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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 God; as were also those which he interpreted, Gen. 40. and 41.; otherwise generally speaking, the observing of dreams is condemned in the Scripture, as superstitious 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 worshipping 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 worship thee upon the earth?

Worship... This word is not used here to signify divine worship, 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

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