And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;
All Commentaries on Genesis 37:31 Go To Genesis 37
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Now the fact that they sprinkled his tunic with the blood of a goat seems to have this meaning, that they attacked with false testimony and brought into enmity for sin him who forgives the sins of all people. For us there is a lamb, for them a goat. For us the Lamb of God has been killed, who took from us the sins of the world, whereas for them a goat piled up sins and amassed offenses. Therefore “fill up the measure of your fathers.” And Jacob rightly lamented the losses to his posterity; as a father he wept for his lost son, and as a prophet he mourned the destruction of the Jews. Indeed, Jacob also tore his clothing; similarly, at the time of the Lord Jesus’ passion, the chief priest tore his robe. He exercised not a private role but an office with a public function. The curtain of the temple was also torn, so that it might be made clear by such signs that the mysteries had been profaned, the people stripped of the garments of salvation, and that the kingdom had been divided and was to be destroyed, because every divided kingdom will easily be destroyed.
