The Dreams and the Hatred

Jacob dwells in the land of Canaan. Joseph is seventeen years old, a young man who tends the flocks with his brothers. Jacob loves Joseph more than any other son because Joseph was born to him in his old age. Jacob makes Joseph a coat of many colors, a symbol of favor that is visible to everyone in the household.

Joseph's brothers see that their father loves him more than them, and they hate him. Joseph makes things worse by reporting his brothers' bad behavior to their father. The text does not soften this. Joseph is young, favored, and apparently unaware of how much his position costs him with his brothers.

Then Joseph has a dream. He tells his brothers: "Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf."

His brothers say: "Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?" They hate him even more because of his dream and his words. There is something we notice here: Joseph tells the dream. He doesn't keep it to himself. Whether that's naivety or something else, the text doesn't say — but the brothers hear it, understand its implications, and their hatred deepens.

Joseph has another dream. He tells his family: "Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me."

His father rebukes him: "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?" But Jacob keeps the saying in mind. The father rebukes publicly but holds onto the dream privately. The narrative sets up both human conflict and providential foreshadowing — the dreams are accurate, even if the path to their fulfillment will run through darkness first.

The Plot and the Sale

Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers, who are tending the flocks at Dothan. Joseph arrives and his brothers see him coming from afar. They plot against him: "Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits."

Reuben hears this and persuades them not to kill him outright. He says: "Let us not take his life. Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him." Reuben intends to rescue Joseph later and return him to his father. He is the firstborn, the one with the most responsibility, and he intervenes — but only partway. He doesn't defend Joseph openly. He finds a quieter path that he believes will end the same way.

They strip Joseph of his coat of many colors and throw him into a pit. Then they sit down to eat bread. That detail is hard to sit with — eating lunch while your brother is in a pit. Joseph's own cry is referenced later by the brothers: in Genesis 42 they will remember that they saw the distress of his soul when he begged them. The text doesn't record Joseph's words here, but the brothers remember them for twenty years. Then they see a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, heading to Egypt. Judah says to his brothers: "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh."

His brothers agree. They sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. Joseph is carried to Egypt.

They take Joseph's coat, dip it in the blood of a goat, and send it to Jacob. They say: "We found this; please identify whether it is your son's coat or not."

Jacob recognizes it and says: "It is my son's coat. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces." Jacob tears his garments and puts sackcloth on his loins and mourns for his son many days. His sons and daughters try to comfort him, but he refuses to be comforted. He says: "No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning."

Jacob's grief becomes a long background note in the narrative. He will carry this for years. God doesn't announce His presence here. The text doesn't say "but God was with Joseph" yet — that comes later. Right now it's just the pit, the merchants, the coat dipped in blood, the devastated father. Sometimes the story has to go through the darkest part before the providence becomes visible. We think that's an honest account of what trusting God actually feels like in the middle of it.

Judah and Tamar

Genesis 38 is often skipped entirely in church settings. It is uncomfortable, sexually explicit by ancient standards, and involves moral failure at multiple levels. But the narrator places it here deliberately — not to embarrass anyone but because this chapter is essential to Judah's arc and, as it turns out, to the lineage that matters most.

Judah leaves his brothers and goes down to a man named Hirah in Adullam. He sees a Canaanite woman named Shua and takes her as his wife. She bears him three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah.

Judah takes a wife for Er, named Tamar. But Er is wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord puts him to death. The text does not describe Er's wickedness — only that God judged it.

According to the custom of the time — what later becomes formalized as levirate law — when a man dies without children, his brother is obligated to marry the widow and produce offspring in the dead man's name. This preserves the family line and ensures the widow's security and status. Judah tells Onan: "Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother."

But Onan knows that the offspring will not be his — the child would legally belong to Er's line, not his own. So whenever he goes in to his brother's wife, he wastes the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. He refuses the duty while still taking the benefit of the relationship. What he does is wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord puts him to death as well.

Judah says to Tamar: "Remain a widow in your father's house, till Shelah my son grows up." He tells her to wait, promising that when Shelah is old enough, he will fulfill the levirate duty. But the text makes clear: he does not intend to give Shelah to her. He is afraid that Shelah will die like his brothers, and he blames Tamar for the deaths.

Tamar is left in a precarious position. She is a widow without children, without a husband, and without the protection that levirate marriage would provide. She is denied the security that custom and justice demand. She waits. Shelah grows up. Judah does not send for her. She is simply left — a widow in her father's house, her future put on hold indefinitely by a man who has no intention of honoring his promise.

She acts strategically to secure her rights and her future.

She learns that Judah is going to Timnah to shear his sheep. His wife has recently died. Tamar removes her widow's garments, covers herself with a veil to conceal her identity, and sits at the entrance to Enaim on the road to Timnah. She positions herself where Judah will see her.

Judah sees her and thinks she is a prostitute — a woman available for hire. He does not recognize her. He says: "Come, let me come in to you, for he does not know that she is his daughter-in-law." She asks: "What will you give me?" He says: "I will send you a young goat from the flock." She asks for a pledge to guarantee payment: "What pledge shall I give you?" He says: "Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand."

He gives them to her. His signet ring — a mark of his identity and authority — his cord, and his staff. These are not casual items. They are personal possessions that identify him specifically. She conceives by him. She rises and goes away, removes her veil, and puts on her widow's garments again.

Later, Judah sends his friend Hirah to return the pledge and retrieve the signet and cord. But the friend cannot find her. He asks the men of the place: "Where is the cult prostitute who was at Enaim by the roadside?" They say: "There has been no cult prostitute here." Hirah returns to Judah and says he cannot find her.

Judah says: "Let her keep the things as her own, lest we be laughed at." He is concerned about his reputation. He lets the matter drop.

About three months later, Judah learns that Tamar is pregnant. He says: "Bring her out, and let her be burned." His response is swift and harsh. He condemns her to death by fire for what he perceives as sexual immorality — a widow bearing a child outside of marriage. He has no idea that he is condemning himself.

But Tamar sends him the signet, cord, and staff, saying: "By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant. Please identify whose these are."

Judah recognizes them immediately. He says: "She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah."

He acknowledges that he is the father. More importantly, he acknowledges that Tamar is right and he is wrong. She acted to secure what was justly owed to her. He failed in his duty. He does not go in to her again, but he acknowledges her claim and her child.

Tamar bears twins: Perez and Zerah. Even the birth is marked by unexpected reversal — Zerah puts out his hand first and is marked with a scarlet thread, but then withdraws it, and Perez emerges first. Another younger-before-older moment, even at birth.

Perez becomes significant in later genealogies. Matthew 1 includes Tamar in the genealogy of Jesus — one of only a few women named in that genealogy, and one whose story involves deception, withheld rights, and sexual complexity. The narrator of Matthew is not embarrassed by this. Neither is Genesis.

Many scholars read Genesis 38 as a deliberate literary insertion that prepares Judah's moral arc. The brother who sold Joseph, who failed Tamar, who condemned a widow to death — this same Judah will become the one to offer himself in Benjamin's place in Genesis 44. The man who said "What profit is it if we kill our brother?" will later say "Let me bear the blame forever." Something is being built here. We think the text is showing us that transformation is real and that it moves through failure, not around it. God's purposes work through human failure and moral complexity. Tamar in the lineage of Jesus is not a detail to be embarrassed about. It is a witness to exactly this.

Last updated: March 3, 2026.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.