Genesis 37:16

Gen 37:16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed [their flocks].

Ver. 16. I seek my brethren.] He stayed not at Shechem, whither his father sent him; but missing them there, he seeks farther, till he found them. This is true obedience, whether to God or man, when we look not so much to the letter of the law, as to the mind of the lawmaker; apices iuris non sunt ius.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the man said, they are departed hence,.... They had been there, in the field where he and Joseph were, and which was probably the field before mentioned; but for good reasons, perhaps for want of pasture, or in order to find better feeding for their cattle, they were gone from thence, from the fields about Shechem:

for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan; this was, as some say, four miles from Shechem, others eight (m); according to Brochardus (n), it was a plain country between fruitful hills, contiguous to fountains, was pasture ground, and very fit for feeding cattle; and its very name, as Hillerus (o) notes, signifies grassy, or a place of tender grass: here, afterwards, was a city built, not far from Samaria, Kg2 6:13; about twelve miles to the north of it, as says Jerom (p); it was in the tribe of Manasseh, about forty four miles from Jerusalem to the north, and six miles from Tiberias to the west (q):

and Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan; which shows that he had a real desire to see them, and know their state and condition, that he might report it to his father; since he might have returned on not finding them at Shechem, that being the place he was sent to, and would have been sufficient to have shown obedience to his father's commands, though perhaps it might not have come up to his full sense and meaning.

(m) Bunting's Travels, p. 79. Ainsworth in loc. (n) Apud Drusium in loc. (o) Onomastic. Sacra, p. 526. (p) Loc. Heb. fol. 90. H. (q) Bunting, ut supra, (m)) p. 80.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

My brethren. The man was acquainted with Jacob’s family, as he had dwelt in those parts for a long time. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

הגידה נא לי, if you know where they are tending their flocks.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.