Joseph’s Dreams
1Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as a foreigner — the land of Canaan. 2This is the account of Jacob’s family. Joseph, seventeen years old, was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives — the boy worked alongside them — and Joseph brought their father a bad report about them. 3Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him an elaborate robe. 4When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. 5Joseph had a dream and told it to his brothers, and they hated him even more. 6He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had. 7We were binding sheaves out in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to it.” 8His brothers said, “Do you really think you will reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” They hated him even more now, because of his dreams and his words. 9He had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream — the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10He told it to his father as well as his brothers, and his father rebuked him. “What kind of dream is this,” he said, “that you have had? Are your mother and I and your brothers really going to come and bow to the ground before you?” 11His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. 12His brothers went to pasture their father’s flock at Shechem. 13Israel said to Joseph, “Are your brothers not pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” “I am ready,” he answered. 14“Go and see how your brothers and the flock are doing,” he said, “and bring me word.” So he sent him off from the valley of Hebron, and Joseph came to Shechem. 15A man found him wandering in the countryside and asked him, “What are you looking for?” 16“I am looking for my brothers,” he said. “Please tell me where they are pasturing the flock.” 17“They have moved on from here,” the man said. “I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
Betrayed by His Brothers
18They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. 19They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer. 20Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of these pits. We can say a wild animal devoured him. Then we will see what becomes of his dreams.” 21Reuben heard this and rescued him from their hands. “Let us not take his life,” he said. 22“Do not shed blood,” Reuben told them. “Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” He said this to rescue Joseph from them and bring him back to his father. 23So when Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his robe — the elaborate robe he was wearing — 24and they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. 25Then they sat down to eat. As they looked up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way down to Egypt. 26Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood? 27Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites instead, and not lay a hand on him ourselves — he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed. 28When the Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph up out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt. 29When Reuben returned to the pit and did not find Joseph there, he tore his clothes. 30He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! Now what am I going to do?” 31They took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. 32They sent the elaborate robe to their father and said, “We found this. Take a look — is it your son’s robe or not?” 33He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.” 34Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days. 35All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will go down to my son, mourning, in Sheol.” And his father wept for him. 36Meanwhile the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
