1. MoseKapitel 37

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Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as a stranger, the land of Canaan.

This is the account of Jacob's family. Joseph, seventeen years old, was tending the flocks with his brothers. He was a young man, working alongside the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a richly ornamented robe.

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Then 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 out in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to it."

His brothers said to him, "So you're going to reign over us? You're going to rule us?" And they hated him all the more for his dreams and for what he said.

He had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream. This time the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."

When he told it to his father and his brothers, his father rebuked him: "What is this dream of yours? Are your mother and I and your brothers really going to come and bow down to the ground before you?"

His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem,

and Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers are pasturing the flocks at Shechem, aren't they? Come, I am sending you to them." "I am ready," he answered.

So he said to him, "Go and see how your brothers are and how the flocks are doing, and bring word back to me." So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron, and Joseph came to Shechem.

A man found him wandering in the open country and asked him, "What are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for my brothers," he said. "Tell me, please, where are they pasturing their flocks?"

"They have moved on from here," the man answered. "I heard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them they plotted to kill him.

"Here comes that dreamer!" they said to one another.

"Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We'll say a wild animal devoured him. Then we'll see what becomes of his dreams."

When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said.

Reuben said to them, "Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him." He said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

So when Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the richly ornamented robe he was wearing—

and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to eat. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels loaded with gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way down to Egypt.

Judah said to his brothers, "What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood?

Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers agreed.

So when the Midianite traders came by, they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt.

When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.

He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy is gone! And I—where can I turn now?"

Then they took Joseph's robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in the blood.

They sent the ornamented robe to their father with this message: "We found this. Look it over and see whether it is your son's robe or not."

He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! A wild animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces."

Then Jacob tore his garments, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days.

All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "I will go down to the grave mourning for my son." So his father wept for him. [Footnote: Hebrew *Sheol*, the realm of the dead.]

Meanwhile the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

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Zusammenfassung2

Kapitel 37

Main Theme: Joseph's dreams and his brothers' betrayal mark the beginning of God's plan to bring Jacob's family to Egypt.

Content: The 17-year-old Joseph, Jacob's favored son, receives a special tunic and has dreams suggesting that his family will bow down to him. Driven by jealousy, his brothers plot to kill him, but Reuben intervenes and suggests throwing him into a pit to save him. At Judah's suggestion, they sell him to Ishmaelite traders for twenty pieces of silver. They deceive Jacob by dipping Joseph's tunic in goat blood, and the grieving father refuses to be comforted.

Key Words/Images:

The Tunic (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים): A symbol of Jacob's favoritism that sparks his brothers' hatred and jealousy.
The Dreams: Prophetic images of sheaves of grain and heavenly bodies bowing to Joseph, pointing forward to his future exaltation.
The Pit: The place of Joseph's humiliation, where his brothers cast him before selling him.
The Blood on the Tunic: Deceptive evidence that convinces Jacob of Joseph's death and causes deep sorrow.

Historischer Kontext

Historical and Cultural Context for Genesis 37

Characters

Joseph (יוֹסֵף) is introduced here as a seventeen-year-old shepherd who becomes the central figure in the concluding narrative cycle of Genesis. The text explains his father's favoritism by noting that Joseph was "the son of his old age" (בֶן־זְקֻנִים). Joseph worked alongside the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah—the servant women's sons—which placed him in an intermediate position within the family hierarchy.

Reuben (רְאוּבֵן), as the firstborn, attempts to rescue Joseph and demonstrates leadership responsibility. His plan was to return later to retrieve Joseph and bring him back to his father (v. 22). Judah (יְהוּדָה) emerges as a pragmatic voice who suggests selling rather than killing, arguing "for he is our brother, our own flesh" (v. 27).

Locations

The Valley of Hebron (עֵמֶק חֶבְרוֹן) was Jacob's residence, located in the Judean highlands. From here, Joseph was sent northward. Shechem (שְׁכֶם) was an important Canaanite city north of Hebron, where the brothers were first shepherding. Dothan (דֹּתָן) lay north of Shechem, along a major trade route between Gilead and Egypt. It was there that the brothers were when Joseph found them, and where they saw him approaching from a distance (vv. 17–18). The Ishmaelite caravan also passed through this area.

Events and Customs

Robe Symbolism: The famous כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים (ketonet passim) has an uncertain meaning—possibly "a long robe reaching the feet" or "a variegated robe." Such special garments marked status and favored position. In the ancient Near East, clothing was costly and symbolically charged; giving someone a special robe signaled selection and honor.

Dreams (חֲלֹמוֹת) held great significance in the ancient Near East and were regarded as divine messages. Joseph's dreams employ agricultural imagery (sheaves of grain) and cosmic symbolism (sun, moon, stars), which were recognizable images for that time. The act of family members bowing down represented royal submission.

Sale of Slaves: The price of twenty pieces of silver corresponds to the market rate for young slaves during this period according to Mesopotamian sources. The Law of Hammurabi and other texts from the second millennium BCE mention similar prices.

Key Terms

דִּבָּתָם רָעָה (dibbatam ra'ah) – "evil report" or "bad reputation" – indicates that Joseph brought negative reports about his brothers to their father, intensifying the conflict.

בּוֹר (bor) – "cistern" or "pit" – refers to common water cisterns carved into rock. Empty cisterns could serve as temporary holding places for prisoners; the text specifies that this one was empty and contained no water (רֵק אֵין בּוֹ מָיִם, v. 24).

שְׁאוֹל (she'ol) – "the realm of the dead" – where Jacob says he will go down in mourning, represents the Old Testament understanding of the abode of the dead.

Chapter-Specific Findings

The trade route between Gilead and Egypt followed by the Ishmaelites/Midianites is well documented archaeologically. They transported נְכֹאת (tragacanth gum), צְרִי (balm), and לֹט (ladanum)—all known trade goods of the Bronze Age. Egyptian texts confirm the importation of these aromatic substances from the Canaanite region. Wall paintings from Beni Hasan in Egypt (circa 1900 BCE) depict Semitic merchants arriving in Egypt, illustrating the type of caravan trade described in this chapter.

Personen7

Potiphar1 Reuben (Leah's son)3 Zilpah (Leah's handmaid)1 Bilhah (Rachel's slave woman)1 Judah1 Joseph9 Jacob5

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Schlüsselwörter10

Jacob — The main character in Genesis 37, son of Isaac and father of twelve sons who become the founders of Israel's twelve tribes.
Joseph — Jacob's beloved son, born to Rachel, who is sold into slavery by his brothers out of jealousy and ends up in Egypt.
Dreams — God's means of communicating with Joseph, giving him prophetic insights and leading to his later success in Egypt.
Brothers — Joseph's half-brothers who become jealous of his dreams and their father's love, selling him as a slave to a merchant caravan.
Rachel — Jacob's favorite wife and mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of Jacob's twelve sons.
Benjamin — Rachel's second son and Jacob's youngest son, brother of Joseph.
Slave — The status Joseph receives after being sold by his brothers, before he later becomes a powerful man in Egypt.
Potiphar — An Egyptian officer who buys Joseph as a slave, and later has him imprisoned due to false accusations from his wife.
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