Genesis 37:28

28. Sold Joseph… for twenty pieces of silver “The future deliverer of Israel is sold as a slave . One of the great caravan routes from Damascus through the land of Gilead to Egypt, by the way of the maritime plain, Ramleh and Gaza, ran near the pasture ground, and a side route from the East, crossing the fords of the Jordan opposite Bethshan, passed through the valley of Jezreel, and turning southwest, crossed the pastures of Dothan, joining the main route south of the point where it descends from Carmel . Had the caravan been moving to Egypt by the easterly route, through Hebron, past Jacob’s tents, Joseph’s brethren would not have dared to sell him . The Ishmaelites, (descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s son by Hagar,) called Arabians in the Chaldee, and Midianites, (descendants of Midian, Abraham’s son by Keturah,) were mingled in the same caravan, the ‘east Abrahamic peoples,’ who now as then are sons of the desert, going down to Egypt with the spices and gums of Arabia and India . The caravan was laden with precious gums, for which there was always a market in Egypt, created to a great extent, probably, by the demand for such articles in embalming . The word rendered spicery (Genesis 37:25) most probably is gum-tragacanth; balm is the precious aromatic balsam for which Gilead was famous, distilling from a shrub for which the plain of Jericho was once celebrated, and now found in the gardens of Tiberias, while the substance, incorrectly rendered in A.V. myrrh, is the odorous greenish resin ladanum, which exudes from the branches of the cistus, a shrub of the rock-rose family, with white or rose-coloured flowers. Judah, influenced by compassion, with which probably cupidity was mingled, proposes to sell Joseph as a slave, rather than take his life. This is the first historic instance of the sale of a man, though slavery is, probably, as ancient as war, being a substitute for the murder of captives. ‘And they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty (shekels of) silver,’ that is, about ten ounces of silver in weight, about twelve dollars and a half at the present valuation!” Newhall.