Genesis 37:28

Merchantmen. The traders are called “Ishmeelites” in vs. 25, 27, and 28, and “Midianites” in vs. 28 and 36. This has been explained by assuming that both groups were represented in the caravan, or that the two names were used synonymously in common parlance. In either case, only one caravan was involved in the transaction (see PP 211).

Twenty pieces of silver. The price paid for Joseph, 20 pieces or shekels of silver, was much less than the average price of a slave. According to Ex. 21:32, this price seems to have been 30 shekels, in all probability the retail price of the Ishmaelites expected to receive for Joseph in Egypt. Naturally, they would pay less for him. Twenty shekels would be approximately 8 oz. (228 gr.) of silver (see on ch. 20:16).

The selling of Joseph was an overt violation of the principle that no man has the right to subject another to involuntary servitude (cf. Lev. 25:39-43). It demonstrates clearly the extent of moral perversion that had taken place in the hearts of Joseph’s brothers. Those who sold Joseph demonstrated thereby that they had utterly lost all natural affection. Joseph’s sale into slavery is the first recorded example in the Bible of such a transaction.

Slave dealers have imitated but seldom surpassed the cruelty of which Joseph’s brothers were guilty, for it was not simply a fellow creature they sold, but their own brother. Nevertheless, divine Providence overruled the evil designs of these calloushearted men. The coming of the caravan at this precise time was Heaven’s appointed means of saving Joseph from their malicious plot on his life, and the saving of his life became, in turn, the means by which their lives were saved (ch. 45:4, 5).

Though Joseph could not know at the time, Providence was guiding his footsteps. How often life’s darkest roads lead to its brightest prospects! Let us ever be willing to follow on wherever God may lead (see Rom. 8:28, 35-39).