Genesis 37

¹ But Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

² This is the story of Joseph. Joseph was seventeen years old. As he was still young, he was shepherding the flock with his brothers, with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah his father’s wives. Joseph informed their father of the evil spoken about them.

³ Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons, for he was the son of his old age, and he had a coat with long sleeves made for him.

⁴ But his brothers, seeing how his father loved him more than all his other sons, came to hate him so much that they could not say a civil word to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and he repeated it to his brothers.

⁵ ‘Listen’ he said ‘to this dream I have had.

⁶ We were binding sheaves in the countryside; and

⁷ my sheaf, it seemed, rose up and stood upright; then I saw your sheaves gather round and bow to my sheaf.’

⁸ ‘So you want to be king over us,’ his brothers retorted ‘or to lord it over us?’ And they hated him still more, on account of his dreams and of what he said.

⁹ He had another dream which he told to his brothers. ‘Look, I have had another dream’ he said. ‘I thought I saw the sun, the moon and eleven stars, bowing to me.’

¹⁰ He told his father and brothers, and his father scolded him. ‘A fine dream to have!’ he said to him. ‘Are all of us then, myself, your mother and your brothers, to come and bow to the ground before you?’

¹¹ His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the thing in mind.

¹² His brothers went to pasture their father’s flock at Shechem.

¹³ Then Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers with the flock at Shechem? Come, I am going to send you to them.’. ‘I am ready’ he replied.

¹⁴ He said to him, ‘Go and see how your brothers and the flock are doing, and bring me word’. He sent him from the valley of Hebron, and Joseph arrived at Shechem.

¹⁵ A man found him wandering in the countryside and the man asked him, ‘What are you looking for?’

¹⁶ ‘I am looking for my brothers’ he replied. ‘Please tell me where they are pasturing their flock.’

¹⁷ The man answered, ‘They have moved on from here; indeed I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan”‘. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

¹⁸ They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them they made a plot among themselves to put him to death.

¹⁹ ‘Here comes the man of dreams’ they said to one another.

²⁰ ‘Come on, let us kill him and throw him into some well; we can say that a wild beast devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams.’

²¹ But Reuben heard, and he saved him from their violence. ‘We must not take his life’ he said.

²² ‘Shed no blood,’ said Reuben to them ‘throw him into this well in the wilderness, but do not lay violent hands on him’ – intending to save him from them and to restore him to his father.

²³ So, when Joseph reached his brothers, they pulled off his coat, the coat with long sleeves that he was wearing,

²⁴ and catching hold of him they threw him into the well, an empty well with no water in it.

²⁵ They then sat down to eat. Looking up they saw a group of Ishmaelites who were coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, tragacanth, balsam and resin, which they were taking down into Egypt.

²⁶ Then Judah said to his brothers, ‘What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood?[*a]

²⁷ Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us not do any harm to him. After all, he is our brother, and our own flesh.’ His brothers agreed.

²⁸ Now some Midianite merchants were passing, and they drew Joseph up out of the well. They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty silver pieces, and these men took Joseph to Egypt.

²⁹ When Reuben went back to the well there was no sign of Joseph. Tearing his clothes,

³⁰ he went back to his brothers. ‘The boy has disappeared’ he said. ‘What am I going to do?’

³¹ They took Joseph’s coat and, slaughtering a goat, they dipped the coat in the blood.

³² Then they sent back the coat with long sleeves and had it taken to their father, with the message, ‘This is what we have found. Examine it and see whether or not it is your son’s coat.’

³³ He examined it and exclaimed, ‘It is my son’s coat! A wild beast has devoured him. Joseph has been the prey of some animal and has been torn to pieces.’

³⁴ Jacob, tearing his clothes and putting on a loin-cloth of sackcloth, mourned his son for a long time.

³⁵ All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. ‘No,’ he said ‘I will go down in mourning to Sheol, beside my son.’ And his father wept for him.

³⁶ Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials and commander of the guard.