This page gives you ready-to-use study questions for Genesis 37, the chapter where Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery and his father is left grieving. It is written for a small group, a Sunday class, or personal reading. Each section includes a leader’s note so you can guide the discussion without preparing a separate summary.
Genesis 37 at a Glance
The chapter moves in four steps. First, Jacob’s favoritism toward Joseph and Joseph’s dreams deepen the rift with his brothers. Second, the brothers plot against him in the field at Dothan, and Reuben tries to save him. Third, Joseph is sold to traders bound for Egypt, and the brothers stage a lie about his death. Fourth, Jacob mourns, refusing comfort, as the story turns toward Egypt.
Keep this flow in mind as you work through the questions. The chapter rewards slow reading, especially in the brothers’ dialogue and in the small moments where someone chooses to act or to stay silent.
Observation Questions
Use these questions to establish what the text actually says before anyone offers an interpretation. Ask the group to point to the words on the page, and resist explaining motives until the facts are clear.
Genesis 37:3-4
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. 4 His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and couldn’t speak peaceably to him.
(WEB)
Read these verses first to set the family tension in place. The coat and the brothers’ hatred form the core of the conflict that drives everything that follows, so hearing it aloud helps the group keep the emotional stakes in view.
Genesis 37:19-22
19 They said to one another, “Behold, this dreamer comes. 20 Come now therefore, and let’s kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, ‘An evil animal has devoured him.’ We will see what will become of his dreams.” 21 Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, “Let’s not take his life.” 22 Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father.
(WEB)
This passage captures the brothers’ plot and Reuben’s plea. Reading it aloud lets the group hear the shift from a plan to kill to a plan to leave him in the pit, which is central to the discussion about guilt and intervention.
Genesis 37:26-27
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him.
(WEB)
Judah’s words introduce a moment of conscience in the middle of the sale. Reading them aloud helps the group weigh his argument and consider whether it reveals real moral concern or a self-interested compromise.
Genesis 37:31-33
31 They took Joseph’s coat, and killed a male goat, and dipped the coat in the blood. 32 They took the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, “We have found this. Examine it, now, whether it is your son’s coat or not.” 33 He recognized it, and said, “It is my son’s coat. An evil animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces.”
(WEB)
The deception scene is the emotional turning point of the chapter. Hearing Jacob’s recognition of the coat aloud allows the group to feel how the lie works and to see the father’s grief through his own words.
Genesis 37:35
All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “For I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning.” His father wept for him.
(WEB)
Jacob’s refusal to be comforted closes the chapter. Reading it aloud invites reflection on grief, presence, and the limits of human comfort, and it sets up a natural transition to prayer.
Memory Verse for Genesis 37
Genesis 37:4
His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and couldn’t speak peaceably to him.
(WEB)
This verse names the brothers’ hatred and their inability to speak peaceably with Joseph. Memorizing it helps you recall how favoritism and resentment damage relationships, and it gives you a clear reminder to watch for those patterns in your own family and community.
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come to you with the hard places this chapter brings to light: favoritism that wounds, envy that grows, and plans made in secret. Show us where we have treated someone as less loved, and give us the courage to speak truth when others are silent. Where we have hidden wrong behind a convincing story, lead us back to honesty. Comfort those among us who mourn and give us patience to sit with them. Let the hope that runs through Joseph’s story find its way into our hearts this week. Amen.
