Why the brothers hated Joseph?

The story of Joseph and his brothers is widely recognized as one of the most moving narratives in the entire Bible. It opens with the following statement:

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob’s family line. (Gen 37:1-2)

The most significant point to see here is that Jacob/Israel’s family has finally begun to root itself in the Promised Land. Isaac stayed there and lived as a stranger (בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו), but Jacob’s status was already different. He dwelled there as a permanent resident. The Hebrew verb used, וַיֵּשֶׁב (vayeshev), indicates a settled existence, not just sojourning, and this is a deliberate narrative marker contrasting Jacob with Esau and confirming the covenant line’s presence in the land.

This very short and seemingly small observation is extraordinarily important. The promise to the covenantal line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has already begun to be fulfilled. Yet it is in this period of God’s enormous blessing and fulfillment of His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that one of the greatest trials of the emergent family of Israel has occurred.

Later in the Bible when we look in hindsight back to this chapter, it feels as if this story, when read to its end, preempted what the Psalmist would testify to centuries later:

The righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. (Ps 34:19)

Israel’s family will be saved by the Lord. But I get ahead of myself. We are only in the beginning of this breathtaking story.

Uneven Love

The entire story, which will become one of the longest, if not the longest, in the Bible, has its foundation in the following verses:

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was learning from his half-brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, how to tend the flocks, and he brought their father a bad report (דִּבָּתָם רָעָה, dibatam ra’ah) about them. (Gen 37:2)

The story begins by describing Joseph in his adolescence, learning from his older half-brothers how to tend the flock (הָיָה רֹעֶה אֶת-אֶחָיו בַּצֹּאן). He was not simply tending the flock together with his brothers. This can be seen from the original Hebrew. It is interesting that here, unlike in previous chapters, the concubines of Jacob are already referred to as wives. Perhaps they were promoted to the higher status through a formal marriage ritual of some kind. If so, then perhaps Leah already passed away (when or how she died is not reported in the Torah). Yet there is no doubt that a certain lesser value of those two women and, therefore, their sons is, in some way, implied.

The narrator then sets up the trigger for the drama that follows. He brought a bad or evil report to his father about his half-brothers. Nothing else is added. Did he do right? Did he do wrong? Did he slander them? Did he simply tell the truth to prevent some disaster from occurring? The text is ambiguous.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he was the son of his old age. (Gen 37:3)

The reference to his old age (כִּי-בֶן-זְקֻנִים הוּא) likely has to do with the length of time he spent awaiting a child from the love of his life, Rachel, who was barren for a very long time. When Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Leah had already borne six sons and one daughter. (Gen 29:31-30:24) There are other interpretive options on how to understand this phrase; perhaps Jacob viewed Joseph as someone whom he could really trust in his old age as he got weaker and more dependent on others.

It is interesting that Joseph in particular is singled out by Jacob, even though another son of his beloved Rachel had already been born. (Gen 35:16-20) Perhaps the fact that Benjamin was still young (most likely 4 to 6 years old) and that his birth triggered in Jacob some of the most painful memories of losing Rachel is responsible for this singling out.

And he made an ornate robe (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים ,ketonet pasim) for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him (שָׂנֵא, sane) and could not speak a kind word to him. (Gen 37:3b-4)

There are a few different ways to translate what kind of robe Jacob ordered to be made for Joseph, including a robe with long sleeves, as Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac translations would have it; But the best way to understand the kind of robe Jacob made for his beloved son is to translate it as “richly ornamented robe.” The bottom line is this: Jacob did not shy away from granting Joseph super-special status among his sons. After all, he made him a robe that distinguished him from everyone else.

Interestingly, in Biblical Hebrew, “hating someone” did not always mean the same thing as it does today. It often meant loving someone less or in a lesser kind of way. Similar to “whoever does not hate their father and mother cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26, compare to Matt. 10:37).

Naturally, that biblical “hatred” had gradations, from simply loving someone less to the kind of hatred that the brothers displayed toward Joseph, which went so far as attempted murder.

If we consider this linguistic insight, then the connection with Jacob loving the rest of the sons less becomes obvious. Jacob loves the other sons less, to the point of ignoring and demeaning them before his youngest sibling. They love his beloved Joseph “less” to be willing to turn him into a slave.

Everything starts with the father (“the fish rots from the head”). His preferential treatment of one son turns the rest of the brothers, who are naturally seeking his love and approval, into constant and growing disappointment.

First Dream

The situation is exacerbated by two dreams, which, as we will find out later, God Himself revealed to Joseph. This, however, was somewhat difficult to see from the beginning.

We read:

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us (הֲמָלֹךְ תִּמְלֹךְ עָלֵינוּ)? Will you actually rule us?” (מָשׁוֹל תִּמְשֹׁל בָּנוּ) And they hated him all the more (וַיּוֹסִפוּ עוֹד שְׂנֹא אֹתוֹ) because of his dream and what he had said. (Gen 37:5-8)

The brothers’ reaction is understandable and predictable given their father’s favoritism toward Joseph and their constant natural desire to be loved and valued by Jacob, but all to no avail. Not only had Jacob bestowed all the love that they too desired, but Joseph was also instrumental, at least from their standpoint, in forming their father’s negative opinion about them. (Gen 37:2) Now comes this new escalation. The supposed prophetic dream features Joseph not only as the most beloved son of the father (as if this were not bad enough) but also as someone who assumes lordship over all of the brothers. This makes no sense. He is one of the last children to be born, and this means he stands far down in the line of succession for the birthright in the family that will one day qualify him to lead the clan. Insane.

Second Dream

Then, just to add insult to injury, comes another dream. Joseph reports another dream:

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” (Gen 37:9)

It is unclear why Joseph even keeps sharing these dreams with the brothers. Does he not see their reaction? Does he do it to spite them? Is he so naïve that he is fully unaware of their hatred? The text does not explain.

Given the makeup of the family (eleven sons, not counting Joseph), it is obvious that the sun and moon stand for his parents, Jacob and Rachel. We read about Jacob’s reaction as if his beloved Rachel were still alive:

When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you? (אֲנִי וְאִמְּךָ וְאַחֶיךָ, לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֺת לְךָ, אָרְצָה).” His brothers were jealous of him (וַיְקַנְאוּ-בוֹ, אֶחָיו), but his father kept the matter in mind (וְאָבִיו, שָׁמַר אֶת-הַדָּבָר). (Gen 37:10-11)

Even though his father Jacob was taken aback and puzzled by this reported dream, he was no stranger to odd dreams, visions, and strange events in general. Because of this, even while chastising Joseph, he did not rule out the possibility that the dream could come true (literally: “and his father kept the thing/matter”).

Jacob’s references to Joseph’s mother were either meant in a way that his mother “keeps on living in their memory” or perhaps Leah, if she were still alive, was considered “the mother” of the clan after the death of Rachel.

Conclusion