The Book of Genesis
Genesis Chapters 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 37

INTRODUCTION TO THIS STUDY

The purpose of this work is to guide you in Spirit Filled interpretation of this "Selected Study". As necessary we will provide outlines, historical backgrounds, note the purpose and focus of the text, and also provide the original Hebrew language definitions for the key words in the highlighted text. The English translation used is the King James (Authorized) Version, not because it is the best translation available, but because I just plain prefer it for study!

All Scripture text will be presented in normal cased lettering, and all notes within the text will be in TRUE TYPE FONT, as shown. This (I hope) will allow you to avoid confusion between God's Word and my notes. As I update this website, I will continue to embellish the text so that anyone using NETSCAPE 3.0 or MICROSOFT 3.0 or higher will be able to read the document easier.
 

An excellent site to study Biblical Hebrew is by Lee R. Martin, Biblical Hebrew. The following are excerpts from his Hebrew Dictionary (if you want more, go to his site):

ABSOLUTE: In Hebrew Greek grammar, a word is absolute when it stands independently and has no grammatical relation to other elements in the sentence. The most common instance in Greek is the genitive absolute.

ABSOLUTE STATE: The Hebrew absolute together with a word in the construct state expresses the genitive. Do not confuse with the infinitive absolute. Heb: king (absolute); horse of (construct) the king (absolute), i.e., the king's horse (genitive).

ACCIDENCE: That part of grammar that treats inflection; a subcategory of morphology.

ACCUSATIVE CASE: A substantive used as the direct object of a transitive verb is said to be in the accusative case. In Greek, the accusative is the case of extension. Heb: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Gk: "He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12).

ACCUSATIVE ENDING: In Hebrew see DIRECTIVE h.

ACTIVE VOICE: In the active voice, the subject is the doer of the action that is expressed by the verb.

AKTIONSART: German for "kind of action."

ANARTHROUS: A word that appears without the article is anarthrous.

ARAMAIC: A branch of the northwest Semitic languages that is closely related to Hebrew. In the OT Masoretic text, Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Dan. 2:4b-7:28; and Jer. 10:11 are in Aramaic rather than Hebrew. Aramaic had become the common language of the Jewish people by NT times.

CASE: Case shows the grammatical relation of inflected forms such as nouns and pronouns to other words (nominative, possessive, objective cases).

CAUSATIVE VERB: A transitive verb that can be said to cause the action depicted in a corresponding intransitive verb. Ex: lay ("cause to lie") is the causative of lie; raise, the causative of rise.

DIRECT OBJECT: The word, phrase, or clause that is the primary goal or result of the action of the verb (cf. accusative case); the person or thing is directly affected by the action of the verb. Heb: "God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Gr: "He grabbed him and began to choke him" (Matt. 18:28).

GENITIVE: The case that expresses possession or specifies a relationship that can be expressed in English by "of." In Hebrew this is called a construct relationship. The Greek genitive is the specifying case answering the question "What kind?" Heb: "the expanse of the sky" (Gen. 1:21). Gk: "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4).

GUTTURALS: The mute consonants whose sounds are produced when the front of the tongue approaches the palate of the mouth. Four letters in Hebrew, a h j and [ are the guttural letters (r has some guttural characteristics). Hebrew gutturals cannot be doubled, prefer a-class vowels, and composite shevas. In Greek, the guttural letters are g k and c also called velars, laryngeals, or palatals.

HITHPAEL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses intensive or emphatic action (classified by some grammars as causative action) and reflexive voice. For this emphasis in Greek, middle voice. Heb: "A group of adventurers gathered around [lit., gathered themselves around] him" (Judg. 11:3).

HOPHAL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses causative action and passive voice. Heb: "Let seven of his male descendants be given [hophal] to us" (2 Sam. 21:6).

IMPERATIVE: A verb or verbal mood that expresses command or makes a request.

IMPERFECT: In Hebrew, the form of the verb used to express action that is incomplete or unfinished. Heb: "What if they do not believe me" (Exod. 4:1). The Greek imperfect tense expresses incomplete, linear action in past time. Gk: "People were eating and drinking..." (Luke 17:28). Other regular uses of the tense include iterative, frequentative, inceptive, and conative.

INFINITIVE: A verbal noun that has characteristics of both verbs and nouns. In English usually introduced by to. Hebrew has both infinitive absolute and infinitive construct forms. Heb: "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land" (Gen. 15:7). The Greek infinitive is used as a substantive, in subordinate clauses, with prepositions, and in epexegesis. Gk: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21).

INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE: A form of the Hebrew infinitive that may function in a number of ways: to express certainty or intensification ("you will surely die," Gen. 2:17); to express repeated or continued action ("Be ever hearing," Isa. 6:9); as a finite verb ("They...broke the jars," Judg. 7:19); to express an emphatic imperative ("Remember the Sabbath day," Exod. 20:8).

MASORETIC TEXT: The vocalized text of the Hebrew Bible, prepared by a group of Jewish scholars around A.D. 700 to preserve the oral pronunciation of the Hebrew words.

MOOD: Mood indicates the manner in which the action is conceived (or its relation to reality). Moods are indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and optative. Mood may be expressed by finite verbs in Greek and by various means (form, words, or context) in Hebrew. Mode.

NIPHAL: A verbal form (stem) in Hebrew that expresses simple action and passive or reflexive voice. Heb: "She was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah" (1 Sam. 18:19).

OPTATIVE MOOD: The mood of possibility and more doubtful assertion that expresses wish or desire. See also jussive and cohortative. Heb: "If only we had died in Egypt!" (Num. 14:2). Gk: "Maythe Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance" (2 Thess. 3:5).

PARTICIPLE: A verbal form that has characteristics of both noun and verb. In Hebrew it represents characteristic, continual, uninterrupted action. Heb: "The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Gen. 1:2). The Greek participle is widely used as a substantive, adjective, and adverb in phrases and clauses. Gk:"...in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him" (1 Peter 1:21).

PARTICLE: A unit of speech that is ranked as an uninflected word but expresses some kind of syntactical relationship or some general aspect of meaning. Some grammarians classify all conjunctions, prepositions, and negatives as particles.

PASSIVE VOICE: A voice form of the verb that represents the subject as receiver of the action. Heb: "This land was given to us as our possession" (Ezek. 11:15). Gk: "You were marked in him with a seal" (Eph. 1:13).

PERFECT/PERFECT TENSE: In Hebrew, this form of the verb is used to express completed action, whether in reality or in the thought of the speaker or writer. Heb: rm'v; is a perfect form of the verb and would be translated "he guarded." The Greek perfect tense, by contrast, represents a state of completion with abiding results and is often translated as a present perfect. Gk: The perfect leluke would be rendered "he has released."

PIEL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses intensive or emphatic action and active voice. Heb: "They destroyed the high places and the altars" (2 Chron. 31:1).

PREPOSITION: A word that shows relationships between its object and some other word in the sentence. Some common English prepositions are in, to, from, with, above, for, by.

PRETERITE: A Latin name for the past tense; it is the equivalent of the perfect in Hebrew and the aorist indicative in Greek.

PUAL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses intensive or emphatic action and passive voice. Heb: "There was Baal's altar, demolished" (Judg. 6:28).

QAL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses simple action and active voice; it is sometimes spelled Kal. Ex:"Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew" (Gen.25:34).

REFLEXIVE VOICE: Denotes an action that is directed back upon the agent or subject; expressed in Hebrew by the niphal and the hithpael, in Greek by the middle voice.Heb: "I have...kept myself from sin" (Ps. 18:23). Gk: "Then he went away and hanged himself" (Matt. 27:5).

ROOT: That part of a word left when all affixes are removed; the morpheme that carries the minimal unit of meaning in a word and can be common to several different words. The three consonants in Hebrew that ordinarily compose the basic uninflected spelling of a word are called the root letters. Occasionally a Hebrew word may have two or four root letters. Gk: the root dik- is common to dikaio", "righteous," dikh, "justice," and dikaiow, "to acquit." Also called "Lexeme."

STATIVE VERB, STATIC VERB: A stative verb is one that indicates a state of being or relationship rather than action. In Hebrew, its vowel pattern is different from that of verbs of action or motion. Greek statives include eijmi, ginomai, and uJparcw. Heb: "the hands...will be strengthened (2 Sam. 16:21). Gk: "Who, being in very nature God" (Phil. 2:6).

STEM: The noun or verb base formed by the addition of derivational affixes to the root. Thus, in Greek, doro- is the stem of the noun doron, "gift"; do- is the root, ro is the affix (in this case, a suffix). Also called base in recent grammars. In Hebrew, the term is used to designate verb forms that express certain kinds of action and voice; the major Hebrew verbal stems are qal, niphal, piel, pual, hithpael, hiphil, and hophal.

STRONG VERB: In Hebrew, the regular verb whose stem consonants do not change, i.e., remain unmodified in conjugation, in contrast to the weak verb. In Greek, a tense stem formed from the verb stem or root itself by vowel gradation.

VOICE: Voice is a modification of a verb that tells whether the subject of the verb acts or is acted upon. There are three voices in English, Hebrew, and Greek: active, passive, and reflexive.

WEAK VERB: In Hebrew, the verbs with gutturals or weak letters ( n in first root position, y and w in first or second root position, identical second and third root letters) as radicals, which produce modifications in the conjugation, in contrast to the strong verb. In Greek, a tense stem formed by adding a suffix to the verb stem or root.

