Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:18) lingers over three words: from afar. The brothers saw Joseph in the distance, long before he arrived. They had time. They had distance. And in that empty space between sighting and arrival, they made up their minds to kill him.
Notice the Targum's precision: before he had come nigh to them, and plotted against him to kill him. The plot was fully formed before Joseph was in earshot. No argument preceded it. No provocation sparked it. Joseph did nothing that morning except walk toward his brothers wearing the coat his father had made him.
The sages saw in this moment the terrible power of the waiting gap. Had Joseph arrived suddenly — had he appeared at their shoulder with a smile and a greeting — they might not have been able to harden themselves fast enough. But distance is time. And time, for a crowd already nursing hatred, is weaponry.
The Talmud will later teach that anger should be slept on, that decisions made in the heat of seeing someone arrive are rarely wise (see Eruvin 65b). The brothers demonstrate the opposite. They saw Joseph, and the long distance to him was exactly the amount of time they needed to become ten men ready to kill one.
The Targumist is warning us. The dangerous moment is rarely the confrontation itself. The dangerous moment is the walk toward it. Watch what you think about while you wait.