And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.
When they saw him afar off. On the level grass-field, where they were watching their cattle, they could perceive him approaching in the distance from the side of Shechem, or rather Samaria.
Behold, this dreamer cometh - literally, 'master of dreams;' a bitterly ironical sneer. Dreams being considered suggestions from above, to make false pretensions to having received one, was detested as a species of blasphemy; and in this light Joseph was regarded by his brethren, an artful pretender. They already began to form a plot for his assassination, from which he was rescued only by the address of Reuben, who suggested that he should rather be cast into one of the wells х haborowt (H953), the cisterns or reservoirs for collecting water in the rainy season, with narrow mouth and wide below (cf. Jeremiah 37:16; Zechariah 9:11)] which are, and probably were, completely dried up in summer.