37:21 When Reuben heard this, he rescued Joseph 1 from their hands, 2 saying, 3 “Let’s not take his life!” 4 37:22 Reuben continued, 5 “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” 6 (Reuben said this 7 so he could rescue Joseph 8 from them 9 and take him back to his father.)
37:23 When Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him 10 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; 11 there was no water in it.)
1 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 sn From their hands. The instigators of this plot may have been the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah (see v. 2).
3 tn Heb “and he said.”
4 tn Heb “we must not strike him down [with respect to] life.”
5 tn Heb “and Reuben said to them.”
6 sn The verbs translated shed, throw, and lay sound alike in Hebrew; the repetition of similar sounds draws attention to Reuben’s words.
7 tn The words “Reuben said this” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
8 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Heb “from their hands” (cf. v. 21). This expression has been translated as “them” here for stylistic reasons.
9 tn Heb “Joseph”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
13 tn The disjunctive clause gives supplemental information that helps the reader or hearer to picture what happened.