Story 29. Coat of Many Colours
Joseph was born into a large family.
He was a good and faithful son, and his father favored him over all his other children.
All day Joseph was at his father's side while his brothers worked in the fields.
Choosing the finest material in the land, Joseph's father even made a beautiful coat for his son.
All the colors of the rainbow were in this coat.
It was, in fact, known as the Coat of Many Colors, and Joseph wore it proudly, for it showed that he was his father's favored son.
The brothers came to resent Joseph.
He is lazy, complained one brother.
He gets everything and we get nothing, said another brother, as they worked in the hot fields.
This is not fair, said another brother angrily.
The brothers grumbled among themselves.
They decided to take action against their brother.
Let us kill him, they said.
So they waited for their chance.
As luck would have it, that very day, Joseph's father sent him to the fields to give a message to his other sons.
As Joseph approached, the brothers decided that the time was right to act.
Let us grab him when he comes, but we will not kill him.
We will throw him in this deep hole and tell our father that he has disappeared.
They grabbed their brother and ripped his beautiful coat from him.
They beat him and threw him into the hole.
They covered the coat with blood from a sheep and returned to their father.
Their father was heartbroken.
He cried for his missing son, but Joseph did not return home.
Some men from another place were walking in the desert, and heard a frightened voice calling from the deep hole.
It was Joseph.
The men pulled him from the hole.
They laughed when they saw the boy.
They took him out of his country and sold him as a slave.
But one day, far ahead in the future, Joseph would return as a grown man.
He would reclaim his coat of many colors.
