Coverdale(i)
21 When Ruben herde that, he wolde haue delyuered him out of their handes, & sayde: O let vs not sley a soule.
22 Ruben sayde morouer vnto him: Shed no bloude, but cast him in to this pytt yt is in the wyldernes, & laye ye no hades vpon him. (He wolde haue delyuered him out of their hades, yt he might haue brought him agayne vnto his father.)
23 Whan Ioseph now came to his brethre, they stryped him out of his cote, that partye coloured cote which he had vpon him,
24 & toke him and cast him in to a pytt. But the same pytt was emptye, and no water in it,
25 & they sat them downe to eate. In the meane season they lift vp their eyes, and sawe a copany of Ismaelites comynge from Gilead, with their camels, which bare spyces, balme, and myrre, and were goinge downe into Egipte.
26 Then saide Iuda vnto his brethre: what helpeth it vs, that we sleye oure brother, and hyde his bloude?
27 Come, let vs sell him vnto the Ismaelites, that oure handes be not defyled vpon him, for he is oure brother, oure flesh and bloude. And they herkened vnto him.
28 And as the Madianites marchaunt men wente by, they drew Ioseph out of the pytt, and solde him vnto the Ismaelites (for twetye syluer pens) which brought him in to Egipte.
29 Now whan Ruben came agayne vnto the pytt, & founde not Ioseph therin, he rent his clothes,
30 and came agayne to his brethre and sayde: The lad is not yonder, whyther shal I go?
31 Then toke they Iosephs cote & slewe a goate, and dypped the cote in ye bloude,
32 and sent awaye that partie coloured cote, and caused it be brought vnto their father and sayde: This haue we founde, loke, whether it be thy sonnes coate, or no.
33 But he knewe it, and sayde: It is my sonnes coate, a wicked beast hath deuoured him, a rauyshinge beast hath rauyshed Ioseph.
34 And Iacob rete his clothes, and put a sack cloth aboute his loynes, & mourned for his sonne a longe season.
35 And all his sonnes & doughters came vnto him to coforte him. But he wolde not be coforted, & saide: With sorowe wil I go downe in to the graue vnto my sonne. And his father wepte for him.