Bible Strands
Genesis 37:36
Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the conclusion of Joseph’s removal from the pit, noting that the Midianites transfer him to Egypt at the exact moment Jacob’s grief remains unrelieved.
The words — מָכְר֥וּ (ma.khe.Ru) literally means “they sold,” and סְרִ֣יס (se.Ris) denotes “an official of” or “court attendant,” specifying Potiphar’s administrative rank.
The thread — This commercial transfer mirrors the earlier transaction in Genesis 37:28, and Potiphar’s title as captain of the guard reappears in Genesis 40:4 when Joseph is placed in charge of Pharaoh’s household prisoners.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to track how a market transaction directly relocates Joseph into a specific Egyptian power structure, setting the exact conditions for his subsequent service and testing.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard.
Cross-references
- Genesis 37:28 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.
- Genesis 40:4 The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he became their personal attendant. After they had been in custody for some time,
- Genesis 25:1 Now Abraham had taken another wife, named Keturah,
- Genesis 39:1 Meanwhile, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, where an Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
- 2 Kings 25:8 On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign over Babylon, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.
- Isaiah 56:3 Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”
- Esther 1:10 On the seventh day, when the king’s heart was merry with wine, he ordered the seven eunuchs who served him—Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas—