Was Joseph sold to Ishmaelites or Midianites, and who brought him to Egypt?

The passage describes one caravan by two names, and one sale seen from different sides. ‘Ishmaelites’ and ‘Midianites’ overlapped: Judges 8:24 calls the Midianites whom Gideon defeated Ishmaelites, explaining that they wore gold earrings “because they were Ishmaelites”. Both peoples descended from Abraham (Genesis 16:15; 25:2) and lived the same wandering, trading life, and Keil and Delitzsch note that strangers easily confused them. The caravan is first seen from a distance as Ishmaelites coming from Gilead (37:25); as it draws near, the men are described more closely as “Midianites merchantmen” (37:28). In 37:36 the Hebrew actually reads ‘Medanites’, another tribe descended from Abraham and Keturah (25:2), perhaps also in the company.

The brothers drew Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the traders, as Judah had proposed (37:27; Gill takes ‘they drew’ to mean the brothers), and the traders sold him in Egypt to Potiphar. So Joseph can rightly say to his brothers “whom ye sold into Egypt” (45:4), and add that it was God who had sent him there (45:5–8).

Two groups of traders

Some take ‘they drew and lifted up Joseph’ to mean that the Midianites found him in the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites, who then sold him to Potiphar. Even so, the brothers had left him there to be sold, and 45:4 holds them responsible.

Two sources

Many critical scholars think two older accounts, one with Ishmaelites and one with Midianites, have been combined here. The finished text, however, reads naturally as one account, and Judges 8:24 shows that the two names could be used of the same people.