Genesis 37:14

14 He said to him, "Go now, see whether things are going well with your brothers and with the sheep, and bring word back to me." So he sent him away from the Hevron Valley, and he went to Sh'khem,

Genesis 37:14 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 37:14

And he said to him, go, I pray thee
Or "now" ^F11, directly, immediately, which is more agreeable to the authority of a father:

see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks;
it having been many days, and perhaps months, since he had heard anything of them; and the rather Jacob might be under a concern for them, because of the danger they were exposed to from the neighbouring tribes and nations of the Canaanites, on account of their having some time ago destroyed the Shechemites; so the Targum of Jonathan, paraphrasing on the preceding part, makes Jacob to say,

``I am afraid, lest the Horites should come and smite them, because of their smiting Hamor and Shechem, and the inhabitants of that city; come, and I will send thee''

and bring me word again;
of their welfare, and of the state of their flocks:

so he sent him out of the vale of Hebron:
the same with the plains of Mamre near the city of Hebron, which was built on a hill:

and he came to Shechem:
after he had travelled sixty miles.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 (an) "nunc", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius.

Genesis 37:14 In-Context

12 After this, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father's sheep in Sh'khem,

13 Isra'el asked Yosef, "Aren't your brothers pasturing the sheep in Sh'khem? Come, I will send you to them." He answered, "Here I am."

14 He said to him, "Go now, see whether things are going well with your brothers and with the sheep, and bring word back to me." So he sent him away from the Hevron Valley, and he went to Sh'khem,

15 where a man found him wandering around in the countryside. The man asked him, "What are you looking for?"

16 "I'm looking for my brothers," he answered. "Tell me, please, where are they pasturing the sheep?"