Journey
Joseph's long road
From a coat and two dreams to a pit, a prison and a palace. Follow Joseph through the last chapters of Genesis.
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Opening stop: The coat, Genesis 37:3
A garment of colours comes up again with Tamar, David's daughter, who wore a garment of divers colours, the robe of the king's virgin daughters (2 Samuel 13:18). The verse before says Joseph brought his father a bad report about some of his half-brothers (Genesis 37:2). Favouritism runs in this family: Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob (Genesis 25:28), and Joseph is the firstborn of Rachel, the wife Jacob loved.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
King James Version
Seventeen-year-old Joseph brings his father a bad report about his brothers. Israel favors him and gives him a special coat. Joseph's dreams of bowing sheaves and heavenly bodies intensify his brothers' hatred and jealousy. His father rebukes him over the second dream but keeps the saying in mind. Sent to check on them, he follows them from Shechem to Dothan. They plan to kill him, but Reuben urges them to put him in a pit, intending to rescue him later. They strip off his coat and throw him into the empty pit. Judah proposes selling him, and the brothers agree. The account brings Midianite traders into the scene, and Joseph is sold to Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver and taken to Egypt. Reuben returns to find him gone. The brothers send the coat, stained with goat's blood, to Jacob, who concludes that a wild animal killed Joseph and refuses comfort. The final notice places Joseph in Potiphar's household in Egypt.
Continue the journey
This journey has 10 stops. The opening stop is free. Premium opens the rest of the guided path, and every Scripture chapter stays free to read.