וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן
1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. (NIV)
מְגוּרֵי "sojourn, live as an alien." Canaan was the land of the promise, and both Jacob and Joseph wanted to be buried there (Gen. 50:13; 50:24-25). The location was somewhere near Hebron (37:14), on the eastern side of the Judean mountains, about even with the midpoint of the Dead Sea as you look at a map.
GENESIS 37:2
אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב יוֹסֵף בֶּן־שְׁבַע־עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה הָיָה רֹעֶה אֶת־אֶחָיו בַּצֹּאן וְהוּא נַעַר אֶת־בְּנֵי בִלְהָה וְאֶת־בְּנֵי זִלְפָּה נְשֵׁי אָבִיו וַיָּבֵא יוֹסֵף אֶת־דִּבָּתָם רָעָה אֶל־אֲבִיהֶם
2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line. 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. (NIV)
The account is the tenth toledoth (תֹּלְדוֹת) of Genesis. Yet instantly Moses focuses our attention on Jacob's son Joseph. The final 14 chapters of Genesis are dominated by this one man. Joseph as a boy was naive, proud and arrogant beyond his years. He was the special favorite of Jacob. Perhaps this had already caused a falling out with his brothers who were the sons of Leah. We find Joseph out with the sons of the servant girls. Dan and Naphtali were the sons of Bilhah and Gad and Asher were the sons of Zilpah. Their ages may also have grouped these five together, although Zebulun (another son of Leah) would have been closer to Joseph's age as well. The antagonism begins with Joseph's "bad report" (דִּבָּתָם רָעָה). It is part of our sinful human nature to dislike those who point out our sins.
GENESIS 37:3
וְיִשְׂרָאֵל אָהַב אֶת־יוֹסֵף מִכָּל־בָּנָיו כִּי־בֶן־זְקֻנִים הוּא לוֹ וְעָשָׂה לוֹ כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים
3 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 an ornate robe for him. (NIV)
Most of us learned in Sunday School that Joseph had a coat of many colors. The Hebrew cetoneh passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) would be better translated as a "coat of palms," i.e., a long coat with long sleeves -- the uniform of an overseer or slave driver. Whether it was just a gaudy garment or an infuriating outfit, Joseph didn't hide the fact that "father likes me best." When he squealed on Gad, Dan, Asher and Naphtali one day, all his brothers began to hate him.
GENESIS 37:4
וַיִּרְאוּ אֶחָיו כִּי־אֹתוֹ אָהַב אֲבִיהֶם מִכָּל־אֶחָיו וַיִּשְׂנְאוּ אֹתוֹ וְלֹא יָכְלוּ דַּבְּרוֹ לְשָׁלֹם
4 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. (NIV)
Their hatred grew to such a point that they couldn't even say the shalom (לְשָׁלֹם) to him. Shalom (NIV "a kind word") was also the typical greeting. "Good morning," your bother says as walk into the kitchen, and you hate him so much that you turn your back and say nothing at all. This is the kind of bold faced hatred the brothers had for Joseph.
Who do you associate with in this scenario? Are you a parent who has favored one child over others? Are you a sibling who has hated a brother or sister because they got something you didn't? Are you a spoiled brat who doesn't think before he/she speaks or acts? Are you puffed up inside because you think you are none of the above?
The Joseph story will teach us to humbly ask God for forgiveness for the sins we commit. That forgiveness comes only through the Savior, Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God that despite all of their sins, jealousies, and murderous hatred, God still used Jacob's family to bring about that Savior, who washed away all of our sins.
GENESIS 37:5
וַיַּחֲלֹם יוֹסֵף חֲלוֹם וַיַּגֵּד לְאֶחָיו וַיּוֹסִפוּ עוֹד שְׂנֹא אֹתוֹ
5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. (NIV)
His brothers would not shalom, but God permitted him to chalom, and so Joseph dreamed a dream (חֲלוֹם). Moses plays on Joseph's name here to show the way that everything about Joseph grated on their senses. Even Joseph's name Joseph (יוֹסֵף) means "he will add" (Gen. 30:24). If the brothers thought the "he" was their father Jacob, they now realized they were mistaken. The "he" was God himself. Everybody was going to favor Joseph. Even God was going to add or "joseph" their brother Joseph, and so they would add to Joseph, too. They added to their hatred, which is what the Hebrew says here: They josephed (וַיּוֹסִפוּ to their hatred and hated him all the more.
GENESIS 37:6
וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵיהֶם שִׁמְעוּ־נָא הַחֲלוֹם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר חָלָמְתִּי
6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: (NIV)
I don't doubt but that the telling of this dream only added to their hatred. It was naive of Joseph to think it was a good idea. Some of his brothers may have been already married at seventeen, but Joseph was not yet married, and perhaps he lacked maturity in more than one way.
