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. 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.
Israel loved Joseph above all his other sons because he was the child of his old age and the eldest son of his beloved Rachel, and he marked that love by giving him a costly coat of rich and varied colors. Joseph was beautiful and cheerful and pure in spirit, loving his father and reproving evil, while his brothers were wicked and unkind and a bitterness to their father. Jacob's open partiality was unwise and wrong, and it stirred his sons to envy, jealousy and hatred, for they took the coat as proof that Joseph had stolen their father's affection and might be set over them in the birthright, not seeing that their own conduct had turned him from them. Their envy ripened into hatred like Cain's toward the innocent and righteous, and at last into a murderous purpose that led them to seize Joseph when he came to them in joy, strip the hated coat from him with scorn and taunts, and leave him terrified and pleading while he thought of his father's grief. The indulgence also injured Joseph himself, encouraging self-sufficiency and leaving one reared in tender care unprepared for hardship.
Jacob's Favoritism and Reasons
Israel loved Joseph more than all his other children because he was the son of his old age and the eldest son of his beloved wife Rachel. After his mother died his affection clung especially closely to his father, and Jacob's heart was bound up in him. Jacob's hopes centered on him because of his qualities, as the son of Rachel.
Joseph was a son of remarkable beauty, cheerful and happy, with great love for his father, pure and righteous and of another spirit from his brothers. He stood before them in virtuous innocence like a youthful prophet, his countenance lighted with inspiration, pure and good in a way they could admire but would not imitate by leaving their wicked course to become virtuous and noble like him. By contrast his brothers were grown men who were wicked, unjust and unkind to one another, a grief and shame to their father, and their conduct made his life bitter. They failed to see that their own wicked conduct turned their father from them, and that his affection centered on Joseph because of his purity and excellent character. As Cain hated his brother and was a grief to his father, so they hated Joseph because he was innocent and righteous and beloved of his father.
This love existed in a polygamous family where strife, envy, jealousy, revenge and lack of self-control prevailed, and the sons had learned hatred from the envy and jealousy cherished by their different mothers. Each mother was envious and jealous lest her own children not receive due attention from the father and became bitter when another was preferred before them, for polygamy dries up human affection and loosens ties that should be held sacred. Jacob hoped God would greatly bless Joseph, and was confident that God was revealing the future to him. When Joseph reproved his brothers for their wicked course and found his entreaties only stirred wrath, he laid their evil plans and purposes before his father, giving Jacob knowledge of many things he otherwise would not have known. Joseph was still young when God chose him to do special work for His people.
Coat and Its Consequences
The coat of many colours was beautiful, costly and richly coloured, a visible token of special paternal love that made partiality plain to the other sons. It was given as an open expression of favour, and that open preference was unwise and a wrong partiality and indulgence. Such indulgence both angered the brothers and helped provoke what followed.
The favouritism stirred envy, jealousy, hatred and a desire for revenge. The brothers believed Joseph had taken their father's affection and deprived them of his confidence and love, and they took the coat as evidence that he might be favoured for the birthright over the older sons. They failed to see that their own wicked conduct had brought shame to their father and turned him from them, while his affection centered on Joseph because of purity and excellent character. The open preference called out their revengeful disposition, and that hatred was increased by Joseph's reproof of their wicked course and his laying of their evil plans before their father.
As with Cain, who hated his brother and was a grief to his father, so the brothers hated Joseph because he was innocent and righteous and beloved of his father. He stood before them in virtuous innocence like a youthful prophet, his countenance lighted with inspiration, pure and good in a way they could admire, yet they would not leave their wicked course to become virtuous and noble like him. Their envy grew into hatred and finally into a desire to murder him.
That hatred issued in the cruel deed that separated Joseph from home. When he came to them glad and joyful after his long search, bearing the blessing with which his father had sent him, they met him with scorn, abuse and fierce looks. They seized him and stripped the hated coat from him with taunting remarks, leaving him terrified, expecting to be killed and pleading for his life while thinking of his father's sorrow and his murderers' guilt. The indulgence also harmed Joseph himself, encouraging faults in his character so that he became self-sufficient and exacting and, accustomed to tender care, felt unprepared for hardship.