Coat of many colors
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- This article is about the garment in the bible. For Dolly Parton album, see Coat of Many Colors.
Joseph's father Jacob favored him and gave Joseph the coat as a gift; as a result, he was envied by his brothers, who saw the special coat as indicating that Joseph would assume family leadership. His brothers' suspicion grew when Joseph told them of his two dreams (Genesis 37:11) in which all the brothers bowed down to him. The narrative tells that his brothers plotted against him one day when he was 17, and would have killed him had not the eldest brother Reuben interposed. He persuaded them instead to throw Joseph into a pit and secretly planned to rescue him later. However, while Reuben was absent, the others planned to sell him to a company of Ismailite merchants. He was stolen from the pit by passing Midianites who sold him to the merchants for 20 shekels of silver. The brothers then dipped Joseph's coat in goat blood and showed it to their father, saying that Joseph had been torn apart in the field.
Popular culture, notably the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, popularized the story and the "coat of many colors" translation.
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