"Go now to Bethel," said a voice to him one night in a dream. "Make an altar there to thy God."
Jacob obeyed; and when the altar was built, he called his sons together and told them the visions he had had. He told them the stronghold God had always been to him in his life, and begged them to forsake their idols and turn again to the true God.
Then Jacob went on to Hebron, where Abraham had lived, and where Isaac still lived, an old, old man, nearly two hundred years old.
It was a joyous meeting—this meeting between Isaac and Jacob. Esau, too, came, and Isaac blessed them both and bade them love each other. Isaac died very soon after, and Jacob, an old man now himself, sat in the door of the tent of his fathers.
To Joseph, Jacob had given a coat of many colors, as a token of his great love for him. And because of this Joseph's brothers hated him only the more. Jealousy burned in their hearts, and they plotted together to slay the boy.
One night Joseph had a vision. In the dream eleven stars came and stood before him and bowed themselves to the ground. And a voice said, "So shall your brothers one day bow before you."
Joseph told his vision to Jacob and to his brothers. The father observed the sayings, but the brothers were made only the more angry.
Now, his brothers spent their days upon the hillside tending their flocks. And one day Jacob said to Joseph, "Go, my son, and see if any evil has befallen your brothers."
So Joseph set out. It was a long way to the pasture lands, and the boy was tired and footsore. And when he reached the place no sign could he find of his brothers.
"Tell me," asked Joseph of the men upon the plains, "where are my brothers that watch their sheep here upon these hillsides?"