Joseph, the son of Jacob, was deeply loved and favored by his father, who gifted him a tunic of many colors, a unique symbol of distinction among his siblings. This tunic, as described in Genesis 37:3, marked Joseph as special in Jacob's eyes, being the son of his old age and of Rachel, his beloved wife. However, this favor stirred hatred in his brothers, intensifying their resentment. In Genesis 37:23, when Joseph approached his brothers, they stripped him of this tunic of many colors, an act of scorn and rejection, before casting him into a pit. This moment of being stripped of his tunic parallels the profound humiliation and loss Joseph endured at the hands of those closest to him, highlighting the depth of familial discord and envy within Jacob's household.

Jacob gave Joseph a tunic of many colors because he loved him more than his other children, and this garment became the visible symbol of the father's favoritism that inflamed the brothers' existing hatred. The tunic, translated also as coat or robe, appears in only one other biblical context, where it designates the distinctive clothing worn by a king's daughter. The brothers interpreted the gift as a deliberate flaunting of Jacob's preference, an act that rubbed salt in the wound of their perceived neglect and intensified their rivalry over inheritance rights. This single item of clothing therefore triggered the chain of events that moved the family toward the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Abram in Genesis 15, in which his descendants would become strangers and servants in a foreign land. The tunic thus served as the immediate occasion for the brothers' envy and hostility, yet God sovereignly used the resulting conflict to advance His larger purpose without violating anyone's free moral agency. In the broader account the garment underscores how God can turn human sin and poor choices into instruments that accomplish His plan while still holding each person accountable for the decisions made.