Bible Strands
Genesis 37:32
They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe or not.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The brothers address their father Jacob immediately after dipping Joseph’s coat in goat blood, presenting it as a found object to provoke his investigation.
The words — כְּתֹנֶת הַפַּסִּים (ketonet hapassim) translates literally to “long garment of stripes,” identifying the specific tunic Jacob gifted Joseph and the brothers now weaponize as false evidence.
The thread — The garment functions as a marker of paternal favor in Genesis 37:3, becomes the deceptive proof in Genesis 37:31 and 33, and parallels the family dynamics surrounding an elderly father and a younger brother in Genesis 44:20.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to observe how manipulated physical evidence can override established love, demonstrating the precise mechanism by which deception manufactures false certainty.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no.
Cross-references
- Luke 15:30 But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
- Genesis 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors.
- Genesis 44:20 And we answered, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’