How does the brothers’ hatred lead to Joseph’s sale and Jacob’s false belief that he is dead?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The brothers hate Joseph because Israel favours him, and his dreams deepen their envy. They put him in a pit and agree to sell him; he is taken to Egypt. They send his coat, dipped in goat’s blood, to Jacob, who concludes that a beast has killed him and refuses comfort.

Chapter breakdown

Jacob lives in Chanaan, where his father had stayed. At sixteen, Joseph is feeding the flock with his brothers, the sons of Bala and Zelpha, his father’s wives. Still a boy, he accuses his brothers to his father of a most wicked crime; the account does not specify that crime. Israel loves Joseph above his other sons because Joseph was born to him in his old age, and makes him a coat of different colours. Seeing the greater love, the brothers hate Joseph and cannot speak peaceably to him. When he tells them a dream, they hate him still more.

Challoner’s note calls Joseph’s dreams prophetic and sent by God, as were those he interpreted in Genesis 40 and 41. It distinguishes these from the general practice of observing dreams, which it says Scripture condemns as superstitious and sinful. The note cites Deuteronomy 18:10 and Ecclesiasticus 34:2–3.

Joseph asks his brothers to hear his dream. They are binding sheaves, bundles of cut grain, in a field. His sheaf rises and stands, while theirs stand around and bow before it. They ask whether he will be their king or whether they will be under his rule. His dreams and words feed their envy and hatred. Joseph tells them another dream: the sun, moon and eleven stars worship him. When he tells his father and brothers, his father rebukes him. Jacob asks whether he, Joseph’s mother and his brothers will worship Joseph upon the earth.

Challoner explains that worship here does not mean divine worship. It means a lesser form of respect expressed by bowing the body, down to the ground according to the practice of the eastern nations.

The brothers envy Joseph, while his father considers the matter. The brothers are feeding their father’s flocks at Sechem, the spelling used in verse 12. Israel tells Joseph that they are feeding the sheep at Sichem and sends him to them. Joseph says he is ready. His father tells him to see whether his brothers and the cattle are well and to bring back word of what is happening. Sent from the valley of Hebron, Joseph reaches Sichem. A man finds him wandering in the field and asks what he is looking for. Joseph says he seeks his brothers and asks where they feed the flocks. The man says they have left: he heard them speak of going to Dothain. Joseph follows and finds his brothers there.

Before Joseph comes near, his brothers see him in the distance and think of killing him. They call him the dreamer and propose killing him, putting him in an old pit, and saying that an evil beast has eaten him. Then, they say, they will see what his dreams are worth. Ruben hears and tries to deliver Joseph from their hands. He tells them not to take his life or shed his blood, but to put him in the pit in the wilderness and keep their hands harmless. The narrator explains Ruben’s intention: he wants to deliver Joseph and restore him to his father.

As soon as Joseph arrives, the brothers strip off his outer coat of different colours and put him in an old pit with no water. They sit down to eat bread. They see Ismaelites coming from Galaad with camels carrying spices, balm and myrrh to Egypt. Juda asks what profit there is in killing their brother and concealing his blood. He proposes selling Joseph to the Ismaelites instead, so their hands will not be defiled, since Joseph is their brother and their own flesh. The brothers agree. Verse 28 records, “And when the Madianite merchants passed by, they drew him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ismaelites, for twenty pieces of silver: and they led him into Egypt.” This retains the passage’s wording for the Madianite merchants, the Ismaelites and the sale without replacing them with a single renamed group.

Ruben returns to the pit and does not find the boy. He tears his clothes, goes to his brothers, and asks where he can go now that the boy is missing. The account does not say where Ruben was during the sale.

The brothers kill a young goat and dip Joseph’s coat in its blood. They send people to carry it to their father with the message that they have found it, asking whether it is his son’s coat. Jacob recognises it and concludes that an evil wild beast has eaten Joseph. He tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, and mourns his son for a long time. All his children gather to comfort him, but he refuses comfort. He says, “I will go down to my son into hell, mourning.” He continues to weep. His conclusion about a beast is what he believes from the coat; the reader has been told that Joseph was taken to Egypt.

