Midrasch zu Bereschit 37:17

(Ibid., cont.:) AND HERE HE WAS WANDERING < IN A FIELD >. The angel said to him: Do you not know that you are going astray? He said to him (in vss. 16-17): I AM SEEKING MY BROTHERS…. THEN THE MAN SAID: THEY HAVE MOVED ON FROM HERE. What is the meaning of FROM HERE? When they see you they become cruel.³¹Rashi, on Gen. 37:17, explains that FROM HERE means “from brotherhood.”

(Gen. 37:17, cont.:) FOR I HEARD THEM SAYING: LET US GO TO DOTHAN. What is the meaning of TO DOTHAN (DTYNH)? Our masters have said that the angel was watching out for the Law of the Lord (DT YH).

(Gen. 37:17-18:) SO JOSEPH WENT AFTER HIS BROTHERS…. NOW THEY SAW HIM FROM AFAR, while he was a mile³²Lat.: mille. away.

"A man found him, and behold! He was blundering in the field: Rabbi Yannai said: He [Joseph] was met by three angels for scripture says, "A man found him" (Gen. 34:15); "and the man asked him"; and "the man said" (Gen. 34:17). "They have gone from here" - from the characteristics of the Place. "And they saw him far off"(Gen. 34:18): They said, 'Let us kill him by inciting the dogs against him.' "And they said one to another behold the dreamer comes"(Gen. 34:19): the rabbis said, “they exclaimed, Behold he is coming wrapped in his dreams”. Rabbi Levi said, “[they said] this one will ensnare us into serving foreign overloads.” "Come now therefore and let us slay him"(Gen. 34:20): The Holy One of Blessing said to them, “You say ‘We shall see’ and I say ‘We shall see’. Indeed "we shall see whose words will be fulfilled." (Jer. 34:28)