Genesis 37:8 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 37:8
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.
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
said
וַיֹּ֤אמְרוּvai.Yo.me.ru
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
indeed
הֲמָלֹ֤ךְha.ma.Lokh
H4427
to reign · interrogative particle + verb, qal infinitive absolute
reign
תִּמְלֹךְ֙tim.loKh
H4427
to reign · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
indeed
מָשׁ֥וֹלma.Shol
H4910
to rule · verb, qal infinitive absolute
dominion
תִּמְשֹׁ֖לtim.Shol
H4910
to rule · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
hated
שְׂנֹ֣אse.No'
H8130
to hate (personally) · verb, qal infinitive construct
more
וַיּוֹסִ֤פוּvai.yo.Si.fu
H3254
to add or augment (often adverbial · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
dreams
חֲלֹמֹתָ֖יוcha.lo.mo.Tav
H2472
a dream · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
words
דְּבָרָֽיוde.va.Rav
H1697
a word · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 10:27 But the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace.
Acts 7:35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of…
Genesis 49:26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall…
Genesis 37:4 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.
Exodus 2:14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and sai…
1 Samuel 17:28 And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou dow…
Psalms 2:3-6 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
Psalms 118:22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 37:5-11
Here, I. Joseph relates the prophetical dreams he had, Gen 37:6, Gen 37:7, Gen 37:9, Gen 37:10. Though he was now very young (about seventeen years old), yet he was pious and devout, and well-inclined, and this fitted him for God's gracious discoveries of himself to him. Joseph had a great deal of trouble before him, and therefore God gave him betimes this prospect of his advancement, to support and comfort him under the long and grievous troubles with which he was to be exercised. Thus Christ had a joy set before him, and so have Christians. Note, God has ways of preparing his people beforehand for the trials which they cannot foresee, but which he has an eye to in the comforts with which h…
THE DREAMS OF JOSEPH. (Gen. 37:5-36)
Joseph dreamed a dream--Dreams in ancient times were much attended to, and hence the dream of Joseph, though but a mere boy, engaged the serious consideration of his family. But this dream was evidently symbolical. The meaning was easily discerned, and, from its being repeated under different emblems, the fulfilment was considered certain (compare Gen 41:32), whence it was that "his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying" [Gen 37:11].
Adam Clarke on Genesis 37:7
We were binding sheaves in the field - Though in these early times we read little of tillage, yet it is evident from this circumstance that it was practiced by Jacob and his sons. The whole of this dream is so very plain as to require no comment, unless we could suppose that the sheaves of grain might have some reference to the plenty in Egypt under Joseph's superintendence, and the scarcity in Canaan, which obliged the brethren to go down to Egypt for corn, where the dream was most literally fulfilled, his brethren there bowing in the most abject manner before him.
John Gill on Genesis 37:8
And his brethren said unto him,.... After he had told his dream, being highly offended with him, understanding the dream, and the meaning of it, better than he did:
shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shall thou indeed have dominion over us? denying that he ever should, and reproving him for his vanity, in concluding from hence that he would have the dominion over them. So the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, dost thou think, suppose, or imagine that thou shall rule over us? it looks as if by telling us this dream that such a whim and fancy has got into thine head:
and they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words; for it seems by this that he had dreamt, and told them more…
The Church Fathers
Why do you envy and hate the righteous, if God revealed to him his own mysteries and made clear through visions what would have happened at the end of time? Why do you grieve at the sight of his embroidered tunic, if the just Father honored him by loving him more than everybody else, and sent him to visit you as a Shepherd among the shepherds, and presented to the world a trustworthy witness and a sheaf for his old age, and raised from the dead a holy firstborn as first fruits? Why do you get angry if the sun and the moon and the eleven stars worship him? They are there from the ancient times to prefigure him. And neither Jacob was called "sun," nor Rachel was called "moon," and the events did not happened in this manner.
Indeed, God's grace shone on Joseph even in his boyhood. For he had a dream that when he was binding sheaves with his brothers—so it appeared to him in the vision—this sheaf rose up and stood straight, while the sheaves of his brothers turned and bowed down to his sheaf. Now in this the resurrection of the Lord Jesus that was to come was revealed. When they saw him at Jerusalem, the eleven disciples and all the saints bowed down; when they rise, they will bow down bearing the fruits of their good works, just as it is written, "Coming they shall come with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves." Although his brothers disparaged the reliability of the dream out of their envy, still they expressed his interpretation of it in their own words when they replied, "Are you to be our king? Are you to rule over us?" For that vision indicated the King who was to come, and before him all human flesh would bow down with bended knee.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Dream · .Of Joseph, concerning the sheaves — .Of Joseph, concerning the sheaves
Dreams · Mentioned in scripture of: Joseph — Mentioned in scripture of: Joseph
Envy · .Joseph’s brethren, of Joseph — .Joseph’s brethren, of Joseph
Jealousy · .Joseph’s brothers, of Joseph — .Joseph’s brothers, of Joseph
Joseph · .His prophetic dreams of his fortunes in Egypt — .His prophetic dreams of his fortunes in Egypt
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Here it is plainly shown to us that the paternal favor of God towards the elect, is like a fan to excite against them the enmity of the world. When the sons of Jacob heard that they were fighting in vain against God, their unjust hatred ought, by such means, to have been corrected. For it was as if God, setting himself in the midst, would repress their fury by these words, "Your impious conspiring will be fruitless; for although you boast, I have constituted as your chief, the man whose ruin your wicked envy hurries you to seek." Perhaps, also, by this consolatory dream, he intended to alleviate the trouble of the holy youth. Yet their obstinacy caused it to…
This hatred was increased when Joseph told them of two dreams that he had had: viz., that as they were binding sheaves in the field, his sheaf "stood and remained standing," but their sheaves placed themselves round it and bowed down to it; and that the sun (his father), and the moon (his mother, "not Leah, but Rachel, who was neither forgotten nor lost"), and eleven stars (his eleven brethren) bowed down before him. These dreams pointed in an unmistakeable way to the supremacy of Joseph; the first to supremacy over his brethren, the second over the whole house of Israel. The repetition seemed to establish the thing as certain (cf. Gen 41:32); so that not only did his brethren hate him still…
The brothers’ angry response to the revelation, in contrast to Joseph’s honesty and faithfulness, clearly demonstrates why they were not chosen for leadership: Leaders in God’s plan cannot be consumed with jealousy and hatred. In their anger, they missed an important part of the revelation—they too would be rulers (stars, 37:9) who would productively bind their sheaves (37:7).
Rashi on Genesis 37:8
ועל דבריו AND FOR HIS WORDS — for the evil report about them which he used to bring to their father.
