Seder 34: Gen 37:21-36---Selling Joseph

 As they saw Joseph approaching them at Dothan, Joseph's brothers entertained the idea of actually killing him (Gen 37:20).  Then Reuben, the oldest, persuaded the group to spare Joseph's life but put him in a dry cistern that was nearby.  His plan was to go to the cistern later and release Joseph (vv 21-22).  

After putting Joseph in the cistern, the brothers sat down to eat.  When they saw a caravan approaching on a trade route that passed close by, Judah suggested the idea of selling Joseph to the traders.  His suggestion carried the day (vv 25-27).  

Verse 28 reports, "Then Midianite traders passed by.  And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver.  They took Joseph to Egypt."

There is some ambiguity in this verse about who sold Joseph, based on the identity of "they" in the phrase "And they drew Joseph up."  Two possibilities have been proposed:

(1) The usual interpretation is that Joseph's brothers sold him to the traders.  In this scenario Reuben, who apparently has been apart from the others for some reason, shows up at the cistern after the sale and finds Joseph already gone (vv 29-30).  

This raises the question of where Reuben was.  One midrash proposes that he was not eating with his brothers because he was fasting in an attempt to atone for his earlier sin with Bilhah (Gen 35:22).  

(2) An alternate interpretation is that the brothers overestimated the amount of time they had to get back to the pit before the traders arrived.  While they were eating, Midianites lifted him out of the pit and sold him to Ishmaelites.  Reuben left the meal early to rescue Joseph at the cistern and found him already gone.  

Twenty two years later, Joseph introduces himself to his brothers saying, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt" (Gen 45:4).  Proponents of scenario (2) argue that whoever sold Joseph, it was his brothers who were responsible for his enslavement, since they had put him in the pit.  Even if the Midianites had sold him, Joseph might have suspected that his brothers had cut a deal with the Midianites.

Whatever the details of the sale, the brothers proceeded to dip Joseph's special coat in goat's blood and take it back to Jacob, leading Jacob to believe that Joseph was dead.  Jacob, who had deceived his father with goatskins (Gen 27:16), was now the victim of his sons' deception.