Genesis 37:25-28

"And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, and going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brethren hearkened unto him. And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt."

"And they sat down to eat bread ..." What a glimpse of unfeeling hardness is afforded here! Like the soldiers who sat and "watched him there," as the Lord suffered, these evil men, insensitive to the cries of their brother, which were probably heard by them, simply sat down to eat, apparently with no pangs of conscience whatever.

"Ishmaelites ... Midianites ... Ishmaelites ..." This is exactly the type of pseudocon so dear to the hearts of skeptics and unbelievers. Which were they? Ishmaelites or Midianites? Well, they were both! They were Ishmaelites by race, being descended from Ishmael, and they were Midianites by residence. It is said of Moses, that, "He fled from Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian" (Exodus 2:15). And any dweller in the land of Midian would have been, as to residence, a Midianite, just as, today, the Dallas-ites live in Dallas. All of the scholarly squabbles about this passage are simply "much ado about nothing." That this is clearly the meaning of these names in this passage appears in the second use of "Ishmaelites." In addition, it may be pointed out that these two names are actually used interchangeably in Judges 8:24,26. People who wish to hunt contradictions will have to find something besides this.

"For twenty pieces of silver ..." This would have been two pieces each for the ten remaining brothers. How cheaply they held the life of their brother! Sure they sold him, but one only needs to turn a few pages until all of the posterity of these heartless brothers is suffering under the whips of the taskmasters in Egypt. What a horrible price to pay for the sale of a brother. Thus history, in which God's finger always writes, has a way of executing retribution upon the wrongdoers. After a full investigation of this, Keil concluded that, "The different names given to the traders here do not show that the account is derived from different legends,"[17] as alleged by critics. Interpretations like that of Skinner who read into the passage a kidnapping story in which the Midianites stole Joseph out of the pit, and later sold him to the Ishmaelites, were commented upon by Willis thus:

"Genesis 37:28-36 and Judges 8:22-26 show that Midianites and Ishmaelites are overlapping terms often used for the same people. The idea suggested by the New English Bible that Midianite merchants came by the pit, now abandoned by Joseph's brothers, drew Joseph out of it, and sold him to Ishmaelite merchants does not make any sense in the light of Genesis 37:36."[18]