Genesis 37:30

30 He returned to his brothers and said, "The boy isn't there! Where can I go now?"

Genesis 37:30 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 37:30

And he returned unto his brethren
From the pit, and whom he suspected had took him and killed him, as was their first design, not being with them when they proposed to sell him, and did:

and said, the child [is] not;
not in the pit, nor in the land of the living, but is dead, which is sometimes the meaning of the phrase, ( Jeremiah 31:15 ) ; he calls him a child, though seventeen years of age, because the youngest brother but one, and he himself was the eldest, and also because of his tender concern for him:

and I, whither shall I go?
to find the child or flee from his father's face, which he could not think of seeing any more; whom he had highly offended already in the case of Bilhah, and now he would be yet more incensed against him for his neglect of Joseph, who, he might have expected, would have taken particular care of him, being the eldest son: he speaks like one in the utmost perplexity, not knowing what to do, what course to steer, being almost distracted and at his wits' end.

Genesis 37:30 In-Context

28 So when the Midyanim, merchants, passed by, they drew and lifted Yosef up out of the cistern and sold him for half a pound of silver shekels to the Yishma'elim, who took Yosef on to Egypt.

29 Re'uven returned to the cistern, and, upon seeing that Yosef wasn't in it, tore his clothes in mourning.

30 He returned to his brothers and said, "The boy isn't there! Where can I go now?"

31 They took Yosef's robe, killed a male goat and dipped the robe in the blood.

32 Then they sent the long-sleeved robe and brought it to their father, saying, "We found this. Do you know if it's your son's robe or not?"