1And Jacob lived in the land of his father’s residences, in the land of Canaan.
2These are the records of Jacob: Joseph, at seventeen years old, had been tending the sheep with his brothers, and he was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
3And Israel had loved Joseph the most of all his children because he was a son of old age to him. And he made him a coat of many colors.
37:3. coat of many colors. We have no idea what the Hebrew means, so I have retained the traditional “many colors.” Some have tried to derive something about its meaning from the story of Tamar, who is wearing one when her brother Amnon rapes her (2 Samuel 13). But this is difficult because these two stories appear to be intentionally connected. (I brought evidence that they come from the same source in The Hidden Book in the Bible.) It is hardly coincidental that the two people who wear a coat of many colors in the Bible are both victims of violence by their brothers, and that both coats are torn. The significance of the coat, therefore, is as a symbol of injustice among siblings. This significance is doubled when we see the fate of the coat. See the comment on 37:31.
4And his brothers saw that their father loved him the most of all his brothers. And they hated him. And they were not able to speak a greeting to him.
37:4. to speak a greeting to him. Literally “to speak to him of peace,” it appears to refer to the standard Hebrew greetings: one says š
lôm (peace/well-being) for hello; and one says h
šlôm lô (does he have peace?) for “How is he?” (Gen 29:6). That is, the brothers cannot even bid him “hello” or ask how he is. This is rendered ironic by the fact that Joseph’s father will soon send him to check on his brothers, telling him, “See how your brothers are [šlôm].” It is rendered doubly ironic later when Joseph tells the Pharaoh that it is possible to interpret Pharaoh’s dream because “God will answer regarding Pharaoh’s well-being [šlôm],” suggesting that God shows even more care for the Pharaoh than Joseph’s brothers are able to show him. (And see the comment on 43:27.)
5And Joseph had a dream and told it to his brothers, and they went on to hate him more.
6And he said to them, “Listen to this dream that I had:
7and here we were binding sheaves in the field; and here was my sheaf rising and standing up, too; and, here, your sheaves surrounded and bowed to my sheaf.”
8And his brothers said to him, “Will you rule over us?! Will you dominate us?!” And they went on to hate him more because of his dreams and because of his words.
9And he had yet another dream and told it to his brothers. And he said, “Here, I’ve had another dream, and here were the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowing to me.”
10And he told it to his father and to his brothers.
And his father was annoyed at him and said to him, “What is this dream that you’ve had? Shall we come, I and your mother and your brothers, to bow to you to the ground?!”
37:10. What is this dream that you’ve had? No one seems to know that the dreams are prophetic: not the brothers, not Jacob, not even Joseph himself. Joseph will be able to interpret other people’s dreams—but not his own. Like many of us, he will learn what every psychoanalyst knows: that seeing the meaning of one’s own dreams is the hardest.
11And his brothers were jealous of him, and his father took note of the thing.
12And his brothers went to feed their father’s sheep in Shechem.
13And Israel said to Joseph, “Aren’t your brothers feeding in Shechem? Come on and I’ll send you to them.”
And he said to him, “I’m here.”
14And he said to him, “Go, see how your brothers are and how the sheep are and bring me back word.” And he sent him from the valley of Hebron.
And he came to Shechem.
15And a man found him, and here he was straying in a field. And the man asked him, saying, “What are you looking for?”
16And he said, “I’m looking for my brothers. Tell me, where are they feeding?”
17And the man said, “They traveled on from here. Because I heard them saying, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’”
And Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.
18And they saw him from a distance, and before he came close to them they conspired against him: to kill him.
19And the brothers said to one another, “Here comes the dream-master, that one there!
20And now, come on and let’s kill him and throw him in one of the pits, and we’ll say a wild animal ate him, and we’ll see what his dreams will be!”
37:20 wild animal. Literally, a bad animal—not just any wild animal. This expression will occur one more time in the Torah: the blessings of the covenant at Sinai will include a divine promise to eliminate wild (bad) animals from the land. The value of that blessing is rendered more visible by the recollection of Jacob’s pain when he believes that such a creature has taken the life of his child.
21And Reuben heard, and he saved him from their hand. And he said, “Let’s not take his life.”
22And Reuben said to them, “Don’t spill blood. Throw him into this pit that’s in the wilderness, and don’t put out a hand against him”—in order to save him from their hand, to bring him back to his father.
23And it was when Joseph came to his brothers: and they took off Joseph’s coat, the coat of many colors, which he had on.
24And they took him and threw him into the pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it.
37:24. the pit was empty; there was no water in it. Rashi takes this to be redundant: if it is empty, of course there is no water in it. He concludes that there are snakes and scorpions in it. But it is not redundant. Rather, two things are conveyed: It is empty. This conveys that he is alone and helpless. There is no water in it. This conveys that his survival is in danger.
25And they sat down to eat bread.
And they raised their eyes and saw, and here was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, and their camels were carrying spices and balsam and myrrh, going to bring them down to Egypt.
26And Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover his blood?
37:26. What profit is there. Judah’s motives are a mystery. Is he really concerned with money (“let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites”) and avoiding performing fratricide (“let our hand not be on him, because he’s our brother”)? Or is his motive to save Joseph’s life? Judah’s later behavior toward Benjamin and his great reward at the end (see the comment on 49:8) suggest that his behavior here is positive. Reuben’s failed plan leads Joseph to the pit; Judah’s plan leads him to Egypt. And Abraham’s unions with Hagar and Keturah produced the Ishmaelites and the Midianites, who are now crucial to Joseph’s going from the pit to Egypt! Perhaps the point is how complex and fragile our fate is.
27Come on and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let our hand not be on him, because he’s our brother, our flesh.” And his brothers listened.
28And Midianite people, merchants, passed, and they pulled and lifted Joseph from the pit. And they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty weights of silver. And they brought Joseph to Egypt.
29And Reuben came back to the pit, and here: Joseph was not in the pit. And he tore his clothes.
30And he went back to his brothers and said, “The boy’s gone! And I, where can I go?”
31And they took Joseph’s coat and slaughtered a he-goat and dipped the coat in the blood.
37:31. they took Joseph’s coat and slaughtered a he-goat. Jacob was ironically paid back for appropriating his brother’s birthright: he had to work an additional seven years for Rachel on account of her sister’s birthright (see the comment on Gen 29:26). Now he is likewise paid back for appropriating his brother’s blessing: He deceived his father using his brother’s clothing and the meat and skins of a goat. Now his own sons deceive him using their brother’s clothing and the blood of a goat. The Torah does not excuse Jacob’s behavior. It rather teaches that such acts have consequences.
32And they sent the coat of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “We found this. Recognize: is it your son’s coat or not?”
33And he recognized it and said, “My son’s coat. A wild animal ate him. Joseph is torn up!”
34And Jacob ripped his clothes and wore sackcloth on his hips and mourned over his son many days.
35And all his sons and all his daughters got up to console him, and he refused to be consoled, and he said, “Because I’ll go down mourning to my son at Sheol,” and his father wept for him.
36And the Medanites sold him to Egypt, to Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh, chief of the guards.
