CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 37:3. The son of his old age] He was ninety years old when Joseph was horn. A coat of many colours.] Heb. A tunic of parts. The expression occurs again in 2 Samuel 13:18, to describe the garment worn by kings’ daughters. “This was a coat reaching to the hands and feet, worn by persons not much occupied with manual labour, according to the general opinion. It was, we conceive, variegated either by the loom or the needle, and is therefore well rendered χιτὼν ποικίλος, a motley coat.” (Murphy.)—
Genesis 37:4. And could not speak peaceably unto him.] The meaning is, that they refused to bid him good day, or to greet him with the usual salutation, “Peace be with thee.”—
Genesis 37:9. The eleven stars.] Joseph himself being the twelfth. Knobel concludes from this that the signs of the Zodiac were not unknown to the Israelites.
Genesis 37:11. But his father observed the saying.] Heb. “Kept the word, or the matter” The word observed, as rendered by the LXX., is very nearly the same word as that used by St. Luke, “His mother kept all these things.” (St. Luke 2:19.)—
Genesis 37:12. Shechem. It was over fifty miles from Hebron. Jacob had formerly bought a piece of ground there. (Genesis 33:19.)—
Genesis 37:14. See whether it be well with thy brethren] Heb. “See the peace or the welfare,” i.e., Go and see how it fares with thy brethren and the flocks.—
Genesis 37:17. Dothan.] A town about twelve miles north of Shechem. It is only mentioned in one other place, 2 Kings 6:13-19.—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 37:1-17
THE COMMENCEMENT OF JOSEPH’S HISTORY
The history of Joseph commences at the opening of this chapter, and continues throughout the book. It is important, as showing how the Hebrew spirit came in contact with Egyptian culture and literature. Here we have Joseph brought before us—
I. As distinguished by his early piety. Even at this opening of Joseph’s history we can discover the signs of a high moral and devout tone of character. His brethren were of a different spirit. They were not only undevout, but were ready to commit the vilest wickedness. Joseph saw and heard things, when he was with them in the field, which vexed his righteous soul. He felt the duty laid upon him to bring report of their conversation and behavour to their father. This was not malicious tale-bearing, but the faithful performance of a sense of duty. For, where wickedness is done it ought not to be concealed. Joseph’s conduct was not back-biting, but a filial confidential report to his father.
1. It showed his love of truth and right. He would not suffer his father to be deceived by a false estimate of the conduct of his sons. He must be made acquainted with the truth, however painful, or be the consequences what they might to all concerned.
2. It showed his unwillingness to be a partaker of other men’s sins.
3. It showed a spirit of ready obedience. He knew that a faithful report of the conduct of his brethren was a duty he owed to his father. He had learned filial reverence and obedience. How readily he obeyed his father’s command when he was sent upon that long journey to Shechem. (Genesis 37:14). He entered upon the journey in all the simplicity of his heart, expecting no evil. Joseph was not entirely a spoiled child, kept at home safe from all dangers. His father had a healthy confidence in a son who was accustomed to obey cheerfully. He believed that Joseph had some hardy virtues.
II. As marked out for a great destiny. Joseph relates two of his dreams. There was no difficulty in understanding their meaning. The first showed that his brethren were to be in subjection to him, and the second that he would even have a wider dominion—his father, his mother, and his brethren bowing down before him to the earth. These dreams must be regarded as Divine intimations of his future sovereign greatness, and they were remarkably fulfilled in Egypt twenty-three years afterwards. Though Jacob chided his son for the bold uttering of his dreams, yet we are told that he “observed the saying.” (Genesis 37:10-11). He had a secret persuasion that those dreams were prophetic. And the hatred of his brethren shows a dreaded suspicion of the same prophetic import. It may not have been a shrewd policy in Joseph boldly to utter and declare these dreams before those with whom they were so intimately concerned. But he was a youth of genuine simplicity and transparency of character. He was openly honest. He had a natural fitness for future distinction and honour, and so the choice of God is justified to men.
III. As the object of envy and hatred.
1. Because of his faithful testimony. He did not join in the company of his brethren. They perceived that there was some alteration in their father’s conduct towards them, and would naturally suspect that his favourite son would be their accuser. So the world hated Jesus, because “He testified of it that the works thereof were evil.”