If you discover obvious errors (as I am human, and do make mistakes), please let me know. Do not contact me to argue about the doctrinal differences that you may have with my teaching. I do not argue Theology with anyone, so all Legalists, cultists, and others with extremist views, please save your (and my) time. If you want to discuss your doctrinal differences, or share a viewpoint, please contact me at Didaskalos Ministries. I am not so arrogant as to think I know it all, or even 1% of what the scripture teaches.

3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: (an attribute of worry is to blame God for your circumstances)

and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
 

4 And, behold, the word of the LORD [came] unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels (me`ah, loins, heart, self)

shall be thine heir.

6 And he believed ('aman, Hophal stem, Perfect tense = he was caused to believe)

in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

8 And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? (put God to the test, 13.14-17)
 

9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer (`eglah, nearly grown female calf. This was for the sin offering)

of three years old, and a she goat (`ez, female goat. This was for the reconciliation offering)

of three years old, and a ram ('ayil, strong one, ram. This was for the propitiation offering)

of three years old, and a turtledove, (towr, a ring dove. Symbolic of Christ)

and a young pigeon. (gowzal, a nestling, baby bird. Again, symbolic of Christ)
 

10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. (that which symbolized the coming Christ was not cut nor broken)
 

11 And when the fowls (symbolic of Satan's emissaries, see 1 Peter 5.7-11)

came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
 

12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness (Hebrew idiom for a nightmare)

fell upon him.
 

13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety (yada`, to confidently know)

that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land [that is] not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; (this was a prophecy of the coming Egyptian enslavement)

16 But in the fourth generation (four generations are recovered from the priesthood: Levi, Kohath, Amran, Moses)

they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites [is] not yet full. (Abram's preaching among the Canaanites {Amorites} will lead enough to God to stave off their destruction for 600 years)
 
 

1  Now Sarai (name means "contentious")

Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
 

2  And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD (Yehovah, Jehovah. Here in emphatic position to show that Sarai was blaming God for her troubles)

hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened (shama`, obeyed. Just as Adam obeyed Eve to the eating of the forbidden fruit, Abram listened to Sarai and took bad advice. This was contrary to God's design for the family, and brought terrible repercussions on the innocent)

to the voice of Sarai.
 

4  And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised (qalal, to look down on someone, to belittle because of pride)

in her eyes.
 

6  But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly (`anah, abused, beat. Hagar had done nothing wrong, but was punished by the sinner Sarai as if she had done wrong. This is the normal operation of the Old Sin Nature in man: when sin destroys you, blame someone else rather than repent)

with her, she fled from her face.
 

7  And the angel of the LORD found her (matsa', to seek out so as to take care of. This is an operation of God's Grace. When others betray us, belittle us, try to destroy us, God is still there with open arms waiting to heal us)

by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. (Hagar was headed toward Egypt)
 

10  And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, (The Arabic Nations came out of Hagar and Ishmael)

that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
 

11  And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; (Yishma`e'l, literally means "God has heard". Implies that Hagar was praying and asking God to help her. When the evil ones and the hypocrites come to destroy us, we need to pray to God rather than attack back)

because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
 

12  And he will be a wild man; (pere', wild ass. He will be a masculine man)

his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
 

13  And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? (literally = I have seen the one who saw me)
 

14  Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi; (Be'er la-Chay Ro'iy, means "the well of Him who lives and sees me")

behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
 
 

1 And when Abram was (qal imperfect hajah = had become)

ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared (ra'ah, niphal imperfect = to appear so as to be seen. A Christophanie)

to Abram, and said unto him, I [am] the Almighty God; (El Shadday, All powerful God, all supplying God)

walk (halak, hithpael imperfect = you start advancing, walking)

before me, and be thou perfect. (tamiym, qal imperative = be mature or complete, sound)
 

2 And I will make (nathan, qal imperative = to put or make, give)

my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply (rabah, hithpael imperative = will cause to increase)

thee exceedingly.
 

3 And Abram fell (naphal, qal imperative)

on his face: and God talked (dabar, piel imperative = talked)

with him, saying,
 

4 As for me, behold, my covenant [is] with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

         |__________________link both_______________________|
5Neither (lo' qara = not be called) shall thy name any more be called

Abram, ('Abram, high father) but thy name shall be

Abraham; ('Abraham, father of a multitude)

for a father of many nations have I made (piel imperfect nathan = I have given you)

thee.
 

6 And I will make thee (hithpael perfect parah = cause to be prolific) exceeding fruitful

and I will make (qal perfect nathan = will give to you)

nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
 

7 And I will establish (hophal perfect qum = cause you to stand, establish, setup, maintain)

my covenant between me and thee and thy seed (zera`, a single seed. God looked toward the time when mankind would be united under the blood of Christ)

after thee in their generations for an everlasting (`owlam, forever, everlasting. See Rom 9.6-14. In order to have benefit from an everlasting covenant you must have an everlasting life)

covenant, to be a God ('elohiym, supreme God, Godhead)

unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
 

8 And I will give (qal perfect nathan = will give to you)

unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, (maguwr, resident pilgrim)

all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God ('elohiym, supreme God, Godhead).
 

