38 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Genesis 37 In this chapter begins the history of Joseph, with whom the remaining part of this book is chiefly concerned; and here are related the hatred of his brethren to him, because he brought an ill report of them to his father, and because his father loved him, and which was increased by the dream he dreamed, and told them of,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger,.... And this stands opposed unto, and is distinguished from the case and circumstances of Esau and his posterity, expressed in the preceding chapter, who dwelt in the land of their possession, not as strangers and sojourners, as Jacob and his seed, but as lords and proprietors; and so...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
At this chapter begins the story of Joseph, who, in every subsequent chapter but one to the end of this book, makes the greatest figure. He was Jacob's eldest son by his beloved wife Rachel, born, as many eminent men were, of a mother that had been long barren. His story is so remarkably divided between his humiliation and his exaltation that we...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
These [are] the generations of Jacob,.... But no genealogy following, some interpret this of events or of things which befell Jacob, and his family, particularly with respect to his son Joseph, as Aben Ezra and Ben Melech take the sense of the word to be from Proverbs 27:1; but the words may refer to what goes before in the latter end of chapter...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children,.... He being the firstborn of his beloved Rachel, and a lovely youth, of a beautiful aspect, very promising, prudent and pious: the reason given in the text follows, because he [was] the son of his old age; being ninety one years of age when he was born; and the youngest children are generally...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren,.... Which they perceived by various things in his behaviour to him, by his words, his looks, his gestures, and particularly by the coat he had made him, which distinguished him from the rest: they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him; they not only...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told [it] his brethren,.... As a dream, in the simplicity of his heart; not understanding it, or imagining there was any meaning in it; he told it not with any design to affront them, but as an amusement, and for their diversion, there being something in it odd and ridiculous, as he himself might think: and they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he said unto them, hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. Hear now, so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, immediately, directly, lest he should forget it, having perhaps dreamt it the night before; though our version expresses more modesty and submission. The dream follows:
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For, behold, we [were] binding sheaves in the field,.... So it was represented in his mind in a dream, as if it was harvest time, and he and his brethren were at work together in the field binding up sheaves of corn that were reaped, in order to be carried home: and, lo, my sheaf arose, and stood upright; it seemed to him, that after he had bound...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And his brethren said unto him,.... After he had told his dream, being highly offended with him, understanding the dream, and the meaning of it, better than he did: shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shall thou indeed have dominion over us? denying that he ever should, and reproving him for his vanity, in concluding from hence that he would have...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he dreamed yet another dream,.... Relating to the name subject as the former, and, for the confirmation of it, only the emblems are different, and more comprehensive: and told it his brethren, and said, behold, I have dreamed a dream more; another dream, and which he told, either as not knowing fully the resentment of his brethren at his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he told [it] to his father, and to his brethren,.... After he had told it to his brethren, he told it to his father a second time in their hearing, that he might pass his judgment on it, and give his sense of it before them: and his father rebuked him; not as being ignorant of the meaning of the dream, for by what follows he had a clear...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And his brethren envied him,.... Notwithstanding all the precaution Jacob took to prevent it; they suspecting and fearing that these dreams portended the pre-eminence of Joseph over them, or however served to fill his mind with the hopes and expectation of it: but his father observed the saying; what Joseph had said in relating his dream; he laid...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. Very probably some considerable time after the telling of the above dreams; it was usual to remove flocks from place to place for the sake of pasturage; and sometimes at a great distance, as Shechem was from Hebron, where Jacob now dwelt, said (i) to be about sixty miles; but this is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Israel said unto Joseph,.... After his brethren had been gone some time to Shechem: do not thy brethren feed [the flock] in Shechem? this question is put, not as ignorant of it, or doubting about it, but to put Joseph in mind of it, and in order to what follows: come, and I will send thee unto them; which is pretty much he should, considering...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he said to him, go, I pray thee,.... Or "now" (k), directly, immediately, which is more agreeable to the authority of a father: see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; it having been many days, and perhaps months, since he had heard anything of them; and the rather Jacob might be under a concern for them, because of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And a certain man found him,.... Many of the Jewish writers (l) say, this was an angel, the angel Gabriel, in the likeness of a man; but according to Aben Ezra, it was a traveller he met on the road; but it is more probable, as Schimidt observes, that it was some man at work in the field that came upon him and took notice of him: and, behold, [he...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he said, I seek my brethren,.... Whom, no doubt, he described to the man, and told him who they were, and to whom they belonged; or otherwise the man would have been at a loss to know who he meant, and what further to say to him, and without which Joseph would never have made the following request to him: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the man said, they are departed hence,.... They had been there, in the field where he and Joseph were, and which was probably the field before mentioned; but for good reasons, perhaps for want of pasture, or in order to find better feeding for their cattle, they were gone from thence, from the fields about Shechem: for I heard them say, let us...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when they saw him afar off,.... They knew him as soon as they saw him, by his stature, his gesture or manner of walking, and especially by his coat of various colours he now had on, Genesis 37:23; even before he came near unto them; the distance he was from them when they first spied him is particularly remarked and repeated, not to show the...