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Chapter 36
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Genesis, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God, Humanity, and Creation
Mistrust, Disobedience, and Death
Covenants and Faith in God’s Promises
The Role of Women
Summary
Analysis
Jacob (Israel) settles in the land of Canaan, where his father Isaac had lived. When Israel’s son Joseph is 17 years old, he works alongside the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah as a shepherd. One day Joseph brings his father a bad report of his brothers’ work. Joseph is Israel’s favorite son, and he gives him a long robe. When Joseph’s brothers see this, they hate him.
The remaining chapters of Genesis focus on the story of Jacob and his family, particularly his son Joseph. This subsection of the patriarchal history also shows how the people of Israel wound up in Egypt, transitioning to the Book of Exodus. The Hebrew word describing Joseph’s robe is uncertain; besides referring to a robe with sleeves, it could also mean a “coat of many colors.”
Themes
One day, Joseph dreams that he and his brothers were binding sheaves in the field, and his brothers’ sheaves bowed down to his sheaf. When Joseph tells his brothers about this dream, they hate him even more. Later he tells them of a dream in which the sun, moon, and 11 stars bowed down to him. This time, even Israel rebukes Joseph.
By telling his brothers about his dreams, Joseph doesn’t endear himself to them; in fact, his superiority in these dreams (despite being one of the youngest among them) makes him appear arrogant. The second dream suggests that even Joseph’s parents will bow to him (the sun and moon), hence Israel’s rebuke.
Themes
On another day, Israel sends Joseph to check on his brothers, who are pasturing the flock near Shechem. When his brothers see Joseph coming, they plot to kill “this dreamer”—they’ll throw him into a pit and tell Isaac that a wild animal got him. But Reuben convinces them not to kill Joseph. So when Joseph reaches them, his brothers take off his special robe and toss Joseph into a pit. A little later, they see a caravan of Ishmaelites coming. A majority of the brothers agree to sell Joseph to the traders. When they give Israel Joseph’s torn robe—which they’ve dipped in a goat’s blood—Israel goes into deep mourning. Meanwhile, Joseph is carried to Egypt and sold to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s captain of the guard.
Joseph’s brothers resent Jacob’s favoritism and Joseph’s dreams so much that they decide to get rid of him altogether. Though Reuben’s intervention spares Joseph’s life, he is—as far as they know—taken out of their lives forever by the caravan. However, Joseph’s arrival in Egypt, though it looks like an ending, is the beginning of the next major phase of history for the people of Israel.
Themes
