Genesis 37

VIN^{(i) 1} Jacob lived in the land of his father's travels, in the land of Canaan. ² These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, a son of seventeen years, came tending the flock with his brothers. And he was a youth with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought to his father an evil report of them. ³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colours. ⁴ When his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak one kind word unto him. ⁵ Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him all the more. ⁶ He said: "Please listen to the dream I had. ⁷ for look, we were binding sheaves in the field, and look, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and look, your sheaves came around, and bowed down to my sheaf." ⁸ And his brothers said to him, Shall you indeed reign over us, or shall you really rule over us? And they hated him still more because of his dreams, and because of his words. ⁹ Joseph had another dream and told his brothers: "I had another dream, in which I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to me." ¹⁰ And he told it to his father and to his brothers. And his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the ground to you?" ¹¹ And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. ¹² And his brothers went to feed their father’s flocks in Shechem. ¹³ And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come and I will send you to them. And he said to him, Here I am. ¹⁴ Then he said to him, "Go now, see if it goes well for your brothers and for the flock, then return word to me." And he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he arrived at Shechem. ¹⁵ And a man saw him wandering in the country, and said to him, What are you looking for? ¹⁶ He said, "I am looking for my brothers. Tell me, please, where they are feeding the flock." ¹⁷ The man said, “They have left here, for I heard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan.'” Joseph went after his brothers, and found them in Dothan. ¹⁸ And they saw him from a distance. And before he came near to them, they plotted against him, to kill him. ¹⁹ They said one to another, "Look, this dreamer comes. ²⁰ And now go, and we will kill him and fling him into one of the cisterns and say, `An evil animal devoured him,' and see will we what will become of his dreams. ²¹ Reuben heard this and tried to protect Joseph from them. »Let us not kill him,« he said. ²² And Reuben said to them, Do not shed blood. Throw him into this pit in the desert, but do not lay a hand on him; so that he might deliver him from their hands, to return him to his father. ²³ So when Joseph came to his brothers they stripped him of the variegated robe which he had on ²⁴ and they took him and cast him into the cistern; and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. ²⁵ As they sat down to eat, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying the materials for cosmetics, medicine, and embalming. They were on their way to take them to Egypt. ²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? ²⁷ "Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let us not hurt him, because he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed. ²⁸ Some of the Midianite traders approached. The brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites. They took him to Egypt. ²⁹ Reuben returned to the pit; and saw that Joseph wasn't in the pit; and he tore his clothes. ³⁰ He went back to his brothers, and said, The child is gone; what am I to do? ³¹ Then they took the robe of Joseph and slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. ³² They took the robe to their father and said: "We found this. Does it belong to your son?" ³³ He recognized it, and said, "It is my son's coat. An evil animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces." ³⁴ Then Jacob rent his cloaths and put on sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵ And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down to the grave to my son mourning. And his father wept for him ³⁶ (37:35) And the Midianites sold Joseph into Egypt; to Potiphar, Pharaoh's eunuch, the captain of the guard.