Genesis 37:32

Gen 37:32 And they sent the coat of [many] colours, and they brought [it] to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it [be] thy son’s coat or no.

Ver. 32. Know now whether it be thy son’s coat.] One Philip, bishop of Beauvieu, in France, in the time of our Richard I, being a martial man, and much annoying our borders, was by King Richard in a skirmish happily taken, and put in prison. The bishop hereupon complained to the Pope, who wrote in the behalf of his son, as an ecclesiastical person, &c. The king sent to the Pope the armour he was taken in, with these words engraven thereon, "Know whether this be thy son’s coat, or not." Which the Pope viewing, sware it was rather the coat of a son of Mars, than a son of the Church; and so bade the king use his pleasure. {a}

{a} Heyl., Geog., p. 108.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37:32 your son: In their cold hatred, the brothers did not refer to Joseph by name or acknowledge him as their brother (see 21:10).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

To wit, the messengers which were sent.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 32. Sent the coat of many colours - to their father] What deliberate cruelty to torture the feelings of their aged father, and thus harrow up his soul!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(32) They brought it.—Heb., they caused it to go, that is, sent it by the hand of a messenger. They were unwilling to see the first burst of their father’s agony.

And said.—These were the words that were to be spoken by the messenger who was charged to bear the coat to Jacob.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he knew it, and said, it is my son's coat,.... He took it, and examined it, and was soon convinced, and well assured it was his son's coat; read the words without the supplement "it is", and the pathos will appear the more, "my son's coat!" and think with what a beating heart, with what trembling limbs, with what wringing of hands, with what flowing eyes, and faultering speech, he spoke these words, and what follow:

an evil beast hath devoured him; this was natural to conclude from the condition the coat was in, and from the country he was sent into, which abounded with wild beasts, and was the very thing Joseph's brethren contrived to say themselves; and in this view they wished and hoped the affair would be considered, and so their wickedness concealed:

Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces; or "in rending is rent" (d); he is most certainly rent in pieces, there is no question to be made of it; it is plain, and it must be the case.

(d) "discerpendo discerptus est"; Drusius, Schmidt.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

They

brought it by a messenger whom they sent: men are commonly said to do what they cause others to do.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

32. Thy son’s coat — Not our brother’s! Every word of theirs in this dark pretext is studiously cruel.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

AND THEY SENT THE COAT OF MANY COLORS, AND THEY BROUGHT IT TO THEIR FATHER. I.e., by command., clearly indicates that they did not bring it themselves. Ramban answers that the second half of the verse means that they commanded others to bring the coat to their father. Perhaps the word vayavi’u (and they brought) refers to the messengers who brought the coat, for the brothers dispatched it when they were still in Dothan, and it was the messengers who said, This we have found; recognize now. It may be that they sent the coat to Hebron, to one of their homes, and when they arrived they brought it before their father, and said to him, This we have found. They did all of this in order to feign ignorance of the matter, for had they remained quiet, he would have suspected them, saying; “You killed him,” for he knew that they were jealous of him.And some scholars explain the word vayeshalchu — ordinarily translated as “and they sent” — to mean that they pierced the coat with a sword in order to tear it in many places, to give the appearance of having been torn by the teeth of animals. The word vayeshalchu would thus be derived from the verse, By the sword (‘b’shelach’) they shall perish. The significance of the word hapasim (many colors) is that they sent him the coat so that he might recognize it by the colors which he had made for him.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

וישלחו, some of the brothers were the messengers who delivered this tattered blood-spattered tunic. Some commentators believe that the word is derived from Job 36,12 בשלח יעברו, “they will die by the sword.” According to this, the brothers imitated the incisions made by the sharp teeth of wild beasts so that Yaakov would think that Joseph’s fate had been that he had been devoured or at least killed by such a marauding animal.

הכר נא, According to Bereshit Rabbah 84,19 G’d repaid Yehudah for his use of the phrase הכר נא when tricking his father into making a false deduction, by Tamar challenging him with the very same expression הכר נא, which embarrassed him into admitting that he was the father of the fetus that Tamar his daughter-in-law was pregnant with (38,25)

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.