Commentary on Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28

The text begins with Jacob, but quickly moves to focus on Joseph by the end of verse 2. Joseph, age 17, is tending flocks as a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah when he tattles against those half-brothers to their father Jacob. Nothing in the text specifies the content of the bad report; Jewish midrash fills in the gap by explaining that Joseph told his father his brothers ate limbs torn from living animals (Bereshit Rabbah 84:7).

While the text is silent on what Joseph reported, it is very clear about Jacob’s preference for Joseph. The Jewish Publication Society translation says that he “loved Joseph best,” which leaves some love for the rest of his children, but the Hebrew more literally reads, “Israel loved Joseph better than all of his sons.” The explanation for this is also clear, and yet not completely accurate: “because he was the son of his old age.” Jacob’s youngest son is Benjamin, but Jacob’s preferred wife, Rachel, died after giving birth to Benjamin, so perhaps Jacob’s feelings toward Benjamin were more complicated than those toward Joseph. 

Not only does Jacob love Joseph more than the others, but he gives him a special garment. The Hebrew words are kĕtōnet passim and only occur here and in 2 Samuel 13:8 to describe the clothing worn by Tamar, “a virgin daughter of the king.” The “coat of many colors” comes from the Septuagint translation of Genesis 37:3 as chitōna poikilon, either an “embroidered” or “variegated” garment. Another possibility is that this is a long robe reaching to the feet, with sleeves reaching to the wrists. 

However it is translated, the garment would set Joseph apart from his siblings: In that era when dye was not easy to procure, any colorful garment would be rare and extremely valuable, and clothing that was embroidered or had long sleeves would be impractical for agricultural work like tending flocks. 

Verse 4 contrasts Jacob’s love of Joseph and the brothers’ hate, which is so strong that “they could not speak peaceably to him.” If their feelings contrast with those of their father, they are also a consequence of Jacob’s demonstrated preferentialism and favoritism.

The lectionary selection leaves out Joseph’s dreams and his reports of the dreams in verses 5–11. When Joseph tells his brothers about his two dreams that symbolize them bowing down to him, their hatred increases and intensifies: “They hated him even more” (Genesis 37:5, 9). The brothers will reference Joseph’s dreams in verses 19–20. 

Verse 12 begins with the brothers going to graze the flock at Shechem, a place with terrible associations, as it was the location where their sister Dinah had been raped and where Simeon and Levi killed every male in revenge (Genesis 34). Jacob sends Joseph to his brothers there.

But Joseph does not find them in Shechem; instead, “a man” finds Joseph wandering in the fields and asks him what he is seeking (Genesis 37:15). When Joseph says he is seeking his brothers, the anonymous man tells him he heard them say they were going to Dothan. Dothan has much less notoriety than Shechem; according to 2 Kings 6:13, it is where the king of Aram finds Elisha the prophet. The distance from Hebron, where Joseph began his journey, to Shechem is roughly 40 miles, and it is another 15 miles from Shechem to Dothan, where Joseph finally finds his brothers.

Jacob had instructed Joseph to “see if it is well with your brothers and the flock” (Genesis 37:14), but as the brothers saw Joseph come near, “they conspired to kill him” (verse 18). Other translations have “they plotted to kill him” (New International Version, New American Standard Bible); the Hebrew word nakal suggests deceit. It will not be well with Joseph. 

The specific plot is to throw Joseph into a nearby pit and tell their father that a wild animal devoured him. But Reuben intervenes, suggesting they not kill him but simply keep the plan with the pit. The text adds Reuben’s reason: so he might rescue Joseph and deliver him back to their father (Genesis 37:22). Many link Reuben’s motivations with the brief notice in Genesis 35:22 that Reuben had slept with Bilhah and Jacob heard of it, supposing that Reuben wants to get back into favor with his father after that inappropriate act.

Verse 23 includes delayed information that Joseph was wearing the extravagant garment,  evidence of his father’s favoritism, on his long journey to find his brothers. Those brothers stripped Joseph of this garment when they threw him into the pit, in what must have been a symbolic act. 

According to verse 25, they sat down to eat while their brother was in the pit, an act that also may be symbolic, or a metaphor to consider: When are we eating our food while others are suffering, “in a pit,” nearby? 

They then look up and see a caravan of Ishmaelites en route to Egypt; the connection with Ishmael is another reminder of the sibling rivalry throughout the stories in Genesis. Camels in the caravan are carrying “gum, balm, and resin,” expensive items for import. Perhaps seeing the potential for wealth and monetary gain, Judah asks his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh” (Genesis 17:26-27). That latter point ought to prevent selling someone into slavery.

Who exactly sold Joseph into slavery is debatable, because of the names and wording in verse 28, which introduces “Midianite traders,” but then uses third-person plural verbs to say “they drew and they lifted up Joseph from the pit and they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites.” The “they” could refer to the Midianites, interlopers who spoiled Judah’s plot to profit by selling Joseph into slavery. 

Curiously, the last verse of the chapter explains that the Midianites had sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar (Genesis 37:36), which leads some interpreters to explain this through source and redaction criticism, where one source refers to the Ishmaelites, another refers to the Midianites, and both sources get somewhat clumsily edited together in the final form of the chapter. Another option, offered by the Jewish medieval exegete Rashi, is that the brothers are the subject of the plural verbs in verse 28, who sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites, who then sold him to the Midianites, who in turn sold him to the Egyptians. 

This is only the start of Joseph’s story, and the themes of family drama and divine dreams will unfold and resolve through the end of Genesis.