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Gênesis 37

BLIVRE · Chapter 37/50

1E habitou Jacó na terra onde peregrinou seu pai, na terra de Canaã.

2Estas foram as gerações de Jacó. José, sendo de idade de dezessete anos apascentava as ovelhas com seus irmãos; e o jovem estava com os filhos de Bila, e com os filhos de Zilpa, mulheres de seu pai: e contava José a seu pai as más notícias acerca deles.

3E amava Israel a José mais que a todos os seus filhos, porque lhe havia tido em sua velhice: e lhe fez uma roupa de diversas cores.

4E vendo seus irmãos que seu pai o amava mais que a todos os seus irmãos, odiavam-lhe, e não lhe podiam falar pacificamente.

5E sonhou José um sonho e contou-o a seus irmãos; e eles vieram a odiar-lhe mais ainda.

6E ele lhes disse: Ouvi agora este sonho que sonhei:

7Eis que atávamos feixes no meio do campo, e eis que meu feixe se levantava, e estava em pé, e que vossos feixes estavam ao redor, e se inclinavam ao meu.

8E responderam-lhe seus irmãos: Reinarás tu sobre nós, ou serás tu senhor sobre nós? E o odiaram ainda mais por causa de seus sonhos e de suas palavras.

9E sonhou ainda outro sonho, e contou-o a seus irmãos, dizendo: Eis que sonhei outro sonho, e eis que o sol e a lua e onze estrelas se inclinavam a mim.

10E contou-o a seu pai e a seus irmãos: e seu pai lhe repreendeu, e disse-lhe: Que sonho é este que sonhaste? Viremos eu e tua mãe, e teus irmãos, a nos inclinarmos a ti em terra?

11E seus irmãos lhe tinham inveja, mas seu pai guardava isso em mente.

12E foram seus irmãos a apascentar as ovelhas de seu pai em Siquém.

13E disse Israel a José: Teus irmãos apascentam as ovelhas em Siquém: vem, e te enviarei a eles. E ele respondeu: Eis-me aqui.

14E ele lhe disse: Vai agora, olha como estão teus irmãos e como estão as ovelhas, e traze-me a resposta. E enviou-o do vale de Hebrom, e chegou a Siquém.

15E achou-o um homem, andando ele perdido pelo campo, e perguntou-lhe aquele homem, dizendo: Que buscas?

16E ele respondeu: Busco a meus irmãos: rogo-te que me mostres onde apascentam.

17E aquele homem respondeu: Já se foram daqui; eu lhes ouvi dizer: Vamos a Dotã. Então José foi atrás de seus irmãos, e achou-os em Dotã.

18E quando eles o viram de longe, antes que perto deles chegasse, tramaram contra ele para matar-lhe.

19E disseram um ao outro: Eis que vem o sonhador;

20Agora, pois, vinde, e o matemos e o lancemos em uma cisterna, e diremos: Alguma fera selvagem o devorou: e veremos que serão seus sonhos.

21E quando Rúben ouviu isto, livrou-o de suas mãos e disse: Não o matemos.

22E disse-lhes Rúben: Não derrameis sangue; lançai-o nesta cisterna que está no deserto, e não ponhais mão nele; para livrá-lo assim de suas mãos, para fazê-lo virar a seu pai.

23E sucedeu que, quando chegou José a seus irmãos, eles fizeram desnudar a José sua roupa, a roupa de cores que tinha sobre si;

24E tomaram-no, e lançaram-lhe na cisterna; mas a cisterna estava vazia, não havia nela água.

25E sentaram-se a comer pão: e levantando os olhos olharam, e eis uma companhia de ismaelitas que vinha de Gileade, e seus camelos traziam aromas e bálsamo e mirra, e iam a levá-lo ao Egito.

26Então Judá disse a seus irmãos: Que proveito há em que matemos a nosso irmão e encubramos sua morte?

27Vinde, e o vendamos aos ismaelitas, e não seja nossa mão sobre ele; que nosso irmão é nossa carne. E seus irmãos concordaram com ele.

28E quando passavam os midianitas mercadores, tiraram eles a José da cisterna, e trouxeram-lhe acima, e o venderam aos ismaelitas por vinte peças de prata. E levaram a José ao Egito.

