Genesis 37:6-16

6 And Joseph said to his brethren, Hear ye the sweven which I saw,

7 I guessed that we bound together sheaves, or handfuls, [in the field,] and that as mine handful rose up, and stood (upright), and that your handfuls stood about, and worshipped mine handful. (I saw that we all bound up sheaves in the field, and when my sheaf rose up, and stood upright, all your sheaves stood around, and bowed before my sheaf.)

8 His brethren answered, Whether thou shalt be our king, either we shall be made subject to thy lordship? Therefore this cause of dreams and words ministered the nourishing of envy, and of hatred (And so these dreams and words were the reason that envy and hatred were nourished among them).

9 Also Joseph saw another sweven, which he told to his brethren, and said, I saw a dream that as the sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars worshipped me. (And Joseph saw another dream, which he also told to his brothers, saying, I saw in a dream that the sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars all bowed before me.)

10 And when he had told this dream to his father, and his brethren, his father blamed him, and said, What will this dream mean to itself that thou hast seen? Whether I, and thy mother, and thy brethren, shall worship thee on (the) earth? (And when he told this dream to his father, and his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said, What meaneth this dream that thou hast seen? Shall I, and thy mother, and thy brothers, all bow low to the ground before thee?)

11 Therefore his brethren had envy to him. Forsooth the father beheld privily the thing, (And so his brothers envied him, but his father privately considered it all.)

12 and when his brethren dwelled in Shechem, about [the] keeping of [the] flocks of their father, (And one day, when his brothers were tending their father's flocks in Shechem,)

13 Israel said to Joseph, Thy brethren keep (the) sheep in Shechem (Thy brothers tend the sheep in Shechem); come thou, I shall send thee to them. And when Joseph answered, I am ready,

14 Israel said, Go thou, and see whether all things be wellsome with thy brethren, and (with) the sheep; and (then come back, and) tell thou to me what is done. (And so) He was sent from the valley of Hebron, and came into Shechem;

15 and a man found him erring in the field (and a man found him wandering in a field), and the man asked him, what he sought.

16 And he answered, I seek my brethren; show thou to me where they keep their flocks. (And he answered, I am looking for my brothers; tell thou to me where they tend their flocks.)

Genesis 37:6-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 37

In this chapter begins the history of Joseph, with whom the remaining part of this book is chiefly concerned; and here are related the hatred of his brethren to him, because he brought an ill report of them to his father, and because his father loved him, and which was increased by the dream he dreamed, and told them of, Ge 37:1-11; a visit of his to his brethren in the fields, whom he found after a long search of them, Ge 37:12-17; their conspiracy on sight of him to slay him, but by the advice of Reuben it was agreed to cast him into a pit, which they did, Ge 37:18-24; and after that, at the motion of Judah, sold him to the Ishmaelites, who were going to Egypt, Ge 37:25-28; this being done, Reuben being absent, and not finding Joseph in the pit, was in great distress, Ge 37:29,30; their contrivance to deceive their father, and make him believe that Joseph was destroyed by a wild beast, which on the sight of the coat he credited, and became inconsolable, Ge 37:31-35; and the chapter concludes with the sale of Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, Ge 37:36.