Genesis 37:3

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children,.... He being the firstborn of his beloved Rachel, and a lovely youth, of a beautiful aspect, very promising, prudent and pious: the reason given in

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. Son of his old age.

He was the son of his old age, being born when Jacob was ninety-one years old. Such children are commonly best beloved by their parents, either because such are a singular blessing of God, and a more than common testimony of his favour, and a mercy least expected by them, and therefore most prized; or because they have more pleasing conversation with them, and less experience of their misbehaviour, of which the elder ofttimes are guilty, whereby they alienate their parents’ affections from them. The ancient translations, Chaldee, Persian, Arabic, and Samaritan, render the words thus, a wise or prudent son; old age being oft mentioned as a token of prudence; one born old, one wise above his years, one that had a grey head, as we say, upon green shoulders. This may seem the more probable, both because Joseph was indeed such a child, and gave good evidence of it in a prudent observation of his brethren’ s trespasses, and a discreet choice of the fittest remedy for them; and because the reason here alleged seems proper and peculiar to Joseph; whereas in the other sense it belongs more to Benjamin, who was younger than Joseph, and cost his mother dearer, and therefore might upon that account claim a greater interest in his father’ s afflictions. A coat of many colours, probably made of threads of divers colours interwoven together. Compare . This he gave him as a token of his special love, and of the rights of the first-born, which being justly taken from Reuben, he conferred upon Joseph, .

Genesis 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he [was] the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of [many] colours.Ver. 3. Because he was the son of his old age.] The Chaldee Paraphrast renders it morally, Because he was a wise son, in quo ante canos sapientia: such a one as Macarius was, of whom Nicephorus saith, that, for his prudence and gravity while he was yet but a youth, he was surnamed παιδαριογερων, the old stripling. Josephus saith, he was very like his mother Rachel; and therefore his father so loved him. But Chrysostom saith, better, that it was for his virtuous life, and godly disposition. Goodness is lovely in any; much more in an own child. John was the best beloved disciple, because best conditioned. But otherwise, Cavete, saith Ambrose, ne quos natura coniunxit, paterna gratia dividat. Parents’ partiality may breed heart-buruings.

(3) He was the son of his old age.—Jacob was ninety-one when Joseph was born; but at Benjamin’s birth he was eight or nine years older; and according to the common belief that Jacob was only twenty years in Padan-aram, the four sons of the handmaids must have been about Joseph’s age, and Leah’s last two sons even younger. But the epithet is intelligible if Jacob had waited twenty-seven years after his marriage with Rachel, before Joseph was born. There would then be a considerable interval between him and the other sons; and though Rachel had a second son some years afterwards, yet Joseph would continue to be the son long looked for, whose birth had given him so great happiness; whereas his joy at Benjamin’s coming was bought at the terrible price of the mother’s death. A coat of many colours.—Two explanations are given of this phrase; the first, that it was a long garment with sleeves or fringes; the other, that it was composed of patchwork of various colours. The latter is the more probable interpretation; for from the tomb at Beni-Hassan we learn that such dresses were worn in Palestine, as a train of captive Jebusites is represented upon it clad in rich robes, the patterns of which seem to have been produced by sewing together small pieces of different colours. So also in India beautiful dresses are made by sewing together strips of crimson, purple, and other colours. (Roberts’ Oriental Illustrations, p. 43.) Some have thought that Jacob by this dress marked out Joseph as the future head of the family, in the place of Reuben, supposing it to indicate the priestly office borne by the firstborn; but this is doubtful, and it was Judah to whom Jacob gave the right of primogeniture.

Verse 3. A coat of many colours.] כתנת פסים kethoneth passim, a coat made up of stripes of differently coloured cloth. Similar to this was the toga praetexta of the Roman youth, which was white, striped or fringed with purple; this they wore till they were seventeen years of age, when they changed it for the toga virilis, or toga pura, which was all white. Such vestures as clothing of distinction are worn all over Persia, India, and China to the present day. It is no wonder that his brethren should envy him, when his father had thus made him such a distinguished object of his partial love. We have already seen some of the evils produced by this unwarrantable conduct of parents in preferring one child to all the rest. The old fable of the ape and her favourite cub, which she hugged to death through kindness, was directed against such foolish parental fondnesses as these.

2b–36 (JE). Joseph sold into Egypt 2b (J). and he was a lad with, &c.] The English here gives an awkward rendering. The meaning is, “he was keeping sheep, being still a lad, with his brethren, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah,” i.e. Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. Joseph’s home at this time seems to have been at Hebron (cf. Genesis 35:27). The life of Joseph, the elder son of the favourite wife, spent in the field with the sons of the concubines, was not likely to be happy. the evil report] What this was, does not appear; cf. 1 Samuel 2:23. But Joseph’s action brought upon him the odium of tale-bearing. On the words for “evil report” cf. Numbers 13:32; Numbers 14:36-37 (P).

3. Israel loved Joseph more… because he was the son of his old age. “The ancient Jewish interpreters do not consider this as describing the parental partiality for the latest born, but render, because he was a wise son.