Of all his children, Jacob loved Joseph best. Though Jacob had ten older sons, Joseph was the firstborn of the wife Jacob loved above all. Joseph was a bright, handsome child and was his father’s pet—just as Jacob had once been his mother’s pet (family patterns often repeat). The story begins with Joseph as a seventeen-year-old dreamer—literally. God gave Joseph the gift of interpreting dreams—but he had not yet mastered the art of tact, timing, or knowing his audience. When he tells his brothers that one day they will bow to him, it becomes clear that even though Joseph’s gift was intact, he was not able to read a room.