What Does Genesis 37:23 Mean?

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. The first act when Joseph reaches his brothers is the stripping of the robe. Before anything else, before throwing him into the pit, before any words are spoken to him: the robe is removed. The brothers strip from Joseph the visible marker of Jacob's favoritism, the garment that announced his elevated status every time he wore it in their presence. The act is the physical enactment of what the pit and the sale represent: Joseph's removal from the position his father gave him.

The robe of many colors is the central symbol of Genesis 37. It appears three times in the chapter: Jacob gives it to Joseph as the sign of his special love (v.3); the brothers strip it from Joseph before throwing him into the pit (v.23); and the brothers dip it in Goat's blood and use it to deceive their father (v.31 to 32). The garment that marked Joseph's elevation becomes the evidence of his supposed death. What his father used to honor him, his brothers use to destroy him: and then use again to destroy his father's peace of mind for twenty-two years. The robe carries the full weight of the chapter's tragedy.

The stripping of the robe before the pit also anticipates the next garment Joseph will lose: in Genesis 39, Potiphar's wife will grab his garment as he flees her, and that garment will become the false evidence of his assault. Joseph loses garments at every descent: the robe before the pit, the garment before the prison. The stripping pattern tracks his trajectory downward, and the reader who notices it understands that the God who will eventually clothe Joseph in linen robes for Pharaoh's court is reversing exactly these losses.