29E Rúben voltou à cisterna, e não achou a José dentro, e rasgou suas roupas.

30E voltou a seus irmãos e disse: O jovem não aparece; e eu, aonde irei eu?

31Então eles tomaram a roupa de José, e degolaram um cabrito das cabras, e tingiram a roupa com o sangue;

32E enviaram a roupa de cores e trouxeram-na a seu pai, e disseram: Achamos isto, reconhece agora se é ou não a roupa de teu filho.

33E ele a reconheceu, e disse: A roupa de meu filho é; alguma fera selvagem o devorou; José foi despedaçado.

34Então Jacó rasgou suas roupas, e pôs saco sobre seus lombos, e fez luto por seu filho muitos dias.

35E levantaram-se todos os seus filhos e todas as suas filhas para consolá-lo; mas ele não quis receber consolação, e disse: Porque eu tenho de descer ao meu filho com luto ao Xeol. E seu pai chorou por ele.

36E os midianitas o venderam no Egito a Potifar, oficial de Faraó, capitão dos da guarda.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Joseph, his father Jacob's favorite, has dreams that hint at future greatness and stirs up his brothers' envy; they sell him as a slave to merchants who take him to Egypt, deceiving their father into believing he had died.

Explanation

This chapter begins the long and captivating story of Joseph, which will fill the rest of the book of Genesis. Jacob's obvious favoritism toward Joseph (symbolized by the special coat) and Joseph's own immaturity in telling his brothers his dreams of superiority, without any sensitivity, fuel a jealousy that quickly turns into fratricidal hatred, nearly repeating the tragedy of Cain and Abel. Reuben's intervention, and then Judah's proposal to sell Joseph rather than kill him, reveal that some trace of conscience still remained among the brothers, yet it does not free them from the deep guilt of having betrayed their own blood out of envy and greed. Jacob's grief, when he is deceived by the blood-stained coat, is portrayed with tremendous emotional intensity, showing how deception breeds lasting suffering. Today's lesson is about how uncontrolled envy can lead to acts that destroy entire families.

