Genesis 37:15

15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

Genesis 37:15 in Other Translations

KJV
15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
ESV
15 And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, "What are you seeking?"
NLT
15 When he arrived there, a man from the area noticed him wandering around the countryside. “What are you looking for?” he asked.
MSG
15 A man met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
CSB
15 A man found him there, wandering in the field, and asked him, "What are you looking for?"

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, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.” “Very well,” he replied.
14 So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem,
15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”
17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.
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