Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Isaac disagreed about how to interpret the words of , "And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said: ‘It may be that Joseph will hate us.'" Rabbi Levi taught that the brothers feared this because he did not invite them to dine with him. Rabbi Tanḥuma observed that Joseph's motive was noble, for Joseph reasoned that formerly Jacob had placed Joseph above Judah, who was a king, and above Reuben, who was the firstborn, but after Jacob's death, it would not be right for Joseph to sit above them. The brothers, however, did not understand it that way, but worried that Joseph hated them. Rabbi Isaac said that the brothers feared because he had gone and looked into the pit into which they had thrown him.