Genesis 37:15

15 and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, "What are you seeking?"

Genesis 37:15 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 37:15

And a certain man found him
Many of the Jewish writers


FOOTNOTES:

F12 say, this was an angel, the angel Gabriel, in the likeness of a man; but according to Aben Ezra, it was a traveller he met on the road; but it is more probable, as Schimidt observes, that it was some man at work in the field that came upon him and took notice of him:

and, behold, [he was] wandering in the field;
in some field near Shechem, perhaps the same his father Jacob had purchased, and where he expected to have found his brethren, and was looking out for them, going to and fro in search of them; which the labouring man in the field observed:

and the man asked him, saying, what seekest thou?
seeing him walking about, and first looking one way, and then another, concluded he was in search of something, either of some man or of some creature, a sheep or an ox that was lost; and therefore put this question to him, with a view to give him what direction and assistance he could.


F12 Pirke Eliezer, c. 38. Targum Jon. & Jarchi in loc.

Genesis 37:15 In-Context

13 And Israel said to Joseph, "Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them." He answered, "Here I am."
14 So he said to him, "Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me." So he sent him from the valley of Hebron. He came to Shechem,
15 and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, "What are you seeking?"
16 "I am seeking my brothers," he said; "tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock."
17 The man said, "They have gone away, for I heard them say, "Let us go to Dothan.' " So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.