Genesis 37:22

Summary

Reuben speaks to his brothers, urging them not to kill Joseph directly but to throw him into a pit in the wilderness instead. The verse closes with a narrative comment explaining Reuben's hidden motive: to later rescue Joseph and return him to his father.

Key words

• tishpekhu ("you shed", H8210) — qal jussive, second person plural: a prohibition addressed collectively to the brothers ("do not shed blood").
• hashlikhu ("throw", H7993) — hiphil imperative, causative: a direct command to actively cause Joseph to be cast into the pit, contrasting with the negated jussives around it.
• tishlechu ("you stretch out", H7971) — qal jussive, paired with yad ("hand", H3027G), forming the idiom "do not send a hand against him," i.e., do not lay hands on him.
• lema'an ("so as", H4616) — subordinating particle introducing the purpose clause that follows, marking Reuben's stated intent as narratorial explanation rather than reported speech.
• hatzil ("to rescue", H5337) — hiphil infinitive, causative: expresses the goal of removing Joseph from danger, paired later with hashiv ("restore", H7725), the infinitive for returning him to his father.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts: direct speech by Reuben (through hashlikhu, "throw," H7993) and a narrative explanation introduced by lema'an ("so as," H4616). In the speech, two prohibitions frame a single positive command: "do not shed blood" ('al tishpekhu dam) and "do not stretch out a hand against him" ('al tishlechu yad bo) surround the imperative "throw him into this pit" (hashlikhu 'oto). The repetition of the negated jussive form with 'al (H0408) on both sides of the imperative creates a rhetorical structure that isolates the pit as the only sanctioned action, explicitly excluding killing or physical harm.

The final clause, built on two hiphil infinitives — hatzil ("to rescue," H5337) and hashiv ("to restore," H7725) — is not part of Reuben's spoken words but a narratorial aside explaining his true purpose. The infinitive construction (rather than a finite verb) presents these as unrealized goals, purposes in Reuben's mind rather than completed actions, which the Hebrew grammar signals through the infinitive form itself rather than through an introductory verb like "he said" or "he thought."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the pit as "one of the pits" (ἕνα τῶν λάκκων) rather than following the Hebrew demonstrative "this pit" (ha-bor ha-zeh, H0953A + H2088), losing the specificity of the Hebrew article and demonstrative pair. The Vulgate adds "non interficiatis animam eius" ("do not kill his soul/life"), a clause not present in the Hebrew text, which contains only the two negated jussives about blood and hand. The Vulgate's phrase "hoc autem dicebat, volens eripere eum" ("he said this, wishing to rescue him") functions similarly to the Hebrew's infinitive purpose clause but explicitly frames it with a verb of intention ("wishing"), where the Hebrew relies on the infinitive form alone without any verb of desire or thought.