Israel loves and favors Joseph, who is hated by his brothers. Joseph dreams that his parents and brothers make obeisance to him.
Genesis 37:3–10
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.
4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote:
“It is easy . . . to see how the younger brother Joseph, in a sense, was put to a . . . disadvantage with his brothers because their father’s preference showed that ‘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’ (Genesis 37:3). Seeing this, Joseph’s brothers ‘saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him’ (Genesis 37:4). Moreover, they resented Joseph’s dream, which, of course, foreshadowed his dominion over them. ‘And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words’ (Genesis 37:8).”
(That My Family Should Partake [1974], 93.)
