JACOB had twelve sons. The ten elder sons were shepherds. They often went far from home to find grass and water for their father's flocks. Joseph and Benjamin, the two younger sons, remained at home with their father.
The elder sons were quarrelsome, and gave their father much trouble. But Joseph was gentle, kind, and truthful. And Jacob "loved Joseph more than all his children." To show his love, Jacob made him a beautiful coat of many colors. These things made his brothers jealous, and they hated him.
But the Lord was pleased with Joseph because he loved to do right and obey his father. God had a great work for Joseph to do. So He gave him two dreams which came true many years afterward.
In his first dream Joseph saw himself and his eleven brothers in the field binding grain into bundles, or sheaves. And his bundle arose and stood upright, and his brothers' bundles bowed down to his bundle.
Probably Joseph did not know what his dream meant. Had he known, he would not have told it to his brothers. When he did tell it to them they hated him more than ever, and said, "Shalt thou indeed rule over us?"
Some time after this Joseph dreamed another dream. In this dream he saw the sun, moon, and eleven stars. And they all bowed down to him. He told this dream to his father and to his brethren. And his father said to him, "Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?" But years after, when the famine came, the father, brothers, and their families had to depend on Joseph for even the food which they ate.