37:18 Now Joseph’s brothers 1 saw him from a distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. 37:19 They said to one another, “Here comes this master of dreams! 2 37:20 Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild 3 animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!” 4
37:21 When Reuben heard this, he rescued Joseph 5 from their hands, 6 saying, 7 “Let’s not take his life!” 8 37:22 Reuben continued, 9 “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” 10 (Reuben said this 11 so he could rescue Joseph 12 from them 13 and take him back to his father.)
37:23 When Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him 14 of his tunic, the special tunic that he wore. 37:24 Then they took him and threw him into the cistern. (Now the cistern was empty; 15 there was no water in it.)
1 tn Heb “and they”; the referent (Joseph’s brothers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “Look, this master of dreams is coming.” The brothers’ words have a sarcastic note and indicate that they resent his dreams.
3 tn The Hebrew word can sometimes carry the nuance “evil,” but when used of an animal it refers to a dangerous wild animal.
4 tn Heb “what his dreams will be.”
5 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 sn From their hands. The instigators of this plot may have been the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah (see v. 2).
7 tn Heb “and he said.”
8 tn Heb “we must not strike him down [with respect to] life.”
9 tn Heb “and Reuben said to them.”
10 sn The verbs translated shed, throw, and lay sound alike in Hebrew; the repetition of similar sounds draws attention to Reuben’s words.
11 tn The words “Reuben said this” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
12 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Heb “from their hands” (cf. v. 21). This expression has been translated as “them” here for stylistic reasons.
14 tn Heb “Joseph”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
15 tn The disjunctive clause gives supplemental information that helps the reader or hearer to picture what happened.