Genesis 37, Dreamer

After a brief interlude to track the descendants of Esau, we return to the story of Jacob/Israel and his sons.

Genesis 37:1-2, Young Joseph, a tattle-tail

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

Young Joseph, probably a teenager, is sure of himself, and brings a bad report to Jacob about his adult brothers.

Genesis 37:3-4, The coat of many colors                        t 

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

The Hebrew adjective translated "richly ornamented" is unclear.  Old translations were "multi-colored".  Regardless, the coat was rich, elaborate and distinctive.

Genesis 37:5-8, Dream #1 (and boasting)

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it."

His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

With immature enthusiasm, Joseph tells his dream to his brothers.  The brothers' response is to be expected.

Genesis 37: 9-11, Dream #2

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."

When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?" His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Joseph describes a second dream and receives a reasonable rebuke from his father. The dream borders on blasphemy (says Alter) as no one but YHWH is worthy of worship by the heavenly bodies.

Genesis 37: 12-17, Joseph seeks his brothers

Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, "As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them." 

"Very well," he replied.

So he said to him, "Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me." Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. 

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?"

He replied, "I'm looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?"

"They have moved on from here," the man answered. "I heard them say, `Let's go to Dothan.'" 

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.

Joseph has been sent by his father to find his brothers. Shechem is the place where the brothers massacred a town.  

Genesis 37:18-24, Joseph attacked

But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

"Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. "Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams."

When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said. "Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe--the richly ornamented robe he was wearing--and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

There are a pair of Hebrew words that the NIV translatrs as "dreamer".  They are,  bah'-al khal-ome', literally "dream master". This is surely a sarcastic term used to mock Joseph's arrogance over his previous two dreams.

That the sons can be violent is not in doubt.  They have already been involved in the massacre and looting of Shechem. But Reuben, the firstborn, the one who slept with his father's concubine, Bilhah, intervenes to prevent bloodshed.

Genesis 37: 25-28, Sold into slavery

As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.

So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Judah forestalls the killing of Joseph by suggesting that Joseph be sold to the "Ishmaelites".  (The traders are called Midianites later in this chapter.) According to the NIV footnotes, "twenty shekels" is about 8 ounces.

There is a raw violence and cruelty in the brothers of Joseph.  Here we see his life saved by Reuben and Judah, but neither is very likeable. (We will see more of the character of Judah in the next chapter.)

Genesis 37: 28-33, A lie to Jacob

When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy isn't there! Where can I turn now?"

Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe."

He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces."

The brothers fall back on part of their original plan.  Jacob is devastated.  The deceptions he has practiced in his younger years has been passed down to his sons.  Jacob used a killed lamb for a meal and a lamb's coat to cover his arms, all in order to deceive his father. His sons kill a goat to bloody the ornamental coat and deceive him.

Genesis 37: 34-36, Jacob devastated

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son." So his father wept for him.

Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

I see hints that Jacob has more than one daughter.

Fortunately for Jacob, he will later go down, not to the grave, but to Egypt to see his son.

The descriptions of the traders as Ishmaelites and then Midianites is a bit confusing. Midian was a half-brother of Ishmael, born through Keturah.  (According to the NIV footnotes the name "Midianites" in verses 28 and 36 follows the Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac manuscripts; the Masoretic text has "Medanites.")

From the story of Cain and Abel to the betrayal of Joseph by his brothers, Genesis is full of stories of sibling rivalry and hatred.  A Hong Kong writer applies the story of Joseph to siblings today in this essay at Christianity Today.  (That article is also available in Chinese.)

The chapter ends on a natural cliff-hanger.  What will happen to young Joseph in Egypt?