And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
Judah said ... What profit? The sight of these traveling merchants gave a sudden turn to the views of the conspirators; because having no wish to commit a greater degree of crime than was necessary for the accomplishment of their end, they readily approved of Judah's suggestion to dispose of their obnoxious brother as a slave. The proposal, of course, was founded on their knowledge that the Arabian merchants trafficked in slaves; and there is the clearest evidence furnished by the monuments of Egypt that the traders, who were in the habit of bringing slaves from the countries through which they passed, found a ready market in the cities of the Nile. Slavery, as Wilkinson informs us, was tolerated in Egypt, and traders brought them to the market. White and black slaves, purchased with money, were, in addition to war-captives, employed by the upper classes of the Egyptians both in domestic and field labours.
They lifted up Joseph and sold him. Acting impulsively on Judah's advice, they had their poor victim ready by the time the merchants reached them; and money being no part of their object, they sold him for "twenty pieces of silver." The money was probably in rings or pieces (shekels); and silver is always mentioned in the records of that early age before gold, on account of its rarity [Hence, the Septuagint wrongly has: eikosi chrusoon]. The whole sum, if in shekel weight, did not exceed 3 British pounds. The merchants paid twenty pieces of silver; and the price of a slave in Egypt being thirty pieces of silver (Josephus, 'Antiquities,' b. 12:, ch. 11, sec. 3: cf. Exodus 21:32), the profit of ten pieces would be made by the traders.
They brought Joseph into Egypt. There were two routes to Egypt-the one was overland by Hebron, where Jacob dwelt, and by taking which the fate of his hapless son would likely have reached the paternal ears; the other was directly westward, across the country from Dothan to the maritime coast; and by this-the safest and most expeditious way, down the Shephela, or great Philistine plain-the merchants carried Joseph to Egypt. Thus, did an overruling Providence lead this murderous conclave of brothers, as well as the slave-merchants, both following their own courses, to be parties in an act by which He was to work out, in a marvelous manner, the great purposes of His wisdom and goodness toward His ancient Church and people.