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.”
Parallel translations
- WEB They took the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, “We have found this. Examine it, now, whether it is your son’s coat or not.”
- KJV 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.
- NKJV Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, “We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?”
- NASB and they sent the multicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, “We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not.”
- NLT They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message: “Look at what we found. Doesn’t this robe belong to your son?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They send the bloodied coat to Jacob, asking him to identify whether it is Joseph's. They let the evidence imply Joseph's death without openly lying.
Overview
The brothers bring the blood-stained coat to their father and coldly ask him to examine whether it is his son's. By inviting Jacob to draw his own conclusion, they deceive him while avoiding a direct lie. Their cruelty toward their grieving father exposes how deeply sin had corrupted the family that bore God's promise.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Luke 15:30But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
- Gen 37:3Now 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.
- Gen 44:20–23And 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.’
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 37:32 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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