Genesis 37:21-24

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.)

[37:21]  ¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:21]  ² sn From their hands. The instigators of this plot may have been the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah (see v. 2).

[37:21]  ³ tn Heb “and he said.”

[37:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “we must not strike him down [with respect to] life.”

[37:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “and Reuben said to them.”

[37:22]  ⁶ sn The verbs translated shed, throw, and lay sound alike in Hebrew; the repetition of similar sounds draws attention to Reuben’s words.

[37:22]  ⁷ tn The words “Reuben said this” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[37:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “from their hands” (cf. v. 21). This expression has been translated as “them” here for stylistic reasons.

[37:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “Joseph”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[37:24]  ¹³ tn The disjunctive clause gives supplemental information that helps the reader or hearer to picture what happened.