Joseph’s Dreams – 1728 B.C.

Finger Pointing UpSo what’s going to happen with Jacob and his kids?

The land couldn’t support both Esau and Jacob , just like with Abraham and Lot, so they separated.  Esau went to Mount Seir and Jacob went to the land of Canaan (Gen 36:7-8).

Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other children and when he was 17 years old made him a 1 coat of many colors and Joseph’s brothers knew this and hated him, but they hated him more after he told them his dream.

“And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.

And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:

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. 

1. Cisterns
In the earliest times of the Bible cisterns were used to store water.

They were usually pear shaped, and 15 to 20 feet deep, and the actual opening was only a 2 to 3 feet.

There was usually a stone cover.

Cisterns were either large or small, large enough to store water for the community, or small and privately owned.

Cisterns were like wells of water, which could be hoisted up with ropes and a bucket.

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.

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. 

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?” (Gen 37:5-10)

One day all of Joseph’s brothers were out feeding the flock and Jacob became worried about them and sent Joseph to make sure they were all okay.  They saw him coming from a distance and decided to kill him. 

Reuben was against it, and convinced his brothers not to kill him, but to put him in a pit.  So when he arrived they took his coat of colors and tossed him into the deep 2 pit with no water.

As they sat down to eat a company of Ishmaelite’s came from Gilean on their way to Egypt to sell their wares.  Judah came up with the idea to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelite’s, so they sold him for 20 pieces of silver.  [The going price for a 5 to 25 year old male slave was 20  pieces and 10 for a female]. 

2. Midian
The Midianites were the descendants of Midian, who was a son of Abraham and his wife Keturah: “Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah” (Genesis 25:1–2, King James Version).

Joseph’s brothers then killed a goat and dipped the coat in the blood.  They arrived home and told Jacob that a wild animal killed Joseph.

And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard.

1 This coat show’s Jacob’s favoritism towards Joseph, and it’s possible that Jacob was going to give the birthright to Joseph since Reuben lost it because of his improper sexual actions, and Simeon and Levi couldn’t have it because of the cruelty they performed on Shechem for raping Dinah. 

Kings give their virgin daughters such coats (2 Sam 13:18), but also it may not have been a coat, but a tunic that’s similar to those worn by prices and person of distinction.

2 According to a Greek writer, wells and cisterns at that time were regularly built and plastered, narrow at the mouth, but widening as they descend, till at the bottom they attain a width sometimes of 100 feet. 

Sometimes when they are empty of water, such as the one Joseph was placed in, they are used as hiding places or prisons (Is 24:22, Jer 38:6).

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