Joseph’s Dreams
Genesis 37Jacob lived in the land of his father had stayed, in the land of Canaan. This is the history of the generations of Jacob.
Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought an bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made an ornate rob for him. His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him and couldn’t speak peaceably to him.
Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Please y’all, listen to the dream which I have dreamed: There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and y’all’s sheaves came around and bowed down to my sheaf.”
His brothers asked him, “Are you going to reign-reign over us? Will you really rule-rule over us?” They hated him all the more for his dreams and his words. He dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Hey! I dreamed another dream. Picture the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowing down to me.” When he told this to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and saying to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your mother and your brothers come-come and bow down on the land before you?” His brothers envied him, but his father kept this saying in mind.
Joseph Sold by His Brothers
His brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. Israel said to Joseph, “Aren’t your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them.” He said to him, “Here I am.”
He said to him, “Go now and see whether things are well with your brothers, and with the flock. Then bring back word to me.” So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. A certain man found him, while he was wandering in the field. The man asked him, “What are you looking for?”
He said, “I am looking for my brothers. Tell me, please, where they are feeding the flock.”
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. They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes the dreamer! Come now y’all. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say, ‘An vicious animal has devoured him.’ We will see what will become of his dreams.”
Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, “Let’s not take his life.” Reuben said to them, “Y’all must not shed any blood. Y’all throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the ornate tunic that was on him; and they took him, and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it.
They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Y’all come. Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him. Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The merchants brought Joseph into Egypt.
When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph wasn’t in the pit, he tore his clothes. He returned to his brothers, and said, “The child is no more; and I, where will I go?” They took Joseph’s tunic, and killed a male goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood. They took the ornate tunic, and they brought it to their father and said, “We have found this. Examine it, now, and see if it is your son’s tunic or not.”
He recognized it, and said, “It is my son’s tunic. An evil animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn-torn to pieces.” Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “For I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” His father wept for him. The Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard.