The Coat of Many Colours

The words

1. Brethren

   Joseph’s brothers hate him because their father favors him; later they strip off his coat and throw him into a pit.

   Genesis 37:3–4 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 37:23–24 (opens a new tab)

2. Coat

   Genesis calls Joseph the son of Israel’s old age and says Israel loves him especially, making him a coat of many colours.

   Did you know?

   Pharaoh later dresses Joseph in fine linen and puts a gold chain around his neck, giving clothing another role in his story.

   Genesis 37:3 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 41:42 (opens a new tab)

3. Colours

   The KJV describes Joseph’s coat as having many colours; the NET note says the Hebrew term’s meaning is uncertain.

   Genesis 37:3 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Genesis 37:3 (opens a new tab)

4. Dothan

   A man tells Joseph that his brothers have left for Dothan; Joseph follows them there after searching for them near Shechem.

   Genesis 37:14–17 (opens a new tab)

5. Dreamer

   His brothers call Joseph this dreamer while proposing to kill him and throw him into a pit.

   Genesis 37:19–20 (opens a new tab)

6. Dreams

   Joseph tells his family two dreams of bowing: first sheaves in a field, then the sun, moon and eleven stars.

   Did you know?

   Later, Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s repeated dream and says its doubling means the matter is settled by God.

   Genesis 37:5–11 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 41:25 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 41:32 (opens a new tab)

7. Ishmeelites

   Ishmaelites, in the KJV’s spelling here.

   The caravan of Ishmeelites is traveling from Gilead toward Egypt; Genesis then reports that Joseph is sold to the Ishmeelites.

   Genesis 37:25–28 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Genesis 37:25 (opens a new tab)

8. Joseph

   Joseph is introduced at 17, tending the flock with his brothers; later in the chapter he is taken to Egypt after being sold.

   Genesis 37:2 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 37:28 (opens a new tab)

9. Obeisance

   Bowing to show respect.

   In Joseph’s dreams, his brothers’ sheaves and then the sun, moon and stars make obeisance, which his father describes as bowing down.

   Did you know?

   When the brothers later come to buy grain, they bow with their faces to the earth before Joseph, using the dream’s posture.

   Genesis 37:7; Genesis 37:9–10 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 42:5–6 (opens a new tab) · Webster’s 1828: obeisance (opens a new tab)

10. Potiphar

    Genesis ends the chapter with Joseph sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard in Egypt.

    Genesis 37:36 (opens a new tab)

11. Reuben

    Reuben tells his brothers not to kill Joseph and proposes the pit, intending to return him to his father.

    Genesis 37:21–22 (opens a new tab)

12. Sackcloth

    Coarse cloth worn in mourning.

    Believing Joseph has been killed, Jacob tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth and mourns his son for many days.

    Genesis 37:33–34 (opens a new tab) · Webster’s 1828: sackcloth (opens a new tab)

13. Sheaves

    Bundles of grain stalks.

    In Joseph’s first dream, his sheaf stands upright while his brothers’ sheaves gather around and bow to it in the field.

    Did you know?

    In Ruth, Boaz tells the workers to let Ruth glean among the sheaves, placing the same farm term in a harvest scene.

    Genesis 37:7 (opens a new tab) · Ruth 2:8 (opens a new tab) · Ruth 2:15 (opens a new tab) · Webster’s 1828: sheaf (opens a new tab)

14. Sold

    Genesis reports Joseph sold into slavery to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver and taken to Egypt, while naming Midianite merchants.

    Genesis 37:28 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 37:36 (opens a new tab)

15. Spicery

    Spices or other aromatics.

    The camels in the traders’ caravan carry spicery, balm and myrrh from Gilead toward Egypt when Joseph’s brothers see them.

    Genesis 37:25 (opens a new tab) · Webster’s 1828: spicery (opens a new tab)