Literary Devices – Bereshit 37/0
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Literary Devices – Bereshit 37
Structure
Parallels and Contrasts
Key Words
Family Relations
- Tanakh Lab points out that the three words that appear most frequently in Bereshit 27 are אח, אב and בן, underscoring the tragic enmity and deception between close relatives that characterizes the story of the sale of Yosef. These words appear most poignantly in Yosef’s declaration “I seek my brothers” and Yehuda’s chilling statement: “Come, let us sell him to the Yishmaelites, and let our hands not be upon him, for he is our brother, our flesh.”
- See Tamar and Yosef by Professor Yonatan Grossman for analysis this keyword, and specifically how Yehuda’s use of the word “brother” conveys that his actions may be even more immoral than those of his brothers.
