And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
Dreamed a dream. Dreams in ancient times were much attended to; and hence, the dream of Joseph, though he was but a mere boy, engaged the serious consideration of his family. But this dream was evidently symbolical. The meaning was easily discerned; and, from its being repeated under the different emblems of the sheaves and of the heavenly bodies (the eleven stars denoting the constellations of the zodiac, bowing down to him, the twelfth), the fulfillment was considered certain (cf, Genesis 41:32) - whence it was that "his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying."