Genesis 37:1-11

Good News Translation

Joseph and His Brothers

37 Jacob continued to live in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived, ² and this is the story of Jacob's family.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, took care of the sheep and goats with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's concubines. He brought bad reports to his father about what his brothers were doing.

³ Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons, because he had been born to him when he was old. He made a long robe with full sleeves^[a] for him. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than he loved them, they hated their brother so much that they would not speak to him in a friendly manner.

⁵ One time Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more. ⁶ He said, “Listen to the dream I had. ⁷ We were all in the field tying up sheaves of wheat, when my sheaf got up and stood up straight. Yours formed a circle around mine and bowed down to it.”

⁸ “Do you think you are going to be a king and rule over us?” his brothers asked. So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of what he said about them.

⁹ Then Joseph had another dream and told his brothers, “I had another dream, in which I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to me.”

¹⁰ He also told the dream to his father, and his father scolded him: “What kind of a dream is that? Do you think that your mother, your brothers, and I are going to come and bow down to you?” ^11 (A)Joseph's brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept thinking about the whole matter.