Books and our imagination

They hated him for...  "When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him--they wouldn't even speak to him.Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said, "Listen to this dream I had. We were all out in the field gathering bundles of wheat. All of a sudden my bundle stood straight up and your bundles circled around it and bowed down to mine." His brothers said, "So! You're going to rule us? You're going to boss us around?" And they hated him more than ever because of his dreams and the way he talked."(Gen.37.4-8) The brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than he loved them. It is interest that the Bible says "they grew to hate him, to the point of not speaking to him". Two thing we must state here and they are: one, it is improper for parents to show preference towards their children and two, that God, our Father loves us all equally...

The legacy sons "Meanwhile Jacob had settled down where his father had lived, the land of Canaan." (Gen.37.1)  Who starts a sentence with 'meanwhile' unless it was contracted with an earlier stated idea. Jacob, we are told settled where his father Isaac had lived. Which also was where Abraham lived. But the blessings of the first born had passed not to Esau but to Jacob. This may account for why Jacob was in such a hurry to get back home.  Eusa and his family however, had to relocate from the vicinity.  "Esau gathered up his wives, sons and daughters, and everybody in his household, along with all his livestock--all the animals and possessions he had gotten in Canaan--and moved a considerable distance away from his brother Jacob."(Gen.36.6) But when we pick up the story in verse 2, this time it continues with Joseph.  "This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the fl...