What does Genesis 37:5 mean?
Joseph's life will be greatly shaped by prophetic dreams and their interpretations (Genesis 40:8; 41:15–16). In this case, a dream spoke of his own future life and relationships. Years later, his older brothers will, indeed, be at the mercy of Joseph's good will (Genesis 42:6).At this point, Joseph's brothers view him with so much hatred they can't speak politely to him (Genesis 37:2–4). Why he chooses to share this dream is not clear. Perhaps he naively thought describing the dream to his brothers would increase his esteem in their eyes. Instead, they hated him even more. The following verses describe this dream (Genesis 37:6), and another (Genesis 37:9), making it easy to understand why the dreams provoked his jealous brothers to greater anger.
