The encounter between Joseph and his brothers reaches a dramatic breaking point the moment he arrives. The physical act of stripping his clothes goes far beyond the mere removal of garments; it is a sudden, explosive release of years of jealousy and a deliberate erasure of his favored status in the family.
The primary approach among commentators is that the brothers stripped him by force, acting with cruelty and speed [קיצור בעל הטורים, אור החיים]. However, an alternative view suggests that the brothers did not actually lay hands on him, but instead used trickery and deception to make Joseph take off the clothes himself [אבן עזרא, רלב״ג].
The details of the event mention the removal of his tunic and his multicolored coat, leading to different perspectives on what Joseph was actually wearing. One approach maintains that he was wearing only a single garment. The double description emphasizes that this was the famous coat given by his father—the very root of their hatred and the reason for his punishment. Taking it from him was akin to the practice of stripping a nobleman of his symbols of rank before carrying out a sentence [העמק דבר, הטור הארוך, דברי דוד].
The more common view, however, is that Joseph wore two distinct garments: a simple, plain linen undershirt worn tightly against the skin to absorb sweat, and the honorable, multicolored outer coat [רש״י, ביאור יש״ר, גור אריה]. If Joseph wore two garments, the fact that the inner tunic was removed before the outer coat presents a puzzle. Some explain that in their blind rage, the brothers did not bother to carefully remove the outer layer first. Instead, they grabbed all his clothing at once and violently tore it off, ultimately throwing him into the pit completely naked [אור החיים, שפתי חכמים, משכיל לדוד]. Others suggest they used a method typical of robbers, pulling the clothes from the bottom up and turning them inside out, causing the inner and outer garments to come off together [ריב״א, הדר זקנים, פענח רזא].
A completely different line of thought proposes that the order of removal simply reflects the order in which Joseph wore them. Knowing the hazards of the road, Joseph might have worn the simple undershirt over his expensive coat to protect it from the dust of travel [הטור הארוך, פענח רזא]. Alternatively, Joseph may have anticipated his brothers' hostility. Out of fear, he might have hidden the multicolored coat beneath his regular tunic to avoid provoking their jealousy. Consequently, the brothers had to strip away the plain tunic first to uncover the hated coat underneath [כלי יקר, מחוקקי יהודה].
Beyond the immediate humiliation of the act, seizing the multicolored coat served two distinct purposes. First, it was an act of direct revenge against the physical symbol of their father's preferential love [רשב״ם, חזקוני, רד״ק, מלבי״ם]. Second, it was a calculated, premeditated step. By keeping the coat, they planned to later stain it with blood and present it to Jacob as false evidence that a wild beast had devoured his son [רשב״ם, בכור שור].