From a rising near Dothan, ten shepherds saw a solitary figure walking towards them. They knew him before they could see his face. No one else wore that manner of dress in all of Canaan. "Here comes that dreamer," said one of the shepherds. And so, in the time it took for a seventeen-year-old to walk the remaining distance to his brothers' camp, they laid the groundwork for a family feud that would last twenty-two years: come, let us kill him and cast him into one of these pits, and then we shall see what becomes of his dreams.
A Family Set to Blow
The powder had been primed over three generations. Isaac had favored Esau, and Rebekah had favored Jacob. And Jacob, of all men, knew what favoritism could do, having been exiled from his father's household for it. Of his two wives, he had favored Rachel, who had died, conveniently enough, on the road, giving birth to his second son; and so the firstborn, Joseph, had become the consolation prize, the living memorial to Rachel. Scripture is blunt about this: Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons. Genesis is blunt about Joseph as well: at seventeen, "while tending his father's sheep with his brothers," Joseph "brought home a bad report of them." The favorite son and the sneak, the tattletale, the informer: Joseph had it all, and his brothers knew it. The text records that they resented him, "and they could not bear his dreams and his talk."
The Coat
Jacob appears to have exacerbated the situation by getting Joseph a new coat. The Hebrew word is ketonet passim, a word so unusual that scholars have long speculated about its meaning. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of Scripture, renders it as "a coat of many colors," and that is the way most children's bibles depict it as well. More recently, some scholars have argued that the phrase probably means "a long robe with sleeves." Since sleeves are a mark of a man who does not work in the fields, the implication is that Joseph has been marked for a life of management, not labor. Either way, the brothers understood the message: Jacob had elevated Joseph to the position of overseer, and the other sons had been reduced to laborers. Scripture records that they "hated Joseph," and "could not bring themselves to speak kindly to him."
Dreams He Should Have Kept to Himself
It was Joseph who tossed the matches into the dry grass. He had two dreams, both of which involved sheaves of grain. In the first, he and his brothers were binding sheaves when his sheave rose up and remained upright, while theirs fell around it and bowed down to it. He told his brothers. He had a second dream, in which the sun and moon and eleven stars all bowed down to him, and he told them and his father as well. Even Jacob was forced to reprimand him: "What is this dream that you have had?" he demanded. "That your mother and I and your brothers should come and bow down to you?" Scripture closes the scene with two important observations. First, that "the sons of Israel hated Joseph even more" because of his dreams and words; second, that "Jacob kept the matter in mind."
One son dressed as management, ten as labor — and all of them made to look at it daily.
The Road to Dothan
The brothers had driven the flocks north. Jacob sent Joseph to check on them and to bring word back. It was a fifty-mile walk from Hebron to Dothan, where the brothers had apparently taken up residence. Joseph walked for the first few days. When he neared Shechem, a stranger found him wandering the fields. "Your brothers have gone on to Dothan," he said. "I heard them say." Dothan was a crossroads, a place where caravans from the north met the road to Egypt, and it was apparently good pasture land as well. The next thing we know is that Joseph walked into the camp of his brothers wearing the coat.
The Pit and the Meal
The brothers agreed to kill him. It was Reuben, the eldest son, who tempered the decision, suggesting that, rather than shedding blood, they cast the boy into the cistern out in the wilderness, but that they leave him there, alive. The text says he wanted to rescue him later, secretly, and take him back to his father. When Joseph arrived, they stripped him of the coat and cast him into the dry pit. Scripture records what may be the most horrifying sentence in the book: "They sat down to eat bread." Lunch, in fact, was within earshot of the pit when the brothers heard Joseph's cries. We know Joseph was screaming because the brothers said so twenty-two years later, when they stood before him in Egypt: "We saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we would not listen to him."
Twenty Pieces of Silver
While the brothers ate, the road to Dothan produced another caravan. The Ishmaelites were coming down from Gilead, their camels' backs bent beneath the weight of gum, balm, and myrrh for the Egyptian market. Judah saw them first and proposed a plan to his brothers: "What is the profit to us if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, that we might not lay our hands on him. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh." The plan had the support of all of Joseph's brothers, and so they dragged the boy from the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. The camels headed south for Egypt, and Reuben, who had been away when the deal was made, returned to the pit, tearing his clothes in grief: the boy was gone, and he did not know what to do.
They dropped him into the cistern — and sat down to eat within earshot of his cries.
A Lie Dipped in Blood
The brothers needed to cover up the disappearance. They killed a goat and sent word to their father with the bloodstained coat, telling him to examine it, to see if it were his son's. The text records that Jacob did the rest to himself: "It is my son's garment," he said. "A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph is surely torn to pieces." He tore his clothes and put on sackcloth, refusing every comfort his sons offered. "I will go mourning to my son," he said to them. "I will go mourning to my son." No one in the story seems to notice the connection to the next scene, in which Jacob's sons kill a goat and cover the pit with its blood. The man who had once deceived his father with the garments of his sons now finds himself deceived by his sons with the garment of his son.
Meanwhile, in Egypt
The caravan reached Egypt and sold the boy to Potiphar, an officer of the royal court and captain of the guard. The scene closes with Joseph in chains, the coat in shreds, the dreams buried in the pit in Dothan. It is tempting to think of the episode as a kind of tragedy. After all, Joseph had been favored, and he had favored his brothers. The man had it all, and he had cast it in their faces. The dreams had been a kind of blasphemy, and his brothers had cast him into a pit. It was not until years later that they would understand that what they had done had been the means by which God had brought him to Egypt. Scripture records that the favoritism of Jacob, the resentment of his sons, and the lie of his brothers, had all been the work of men, but that God had been working behind the scenes as well. It is not until much later in the book that Joseph will be able to say to his brothers, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."
They meant to bury the dream. Instead, they paid for its shipping to Egypt.
The Seeds of a Bigger Story
It is not unusual for people to read this chapter and to think of Joseph's story as a tragedy. It is, in many ways, the story of a spoiled favorite son who had been betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. It is also the story of a man whose favoritism had triggered a family feud and whose lies had resulted in the death of his brother. Joseph had it all, and he had cast it in their faces. The man had it all, and he had cast it in his father's face as well. The text records that the favoritism of Jacob, the resentment of his sons, and the lie of his brothers, had all been the work of men, but that God had been working behind the scenes as well. It is not until much later in the book that Joseph will be able to say to his brothers, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."
