_Brothers should not be envious of one another. Especially should
older brothers be glad of special favor shown to their younger
brothers and sisters._
Father Jacob had a big family--twelve boys! What a happy time they
could have had together! Let us see why they did not. Ten of the
brothers were grown men but Joseph was seventeen. There was only
one younger than he. This one’s name was Benjamin. The old father
loved Joseph very much, and gave him a beautiful coat of many
colors. The older brothers did not love and obey their father as
did Joseph, and when their father gave him the beautiful coat,
they began to hate Joseph. Soon they hated him so much that they
would not even speak kindly to him. The brothers were not having
happy times together. Besides this, Joseph had dreamed that they
were binding sheaves in a field, and that his sheaf arose and stood
upright, and that the sheaves of all the others bowed down before
his sheaf.
Joseph dreamed again that the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars
had bowed down before him.
When he told those dreams to his brothers, they hated him still
more, and said: “Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou
have dominion over us?”
Now, Jacob had a great many sheep. The older sons took care of
these sheep, and led them where they could find green grass.
Sometimes they went far from home to find grass enough for all the
sheep. Once when the sheep had eaten all the grass near home, the
brothers took them a great way to Shechem. After a while Jacob
began to wonder how his sons were, and if the sheep and lambs were
doing well. So he called Joseph and said to him:
“Go now, see whether it is well with your brothers, and well with
the sheep, and bring me word again.”
Joseph knew it was a long way to Shechem. He knew a bear might
spring upon him by the way. He knew his brothers would not be glad
to see him, and would not even speak kindly to him. But he did what
his father told him to do. He started off to Shechem.
Joseph went on until he came to the fields of Shechem. But there
were no sheep in the fields and his brothers were not there. As
Joseph was still looking for them a man said to him:
“They have departed hence! for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to
Dothan.’”
So Joseph went to Dothan, and there he saw sheep feeding in the
fields and men moving about. They were his brothers. He had found
them at last. To-morrow we shall find out how the brothers treated
him.