Genesis 37:28
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.
Open Genesis 37:28 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et prætereuntibus Madianitis negotiatoribus, extrahentes eum de cisterna, vendiderunt eum Ismaëlitis, viginti argenteis : qui duxerunt eum in Ægyptum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ παρεπορεύοντο οἱ ἄνθρωποι οἱ Μαδιηναῖοι οἱ ἔμποροι, καὶ ἐξείλκυσαν καὶ ἀνεβίβασαν τὸν Ἰωσὴφ ἐκ τοῦ λάκκου· καὶ ἀπέδοντο τὸν Ἰωσὴφ τοῖς Ἰσμαηλίταις εἴκοσι χρυσῶν· καὶ κατήγαγον τὸν Ἰωσὴφ εἰς Αἴγυπτον.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיַּֽעַבְרוּ֩ אֲנָשִׁ֨ים מִדְיָנִ֜ים סֹֽחֲרִ֗ים וַֽיִּמְשְׁכוּ֙ וַיַּֽעֲל֤וּ אֶת יוֹסֵף֙ מִן הַבּ֔וֹר וַיִּמְכְּר֧וּ אֶת יוֹסֵ֛ף לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִ֖ים בְּעֶשְׂרִ֣ים כָּ֑סֶף וַיָּבִ֥יאוּ אֶת יוֹסֵ֖ף מִצְרָֽיְמָה
Haydock's commentary
Of silver. Some have read, thirty pieces of gold or silver. (St. Ambrose, c. 3.)
The price was trifling: twenty sicles would be about £2 5s. 7½d. English. The Madianites and Ismaelites jointly purchased Joseph. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter VIII. 31-36
2. In short, the Jews also so understood and “answered Him;” not those who had already believed, but those in that crowd who were not yet believers. “They answered Him, We are Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be free?” But the Lord had not said, “Ye shall be free,” but, “The truth shall make you free.” That word, however, they, because, as I have said, it is clearly so in the Greek, understood as pointing only to freedom, and puffed themselves up as Abraham’s seed, and said, “We are Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be free?” O inflated skin! such is not magnanimity, but windy swelling. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXVII
16. “Thou hast redeemed in Thine arm Thy people” ( ver. 15 ). “With Thine arm,” that is, with Thy power. “And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?” “Thou hast redeemed in Thine arm Thy people, the sons of Israel and of Joseph.” How as if two peoples, “the sons of Israel and of Joseph”? Are not the sons of Joseph among the sons of Israel?…He hath admonished us of some distinction to be made. Let us search out our spirit, perchance God hath placed there something, God whom we ought even by night to seek with our hands, in order that we may not be deceived, perchance we shall discover even ourselves in this distinction of “sons of Israel and of Joseph.” By Joseph He hath willed another people to be understood, hath willed that the people of the Gentiles be understood. Why the people of the Gentiles by Joseph? Because Joseph was sold into Egypt by his brethren. …
St Jerome Against Jovinianus, Book I
22. But it is now time for us to raise the standard of Joshua’s chastity. It is written that Moses had a wife. Now Moses is interpreted both by our Lord and by the Apostle to mean the law: “They have Moses and the prophets.” And “Death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression.” And no one doubts that in both passages Moses signifies the law. We read that Moses, that is the law, had a wife: shew me then in the same way that Joshua the son of Nun had either wife or children, and if you can do so, I will confess that I am beaten. …
St Gregory Nazianzen The Last Farewell in the Presence of the One Hundred and Fifty Bishops
5. But since God, Who maketh poor and maketh rich, Who killeth and maketh alive; Who maketh and transformeth all things; Who turneth night into day, winter into spring, storm into calm, drought into abundance of rain; and often for the sake of the prayers of one righteous man sorely persecuted; Who lifteth up the meek on high, and bringeth the ungodly down to the ground; since God said to Himself, I have surely seen the affliction of Israel; and they shall no longer be further vexed with clay and brick-making; and when He spake He visited, and in His visitation He saved, and led forth His people with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, by the hand of Moses and Aaron, His chosen, what is the result, and what wonders have been wrought? Those which books and monuments contain. …
St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XVI. Due measure must be observed in liberality, that it may not be expended on worthless persons, when it is needed by worthier ones. However, alms are not to be given in too sparing and hesitating a way. One ought rather to follow the example of the blessed Joseph, whose prudence is commended at great length
84. What shall we admire first? His powers of mind, with which he descended to the very resting-place of truth? Or his counsel, whereby he foresaw so great and lasting a need? Or his watchfulness or justice? By his watchfulness, when so high an office was given him, he gathered together such vast supplies; and through his justice he treated all alike. And what am I to say of his greatness of mind? For though sold by his brothers into slavery, he took no revenge for this wrong, but put an end to their want. What of his gentleness, whereby by a pious fraud he sought to gain the presence of his beloved brother whom, under pretence of a well-planned theft, he declared to have stolen his property, that he might hold him as a hostage of his love?
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).