2. Because of his father’s partiality. (Genesis 37:4.) There was much in this that was injudicious, but it was not altogether unreasonable. Joseph was the child of the wife most beloved. His disposition was of that kind which naturally wins affection. He was the only one among his brethren who had the fear of God, or knew the duty of a Song of Solomon
3. Because of the distinction for which God had destined him. They envied him the honour which they plainly saw God had intended for him. To take it away from Joseph would not have been of any benefit to them. But such is the spirit of envy which refuses to admire, or have any complacency in that which does not belong to self. How hard it is to submit to the decisions of Providence! That spirit of hatred and envy which his brethren showed towards Joseph was like that of Cain towards Abel, of Esau towards Jacob, of Saul towards David, and of the Scribes and Pharisees towards Our Lord.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 37:1. The character of sojourners is common to all the patriarchs. Jacob afterwards claimed and confessed his character as a pilgrim before Pharaoh. “They who say such things plainly declare that they seek a country.”
The dukes of Edom had habitations in the land of their possessions. (Genesis 36:43). But Jacob, with his father Isaac, were pilgrims in the land of Canaan; content to dwell in tents here that they might dwell with God for ever. Justin Martyr saith of the Christians of his time: “They dwell in their own countries but as strangers; have right to all, as citizens; but suffer hardship, as foreigners.”—(Trapp.)
Genesis 37:2. The unsophisticated child of home is prompt in the disapproval of evil, and frank in the avowal of his feelings. What the evil was we are not informed; but Jacob’s full-grown sons were now far away from the paternal eye, and prone, as it seems, to give way to temptation. Many scandals came out to view in the chosen family.—(Murphy.)
Joseph only bore tidings to his father of conduct which had already become notorious and of ill-fame.
Genesis 37:3-4. In God’s government there is election, but no favouritism; for God judges by character. But turning to the conduct of Jacob, we find something different. True, Joseph was superior to his brethren, but there was something more; he was the son of the favourite wife and therefore the favourite child. His coat was the badge of his father’s unjust love, and therefore upon it his brethren wreaked their fury.—(Robertson.)
I see in him not a clearer type of Christ than of every Christian. Because we are dear to our Father, and complain of sins, therefore we are hated of our carnal brethren. If Joseph had not meddled with his brother’s faults, yet he had been envied for his father’s affection; but now malice is met with envy.—(Bp. Hall.)
Genesis 37:5-11. Joseph’s brethren hated him yet the more for his dreams. So the Jews did Jesus for His parables; especially when he spake of his exaltation.—(Trapp.)
The simplicity with which Joseph relates his dreams, reminds us of Isaac’s naïve question on the way to Mount Moriah: “but where is the lamb?” It stands in beautiful contrast with that moral earnestness which had already, in early age, made him self-reliant in presence of his brethren.—(Lange.)
The concealment of our hopes or abilities hath not more modesty than safety. He that was envied for his dearness, and hated for his intelligence, was both envied and hated for his dreams. Surely God meant to make the relation of these dreams a means to effect that which the dreams imported. We men work by likely means; God by contraries. Had it not been for his dreams he had not been sold; if he had not been sold, he had not been exalted. Full little did Joseph’s brethren think, when they sold him naked to the Ishmaelites, to have once seen him in the throne of Egypt. God’s decree runs on; and, while we either think not of it, or oppose it, is performed.—(Bp. Hall.)
Envy is a specially diabolical sin. “Through envy of the devil death entered into the world. (Wis. 2:24).
1. It is purely a spiritual sin, it is purely a soul-sin, owing less than any other to the temptations of the flesh. He whose chief delight is in intellectual pleasures, and is free from vulgar appetites, may yet be full of this sin of envy.
2. It is most essentially evil. Almost every other passion has in it some good, or seeming good. Revenge may claim justification from some sense of wrong, and be regarded as of near kin to justice. Anger may throw the blame upon violent passions so easily aroused. Carnal passions of every kind may charge their sins upon the body. But envy is an evil, pure and simple. It needs no body, nor nerves, nor foul desires, but springs up within the soul.
3. Other sins yield some present pleasure, but envy has nothing but torment.
Genesis 37:12-17. He stayed not at Shechem, whither his father sent him; but missing them there, he seeks farther, till he found them. This is true obedience, whether to God or man, when we look not so much to the letter of the law, as to the mind of the lawmaker.—(Trapp.)
That dream of Joseph’s regal sheaf, to which all the rest did homage, was remarkably fulfilled when his brethren came to him in Egypt for corn. They literally bowed down before him for this precious commodity.