9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep (shamar, guard. Israel was to be the steward of God's Old Testament Gospel)

my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
 

10 This [is] my covenant, which ye shall keep (qal imperative shamar, you must guard. Israel was ordered to be the steward of God's Old Testament Gospel), between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. (an Old Testament parallel to New Testament baptism. An act of dedication that one was a believer in God's covenant)
 

11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token ('owth, symbol)

of the covenant betwixt me and you.
 

12 And he that is eight days old (prior to eight days the child has an insufficient blood coagulant and would bleed to death if circumcised. On the eighth day, however, the child has 110% of his blood coagulant, so this is an ideal time to circumcise the child)

shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which [is] not of thy seed.
 

15  And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, (Saray, means "dominating or contentious")

but Sarah (Sarah, means "princess". When the "I" was taken out of Sarah's name she became a princess of God)

shall her name be.
 

18  And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! (Notice that God ignores this prayer completely for it is outside of His will)
 

19  And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: (name means "laughter")

and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
 
 
 

1  And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: (Mamre', means "wealth, prosperity")

and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
 

2  And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
                                                                                                                  |
                                |__________________________________|
3  And said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: (note application to doctrine of the Trinity of God)
 

4  Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, (idiomatic for "enter my house", as feet were washed by the host before they entered the house)

and rest yourselves under the tree:
 

10  And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.
 

11  Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. (idiomatic = Sarah underwent menopause - she was now infertile, unable to have children unless God intervened)
 

12  Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, (`eden, delight, happiness. Idiomatic for sexual relationship)

my lord being old also?
 
 
 

1  And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt (nacah, to put to the test)

Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
 

2  And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, ('ahab, qal active participle = you keep on loving)

and get thee into the land of Moriah; (Mowriyah, means "to be caused to be seen of God". This was a hill in the holy land, some believe that this is the same hill that our Lord was crucified on - Calvary)

and offer him there for a burnt offering (this was a horror, for the burnt offering was to have its throat cut, then after death the body was burnt)

upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
 

3  And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, (chamowr, donkey, ass, jackass. This was a means of transportation used only by kings and wealthy people. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass)

and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
 

4  Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
 

5  And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad (na`ar, adolescent or young boy)

will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. (Abraham expected God to resurrect his child, even after he killed him. He knew that God's covenant with him had to flow through Isaac and, as God is not a liar, Isaac would have to live)
 

9  And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, (Abraham didn't have the strength to carry the wood up the hill, so Isaac actually helped his father prepare his own sacrifice)

and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
 

10  And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
 

11  And the angel of the LORD (a Christophanie, O.T. manifestation of Christ. See vv. 16)

called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: (God had to call Abraham twice in order to stop him - he was so focused on doing what God told him to do)

and he said, Here am I.
 

12  And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest (yare', to have reverential awe of)

God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
 

13  And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
 

14  And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: (Yehovah yireh, means "Jehovah will see to it", refers to Mt Moriah)

as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
 
 
 

1  And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.
 

2  These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding (ra`ah, to tend. Joseph was the chief shepherd over the flock, and therefore was over his brothers. This caused jealousy among the brothers, and led to Joseph's exile)

the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, (Dan and Nephtali)

and with the sons of Zilpah, (Gad and Asher)

his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. (as chief shepherd he reported on what his brothers did to his father, the owner)
 

3  Now Israel (aka Jacob)

loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. (This was a sign of Joseph's authority over his brothers. The chief shepherd wore a long cloak or coat with long sleeves. The workers wore short coats with short sleeves)
 

4  And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
 

5  And Joseph dreamed a dream, (Joseph revealed this divine dream to his brothers)

and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
 

9  And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon (refers to Rachel, Joseph's mother)

and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
 

12  And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. (Shekem,  means "shoulder of strength")
 

17  And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. (Dothan,  means "the gift". A place in Palestine)
 

21  And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him.
 

22  And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit (bowr, this was an empty deep well)

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.
 

23  And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors (This was a sign of Joseph's authority over his brothers. The chief shepherd wore a long cloak or coat with long sleeves. The workers wore short coats with short sleeves) that was on him;
 

24  And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
 

25  And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery  (neko'th, an aromatic gum)

and balm (tseriy, a type of medicine)

and myrrh, (lot, a gum used to make perfume)

going to carry it down to Egypt.
 

26  And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
 

27  Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.
 

28  Then there passed by Midianites (Midianites were descended from Abraham through Katura, the Ishmaelites from Abraham through Hagar. These were literally Joseph's cousins who participated in this evil thing) merchant men; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the | Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.