Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 37:34
And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
34. rent his garments, &c.] Jacob mourned with the mourning rites of the Israelites. The rent clothes, the sackcloth, and the ashes, denote the exact opposite of festal array, new garments, soft raiment, and ointment.
For “sackcloth” in mourning, see 1Ki 21:27; 2Ki 6:30.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Sackcloth, i.e. a coarse and mournful habit. This is the first example of that kind, but afterwards was in common use upon these occasions. See 2Sa 3:31; 1Ki 20:31; 21:27, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
34. Jacob rent his clothes, and putsackcloth upon his loinsthe common signs of Oriental mourning.A rent is made in the skirt more or less long according to theafflicted feelings of the mourner, and a coarse rough piece of blacksackcloth or camel’s hair cloth is wound round the waist.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Jacob rent his clothes,…. As expressive of his grief and mourning for the death of his son, as he supposed:
and put sackcloth upon his loins; put off his usual apparel, and put on a coarse garment on his loins next to his flesh, as another token of his great trouble and affliction for the loss of his son; which though afterwards was frequently done in times of public or private mourning, yet this is the first time we read of it; whether Jacob was the first that used it, whom his posterity and others imitated, is not certain; however it appears that this usage, as well as that of rending clothes on sorrowful occasions, were very ancient:
and mourned for his son many days: or years, as days sometimes signify; twenty two years, according to Jarchi, even until the time he went down to Egypt and saw him alive.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(34) Many days.Jacob mourned for Joseph not merely during the usual period, but so long as to move even the hearts of those who had wronged him. For not only his daughters, but all his sons rose up to comfort him. Probably he had several daughters by Leah and the two handmaidens, Dinah alone having been mentioned by name, because two of her brothers forfeited the birthright by the cruelty with which they avenged her wrong. We learn how long and intense Jacobs sorrow was from Gen. 45:26-28. His daughters are mentioned also in Gen. 46:7.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And Jacob tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son for many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, and he said, “For I will go down to the grave (sheol) to my son mourning.” And his father wept for him.’ And the Medanites sold him into Egypt, to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of his bodyguard.’
The contrast is striking and deliberate. On the one hand the grief-stricken father mourning for the dead son for a long time, unable to be comforted, and on the other the son sold without thought, in moments, into the hands of an Egyptian officer. So does the writer bring out the evil of what was done.
“Tore his clothes — put sackcloth on.” A regular method of demonstrating great grief and emotion. The writer stresses the prolonged grief of the father. This must surely have torn at the hearts of even the hardest of the sons. For try as they will they cannot comfort him. They had not known not what they did. How many times did they wish that they could bring Joseph back again? We may do things in the emotion of a moment that we regret for a lifetime.
“Daughters”. Probably, along with Dinah, mainly the wives of his sons.
“I will go down to sheol with my son mourning.” Sheol is the world of the departed, connected with the grave. It is always a shadowy world, a vague world of semi or non existence in shadowy form. There is no real doctrine of the afterlife in the Pentateuch.
So do we say goodbye to Jacob for some long time. We leave him grieving and recognise that he will continue grieving and broken hearted while the story goes on.
“Medanites.” Part of the Midianite confederation (see on Gen 37:25). It was probably Joseph who became aware of the different skeins in the Midianite group, a mixture of Ishmaelites and Medanites. He had the chance to communicate with them and knew exactly which of them had sold him. He had cause to know.
“Potiphar.” Possibly an abbreviation of Potiphera (compare Gen 41:45) but not the same person. The latter means ‘he whom Re has given’, which would be a popular name. It is quite clearly Egyptian.
“An officer of Pharaoh, captain of his bodyguard.” The word for ‘officer’ is ‘saris’. It eventually came to mean eunuch (LXX has eunouchos here), but is here used in its earlier use as a court officer. As ‘captain of his bodyguard’ he is someone in close touch with the Pharaoh. Very few were in close touch with Pharaoh for he saw himself as a god and stood aloof and unapproachable.
“Pharaoh.” The title of the king of Egypt. It derives from the Egyptian term for ‘great house’ and originally signified the palace and court of the king. The first use of it for the king himself is around 1450 BC, but without an individual name attached, as here and in Exodus. Thus we may see the use here as being probably the work of Moses, changing an original ‘king of Egypt’ into the more modern title. It was only in the early first millennium BC that an individual name began to be attached to the title. This minor detail helps to authenticate the narrative.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 37:34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
Ver. 34. Mourned for his son many days. ] Puerilitas est periculorum pelagus. Few live to be old, for one evil beast or another that devours them: as for one apple that hangs till it falls, many are cudgelled down or gathered off the tree. We should learn to bury children and friends, while yet alive; by acting their death to ourselves aforehand.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 37:29, Jos 7:6, 2Sa 1:11, 2Sa 3:31, 1Ki 20:31, 1Ki 21:27, 2Ki 19:1, 1Ch 21:16, Ezr 9:3-5, Neh 9:1, Est 4:1-3, Job 1:20, Job 2:12, Psa 69:11, Isa 22:12, Isa 22:13, Isa 32:11, Isa 36:22, Isa 37:1, Isa 37:2, Jer 36:24, Joe 2:13, Jon 3:5-8, Mat 11:21, Mat 26:65, Act 14:14, Rev 11:3
Reciprocal: Lev 21:10 – uncover Num 14:6 – rent their clothes Jdg 11:35 – rent his clothes 2Sa 1:2 – clothes 2Sa 13:31 – arose 2Ki 18:37 – with their clothes rent 1Ch 7:22 – mourned Ecc 3:7 – time to rend Jer 45:3 – added Jer 48:37 – upon the loins