1 Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as a sojourner, the land of Canaan.
2 This is the family history of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, used to tend the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. Joseph brought their father a bad report about them.
3 Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age, and he had a long robe with sleeves made for him.
4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of them, they hated him and could not say a kind word to him.
5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.
6 "Listen to this dream I had," he said to them.
7 "There we were, binding sheaves 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, "So you are going to be king over us? You are actually going to rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and what he said.
9 Then he had yet another dream and told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I have had another dream: this time the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
10 When he told it to his father as well as to his brothers, his father reproved him and said, "What kind of dream is this you have had? Are your mother and I and your brothers really going to 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 Some time later his brothers went to graze their father's flock near Shechem.
13 Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers are grazing the flock near Shechem, are they not? Come, I am going to send you to them." "I am ready," he replied.
14 So Israel said to him, "Go and see how your brothers are doing and how the flock is doing, and bring me back word." He sent him off from the Valley of Hebron, and Joseph came to Shechem.
15 A man came upon him wandering about in the countryside and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
16 "I am looking for my brothers," he said. "Can you tell me where they are grazing their flock?"
17 The man said, "They have left this place; I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went on after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
18 They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them they plotted to kill him.
19 "Look, here comes that master of dreams!" they said to one another.
20 "Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can say a wild animal ate him. Then we will see what becomes of his dreams!"
21 But when Reuben heard this, he rescued him from their hands. "Let us not take his life," he said.
22 "Do not shed any blood," Reuben told them. "Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him." He meant to rescue him from them and bring him back to his father.
23 So when Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves he was wearing,
24 took him, and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 Then they sat down to eat their meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels loaded with gum, balm, and myrrh, which they were taking down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, "What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood?
27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers agreed.
28 So when the Midianite traders came by, they pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the cistern, and they sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
29 When Reuben came back to the cistern and found that Joseph was not in it, he tore his clothes.
30 He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy is not there! And I, where can I turn now?"
31 Then they took Joseph's robe, killed a male goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.
32 They sent the long robe with sleeves on its way, and it was brought to their father with the message, "We found this. See whether it is your son's robe or not."
33 He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some wild animal has eaten him; Joseph has been torn to pieces, without a doubt!"
34 Jacob tore his clothes, wrapped sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son a long time.
35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he would not be comforted. "No," he said, "I will go down to Sheol to my son in mourning." And his father wept for him.
36 Meanwhile the Medanites had sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.