Genesis 37:2

2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

Genesis 37:2 in Other Translations

2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.

2 This is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father’s flocks. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing.

2 This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them.

2 These are the family records of Jacob. At 17 years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man [was working] with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father.

Genesis 37:2 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 37:2

These [are] the generations of Jacob
But no genealogy following, some interpret this of events or of things which befell Jacob, and his family, particularly with respect to his son Joseph, as Aben Ezra and Ben Melech take the sense of the word to be from ( Proverbs 27:1 ) ; but the words may refer to what goes before in the latter end of chapter 35, where an account is given of Jacob's sons, with regard to which it is here said, "these are the generations of Jacob"; the whole of chapter 36, which contains the genealogy of Esau, being a parenthesis, or at least an interruption of the above account, the history of Jacob and his posterity is here reassumed and carried on:

Joseph [being] seventeen years old, was feeding his flock with his
brethren;
or "in the flock" ^F2; he was with them in the pastures, where the flocks were fed, not so much to assist them in it, as to be taught by them how to feed, they being older than he:

and the lad [was] with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of
Zilpah, his father's wives:
his secondary wives or concubines, called his wives, because their children shared in the inheritance. These sons of theirs were Dan and Naphtali, the sons of Bilhah; and Gad and Asher, the sons of Zilpah; with these Jacob rather chose Joseph should be, than with the sons of Leah; and especially that he should be with the sons of Bilhah, who was the handmaid of Rachel, Joseph's mother, and she being dead, it might be thought that Bilhah and her sons would have the most respect for Joseph:

and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report;
for not being able to bear with their evil deeds, and yet not having authority enough, being a junior, to reprove, correct, and check them, he reported them to his father: what the things were reported is not said, perhaps their quarrels among themselves, their contempt of Joseph, their neglect of their flocks Some of the Jewish writers make them to be abominable acts of uncleanness ^F4, others eating of the member of a creature alive, particularly the flesh of the tails of lambs while living ^F5.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (Naub) "in pecudibus", Montanus; "in grege", Vatablus.
F4 Bereshit Rabba, sect. 84. fol. 73. 1. Jarchi in loc.
F5 Targum Jon. in loc. Pirke Eliezer, c. 38.

Genesis 37:2 In-Context

1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.

4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.

Cross References

• 1. S Genesis 2:4
• 2. S Genesis 30:24
• 3. Genesis 41:46; 2 Samuel 5:4
• 4. Genesis 46:32; 1 Samuel 16:11; 1 Samuel 17:15; Psalms 78:71; Amos 7:15
• 5. Genesis 35:25
• 6. Genesis 35:26
• 7. 1 Samuel 2:24