A company of Ishmeelites— They are called both Ishmeelites and Midianites, Genesis 37:28.; see Judges 8:1. It is most likely that they were, to use a modern phrase, a caravan of Arabian spice-merchants, consisting both of Midianites and Ishmeelites, travelling in companies for their greater safety, as it continues to be the custom in those countries to this day: and the spices, &c. which they carried down to AEgypt, were such, most probably, as they used in embalming their dead; see ch. 50: Judges 8:2. For Gilead; see ch. Genesis 31:21; Genesis 31:48.
Related Commentaries of Genesis 37:25
Genesis 37:25
25 And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.