Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father.
Parallel Translations
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Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father.
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And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.
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And Reuben said unto them: 'Shed no blood; cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him' — that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father.
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to Genesis 37:22 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 22:12 He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
- Genesis 42:22 Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t sin against the child,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required.”
- Exodus 24:11 He didn’t lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank.
- Deuteronomy 13:9 but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.
- Matthew 27:24 So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person. You see to it.”
- Acts 12:1 Now about that time, King Herod stretched out his hands to oppress some of the assembly.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (7 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 22. Cast him into this pit. The pious fallacy…
22. Cast him into this pit. The pious fallacy to which Reuben descended, sufficiently proves with what vehemence the rage of his brethren was burning. For he neither dares openly to oppose them, nor to dissuade them from their crime; because he saw that no reasons would avail to soften them. Nor does it extenuate their cruelty, that they consent to his proposal, as if they were disposed to clemency; for if either one course or the other were necessary, it would have been better for him immediately to die by their hands, than to perish by slow hunger in the pit, which is the most cruel kind of punishment. Their gross hypocrisy is rather to be noticed; because they think that they shall be free from crime, if only they do not stain their hands with their brother’s blood. As if, indeed, it made any difference, whether they ran their brother through with a sword, or put him to death by suffocation. For the Lord, when he accuses the Jews by Isaiah, of having hands full of blood, does not mean that they were assassins, but he calls them bloody, because they did not spare their suffering brethren. Therefore, the sons of Jacob are nothing better, in casting their brother alive under ground, that, as one buried, he might in vain contend with death, and perish after protracted torments; and in choosing a pit in the desert, from which no mortal could hear his dying cry, though his sighing would ascend even to heaven. It was a barbarous thought, that they should not touch his life, if they did not imbrue their hands in his blood; since it was a kind of death, not less violent, which they wished to inflict by hunger. Reuben, however, accommodating his language to their brutal conceptions, deemed it sufficient to repress, by any kind of artifice, their impetuosity for the present.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 37:22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no…
Gen 37:22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, [but] cast him into this pit that [is] in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.
Ver. 22. Shed no blood.] Every drop of it hath a tongue to cry for vengeance. Well might King James say, that if God did allow him to kill a man, he would think God did not love him. David, God’s darling, falling into that crimson sin, carried the bruise of that fall with him to his grave. Woe to those Italians that blaspheme oftener than swear; and murder more than revile or slander! {a}
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{a} Sandys’s Relation of West. Relig., sec. 13.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And it came to pass, when Joseph was come…
And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren,.... To the very place where they were, and had, in a kind and obliging manner, asked of their welfare, and related their father's concern for them, who had sent him on this errand:
that they stripped, Joseph out of his coat; his coat of many colours, that was on him; according to Jarchi and Aben Ezra, this was not one and the same coat, but divers, and that the sense is, that with his coat of many colours, and besides that, they stripped him of his lower garment, which was next to his skin, his shirt; so that he was quite naked when they cast him into the pit, and this they did as soon as he came up to them, so cruel and hardhearted were they.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain His father. Ruben wished to regain his father’s favour,…
His father. Ruben wished to regain his father’s favour, chap. xxxv. 22.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 22. This pit that is in the wilderness —…
22. This pit that is in the wilderness — By the wilderness here we are to understand the open, unsettled country in which they were pasturing their flocks. “The country abounded, and still abounds, in pits or cisterns dug in the ground, or soft limestone, to preserve water through the dry season, and also to store grain. They were made large at the bottom, with a small mouth at the top, sometimes tapering upwards, like a huge demijohn. (Thomson.) The top was covered with a flat stone, over which sand or earth was often spread for concealment. When dry there was generally mud at the bottom. They were often used as dungeons for criminals. See Jer_38:6. Perhaps they put him into the pit, deliberately intending to leave him there to perish; but it seems more likely that they did this as a temporary imprisonment, without having definitely determined what final disposition to make of Joseph. Reuben succeeds in effecting a stay of the murderous proceedings of his brethren. Judah’s proposition in Gen_37:26, shows that his fate was under discussion as they ‘sat down to eat bread.’” — Newhall.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 22. And Reuben said] This and the next two…
22. And Reuben said] This and the next two verses are from E. Reuben, the eldest, interposes to save his brother’s life; cf. Gen_42:37.
Shed no blood] Reuben’s warning is that there should be no bloodshed, as if murder without bloodshed would be a less evil. His proposal is that Joseph should be thrown into a cistern or tank, which they knew of hard by, and that he should be left there to perish, Reuben intending himself to deliver him. Reuben is not brave enough to oppose his brothers; but hopes to outwit them. He appeals to the horror of bloodshed. Blood cries out against the murderer: see note on Gen_4:11.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (22) Into this pit that is in the wilderness.—Reuben…
(22) Into this pit that is in the wilderness.—Reuben apparently pointed to some cistern in the desolate region which girds the little valley of Dothan around. We learn from Gen_42:21 that Joseph begged hard for mercy, and to be spared so painful a death, but that his brothers would not hear.
Though never represented in the Scriptures as a type of Christ, yet the whole of the Old Testament is so full of events and histories, which reappear in the Gospel narrative, that the Fathers have never hesitated in regarding Joseph, the innocent delivered to death, but raised thence to glory, as especially typifying to us our Lord. Pascal (Pensées, 2:9. 2) sums up the points of resemblance—in his father’s love for him, his being sent to see after the peace of his brethren, their conspiring against him, his being sold for twenty pieces of silver, his rising from his humiliation to be the lord and saviour of those who had wronged him; and with them the saviour also of the world. As too, he was in prison with two malefactors, so was our Lord crucified between two thieves and as one of these was saved and one left to his condemnation, so Joseph gave deliverance to the chief butler, but to the chief baker punishment. It would be easy to point out other resemblances, but, leaving these, it is important also to notice that Joseph’s history is likewise a vindication of God’s providential dealings with men. He is innocent, and pure in life, but wronged again and again; yet every wrong was but a step in the pathway of his exaltation. And like the histories of all great lives, Joseph’s adventures do not begin and end in himself. Upon him depended a great future. Noble minds care little for personal suffering, if from their pain springs amelioration for the world. Now Joseph’s descent into Egypt was: not only for the good and preservation of the people there, but was also an essential condition for the formation of the Jewish Church. In Egypt alone could Israel have multiplied into a nation fit to be the depositaries of God’s law, and to grow into a church of prophets.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.