Mwanzo 37

¹Jacob stayed on in the land where his father had lived as a foreigner, the land of Canaan. ²This is the story of Jacob’s family. When Joseph was seventeen, he used to tend the flocks with his brothers, working as a helper alongside the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, two of his father’s wives. Joseph brought their father an unfavorable report about them. ³Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, since he had been born to him in his old age, and he had a long-sleeved robe made for him.^{a 4}His brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, and they hated him so much that they could not say a friendly word to him. ⁵Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, their hatred of him grew worse. ⁶“Listen to this dream I had,” he said to them. ⁷“We were out in the field tying up bundles of grain, when all at once my bundle got up and stood on end, and your bundles came around it and bowed low before it.” ⁸His brothers answered, “So you think you will be king over us, do you? Are you going to be our master?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he told them. ⁹Then he had a second dream and told that one to his brothers as well. “Listen,” he said, “I have had another dream. This time the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing to me.” ¹⁰When he told it to his father as well as his brothers, his father scolded him. “What sort of dream is this?” he said. “Are your mother and I and your brothers really going to come and bow to the ground in front of you?” ¹¹His brothers envied him, but his father did not forget what he had said. ¹²One time his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem. ¹³Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem, are they not? Come, I am going to send you to them.” “I am ready,” Joseph replied. ¹⁴“Go and find out how your brothers are doing and how the flocks are,” he said, “and come back and tell me.” So he sent him off from the valley of Hebron, and Joseph made his way to Shechem. ¹⁵A man came upon him wandering around in the countryside and asked him, “What are you looking for?” ¹⁶“It is my brothers I am trying to find,” he answered. “Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?” ¹⁷“They have left here,” the man said. “I heard them say, ‘Let us go on to Dothan.’” So Joseph followed his brothers and caught up with them at Dothan. ¹⁸They spotted him while he was still far off, and before he reached them they schemed to put him to death. ¹⁹“Here comes the great dreamer,” they said to one another. ²⁰“Come on, let us kill him now and toss him into one of these cisterns. We can say a wild beast ate him. Then we will find out what comes of his dreams!” ²¹When Reuben heard this, he tried to save Joseph from them. “We must not kill him,” he said. ²²“Do not shed his blood,” Reuben told them. “Throw him into this cistern out here in the wild, but do not lay a hand on him.” He meant to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. ²³So when Joseph reached his brothers, they tore off his robe, the long-sleeved robe he was wearing, ²⁴and they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; it had no water in it. ²⁵Then they sat down to their meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels loaded with gum, balm and resin, which they were taking down to Egypt. ²⁶Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain by killing our brother and hiding the blood? ²⁷Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites instead and keep our own hands off him. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. ²⁸When the Midianite traders came by, they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for about 8 ounces of silver, and they took Joseph away to Egypt.^{b 29}When Reuben came back to the cistern and saw that Joseph was gone, he tore his clothes in grief. ³⁰He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! And I, what am I going to do?” ³¹They took Joseph’s robe, killed a young goat, and soaked the robe in its blood. ³²They sent the long-sleeved robe to their father with the message, “We found this. Look it over and see whether it is your son’s robe or not.” ³³He knew it at once. “It is my son’s robe!” he cried. “Some wild animal has eaten him. Joseph has been torn apart, there is no doubt of it!” ³⁴Jacob tore his clothes, wrapped sackcloth around his waist, and grieved for his son a long time. ³⁵All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he would not be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go down to the grave still mourning for my son.” And so his father wept for him. ³⁶Meanwhile the Midianites had sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the commander of his guard.^c