Challoner understands hell here as limbo, the place where the souls of the just were received before the death of the Redeemer. The note allows that hell can sometimes mean the grave, but argues that it cannot mean that here. Jacob believes his son was eaten by a beast, not buried in a grave, so Challoner understands his words as referring to the place of rest where he believes Joseph’s soul to be.

In Egypt the Madianites sell Joseph to Putiphar, described as an eunuch of Pharao and captain of the soldiers.

Challoner explains that eunuch sometimes means a chamberlain, courtier or officer of the king, and says that this is its meaning here.

The story inside

The planned beast story and the coat link the brothers’ violence to Jacob’s mistaken conclusion. Before Joseph arrives, they propose both killing him and saying a beast ate him. Ruben intervenes to preserve his life and restore him to his father, and the brothers put Joseph in the dry pit. Juda’s later proposal replaces killing with selling, appealing to profit and their shared flesh. The sale sends Joseph toward Egypt, and Ruben returns to find him gone. The brothers then use the coat, which had marked the father’s favour, as false evidence: they dip it in goat’s blood and ask Jacob to identify it. They do not report the sale. Jacob recognises the coat and supplies the conclusion that a beast has eaten Joseph. His long mourning follows a belief the reader knows is false, while the closing verse names Joseph’s actual purchaser in Egypt. The sequence distinguishes the brothers’ proposals, Ruben’s stated rescue intention, the recorded sale, and Jacob’s belief without assigning unrecorded feelings to any of them.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The chapter names causes of the brothers’ hatred and envy. They see that their father loves Joseph more, and Joseph’s dreams and words make their hatred grow. Retaining those links explains how the conflict develops without inventing the crime he reported or a motive for every later act.
2
Ruben and Juda propose different ways to avoid killing Joseph. The narrator says Ruben wants to return him to his father; Juda argues for selling their own brother rather than shedding his blood. Keeping the different reasons matters because the sale fulfils neither Ruben’s rescue intention nor Joseph’s return home.
3
The blood on the coat is real, but it comes from a goat, not from Joseph. Jacob’s recognition of the garment therefore leads to a false conclusion about his son. The contrast between his mourning and Joseph’s recorded sale to Putiphar shows the damage done by the brothers’ concealed actions.

Test your recall

How do Ruben’s and Juda’s proposals change the plan to kill Joseph, and how does the coat lead Jacob to a conclusion that differs from Joseph’s actual fate in this chapter?

Show answer

Ruben argues against killing Joseph and proposes putting him in the pit, intending to rescue him later. Juda then argues for selling him rather than shedding their brother’s blood. Joseph is sold for twenty pieces of silver and taken to Egypt. The brothers dip his coat in a kid’s blood and send it to Jacob, who concludes that a wild beast has killed him. Joseph is actually alive and is sold in Egypt to Putiphar.

