damascus to Egypt. [Note: See Ammon Ben-Tor, "The Trade Relations of Palestine in the Early Bronze Age," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 29:1 (February 1986):1-27.] The next time the brothers would eat a meal in Joseph’s presence he would sit at the head table (Genesis 43:32-34).

Moses referred to the traders that bought Joseph as Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:25; Genesis 37:27-28) and Midianites (Genesis 37:28). Probably the caravan contained a mixture of both of these groups of Abraham’s descendants who were nomadic caravan merchants (cf. Genesis 39:1; Judges 8:24). Residents of this area sometimes used these names interchangeably. "Ishmaelite" is the more generic term for a Bedouin nomad. It became a general designation for desert tribes. "Midianite" is the more specific ethnic term. [Note: Hamilton, The Book . . . Chapters 18-50, p. 423.] Alternatively, "Ishmaelites" may designate a league of tribes with the Midianites constituting one element (cf. Genesis 25:13-17). [Note: Wenham, Genesis 16-50, p. 355.] Rather than agents of death, the traders proved to be God’s instruments of deliverance.

Judah, like Reuben, did not relish killing Joseph. Yet he was not willing to let him go free either. Probably he dreaded the prospect of Joseph receiving the rights of the first-born since he, Judah, was in line for Jacob’s blessing. His suggestion that the brothers sell Joseph implies that he knew slave trading was common in Egypt. The price agreed on for Joseph was the same price that God later specified the Israelites should pay for a slave between the ages of five and 20 years under the Mosaic Law (Leviticus 27:5). These prices were evidently standard in the ancient Near East at this time. Shepherds employed by others earned about eight shekels a year. [Note: Ibid., p. 356.]

"If Joseph steps onto the pages of sacred history as a bratty do-gooder, Judah enters as a slave trader who has turned his back on Abraham’s God-given vision. He is callous toward his father and cynical about the covenant family." [Note: Waltke, Genesis, p. 508.]

The significance of the action of Joseph’s brothers was greater than may appear at first.

"They had not only sold their brother, but in their brother they had cast out a member of the seed promised and given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from the fellowship of the chosen family, and sinned against the God of salvation and His promises." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, 1:332.]