GENESIS 37:7
וְהִנֵּה אֲנַחְנוּ מְאַלְּמִים אֲלֻמִּים בְּתוֹךְ הַשָּׂדֶה וְהִנֵּה קָמָה אֲלֻמָּתִי וְגַם־נִצָּבָה וְהִנֵּה תְסֻבֶּינָה אֲלֻמֹּתֵיכֶם וַתִּשְׁתַּחֲוֶיןָ לַאֲלֻמָּתִי
7 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.” (NIV)
In the piel, alam means "bind" (in the nifal it means to "be silent" or "dumb." Binding sheaves was not the usual labor of semi-nomadic shepherds. That part of Joseph's dream was passed over by Joseph's brothers, and by most of us, too. The land, which Moses has been careful to remind us about, was promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and although the clan was still herding sheep, Joseph's dream promised a more permanent and stable relationship to the land. They would be gathering grain--all of them. But now the details of the dream overshadow the promise: The sheaves of the brothers would bow to Joseph's sheaf.
וַתִּשְׁתַּחֲוֶיןָ can be a confusing form, and we have analyzed it with different words throughout the decades. It is a kind of hithpael with an infixed shin, and it is often called an eshtafal or hishtafel form today. Waw-consecutive imperfect, 3rd feminine (elumah, "sheaves" is feminine) plural.
GENESIS 37:8
וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ אֶחָיו הֲמָלֹךְ תִּמְלֹךְ עָלֵינוּ אִם־מָשׁוֹל תִּמְשֹׁל בָּנוּ וַיּוֹסִפוּ עוֹד שְׂנֹא אֹתוֹ עַל־חֲלֹמֹתָיו וְעַל־דְּבָרָיו
8 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. (NIV)
Twice the brother use the powerful verb combination of the infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect. This emphasizes the verb and in this case becomes an incredulous, venomous charge: Will you actually be king over us?! Will you actually rule over us?! They did not just hate him because of what he said, but "because of his dream" as well. They hated the fact they he told them his dream, and they hated him because God had given him the dream in the first place. As Luther says, the dreams were simply "bacon in the trap" for Joseph's brothers. God needed Joseph in Egypt soon, and this was the opportunity to get him there. God didn't cause the brothers to sin, but they failed his test miserably and he used it for his own purpose.
GENESIS 37:9
וַיַּחֲלֹם עוֹד חֲלוֹם אַחֵר וַיְסַפֵּר אֹתוֹ לְאֶחָיו וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה חָלַמְתִּי חֲלוֹם עוֹד וְהִנֵּה הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וְהַיָּרֵחַ וְאַחַד עָשָׂר כּוֹכָבִים מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים לִי
9 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.” (NIV)
Now it got worse. He told his brother again, and they were going to hate him again. But this time the dream isn't about grain or just about the brothers. Now it's bigger. The sun (הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ), moon (וְהַיָּרֵחַ) and stars (כּוֹכָבִים) are involved, and clearly Jacob and Leah are meant as the sun and moon also bowing down to Joseph.
Some people are tempted to take the Joseph story as a type or prophecy about Christ, since there are so many similarities. If some of the details in this story remind us of Jesus, then that's a blessing, but this story isn't a prophecy. It's the historical account of what happened to Joseph, the son of Rachel bath Laban and Jacob ben Isaac ben Abraham. The eleven stars (וְאַחַד עָשָׂר) are not the eleven faithful apostles (twelve minus Judas) but the eleven sons of Jacob by his two wives and two concubines.
GENESIS 37:10
וַיְסַפֵּר אֶל־אָבִיו וְאֶל־אֶחָיו וַיִּגְעַר־בּוֹ אָבִיו וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ מָה הַחֲלוֹם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר חָלָמְתָּ הֲבוֹא נָבוֹא אֲנִי וְאִמְּךָ וְאַחֶיךָ לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת לְךָ אָרְצָה
10 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?” (NIV)
Now Jacob falls into the incredulous infinitive absolute + imperfect will we really come and bow down? Notice that Jacob is even upset about the dream itself, as if Joseph it to blame for having the dream. The "mother" here of course in Leah, now mother to Joseph and Benjamin since Rachel died giving birth to Joesph's younger brother (Genesis 35:19) and was buried near Bethlehem.
GENESIS 37:11
וַיְקַנְאוּ־בוֹ אֶחָיו וְאָבִיו שָׁמַר אֶת־הַדָּבָר
11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. (NIV)
Dreams are strange things. We dream all the time -- but we remember only some of them. From time to time in the Bible, God used dreams to give his people messages. He does not promise to do so for us today, but when Scripture says a thing happened in a dream, we take it at face value.
Joseph's dreams were remarkable. They predicted what would happen in the future, but it was naive of Joseph to tell his family in the way he did. The dreams pointed to his supremacy in a way his brothers or parents could not have understood. His eleven brothers did not like the idea of the boy with the overseer's jacket telling them they would bow down to him one day.
Like Jesus' mother, Joseph's father pondered this. The Hebrew text says he "guarded this thing." He didn't distort or dismiss what Joseph said. Instead, he kept it carefully in his heart. We need to treat every word of God the same way, guarding it and keeping it in our hearts -- the word of God is the message (the only mesage) of the forgiveness of our sins and of eternal life.
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