a. The land of sojourning. Verse 1 is a bridge between the previous chapter, the Book of Edom and this Book of Jacob. It simply states that Jacob lived in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan. Jacob, like Isaac and Abraham before him sojourned in the land. He did not live as though he owned the land even though God had promised the land to him. As the book of Hebrews says, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all lived in the land as if they were living in a foreign country even though it was their homeland. They all lived like that because they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. Remember that the desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Because of this God is not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he has prepared a city for them. Remember the words of Jesus to his disciples, I go to prepare a place for you. b. The coat of jealousy. In verses 2-4 we get some introductory notes on Joseph. So far, we know that he was a son of Rachel who gave birth to him when they were in Paddan-aram. He was her firstborn. Rachel would die in childbirth with Joseph’s full brother Benjamin. All the rest of his brothers are only half-brothers. And he also has a half-sister named Dinah who is a little older than him. We already know her story. And now we have Joseph as a young man of 17. He and his brothers had picked up the family business from their father and oversaw the large flocks of animals of the household. Now we are not told in Scripture what his brothers were doing, but Joseph brought a bad report of them to Jacob. This would be the beginning of a division that would continue to grow. The division was caused not only by Joseph who brought a bad report, but Jacob favored Joseph over all his other sons. Moses says that Israel loved Joseph more. Here is one of those examples of Moses using the name Israel to refer to Jacob. Isn’t interesting he uses it in reference to the love Jacob had for Joseph. Perhaps, there is some foreshadowing there. Jacob displayed his favoritism by giving Joseph the infamous coat of many colors. It could also be a robe with long sleeves as I’m sure many of your Bibles have that note. Which ever it was, the robe was a sign of Joseph’s higher status in the family and was not a robe you would wear out in the field watching sheep. It would mean that Joseph would be a keeper of the tents, a leader in the household. Now his brothers saw that he was more loved by their father than him and so they hated him and could not say anything nice to him. Jacob’s love of Rachel that drove Leah to jealousy strikes again in the lives of his sons.