Fun facts

  • The 'coat of many colors' given by Jacob to Joseph (v. 3) can be translated more precisely as a long robe with sleeves — a type of garment that signaled status and exemption from heavy manual labor, which helps explain even further the resentment of his working brothers.
  • Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver (v. 28), an amount scholars compare to the standard price of a young slave in documented commercial contracts of the era, showing the historical and economic accuracy of the account.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Gênesis 37:1Jacob dwells in the land wherein his father was a stranger — marking the close of the long journey and the start of the story now focused on Joseph.
  2. Gênesis 37:2Joseph, at seventeen, feeds the flock with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and brings his father their “evil report” — a detail that already hints why the brothers did not like him.
  3. Gênesis 37:3The famous “coat of many colours” is also translated by some scholars as a long robe with sleeves — the original Hebrew word is rare, and there is no way to be certain of its exact design. What is clear is that it was a different and more expensive garment than ordinary work clothes, showing in front of the brothers that Joseph was the favorite.
  4. Gênesis 37:4The brothers clearly see that their father loved Joseph more than all of them and come to hate him to the point of not being able to speak peaceably to him.
  5. Gênesis 37:5Joseph dreams a dream and tells it to his brothers, and the mere act of telling it already increases their hatred — even before they know its content.
  6. Gênesis 37:6Joseph introduces the dream by asking for their attention, like someone who knows what he is about to say matters.
  7. Gênesis 37:7In the dream, Joseph’s sheaf arose and also stood upright, while his brothers’ sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to it — a clear image of submission that needs no explanation.
  8. Gênesis 37:8The brothers immediately understand the meaning, asking, “Shalt thou indeed reign over us?” — and it is exactly this reading that increases their hatred even more.
  9. Gênesis 37:9In Joseph’s dream, the sun and the moon represent his father and mother, and the eleven stars his eleven brothers — all making obeisance to him. It is this dream, even more than the one about the sheaves told earlier, that leaves the brothers furious, because it seems to say Joseph will be greater than his own parents.
  10. Gênesis 37:10This time Joseph tells the dream to his father too, who rebukes him, asking whether he and Joseph’s mother and brothers would really come to bow down themselves to the earth before him.
  11. Gênesis 37:11The brothers envy him, but his father observes the saying — a very different reaction, suggesting the father does not rule out the possibility of the dream coming true.
  12. Gênesis 37:12The brothers go to feed their father’s flock in Shechem — the same region charged with tension since Simeon and Levi’s attack in chapter 34.
  13. Gênesis 37:13Jacob asks Joseph to go see whether it is well with his brothers and the flocks — a simple errand that will become the turning point of the whole story.
  14. Gênesis 37:14Joseph is sent out of the vale of Hebron to Shechem, a journey of several days alone, showing the trust Jacob still placed in him despite the family tension.
  15. Gênesis 37:15Joseph loses his way, wandering in the field, and is found by a certain man who asks what he seeks — a small detail that exists only to explain how Joseph reaches his brothers in Dothan.
  16. Gênesis 37:16Joseph answers directly that he seeks his brothers, without hesitation.
  17. Gênesis 37:17The man informs him they had gone on to Dothan, and Joseph follows after his brothers — with no idea what awaits him there.
  18. Gênesis 37:18The brothers see Joseph afar off and, even before he comes near, they already conspire against him to slay him.
  19. Gênesis 37:19They say one to another, “Behold, this dreamer cometh,” a mockery that shows how heavily Joseph’s dreams weighed on their decision to get rid of him.
  20. Gênesis 37:20The plan is to slay him, cast him into a pit, and say, “Some evil beast hath devoured him” — a way to put an end, once and for all, to the dreams that bothered them so much.
  21. Gênesis 37:21Reuben hears it and delivers Joseph out of their hands, saying, “Let us not kill him.”
  22. Gênesis 37:22Reuben proposes casting him alive into the pit that is in the wilderness, shedding no blood — a plan he secretly intended to use later to rid him out of their hands and deliver him to their father again.
  23. Gênesis 37:23As soon as Joseph arrives, the brothers strip him of his coat, his coat of many colours — the visible symbol of the favoritism that bothered them so much.
  24. Gênesis 37:24They cast him into an empty pit, with no water in it — a detail that makes clear the real danger of death, even without direct violence.
  25. Gênesis 37:25“Spicery and balm and myrrh” were valuable goods used in perfumes, medicines, and embalming bodies in Egypt — this company of Ishmeelite merchants was headed exactly there to carry them down and sell such wares. It is at this very moment that it passes near the brothers, just as they are deciding what to do with Joseph.
  26. Gênesis 37:26Judah proposes an alternative to murder: what profit is it to slay their brother and conceal his blood?
  27. Gênesis 37:27Judah suggests selling Joseph to the Ishmeelites instead of killing him, arguing that he is their brother and their own flesh — the others are content and accept the proposal.
  28. Gênesis 37:28Twenty “pieces of silver” was, by the oldest trade practices of the region, the common price of a young slave — not a symbolic amount, but literally a market price for a person at that time. It is for this sum that Joseph is sold to the Ishmeelites.
  29. Gênesis 37:29Reuben, who was not present at the sale, returns unto the pit, discovers Joseph is not there, and rends his own clothes in despair.
  30. Gênesis 37:30Reuben returns to his brothers and says, “The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?” — his secret plan to rescue Joseph had just fallen apart.
  31. Gênesis 37:31The brothers take Joseph’s coat, kill a kid of the goats, and dip the coat in the blood, forging proof of an animal attack.
  32. Gênesis 37:32They send the coat of many colours to their father, asking indirectly whether he recognizes it — avoiding telling him the truth directly.
  33. Gênesis 37:33Jacob knows the coat and says, “An evil beast hath devoured him,” concluding, with no real proof, that Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
  34. Gênesis 37:34Putting on “sackcloth” (a coarse fabric, usually of goat hair) was the traditional way of showing deep mourning — rending one’s own clothes and wearing this cloth instead was a visible sign of extreme grief, recognizable to anyone who saw it. Jacob does this, believing his son died devoured by a wild animal.
  35. Gênesis 37:35“I will go down” to his son here refers to the grave, the place of the dead in the Old Testament view — not a physical descent, but a way of saying Jacob would carry this grief “mourning” until his own death. He is saying he will never get over this loss, that he will carry it for the rest of his life.
  36. Gênesis 37:36The Midianites sell Joseph into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s and captain of the guard — the link connecting this story to what happens in chapter 39.

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