Old Testament · Law

Genesis 37:14

Joseph Sold

Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.” Genesis 37:14 · Berean Standard Bible

What It Means

Genesis 37:14, in plain English

Jacob repeats his instructions: go find your brothers, check on how they and the flocks are doing, and come back and tell me.

Why it's here

Jacob emphasizes the task twice—it's important to him. He's sending his favorite son on a forty-mile journey because he trusts Joseph and loves him. It's parental care mixed with parental blindness to danger.

Who's speaking

Jacob

Where it sits in the story

This simple errand is the hinge on which Joseph's entire life turns. God often works through the most ordinary moments, the ones where we have no idea what we're about to set in motion.

A Closer Look

The scholar's commentary

Jacob emphasizes his concern by instructing Joseph to report back on the welfare of both his brothers and the flocks—a dual mission of familial and economic oversight.

Language and setting

The repetition of instructions—first sending Joseph to Shechem (verse 13), then clarifying what he should observe (verse 14)—underscores Jacob's earnestness and concern. The focus on the brothers' and flocks' welfare (shalom) reveals Jacob's dual concerns as patriarch: the relational health of his family and the material prosperity of his household. Joseph is positioned as Jacob's representative, his emissary, conducting what amounts to a paternal inspection. The verb 'bring word back to me' (shub-et-davar) necessitates Joseph's return to his father; in the ironic logic of the narrative, this return will be severely delayed, but the command itself assumes a family circuit that will be broken.

Voice

Jacob/Israel, elaborating his instructions to Joseph.

Significance

Jacob's concern for his family's integrated welfare—relational and material—will soon be shattered, yet the narrative suggests that Joseph's eventual elevation will ultimately serve precisely this integrative function, providing material sustenance that prevents family dissolution.

In context

Genesis 37:12–16

12Some time later, Joseph’s brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks near Shechem.

13Israel said to him, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them.”

14Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.”

15a man found him wandering in the field and asked, “What are you looking for?”

16“I am looking for my brothers,” Joseph replied. “Can you please tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”

Read all of Genesis 37 — A father's favorite son, a coat of many colors, and brothers consumed by jealousy. What they meant for evil, God will use for something unimaginable.

Understand every verse, not just this one

This page covers one. BibleKey does all 31,102 — tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and keep reading without leaving the chapter.

Get BibleKey

In the App

What's in the app that isn't here.

Seven translations

NIV, NLT, NKJV, KJV and the Berean — plus the Catholic NLT-CE and Douay-Rheims, with the full deuterocanon in the reading order.

Every verse, as you read

Tap any of the 31,102 for what it means, and any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, without leaving the chapter.

Selah

Start recording at church and put your phone away. You get the transcript, the key moments, and every verse referenced.

Prayer Maker

Say what's sitting on your heart and hear it back as a real prayer, in a warm voice. Keep the ones that land.

Every Word

The whole Bible in a year — five chapters a day, five days a week, weekends off. Built to be finished.

Today's Light

A verse each morning with its meaning, how it lands today, something to sit with, and a prayer to close it.

Understand every verse.

Not just the famous ones. BibleKey is free on iPhone and iPad.

Download on the App Store

Free on iPhone & iPad