Joseph’s Dreams (Gen 37)
1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, in the land of Canaan.
Heb 11:9-16
By faith he lived in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of the sky in number, and countless as the sand which is by the seashore.
All these died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from a distance, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were foreigners and strangers on the earth. For people who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
2 [And] these [following the abbreviated chronicles of Esau] are the records of the [habitations and wanderings of the] line of Jacob.
Joseph, when he was seventeen years old, was tending the flocks with his brothers, and he was still a lad [he would do callow things, preening and primping himself], and was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives [his brothers scorned them, and he befriended them], and Joseph brought a bad report about them [the sons of Leah] to their father.
Rashi’s Commentary
These are the records of the line of Jacob—And these are an account of the records of the line of Jacob: these are their settlements and the events that happened to them until they formed a permanent settlement. The first cause is found in the narrative, “Joseph, when he was seventeen years old, etc. etc.”—it was through this incident that it came about that they went down to Egypt. This is the real explanation of the text and in it each statement finds its proper setting. The Midrash, however, explains the passage as follows, Scripture regards all Jacob’s sons as secondary to Joseph for several reasons: first, the whole purpose of Jacob in working for Laban was only for Rachel, Joseph’s mother, (and all his children were born only in consequence of this); then, again, Joseph’s facial features bore a striking resemblance to those of Jacob. Further, whatever happened to Jacob happened to Joseph: the one was hated, the other was hated; in the case of the one his brother wished to kill him so, too, in the case of the other, his brethren wished to kill him. Many such similarities are pointed out in (Genesis Rabbah 84:5-6, 8).
Another comment on this verse is: Lived—Jacob wished to live at ease, but this trouble in connection with Joseph suddenly came upon him. When the righteous wish to live at ease, the Holy one, blessed be he says to them: “Are not the righteous satisfied with what is stored up for them in the world to come that they wish to live at ease in this world too! (Genesis Rabbah 84:3) And he was still a lad—His actions were childish: he dressed his hair, he touched up his eyes so that he should appear good-looking (Genesis Rabbah 84:7).
With the sons of Bilhah—Meaning that he made it his custom to associate with the sons of Bilhah because his brothers slighted them as being sons of a hand-maid; therefore he fraternised with them.
Joh 7:7
The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil.
1Co 1:11
For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s household, that there are quarrels among you.
1Co 5:1
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the pagans, that a man has his father’s wife.
1Co 11:18
For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and in part I believe it.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a robe of many colors.
Rashi’s Commentary
The son of his old age—Because he was a wise son to him—all that he had learnt from Shem and Eber he taught him (Genesis Rabbah 84:8). Another explanation—his facial features were similar to his (Jacob’s) (Genesis Rabbah 84:8).
Joh 3:35
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
Joh 13:22-23
The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one he was speaking. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining on Jesus’ bosom.
4 And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and so they hated him and [being “one in mouth and one in heart”] could not speak peaceably to him.
Rashi’s Commentary
And could not speak peaceably to him—From what is stated to their discredit we may infer something to their credit: they did not speak one thing with their mouth having another thing quite different in their hearts (Genesis Rabbah 84:9).
דַבְּרוֹ means speak to him.
Joh 7:3-5
Therefore his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For there is no one that acts in secret when he himself wants to be known publicly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers were believing in him.
Joh 15:18-19
If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
Tit 3:3
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various passions and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
1Jn 2:11
But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1Jn 3:10, 12
By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Not as Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
1Jn 4:20
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
5 Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
Joh 17:14
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
6 He said to them, “Please listen to this dream which I have had:
7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf rose and also stood upright, and behold, your sheaves encircled it and bowed down to my sheaf.”
Rashi’s Commentary
My sheaf rose means it stood erect.
And also stood upright means remaining erect in its place.
Php 2:10
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth,
Col 1:18
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he might have the supremacy.
8 His brothers said to him, “Will you reign over us? Will you actually rule over us?” And they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words [the evil report (2)].
Rashi’s Commentary
And for his words—For the evil report about them which he used to bring to their father.
Luk 19:14
But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us.”
Luk 20:17
But Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “What then is this that is written:
“ ‘The stone which the builders rejected
has become the chief corner stone’?”
Act 4:27-28
For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your power and your will had decided to happen.
Act 7:35
This Moses whom they rejected, saying, “Who made you a ruler and a judge?” is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
Heb 10:29
How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has treated as unholy the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
9 Then he had still another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
Act 7:9-14
“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, and rescued him from all his troubles, and gave him goodwill and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
“Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our ancestors could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers there the first time. On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent word and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.
Php 2:15
so that you may be blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and warped generation,” among whom you shine as stars in the sky
10 And he told it to his father and to his brothers [together, after having told it to his brothers], and his father rebuked him [for arousing hatred to himself] and said to him, “What is this dream which you have had? Will we actually come I, your mother, and your brothers to bow down before you to the ground? [i.e., How can this be if your mother is dead! (Jacob not knowing that it would be fulfilled through Bilhah, who had reared Joseph as a mother.)]
Rashi’s Commentary
His father rebuked him because he was arousing hatred against himself by relating the dream.
Will we actually come—“Is not your mother long since dead?” He did not, however, understand that the statement really alluded to Bilhah who had brought him up as though she were his own mother (Genesis Rabbah 84:11). Our Rabbis inferred from here that there is no dream without absurd incidents (Berakhot 55). Jacob’s intention in pointing out the absurdity of Joseph’s mother, who was dead, bowing down to him was to make his sons forget the whole matter so that they should not envy him, and on this account he said to him, “Will we actually come, etc.”—meaning, just as it (the fulfillment of the dream) is impossible in the case of your mother so the remainder of the dream is absurd.
This work, "Joseph’s Dreams," is a derivative of "The Rashi Chumash" and "The Rashi Ketuvim" by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein used under CC BY 3.0