Sunday
Today in church I get to read the story of Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers. When I first read it over, I was startled to discover that the passage as it appears in the New Revised Standard Version says nothing about a coat of many colors, changing it to “a long robe with sleeves.” The other Old Testament option for Episcopal churches today contains a similar shock, changing the “still small voice” through which Elijah hears God to “a sound of sheer silence.” Even if both translations are more accurate, I miss the poetry of the King James Bible.
The coat, given to Joseph because his father loves him best, is only one of the reasons his brothers determine to kill him before choosing instead to sell him into slavery. The other is Joseph’s dream, later to be borne out, that his brothers will one day bow down before him. Below are the passages that indicate the father’s preference and what the brothers do:
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him….
So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him” —that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed. When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
In his almost-sonnet “Joseph’s Coat” (almost because one line doesn’t rhyme), George Herbert identifies with Joseph, seeing his own illnesses casting him into a metaphorical pit. This is hitting hard at the moment as one of my dearest friends is currently fighting for his life with a severe heart condition, complicated by a MRSA infection. His lovely wife is asking us all to pray. As she texted me recently, “I keep saying over & over again, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart & lean not upon your own understanding.’”
This is where Herbert arrives as well. As he sees it, the Joseph story prefigures the Jesus story, with a loving father losing his son to humanity but with that son returning unexpectedly to save us all. That is why the poet can say, “Wounded I sing, tormented I indite [write],/ Thrown down I fall into a bed, and rest.” Because he trusts in God he is able to write, “Sorrow hath chang’d its note: such is his will/ Who changeth all things, as him pleaseth best.”
Scholars have noted that Herbert could have easily found a word to rhyme with “indite,” such as “right” or “might.” “Will,” however, has a richer resonance for Herbert. Perhaps he’s thinking of Jesus at Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” By breaking with the rhyme expectation, Herbert calls attention to his choice. “Right” and “might” emphasize God’s power while “will” shows the power more responsive to our needs.
God could have ended his life before this, Herbert goes on to say, but “he hath spoil’d the race, and giv’n to anguish/ One of Joy’s coats.” It is as if, in his sickness, the poet has received the coat of many colors from his loving father and that coat is Joy. With it, he experiences relief, knowing that God is with him. If he has been granted life a little longer, it is so that he can linger and languish in God’s love. Whereas once his joys were turned to weeping, now his grief modulates into song.
Joseph’s Coat
Wounded I sing, tormented I indite,
Thrown down I fall into a bed, and rest:
Sorrow hath chang’d its note: such is his will
Who changeth all things, as him pleaseth best.
For well he knows, if but one grief and smart
Among my many had his full career,
Sure it would carry with it ev’n my heart,
And both would run until they found a bier
To fetch the body; both being due to grief.
But he hath spoil’d the race; and giv’n to anguish
One of Joy’s coats, ‘ticing it with relief
To linger in me, and together languish.
I live to shew his power, who once did bring
My joys to weep, and now my griefs to sing.
I dedicate today’s post to my friend and his wife. I love and feel for you both.
