Genesis 37

Verse-by-verse explanation

1. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 37:6Joseph introduces the dream by asking for their attention, like someone who knows what he is about to say matters.
7. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 37:16Joseph answers directly that he seeks his brothers, without hesitation.
17. Genesis 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. Genesis 37:18The brothers see Joseph afar off and, even before he comes near, they already conspire against him to slay him.
19. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 37:21Reuben hears it and delivers Joseph out of their hands, saying, “Let us not kill him.”
22. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 37:26Judah proposes an alternative to murder: what profit is it to slay their brother and conceal his blood?
27. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 37:32They send the coat of many colours to their father, asking indirectly whether he recognizes it — avoiding telling him the truth directly.
33. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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.