Joseph - Genesis 37:1-11

37:1-4 - It seems that with the lineage of Esau all spelled out, that his story is settled enough to move back to Jacob, and where the story really wants to go: Joseph. Now I’m not a fan of Jacob, and I’ve said that plenty, but the level of disdain that I have for Jacob is the same level of love that I have for Joseph, which is to say, a lot. Jacob had moved his whole household and “dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.” At this point all 12 of his sons have been born and Joseph is 17 years old, and it seems that Jacob’s sons are shepherds. There was a point when Joseph had been out tending the flocks with his brothers from Bilhah and Zilpah who would have been Gad, Asher, Dan, and Nephtali and when they got home “Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.” Tom Bradford from the Torah Class describes this situation are Joseph being not only young, but one of the youngest brothers, he went and tattled to his dad. Tom asks the question, “did any of you have younger siblings who couldn’t wait to run and tattle to mom and dad about every little thing you did wrong?” With that in mind, this probably wasn’t a character flaw in Joseph, but more just a natural position that he was in as part of a large family.

But the problem wasn’t just that Joseph was a tattle-tale in his youth, it was that “Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age.” I don’t think that this is the most accurate way to put this because Benjamin was even younger than Joseph and with that many children, its hard to say where Jacob’s “old age” cut off was. The reality is that Joseph was the first son born to Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel and that’s why he was favored. As a symbol of Jacob’s favoritism to Joseph, “he made him a coat of many colours.” The footnote comments that the word “colours” “the Septuagint word indicates many colors, but the Hebrew term may indicate simply a long coat with sleeves.”

The significance of the sleeves is that this type of coat had long sleeve down past the wrists and long enough to pass the ankles. Tom Bradford notes, “Actually, it was not a coat at all, but a tunic. In Hebrew k’tonet passim… This was a royal tunic and the form of Hebrew used here says that. Indeed, this was a royal robe. Imagine, now. This wasn’t that Joseph got a nicer coat than his brothers. It was that his father virtually anointed him as a prince, and had him prancing around amongst his brothers in that kingly garb. The jealousy and envy this was bound to cause was going to wind up nearly costing Joseph his life.”

This is what we in the “healing from childhood trauma” community call the “Golden Child.” This is the child that is favored above all others, given everything, never in trouble, never does anything wrong, whereas the rest of the kids, or at least one in particular, could never do anything right. Even though I love Joseph, he was very spoiled and kind of a little turd, but honestly, how could he not be, he was raised as the favorite, he probably didn’t even notice that his brothers and probably sisters were treated differently than him, he probably didn’t notice that they hated him. They were all so much older than him, he probably just wanted to be best friends with them like all little brothers look up to their big brothers. These are all very complex emotions and family dynamics for a young child to sort out and understand, so he’s not really to blame here, Jacob is. But we all know how the brothers would feel towards him, jealous, angry, and hateful. He’s the annoying little brother who is spoiled, and they all feel that they are more deserving of the “birthright” than he is. In fact, the IM notes that most of his other brothers saw themselves as being the one deserving of the birthright.

Reuben – because he was the actual first born of all Jacob’s sons, and in fact he did hold the birthright until he raped Bilhah, or had sex with her, either way, that’s how he lost that.

Simeon – “Since he was the second son of Leah and next in line following Reuben, he could have assumed the birthright would come to him after Reuben lost his right to it.”

Judah – “He could have argued that not only Reuben had lost the right, but so had Simeon and Levi, through the massacre of the Schechmites. The disqualification of these sons would make him the rightful legal heir.” Interestingly, Judah went and plundered the city of Shechem after his brothers murdered everyone but I guess he didn’t see that as being as grievous.

Dan – “Because his mother, Bilhah, was considered Rachel’s property, he could argue that he was Rachel’s firstborn, not Joseph, and therefore should have received the birthright when Reuben lost it.

Gad – He was the first born of Zilpah and therefore could easily have thought that he should have taken the birthright after Reuben forfeited it.”

Joseph – of course he was the one who received the birthright, maybe because he was the first son of the favorite wife, but as far as I know he received it because Reuben was the first born of the first legal wife, but when he lost is, it went to the first born of the second legal wife. It’s complicated apparently, but I’ve always wondered how the 11th son ended up with the birthright.

37:5-11 – Joseph probably wondered why he didn’t fit in as well with his brothers as the rest of them fit in with each other. Surely Jacob’s favoritism toward him bred resentment his way from the rest of the boys, which is interesting because the person doing the favoriting should be the target of the resentment, not the recipient, but I guess that just goes to show how complicated family relationships are. He had all his father’s love and so much animosity from his brothers, and he’s young and probably doesn’t understand it, so when he has multiple dreams in which it becomes obvious that he is to become the leader of the family, maybe he thinks that sharing this information with everyone else is what is going to be the turning point for them to start liking him. Maybe he thinks, “well if I’m destined to become their ruler, then maybe the proof is what will make them like me.” It doesn’t make sense to us, but it’s possible that’s what made sense to him.

The first dream is where he is harvesting grain of some sort with all the rest of his brothers, “and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.” This is pretty straight forward, all the brothers bowed in respect and obedience to Joseph, and they were not pleased with this message. The second dream “the sun and the moon and the eleven starts made obeisance to me.” At this point it wasn’t just his brothers who were bowing and obeying, it was also his parents, and when he told his father about the dream, Jacob responded “what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?” So Jacob at this point, isn’t pleased with all this news either. Tom Bradford (TB from now on) noted that “Joseph didn’t have the good sense to keep his mouth shut,” which sounds like an accurate assessment.

One thing that is important to note here is that Jacob said, “Shall I and thy mother.” Rachel was Jospeh’s mother and since she died giving birth to Benjamin, she had surely been dead for several years at this point. Also when Joseph had gone out flocked tending with his brothers from Bilhah and Zilpah, TB notes that the Hebrew word for those women indicated that at this point they had been elevated to the position of legal wives. He suggests that this means that probably at this point both Rachel and Leah had died, therefore leaving vacancies for the position of Jacob’s legal wives. The “mother” that Jacob is referring to in his question was most likely Bilhah, as she was Rachel’s legal handmaid, and therefore extension of herself, Bilhah would have had an extensive influence in Joseph’s upbringing, both before but especially after Rachel died.