CHAPTER 37
This
is the account
of Jacob.
When Joseph
was seventeen
years
old,
he was
tending
the flock
with
his brothers,
the sons
of Bilhah
and Zilpah,
his father’s
wives,
and he
brought
their father
a bad
report
about them.
Now Israel
loved
Joseph
more than
his other sons,
because
Joseph
had been born to him
in his old age;
so he made
him
a robe
of many colors.
When Joseph’s brothers
saw
that
their father
loved
him
more than any
of them,
they hated
him
and could
not
speak
a kind word to him.
We
were binding
sheaves of grain
in
the field,
and suddenly
my sheaf
rose
and
stood upright,
while your sheaves
gathered around
and bowed down
to mine.”
“Do you intend to
reign
over us?”
his brothers
asked.
“Will you actually
rule
us?”
So they hated
him
even more
because of
his dream
and his statements.
Then Joseph had another
dream
and told
it to his brothers.
“Look,”
he said,
“I had another
dream,
and this time the sun
and moon
and eleven
stars
were bowing down to me.”
He told
his father
and brothers,
but his father
rebuked him.
“What
is this dream
that
you have had?”
he said.
“Will your mother
and brothers
and I
actually
come
and bow down
to the ground
before you?”
Israel
said
to
him,
“Are not
your brothers
pasturing
the flocks at Shechem?
Get ready;
I am sending
you to them.”
“I am ready,”
Joseph replied.
Then Israel told him,
“Go
now
and see
how your brothers
and the flocks
are faring,
and bring word
back to me.”
So he sent him off
from the Valley
of Hebron.
And when Joseph arrived
in Shechem,
“I am
looking for
my brothers,”
Joseph replied.
“Can you please tell me
where
they
are pasturing their flocks?”
“They have moved on
from here,”
the man
answered.
“I heard
them say,
‘Let us go
to Dothan.’”
So Joseph
set out
after
his brothers
and found them
at Dothan.
“Come
now,
let us kill
him and throw
him into one
of the pits.
We can say
that a vicious
animal
has devoured him.
Then we shall see
what
becomes
of his dreams!”
When Reuben
heard this,
he tried to rescue Joseph
from their hands.
“Let us not
take
his life,”
he said.
“Do not shed
his blood.
Throw
him into
this
pit
in the wilderness,
but do not
lay
a hand
on him.”
Reuben
said this
so that
he could rescue
Joseph
from their hands
and return
him to
his father.
So
when
Joseph
came
to
his brothers,
they stripped
him
of his robe—
the robe
of many colors
he was wearing—
And as they sat down
to eat
a meal,
they looked up
and saw
a caravan
of Ishmaelites
coming
from Gilead.
Their camels
were carrying
spices,
balm,
and myrrh
on their way
down
to Egypt.
Then Judah
said
to
his brothers,
“What
profit will we gain
if
we kill
our brother
and cover up
his blood?
Come,
let us sell
him to the Ishmaelites
and not
lay
a hand on him;
for
he
is our brother,
our own flesh.”
And they
agreed.
So when the Midianite
traders
passed by,
his brothers pulled
Joseph
out of
the pit
and sold
him
for twenty shekels
of silver
to the Ishmaelites,
who took
him
to Egypt.
They sent
the robe
of many colors
to
their father
and said,
“We found
this.
Examine it
to see whether
it is
your son’s
robe
or
not.”
His father recognized it
and said,
“It is my son’s
robe!
A vicious
animal
has devoured him.
Joseph
has surely been torn to pieces!”
All
his sons
and daughters
tried to comfort him,
but he refused
to be comforted.
“No,” he said.
“I will go down
to Sheol
mourning
for
my son.”
So his father
wept
for him.
Meanwhile, the Midianites
sold
Joseph
in
Egypt
to Potiphar,
an officer
of Pharaoh
and captain
of the guard.