Jacob continued to dwell in the land of Canaan where his father had lived as a working foreigner. This is Jacob’s history. When Joseph was 17 years old, the young man was tending the flock of the sheep with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, the wives of his father. And Joseph brought a bad report about them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons because he was the son of his old age, and he had a special robe made for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they began to dislike him, and they could not speak kindly to him.
Later Joseph had a dream and told it to his brothers, and they found further reason to hate him. He said to them: “Please listen to this dream that I had. There we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field when my sheaf got up and stood erect and your sheaves encircled and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him: “Are you really going to make yourself king for the whole world over us?” After that he had still another dream, and he related it to his brothers: “I have had another dream. This time the sun and the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me.” Then he related it to his father as well as his brothers, and his father rebuked him and said to him: “What is the meaning of this dream of yours? Am I as well as your mother and your brothers really going to come and bow down to the earth to you?” And his brothers grew more jealous of him, but his father kept Joseph’s saying in his mind.
His brothers now went to pasture their father’s flock near Sheʹchem. Israel later said to Joseph: “Your brothers are tending flocks near Sheʹchem, are they not? Come, and let me send you to them.” At this he said to him: “I am ready!” So he said to him: “Go and see whether your brothers are well. See how the flock is and bring word back to me.” With that he sent him away from the valley of Hebron, and he went on toward Sheʹchem. Later a man found him as he was wandering in a field. The man asked him: “What are you searching for?” To this he said: “I am looking for my brothers. Please tell me, where are they tending flocks?” 17 The man continued: “They have pulled away from here, for I heard them saying, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
Now they caught sight of him from a distance, and before he reached them, they began plotting against him to put him to death. 19 So they said to one another: “Look! Here comes that dreamer.+ 20 Come, now, let us kill him and pitch him into one of the water pits, and we will say that a vicious wild animal devoured him. Then let us see what will become of his dreams.” 21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from them. So he said: “Let us not take his life.” When Reuben heard this matter, he said to them, “Do not shed blood. Throw him into this waterpot in the wilderness, but do not cause him any harm.” His purpose was to rescue him from them in order to return him to his father. So as soon as Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his robe, the special robe that he wore, and they took him and threw him into the water pit. No water came out of the pit inside.
Then they sat down to eat. When they looked up, there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying labdanum gum, balsam, and resinous bark, and they were on their way down to Egypt. At this Judah said to his brothers: “What profit will it be if we killed our brother to cover over his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and do not let our hand be upon him. After all, he is our brother, our flesh.” So they listened to their brother. And when the Midianite merchants were walking by, they lifted Joseph up out of the water pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. These men took Joseph into Egypt. Later when Reuben returned to the water pit and saw that Joseph wasn’t in there, he tore off his garments. When he returned to his brothers, he exclaimed: “The child is gone! What am I supposed to do?” So they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the robe in the blood. After that they sent the special robe to their father and said: “This is what we found out when we walked through. Please examine whether this is your son’s robe or not.” Then he examined it and exclaimed: “It is my son’s robe! A fierce wild animal must have eaten him up! Joseph is surely ripped!” With that Jacob ripped his garments apart and put sackcloth around his waist and mourned his son for many days. And all his sons and all his daughters kept trying to comfort him, but he kept refusing to take comfort, saying: “I will go down into the grave weeping for my son!” Now the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, a court official of Pharaoh and the chief of the guard.