John Calvin Commentary Genesis 37:2

"These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and he was a lad with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father`s wives: and Joseph brought the evil report of them unto their father." — Genesis 37:2 (ASV)

These are the generations of Jacob. By the word תולדות toledoth, we are not so much to understand a genealogy as a record of events, which appears more clearly from the context. For Moses, having begun in this way, does not enumerate sons and grandsons but explains the cause of the envy of Joseph’s brothers, who formed a wicked conspiracy against him and sold him as a slave. It is as if he had said, “Having briefly summed up the genealogy of Esau, I now return to the series of my history, concerning what happened to the family of Jacob.”

Moreover, Moses, being about to speak of the abominable wickedness of Jacob’s sons, begins with the statement that Joseph was dearer than the rest to his father because he had him in his old age. As a token of tender love, his father had clothed him with a coat woven of many colors.

But it was not surprising that the boy should be a great favorite with his aged father, for this usually happens; and no just ground is here given for envy, since sons of a more mature age, by natural inclination, might well concede such a point.

Moses, however, states this as the cause of hatred, that his father's affection was more inclined to him than to the others. The brothers develop hatred for the boy, whom they see is more tenderly loved by their father, as he was born in his old age. If they did not choose to join in this love for their brother, why did they not excuse it in their father?

Therefore, we perceive their malignant and perverse disposition. But that a coat of many colors and similar trivial things inflamed them to devise a murderous plot is a proof of their detestable cruelty. Moses also says that their hatred increased because Joseph reported the evil talk of his brothers to their father.

Some interpret the word 'evil' as meaning some intolerable crime; but others more correctly suppose that it was a complaint from the boy that his brothers tormented him with their reproaches. For what follows in Moses, I take to have been added as an explanation, so that we may know the reason he had been treated so badly and with such hostility.

It may be asked, why Moses here accuses only the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, when, afterwards, he does not exempt the sons of Leah from the same charge? Indeed, one of her sons, Reuben, was milder than any of the others; next to him was Judah, his brother by the same mother.

But what is to be said of Simon? What of Levi? Certainly, since they were older, it is probable that they were leaders in this matter. However, the suspicion may arise that because these were the sons of concubines and not of true wives, their minds would be more quickly moved by envy, as if their servile origin on their mother’s side subjected them to contempt.