24 grabbed him, and threw him into a cistern. The cistern was dry; there wasn't any water in it. 25 Then they sat down to eat their supper. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices, ointments, and perfumes to sell in Egypt. 26 Judah said, "Brothers, what are we going to get out of killing our brother and concealing the evidence? 27 Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let's not kill him - he is, after all, our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed. 28 By that time the Midianite traders were passing by. His brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph with them down to Egypt. 29 Later Reuben came back and went to the cistern - no Joseph! He ripped his clothes in despair. 30 Beside himself, he went to his brothers. "The boy's gone! What am I going to do!"
31 They took Joseph's coat, butchered a goat, and dipped the coat in the blood. 32 They took the fancy coat back to their father and said, "We found this. Look it over - do you think this is your son's coat?" 33 He recognized it at once. "My son's coat - a wild animal has eaten him. Joseph torn limb from limb!" 34 Jacob tore his clothes in grief, dressed in rough burlap, and mourned his son a long, long time. 35 His sons and daughters tried to comfort him but he refused their comfort. "I'll go to the grave mourning my son." Oh, how his father wept for him. 36 In Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, manager of his household affairs.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Genesis 37:24-36
Commentary on Genesis 37:23-30
(Read Genesis 37:23-30)
They threw Joseph into a pit, to perish there with hunger and cold; so cruel were their tender mercies. They slighted him when he was in distress, and were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph, see Psalm 76:10. Joseph's brethren were wonderfully restrained from murdering him, and their selling him as wonderfully turned to God's praise.
Commentary on Genesis 37:31-36
(Read Genesis 37:31-36)
When Satan has taught men to commit one sin, he teaches them to try to conceal it with another; to hide theft and murder, with lying and false oaths: but he that covers his sin shall not prosper long. Joseph's brethren kept their own and one another's counsel for some time; but their villany came to light at last, and it is here published to the world. To grieve their father, they sent him Joseph's coat of colours; and he hastily thought, on seeing the bloody coat, that Joseph was rent in pieces. Let those that know the heart of a parent, suppose the agony of poor Jacob. His sons basely pretended to comfort him, but miserable, hypocritical comforters were they all. Had they really desired to comfort him, they might at once have done it, by telling the truth. The heart is strangely hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Jacob refused to be comforted. Great affection to any creature prepares for so much the greater affliction, when it is taken from us, or made bitter to us: undue love commonly ends in undue grief. It is the wisdom of parents not to bring up children delicately, they know not to what hardships they may be brought before they die. From the whole of this chapter we see with wonder the ways of Providence. The malignant brothers seem to have gotten their ends; the merchants, who care not what they deal in so that they gain, have also obtained theirs; and Potiphar, having got a fine young slave, has obtained his! But God's designs are, by these means, in train for execution. This event shall end in Israel's going down to Egypt; that ends in their deliverance by Moses; that in setting up the true religion in the world; and that in the spread of it among all nations by the gospel. Thus the wrath of man shall praise the Lord, and the remainder thereof will he restrain.