And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seek you?
All Commentaries on Genesis 37:15 Go To Genesis 37
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
Jacob sent his son to manifest solicitude for his brothers, and God the Father sent his onlybegotten Son to visit the human race, which was weak from sin and like lost sheep. When Joseph was looking for his brothers he wandered in the desert. Christ also sought the human race, which was wandering in the world; he too as it were, wandered in the world because he was seeking the erring. Joseph searched for his brothers in Shechem. Shechem is interpreted as a shoulder, for sinners always turn their backs in the face of the just, and shoulders are behind. Just as Joseph’s brothers, struck with envy, offered their back rather than their face to fraternal love, so also the unhappy Jews preferred to envy rather than to love the Author of salvation who came to them. Of such people it is said in the psalms: “Let their eyes grow dim so that they cannot see, and keep their backs always feeble.”
