Genesis 37:24
in Genesis 37and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and they took him, and cast him into the pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
KJV
And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
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This verse in Genesis 37
Commentary
5 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
they stripped him of his robe
on Genesis 37:23-24
The first thing they take is the robe, the one mark of the father's love. Then they throw Joseph into a pit that the writer stops to describe, empty and with no water. Joseph loses a second garment to Potiphar's wife at Genesis 39:12, and that one puts him in prison. Both times the garment is the evidence.
This site's exposition
the pit was empty, with no water in it
Chapter 37 records no word from Joseph in the pit. The brothers supply it at Genesis 42:21, where they remember his distress as he pleaded with them and they refused to listen. Zechariah 9:11 uses the same picture of prisoners released from a waterless pit.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
A commentator
Clement of RomeClement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapters 3-4 · Written before 99.
proposed
Every kind of honour and happiness was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that which is written, "My beloved ate and drank, and was enlarged and became fat, and kicked." [Deuteronomy 32:15] Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity. So the worthless rose up against the honoured, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And they took him, and cast him into a pit,....
Note, Where envy reigns pity is banished, and humanity itself is forgotten, Prov. xxvii. So full of deadly poison is malice that the more barbarous any thing is the more grateful it is.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיִּ֨קָּחֻ֔הוּ | vaiyikachuhu | and they took him | H3947 → | 966 times |
| וַיַּשְׁלִ֥כוּ | vaiyashlikhu | and they threw | H7993 → | 125 times |
| אֹת֖וֹ | ʾoto | <obj.> him | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הַבֹּ֑רָה | haborah | the pit towards | H953 → | 66 times |
| וְהַבּ֣וֹר | vehabor | and the pit | H953 → | 66 times |
| רֵ֔ק | rek | [was] empty | H7386 → | |
| אֵ֥ין | ʾein | there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| בּ֖וֹ | bo | in <the> it | ||
| מָֽיִם׃ | mayim | [was] water | H4325 → | 581 times |
וַיִּ֨קָּחֻ֔הוּand they took him
vaiyikachuhuH3947 →966 times
וַיַּשְׁלִ֥כוּand they threw
vaiyashlikhuH7993 →125 times
אֹת֖וֹ<obj.> him
ʾotoH853 →10935 times
הַבֹּ֑רָהthe pit towards
haborahH953 →66 times
וְהַבּ֣וֹרand the pit
vehaborH953 →66 times
רֵ֔ק[was] empty
rekH7386 →
אֵ֥יןthere not
ʾeinH369 →789 times
בּ֖וֹin <the> it
bo
מָֽיִם׃[was] water
mayimH4325 →581 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Zechariah 9:11As for you, because of the blood of My covenant, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.
it leads to
- Isaiah 51:14
The captive will soon be freed; he will not die in the dungeon, and his bread will not be lacking.
- Exodus 24:8
So Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
- Psalms 102:19–21
For He looked down from the heights of His sanctuary; the LORD gazed out from heaven to earth
- Isaiah 42:7
to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.
- Matthew 26:28
This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
- Isaiah 51:14
Through
Psalms 35:7For without cause they laid their net for me; without reason they dug a pit for my soul.
it leads to
- John 15:25
But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’
- Psalms 140:5
The proud hide a snare for me; the cords of their net are spread along the path, and lures are set out for me. Selah
- Psalms 9:15
The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.
- John 15:25
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
On this verse
About Genesis
This page draws on Clement of Rome, Clement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapters 3-4; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.