Part 24 (2/2)

37:2. And these are his generations: Joseph, when he was sixteen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, being but a boy: and he was with the sons of Bala and of Zelpha his father's wives: and he accused his brethren to his father of a most wicked crime.

37:3. Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had him in his old age: and he made him a coat of divers colours.

37:4. And his brethren seeing that he was loved by his father, more than all his sons, hated hem, and could not speak peaceably to him.

37:5. Now it fell out also that he told his brethren a dream, that he had dreamed: which occasioned them to hate him the more.

A dream... These dreams of Joseph were prophetical, and sent from G.o.d; as were also those which he interpreted, Gen. 40. and 41.; otherwise generally speaking, the observing of dreams is condemned in the Scripture, as superst.i.tious and sinful. See Deut. 18.10; Eccli. 34.2,3.

37:6. And he said to them: Hear my dream which I dreamed.

37:7. I thought we were binding sheaves in the field: and my sheaf arose as it were, and stood, and your sheaves standing about bowed down before my sheaf.

37:8. His brethren answered: Shalt thou be our king? or shall we be subject to thy dominion? Therefore this matter of his dreams and words ministered nourishment to their envy and hatred.

37:9. He dreamed also another dream, which he told his brethren, saying: I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars wors.h.i.+pping me.

37:10. And when he had told this to his father, and brethren, his father rebuked him and said: What meaneth this dream that thou hast dreamed?

shall I and thy mother, and thy brethren wors.h.i.+p thee upon the earth?

Wors.h.i.+p... This word is not used here to signify divine wors.h.i.+p, but an inferior veneration, expressed by the bowing of the body, and that, according to the manner of the eastern nations, down to the ground.

37:11. His brethren therefore envied him: but his father considered the thing with himself.

37:12. And when his brethren abode in Sechem, feeding their father's flocks,

37:13. Israel said to him: Thy brethren feed the sheep in Sichem: come, I will send thee to them. And when he answered:

37:14. I am ready: he said to him: Go, and see if all things be well with thy brethren, and the cattle: and bring me word again what is doing. So being sent from the vale of Hebron, he came to Sichem:

37:15. And a man found him there wandering in the field, and asked what he sought.

37:16. But he answered: I seek my brethren, tell me where they feed the flocks.

37:17. And the man said to him: They are departed from this place: for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothain. And Joseph went forward after his brethren, and found them in Dothain.

37:18. And when they saw him afar off, before he came nigh them, they thought to kill him:

37:19. And said one to another: Behold the dreamer cometh.

37:20. Come, let us kill him, and cast him into some old pit: and we will say: Some evil beast hath devoured him: and then it shall appear what his dreams avail him:

37:21. And Ruben hearing this, endeavoured to deliver him out of their hands, and said:

37:22. Do not take away his life, nor shed his blood: but cast him into this pit, that is in the wilderness, and keep your hands harmless: now he said this, being desirous to deliver him out of their hands and to restore him to his father.

37:23. And as soon as he came to his brethren, they forthwith stript him of his outside coat, that was of divers colours:

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