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Genesis 37

Genesis 37 traces how favoritism and envy erupt into betrayal, leaving Joseph enslaved and Jacob mourning under a deception.

Seventeen-year-old Joseph tends his father’s flock alongside his brothers in Canaan. Jacob’s open preference for him has bred hatred, and Joseph’s dreams of his family bowing before him deepen the divide. When Jacob sends him to check on his brothers, they plot his death near Dothan. Reuben tries to preserve his life; Judah proposes selling him. Joseph is carried to Egypt, while his brothers use his bloodied tunic to deceive their father. Jacob mourns a son he believes is dead.

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1Jacob lived in the land of his father’s travels, in the land of Canaan.
2This is the history of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father.
3Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a tunic of many colors.
4His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and couldn’t speak peaceably to him.
5Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him all the more.
7for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and behold, your sheaves came around, and bowed down to my sheaf.”
8His brothers asked him, “Will you indeed reign over us? Will you indeed have dominion over us?” They hated him all the more for his dreams and for his words.
9He dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me.”
10He told it to his father and to his brothers. His father rebuked him, and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves down to the earth before you?”
11His brothers envied him, but his father kept this saying in mind.
12His brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem.
13Israel said to Joseph, “Aren’t your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them.” He said to him, “Here I am.”
14He said to him, “Go now, see whether it is well with your brothers, and well with the flock; and bring me word again.” So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
18They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.
19They said to one another, “Behold, this dreamer comes.
21Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, “Let’s not take his life.”
22Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father.
23When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him;
24and they took him, and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it.
25They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
26Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
27Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him.
28Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The merchants brought Joseph into Egypt.
29Reuben returned to the pit, and saw that Joseph wasn’t in the pit; and he tore his clothes.
30He returned to his brothers, and said, “The child is no more; and I, where will I go?”
31They took Joseph’s tunic, and killed a male goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood.
32They took the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, “We have found this. Examine it, now, and see if it is your son’s tunic or not.”
33He recognized it, and said, “It is my son’s tunic. An evil animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces.”
34Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
35All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “For I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” His father wept for him.
36The Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Genesis 37:4The brothers’ inability to speak peaceably to Joseph exposes the hatred that follows Jacob’s visible preference for him.
Genesis 37:18The brothers plan Joseph’s death before he reaches them, turning their long-standing hatred into a shared plot.
Genesis 37:34Jacob’s torn clothes and sackcloth reveal the grief caused by the brothers’ violence and their concealment of Joseph’s fate.
Where this chapter reaches

Acts recounts the same betrayal, naming the brothers’ jealousy and Joseph’s sale into Egypt while affirming God’s presence with him there. Psalm also recalls Joseph’s sale into slavery, placing his suffering within the larger account of God’s provision during famine.

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After reading the whole chapter

What do you notice about the brothers eating bread while Joseph remains in the empty pit?

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How does knowing Joseph is alive shape your reading of Jacob’s refusal to be comforted?

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Questions people ask about Genesis 37

What do Joseph’s dreams mean in Genesis 37?

Both dreams depict Joseph receiving homage: his brothers’ sheaves bow to his sheaf, and the sun, moon, and eleven stars bow to him. His family understands this as a claim that he will rule over them. The chapter records their reactions without yet showing the dreams’ fulfillment.

Who sold Joseph into slavery in Genesis 37?

Judah proposes selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites, and his brothers agree. Verse 28 then mentions Midianite merchants drawing Joseph from the pit and selling him to the Ishmaelites. The wording leaves some uncertainty about who performs each action and how the trading groups relate. Verse 36 names Midianites as his sellers in Egypt.

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What the Bible says about grief →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).