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lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
2 This is the account of the family of Jacob.
When Joseph was a young man seventeen years of age, he was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been a son born to him in his old age; and he made a robe of many colours for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.
5 Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 There we were, binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf got up and stood upright, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”
8 His brothers said to him, “Are you really going to reign over us? Are you actually going to rule us?” And they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.
9 Then he had another dream, and he 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.”
10 He told it to his father and his brothers, but his father rebuked him, saying, “What kind of dream is this that you have had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
12 Now his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks near Shechem. 13 Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Come, I am sending you to them.”
“As you wish,” Joseph replied.
14 Then he said to him, “Go now, and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him on his way from the Valley of Hebron.
When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15 a man found him there, wandering around in the fields, and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
16 “I’m looking for my brothers,” he answered. “Can you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”
17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan’.”
So Joseph set out after his brothers, and he found them at Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.
19 They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer. 20 Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a wild animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams!”
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. He said, “Let’s not take his life.” 22 And Reuben said, “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, and don’t lay a hand on him”—because he intended to rescue Joseph from their hands, and take him back to his father.
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the robe of many colours he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty; there was no water in it.
25 Then they sat down to eat a meal, and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm, and myrrh, and they were on their way down to Egypt.
26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother after all, our own flesh,” and they agreed.
28 So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took Joseph to Egypt.
29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is not there! What am I going to do?”
31 So they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood. 32 They took the robe of many colours back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe or not.”
33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A wild animal has devoured him. Joseph has without doubt been torn to pieces.”
34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” And his father wept for him.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.