Father loved him more than all his brothers: in the Hebrew him is moved from its usual position to give it special emphasis. We may translate “Their father loved Joseph more than he loved the other brothers”; Good News Translation has “more than he loved them.” See verse 3 for comments on loved … more than.

They hated him is the first consequence of Joseph’s being loved more. For this use of hated see 26.27. In some languages it may be necessary to express hated him idiomatically; for example, “their hearts were hot against him,” “their livers boiled because of him,” or “they were bad friends with him.”

Could not speak peaceably to him is literally “could not speak to him for [in] peace (shalom).” Since shalom was a regular greeting, this expression seems to mean that they could not greet him; and we may translate, for example, “they could not bring themselves to greet him in a friendly manner” or “they could not give him a friendly hello.” Some translations express this in a negative way: “they always spoke to him crossly.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .