ons, Was Envied By His
Brethren, When Certain Dreams Had Foreshown His Future Happiness.

1. It happened that Jacob came to so great happiness as rarely any other
person had arrived at. He was richer than the rest of the inhabitants of
that country; and was at once envied and admired for such virtuous sons,
for they were deficient in nothing, but were of great souls, both for
laboring with their hands and enduring of toil; and shrewd also in
understanding. And God exercised such a providence over him, and such a
care of his happiness, as to bring him the greatest blessings, even out
of what appeared to be the most sorrowful condition; and to make him the
cause of our forefathers' departure out of Egypt, him and his posterity.
The occasion was this:--When Jacob had his son Joseph born to him by
Rachel, his father loved him above the rest of his sons, both because of
the beauty of his body, and the virtues of his mind, for he excelled the
rest in prudence. This affection of his father excited the envy and the
hatred of his brethren; as did also his dreams which he saw, and related
to his father, and to them, which foretold his future happiness, it
being usual with mankind to envy their very nearest relations such their
prosperity. Now the visions which Joseph saw in his sleep were these:--

2. When they were in the middle of harvest, and Joseph was sent by his
father, with his brethren, to gather the fruits of the earth, he saw a
vision in a dream, but greatly exceeding the customary appearances
that come when we are asleep; which, when he was got up, he told his
brethren, that they might judge what it portended. He said, he saw the
last night, that his wheat-sheaf stood still in the place where he set
it, but that their sheaves ran to bow down to it, as servants bow down
to their masters. But as soon as they perceived the vision foretold that
he should obtain power and great wealth, and that his power should be in
opposition to them, they gave no interpretation of it to Joseph, as if
the dream were not by them understood: but they prayed that no part of
what they suspected to be its meaning might come to pass; and they bare
a still greater hatred to him on that account.

3. But God, in opposition to their envy, sent a second vision to Joseph,
which was much more wonderful than the former; for it seemed to him that
the sun took with him the moon, and the rest of the stars, and came down
to the earth, and bowed down to