Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 37:3

"Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors." — Genesis 37:3 (ASV)

He was the son of his old age. — Jacob was ninety-one when Joseph was born. However, at Benjamin’s birth, Jacob was eight or nine years older. According to the common belief that Jacob was only twenty years in Padan-aram, the four sons of the handmaids must have been about Joseph’s age, and Leah’s last two sons even younger.

But the epithet is intelligible if Jacob had waited twenty-seven years after his marriage with Rachel before Joseph was born. A considerable interval would then have existed between Joseph and the other sons. And though Rachel had a second son some years afterwards, Joseph would continue to be the son long looked for, whose birth had given Jacob so great happiness. In contrast, Jacob’s joy at Benjamin’s coming was bought at the terrible price of the mother’s death.

A coat of many colours. — Two explanations are given for this phrase. The first is that it was a long garment with sleeves or fringes; the other, that it was composed of patchwork of various colours. The latter is the more probable interpretation. For, from the tomb at Beni-Hassan, we learn that such dresses were worn in Palestine, as a train of captive Jebusites is represented there, clad in rich robes, the patterns of which seem to have been produced by sewing together small pieces of different colours.

Similarly, in India, beautiful dresses are made by sewing together strips of crimson, purple, and other colours (Roberts’ Oriental Illustrations, p. 43). Some have thought that Jacob, by this dress, marked out Joseph as the future head of the family in place of Reuben. They supposed this dress indicated the priestly office borne by the firstborn. However, this is doubtful, as it was Judah to whom Jacob gave the right of primogeniture.