When the Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph up out of the pit. They sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who brought Joseph to Egypt. (Genesis 37:28)

Rembrandt’s etching of the sale of Joseph portrays Joseph as a fearful child. He is being held by two of his brothers, perhaps Simeon and Levi, while his sale is taking place on the right. The main character is most probably Judah, who is described in the Bible as being the one who suggested that Joseph be sold rather than murdered.

Consider the sequence of events: Joseph has been sent by his father to check on the welfare of his brothers. Oblivious to the brothers’ ill will, he sets out to meet them. They espy him approaching, and make plans to do in the dreamer once and for all. Whereas the initial call among the brothers is for manslaughter, their nefarious designs are tempered by their older brother Reuben, who suggests that they simply cast him into a pit and let death come naturally.  Actually, as the Bible later reveals, Reuben has every intention of rescuing Joseph when the opportunity allows. Scripture gives expression to the brother’s gleeful disdain for Joseph’s plight in the pit by describing them sitting down to eat, undisturbed by his distress. Noticing a caravan of nomadic merchants approaching, brother Judah comes up with the practical suggestion of profiting from the situation by selling Joseph to the merchants. The plan is agreed upon. But in describing what happens next, the text is ambiguous. 

When Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph up out of the pit. They sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who brought Joseph to Egypt. (37:27-28) 

The pressing question is: who is the subject of these verses? Is it the passing Midianites who pulled the rug out from under the brothers’ plan by selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites while his brothers enjoyed their repast? Or does the drawing out and selling of Joseph refer to the brothers, who executed Judah’s scheme as planned? The commentators are divided:

Rabbi Joseph Bechor Shor of Orleans describes the process as a playing out of the intense hatred the brothers felt toward Joseph. They themselves perpetrated the crime:

When Midianite traders passed by. There are those who explain that the Midianites heard him screaming from the pit, hoisted him up, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, turning a large profit, as there was no financial outlay on their part. The Ishmaelites, in turn, brought him down to Egypt. That which it states at the conclusion of the story, and the Midianites sold him to Egypt simply means they facilitated the process which brought him down to Egypt…The truth is that the brothers sold him, as it says since you sold me here… actually, they would have paid to get rid of him since they hated him with such a passion!

Rashbam prefers the former reading, which in some measure exonerates the brothers. Though the brothers had planned to sell Joseph, their scheme was undermined by the Midianite nomads. Rashbam’s inclination to accept this position may be a function a polemic he conducted with Christian interpreters. Our story was seen as the prefiguration of the New Testament account in which Jesus was betrayed and sold for twenty pieces of silver. By mitigating the guilt of the brothers in this story, Rashbam undercuts the Christian claim.

Theoretically, one way of weighing the merits of these positions is to examine the testimony of Joseph himself, which is recorded later in the biblical text. There too, though, the Bible leaves us guessing. Whereas in Genesis 40:15  Joseph explains that he was kidnapped, leaving room for Rashbam’s reading,

For in truth, I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews; nor have I done anything here that they should have put me in the dungeon.

In 45:4 he explicitly states that he was sold by the brothers:

I am your brother Joseph, he whom you sold into Egypt.

Why all this ambiguity? Perhaps the reason nobody can seem to get the story straight is that true understanding of the course of events is possible only from the perspective of God. Man’s actions appear to follow certain clear patterns and logical direction. In this case, we are given the impression that sibling rivalry and financial considerations motivated the brothers or the merchants, when, in fact, the biblical text elevates us to a different plane entirely. What Scripture knows – and hence, what the reader realizes – is that neither the brothers nor the Midianites sold Joseph to Egypt; it was a divine plan being set in motion.

1. In Genesis chapter 34, Simeon and Levi retaliate for the rape of their sister Deena in Shechem.   Joseph imprisons Simeon to guarantee that Benjamin will be brought before him. Midrashic literature explains that Simeon was chosen since he and Levi proposed to kill Joseph in 37:20. Moreover, according to the midrashic rendition, it was they who actually sold him. ( Genesis Rabbah 97).

2. The notion of shifting points of view as a literary device highlighting dual causality is explored by Adele Berlin in her book,   Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative (Sheffield, 1983), pp. 43-82.

3. Rabbi Joseph ben Isaac of Orleans was known as Rabbi Joseph Bekhor Shor. He was a 12th century Northern French exegete, tosafist and poet.

4. Rabbi Samuel ben Meir, known by his acronym Rashbam, (1080-1174) was one of the most preeminent Northern French exegetes and tosafists. He was Rashi’s grandson.