Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/17



HILE this beautiful history shows Joseph to have been actuated by the kindest feeling towards his brothers, it shows great unkindness of feeling, great malignity of disposition, on the part of his brethren towards him. Their ill-feeling towards him shows itself from the beginning of the sacred story. At Genesis xxxvii. 4, we read that "when his brethren saw that their father loved Joseph more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him." They hated him, not because of any fault of his, but because he was loved by his father. They had come to that age when they were able to judge in such a matter. If there was any one to blame it was not Joseph, but his father. Why then should they hate the one who was blameless? It was, as is too evident, because they themselves were evil and envious.