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 4212–4232
Genesis Chapter 37 Joseph’s dreams: he is sold by his brethren, and carried into Egypt. 37:1. And Jacob dwelt in the land of Chanaan, wherein his father sojourned. 37:2. And these are his generations: Joseph, when he was sixteen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, being but a boy: and he was with the sons of Bala and of Zelpha his father’s wives: and he accused his brethren to his father of a most wicked crime. 37:3. Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had him in his old age: and he made him a coat of divers colours. 37:4. And his brethren seeing that he was loved by his father, more than all his sons, hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. 37:5. Now it fell out also that he told his brethren a dream, that he had dreamed: which occasioned them to hate him the more.
Lines 4233–4237
A dream.... These dreams of Joseph were prophetical, and sent from God; as were also those which he interpreted, Gen. 40. and 41.; otherwise generally speaking, the observing of dreams is condemned in the Scripture, as superstitious and sinful. See Deut. 18.10; Eccli. 34.2,3.
Lines 4238–4256
37:6. And he said to them: Hear my dream which I dreamed. 37:7. I thought we were binding sheaves in the field: and my sheaf arose as it were, and stood, and your sheaves standing about bowed down before my sheaf. 37:8. His brethren answered: Shalt thou be our king? or shall we be subject to thy dominion? Therefore this matter of his dreams and words ministered nourishment to their envy and hatred. 37:9. He dreamed also another dream, which he told his brethren, saying: I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars worshipping me. 37:10. And when he had told this to his father, and brethren, his father rebuked him and said: What meaneth this dream that thou hast dreamed? shall I and thy mother, and thy brethren worship thee upon the earth?
Lines 4257–4260
Worship.... This word is not used here to signify divine worship, but an inferior veneration, expressed by the bowing of the body, and that, according to the manner of the eastern nations, down to the ground.
Lines 4261–4283
37:11. His brethren therefore envied him: but his father considered the thing with himself. 37:12. And when his brethren abode in Sechem, feeding their father’s flocks, 37:13. Israel said to him: Thy brethren feed the sheep in Sichem: come, I will send thee to them. And when he answered: 37:14. I am ready: he said to him: Go, and see if all things be well with thy brethren, and the cattle: and bring me word again what is doing. So being sent from the vale of Hebron, he came to Sichem: 37:15. And a man found him there wandering in the field, and asked what he sought. 37:16. But he answered: I seek my brethren, tell me where they feed the flocks. 37:17. And the man said to him: They are departed from this place: for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothain. And Joseph went forward after his brethren, and found them in Dothain.
Lines 4284–4300
37:18. And when they saw him afar off, before he came nigh them, they thought to kill him: 37:19. And said one to another: Behold the dreamer cometh. 37:20. Come, let us kill him, and cast him into some old pit: and we will say: Some evil beast hath devoured him: and then it shall appear what his dreams avail him: 37:21. And Ruben hearing this, endeavoured to deliver him out of their hands, and said: 37:22. Do not take away his life, nor shed his blood: but cast him into this pit, that is in the wilderness, and keep your hands harmless: now he said this, being desirous to deliver him out of their hands and to restore him to his father.
Lines 4301–4320
37:23. And as soon as he came to his brethren, they forthwith stript him of his outside coat, that was of divers colours: 37:24. And cast him into an old pit where there was not water. 37:25. And sitting down to eat bread, they saw some Ismaelites on their way coming from Galaad, with their camels, carrying spices, and balm, and myrrh to Egypt. 37:26. And Juda said to his brethren: What will it profit us to kill our brother, and conceal his blood? 37:27. It is better that he be sold to the Ismaelites, and that our hands be not defiled: for he is our brother and our flesh. His brethren agreed to his words. 37:28. And when the Madianite merchants passed by, they drew him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ismaelites, for twenty pieces of silver: and they led him into Egypt.
Lines 4321–4325
37:29. And Ruben returning to the pit, found not the boy: 37:30. And rending his garments he went to his brethren, and said: The boy doth not appear, and whither shall I go?
Lines 4326–4341
37:31. And they took his coat, and dipped it in the blood of a kid, which they had killed: 37:32. Sending some to carry it to their father, and to say: This we have found: see whether it be thy son’s coat, or not. 37:33. And the father acknowledging it, said: It is my son’s coat, an evil wild beast hath eaten him, a beast hath devoured Joseph. 37:34. And tearing his garments, he put on sackcloth, mourning for his son a long time. 37:35. And all his children being gathered together to comfort their father in his sorrow, he would not receive comfort, but said: I will go down to my son into hell, mourning. And whilst he continued weeping,
Lines 4342–4349
Into hell.... That is, into limbo, the place where the souls of the just were received before the death of our Redeemer. For allowing that the word hell sometimes is taken for the grave, it cannot be so taken in this place; since Jacob did not believe his son to be in the grave, (whom he supposed to be devoured by a wild beast,) and therefore could not mean to go down to him thither: but certainly meant the place of rest where he believed his soul to be.
Lines 4350–4352
37:36. The Madianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Putiphar, an eunuch of Pharao, captain of the soldiers.
Lines 4353–4356
An eunuch.... This word sometimes signifies a chamberlain, courtier, or officer of the king: and so it is taken in this place.