Joseph's Coat and His Dreams
Favored, Hated, and Thrown into a Pit
Genesis 37:1–36Jacob lives in the land of Canaan with his twelve sons. Of all his sons, he loves Joseph most. Jacob makes Joseph a special robe — a long, beautiful coat with many colors. When Joseph's brothers see the coat, they know it means their father has chosen Joseph above them. They begin to hate Joseph and cannot say a kind word to him.
Then Joseph has a dream. In the dream, his brothers' bundles of grain bow down to his bundle of grain. He has another dream — the sun, the moon, and eleven stars are all bowing down to him. Joseph tells his family, and his brothers hate him even more. Even his father Jacob scolds him, wondering if this could really mean that one day their whole family will bow before Joseph.
One day, Jacob sends Joseph out to check on his brothers, who are watching the flocks far away in Shechem. Joseph walks a long way to find them. When his brothers see him coming from far off, they begin to make a terrible plan. They want to kill him. But his brother Reuben speaks up — he tells them not to shed Joseph's blood. Instead, they throw Joseph into an empty pit in the ground.
The brothers sit down to eat their meal. Soon they see a caravan of traders coming from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices heading down to Egypt. Judah says to his brothers, 'What do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites.' So they pull Joseph up out of the pit and sell him for twenty pieces of silver. The traders take Joseph away toward Egypt.
The brothers take Joseph's beautiful coat, kill a goat, and dip the coat in the blood. They bring it to their father and let him believe that a wild animal has torn Joseph to pieces. Jacob tears his own clothes and mourns for his son for many days. No one can comfort him.
But God has not forgotten Joseph. God's covenant — His great and unbreakable promise — runs through Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob's family. Even in that dark pit, even on that dusty road to Egypt, God is quietly keeping His promise. The dreams God gave Joseph will come true. What the brothers mean for evil, God is weaving together for something the whole world will one day need.
Christ in This Story
Joseph is betrayed by his own brothers and sold for silver — just as Jesus will one day be betrayed by one of His own disciples for thirty pieces of silver. Joseph is thrown into a pit and left for dead, but God raises him up to save many lives, pointing us forward to Jesus, who truly dies and rises again to save His people. Just as Joseph's suffering was the very path through which God kept His covenant promises, the suffering of Jesus is the way God fulfills every promise He has ever made.
Historical Context
The 'coat of many colors' (or 'richly ornamented robe') Jacob gives Joseph is significant in the ancient Near East as a symbol of status and inheritance. Wealthy patriarchs and rulers wore long, decorated garments, while working sons wore shorter tunics suited for labor. By gifting this robe, Jacob is signaling a position of honor and perhaps headship for Joseph, which would have been deeply offensive to his older brothers who expected that privilege by birth order.
The caravan of Ishmaelite traders heading to Egypt fits well with what archaeologists and historians know about ancient trade routes in the Middle Bronze Age (roughly 2000–1500 BC). Spices, balm, and myrrh were valuable commodities traded between Canaan and Egypt along well-traveled roads. Egyptian records from this period also document the presence of Semitic peoples entering Egypt, consistent with the biblical account of Joseph's arrival. The price of twenty pieces of silver for Joseph is consistent with slave prices documented in ancient Near Eastern texts from the same general era.
✦ This story also appears in the Quran
For parents: This biblical account has a parallel in the Quran (Islam's holy book), but the two versions differ in important ways. The Quran retells many Old and New Testament stories — sometimes similarly, sometimes with significant changes in detail, meaning, or theology.
This is a great opportunity to help your children know the biblical account well, so they can recognize differences if they ever encounter them. The Bible is our authoritative source; where the Quran diverges, we hold to what God's Word says.
Let's Pray
Heavenly Father, thank You that even when things look dark and scary, You are always keeping Your promises. Thank You that You sent Jesus, who was rejected and suffered so that we could be saved. Help us to trust that You are working even when we cannot see what You are doing. Amen.