And Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood?
Parallel translations
- WEB Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
- KJV And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
- BSB Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
- NKJV So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
- NLT Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Judah asks what is gained by killing their brother and hiding his blood. He proposes an alternative to murder.
Overview
Judah questions the profit of killing Joseph and concealing the crime, steering the brothers away from bloodshed. His motive mixes some restraint with self-interest, as the next verse shows. Notably, it is Judah, ancestor of David and ultimately of Christ, who speaks here, though his proposal still wrongs Joseph.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Gen 37:20Come now therefore, and let’s kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, ‘An evil animal has devoured him.’ We will see what will become of his dreams.”
- Gen 4:10Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.
- 2 Sam 1:16David said to him, “Your blood be on your head; for your mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have slain Yahweh’s anointed.’”
- Deut 17:8If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then you shall arise, and go up to the place which Yahweh your God chooses.
- Gen 25:32Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”
- Jer 41:8But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey.” So he stopped, and didn’t kill them among their brothers.
- Ps 30:9“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?
- Ezek 24:7For her blood is in the middle of her; she set it on the bare rock; she didn’t pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust.
- Matt 16:26For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?
- Rom 6:21What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
- Job 16:18“Earth, don’t cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 37:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.