Genesis 37:8

8 Then his brothers said to him, "Will you really rule over us?" And {they hated him even more} on account of his dream and because of his words.

Genesis 37:8 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 37:8

And his brethren said unto him
After he had told his dream, being highly offended with him, understanding the dream, and the meaning of it, better than he did:

shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shall thou indeed have dominion
over us?
denying that he ever should, and reproving him for his vanity, in concluding from hence that he would have the dominion over them. So the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, dost thou think, suppose, or imagine that thou shall rule over us? it looks as if by telling us this dream that such a whim and fancy has got into thine head:

and they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words;
for it seems by this that he had dreamt, and told them more dreams besides this, and they hated him both for them, and for his telling them to them; though Jarchi thinks the phrase, "for his words", refers to the ill report he gave of them to his father, ( Genesis 37:2 ) .

Genesis 37:8 In-Context

6 And he said to them, "Listen now to this dream that I dreamed.

7 Now behold, we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field and, behold, my sheaf stood up and it remained standing. Then behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf."

8 Then his brothers said to him, "Will you really rule over us?" And {they hated him even more} on account of his dream and because of his words.

9 Then he dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brothers. And he said, "Behold, I dreamed a dream again, and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."

10 And he told [it] to his father and to his brothers. And 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 down to the ground to you?"

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "they added still to hate him"