Colours in the Bible: Joseph's Coat

The biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colours, described in the Old Testament, illustrates how destructive jealousy and envy can be.
Jacob had a large family with many children. His favourite son was Joseph. Jacob made Joseph a special coat of many colours which was very beautiful. His brothers were very jealous.
Joseph’s brothers hated him. They knew that he was their father’s favourite son. One day when they were all working in the fields some of the brothers made a plot to kill Joseph, who was then 17 years old. Reuben did not want him killed. He said to throw him into a well instead.
Some traders came past. The brothers stopped the traders and sold Joseph to them. They took him away and the brothers did not know what became of him.
The brothers killed a goat and drenched Joseph’s beautiful coat in the blood. They took it back home to Jacob. Jacob thought that his favourite son had been killed by a wild animal.
Joseph was sold as a slave. He worked hard at all times and became well known. Soon the Pharaoh got to hear about his work. The Pharaoh sent for Joseph to work for him. He worked hard for the Pharaoh. Eventually he was put in charge of all of the food stores. There was a time of famine when everyone had to go to Joseph to get food. Joseph’s brothers went to him to get some food, they were starving.
Joseph gave them food, in fact he invited them to live with him. He told the brothers that it was God who had planned for him to be in Egypt looking after the food so that they would not starve.

* The story in popular culture

The musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat popularized the story and the "coat of many colours". In 1971, Dolly Parton referred to the story in the song Coat of Many Colours.