Genesis 37:28

וַיַּֽעַבְרוּ אֲנָשִׁים מִדְיָנִים סֹֽחֲרִים וַֽיִּמְשְׁכוּ וַיַּֽעֲלוּ אֶת־יוֹסֵף מִן־הַבּוֹר וַיִּמְכְּרוּ אֶת־יוֹסֵף לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים בְּעֶשְׂרִים כָּסֶף וַיָּבִיאוּ אֶת־יוֹסֵף מִצְרָֽיְמָה׃

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיַּֽעַבְרוּ֩ אֲנָשִׁ֨ים מִדְיָנִ֜ים סֹֽחֲרִ֗ים וַֽיִּמְשְׁכוּ֙ וַיַּֽעֲל֤וּ אֶת־יוֹסֵף֙ מִן־הַבּ֔וֹר וַיִּמְכְּר֧וּ אֶת־יוֹסֵ֛ף לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִ֖ים בְּעֶשְׂרִ֣ים כָּ֑סֶף וַיָּבִ֥יאוּ אֶת־יוֹסֵ֖ף מִצְרָֽיְמָה׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ παρεπορεύοντο οἱ ἄνθρωποι οἱ Μαδιηναῖοι οἱ ἔμποροι, καὶ ἐξείλκυσαν καὶ ἀνεβίβασαν τὸν ἸωσὴΦ ἐκ τοῦ λάκκου· καὶ ἀπέδοντο τὸν Ἰωσὴφ τοῖς Ἰσμανλίταις εἴκοσι χρυσῶν· καὶ κατήγαγον τὸν ἸωσὴΦ εἰς Αἲγυπτον.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Et prætereuntibus Madianitis negotiatoribus, extrahentes eum de cisterna, vendiderunt eum Ismaëlitis, viginti argenteis: qui duxerunt eum in Ægyptum.

Spanish

Cuando pasaron los mercaderes madianitas, los hermanos sacaron a José del pozo y se lo vendieron a los ismaelitas por veinte monedas de plata. Así los mercaderes se llevaron a José a Egipto.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y como pasaban los Midianitas mercaderes, sacaron ellos á José de la cisterna, y trajéronle arriba, y le vendieron á los Ismaelitas por veinte piezas de plata. Y llevaron á José á Egipto.

English

So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Genesis 37:28 narrates a rapid sequence of actions: Midianite traders pass by, someone draws Joseph up and out of the pit, and Joseph is sold to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, who then bring him to Egypt. The Hebrew text names two distinct gentilic groups — Midyanim ("Midianites", H4084) and Yishme'elim ("Ishmaelites", H3459) — in connection with the transaction.

Key words

ya'avru ("they passed by", H5674A) — qal narrative verb opening the verse, introducing the Midianite traders as arriving on the scene.
yimshekhu ("they drew", H4900) — qal narrative verb; the subject is grammatically unmarked, continuing the chain of "and then" actions without a stated new noun.
ya'alu ("they brought up", H5927H) — hiphil (causative) form: the action is causing Joseph "to go up," implying an agent lifting him rather than Joseph rising himself.
yimkeru ("they sold", H4376) — qal narrative verb; again the acting subject is only carried forward from prior clauses, not restated.
mitzraymah ("to Egypt", H4714G + H9011) — the directional he suffix attached to the place name marks motion "toward" Egypt, functioning like a locative ending rather than a separate preposition.

What the text says

The verse is built as an unbroken chain of narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs — ya'avru, yimshekhu, ya'alu, yimkeru, yavi'u — each attached by the narrative vav (H9001) that simply advances the story "and then... and then...". None of these verbs after the first restates its subject with a noun; the subject is only grammatically encoded in the verb form (third person masculine plural). This means the Hebrew text does not explicitly say who draws Joseph from the pit or who sells him — the subject must be inferred from context (either "the brothers," continuing from the surrounding narrative, or "the Midianite men" just introduced in this verse).

Two distinct group names appear: the Midyanim... socharim ("Midianite traders", H4084 + H5503, a qal participle meaning "the ones who trade") who pass by, and the Yishme'elim (H3459) to whom Joseph is sold. The text places these as two named groups within the same verse without clarifying whether they are being treated as the same party under two names or as two separate parties in a chain of transactions. The hiphil form ya'alu ("they brought up", H5927H) marks a causative action — someone actively causing Joseph to ascend from the pit, distinguishing this from a simple qal "he went up."

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) resolves the ambiguous subject by explicitly attaching all the actions — drawing out, selling — to the "Madianitis negotiatoribus" ("Midianite traders"), using participial constructions ("extrahentes... vendiderunt") that keep the Midianites as the single continuous subject. The LXX similarly keeps "οἱ Μαδιηναῖοι οἱ ἔμποροι" as the subject of ἐξείλκυσαν ("drew out") and ἀπέδοντο ("sold"). By contrast, some modern translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) shift the subject of "pulled...out" and "sold" to "his brothers," diverging from the LXX/Vulgate's continuous Midianite-subject reading, though the underlying Hebrew verbs themselves do not name either subject explicitly.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.