“Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him an ornamented robe.” – Genesis 37:3

You strive with family, heel-grabber.
You strive with God (hey, how’s your hip?).
You set up strife of wives and slaves
to seek your favor, bear your children.
So from your favored woman you select
a favored son, just as your father did
(and as your mother did on your behalf),
and with a single coat you paint a target on his back.

You seized the heel. You took the blessing and the land.
You wrestled through the night with God
and were not fully overcome. You stole
your flocks from Laban and his daughter stole his gods.
You’re set up well, heel-grabber.
You’re blessed, God-wrestler, in your tent.

But now they’ll fool you, Trickster man.
They’ve sold your favorite son away.
They couldn’t tell you that. Oh no, not that.
They’ll bring that stunning coat with tears
and stains and you will be deceived.
Your weeping will not move them to the truth.

Your sons have learned their lessons well,
just as you did from soft Rebecca’s words,
and as your father did from Abraham,
the father of his slave’s offspring,
the wife-concealer, son near-executioner.
Where, heel-grabber, will it end?

A poem/prayer based on Genesis 37:1-4, 12-18, the Revised Common Lectionary Alternate First Reading for Year A, Proper 14 (19).

The image is Brothers Sell Joseph into Slavery by Theodore Poulakis (between 1677 and 1682), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120364437.