Genesis 36-37

In Genesis 36, we find out more about Esau and his descendants. His descendants become another nation, the Edomites, and they settled around Mount Seir. I checked some maps and this mountain is located south of the Dead Sea, close to the border of Arabia and the Sinai peninsular. They seem to do pretty well, as there are generations of kings. I assume these kings keep the legacy of Esau, who we know at one point led an army of 400 men.

In the corresponding portions of Chronicles, we find out that the Edomites devolve from the unified leadership under one king to leadership by clans. It is possible their population got so big. The clan leader may have just been considered "king". But something must have happened where a single leader cannot rule over all them. Other possible reasons I can think of - they started arguing amongst themselves or they became nomads.

We know later on that the Edomites fight wars with the Israelites, but I think the reuniting of Esau and Jacob provides the ideal situation of coexistence between them. They're essentially cousins to each other.

Genesis 37 returns to the main storyline. Jacob is showing favoritism to Joseph and his brothers are jealous. Later, we find out that his brothers are back in Shecham, watching over the herds of sheep and goats, but Joseph is home with dad. It's unstated, but it seems like this - "everyone but Joseph go watch my sheep, but Joseph can stay here at home". We're not quite sure where Benjamin is this point, but if he has been born, he's probably too young to work fields.

Meanwhile, Joseph is having dreams in which things start randomly bowing down to him. Either he's totally bewildered and must share them with someone, or, he's dumb because he tells his brothers who already hate him. This is the same unruly mob that killed a village. They start calling him "dream boy" and when father sends him to Shecham to check on the flocks. They aren't there, but in Dothan. The brothers first want to kill him, but Reuben intervenes. Instead, they throw him in an empty cistern and later sold him to passing Midianites who sell him to Potifar, head administrator of Egypt.

Shecham is where the village massacre took place, so it is interesting that Jacob's flocks are still there. I checked the map and it seems to be about 20-25 miles north of Bethel.

An interesting parallel to the New Testament, a group of 9-10(?) brothers betray Joseph, one of which stays somewhat loyal (Reuben) while with Jesus, one (Judas) betrayed while the rest of the group (11) stays somewhat loyal (they just run for their lives). This first occurred to me when the 11 stars bow down to Joseph. However, 11 brothers don't betray him, as we can exclude Benjamin from this group.

Also, it is this intentional action by the brothers that sets in motion the events that lead to the fulfillment of the dreams that they hated.