Open English Translation GEN Chapter 37

37 Yisra’el (Israel/Yacob/Jacob) lived in the area where his father Yitshak had stayed, in the Canaan region. 2 This is the record of his descendants:

When Yosef (Joseph) was seventeen, he was shepherding the flocks with his brothers. He was younger than his brothers who were the sons of his father’s slave wives Bilhah and Zilpah. One day Yosef gave a tell-tale bad report about them to their father.

3 Now Yisra’el loved Yosef more than all of his other sons because he was born to him when he was already old, so he made a multicoloured robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved Yosef more than all of his brothers, they hated him and couldn’t make themselves say anything nice to him.

5 One night Yosef had a dream, and he told his brothers about it, but that made them hate him even more. 6 He told them, “Please listen about this dream that I had: 7 See, we were tying up bundles of grain stalks in the middle of a field, and wow, my bundle got up and stood upright. Then would you believe it, your bundles gathered around and bowed down to my one.”

8 “Will you really reign over us?” his brothers retorted. “Do you think you’ll really rule over us?” So they continued to hate him even more because of his dreams and because of what he said.

9 Then Yosef had another dream, and again he told his brothers, “Listen, I had another dream, and wow, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

10 When he told his father and his brothers, his father scolded him, “What’s this dream that you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come to bow down to the ground to you?” 11 Consequently his brothers envied him, but his father kept pondering it.[ref]

12 Sometime after that, Yosef’s brothers went to shepherd their father’s flocks near Shekem. 13 One day, Yisra’el said to Yosef, “Aren’t your brothers away shepherding near Shekem? Come we’ll get some supplies and I’ll send you to them.”

“Sure,” Yosef replied.

14 Then he told him, “Please go and see how your brothers are doing and the flocks as well, then come and let me know.”

So he sent Yosef off from the Hebron valley, and he went to Shekem. 15 When he got there, a man noticed him wandering around the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

16 “I’m looking for my brothers,” he answered. “Please tell me where they’re looking after our flocks.”

17 “They’ve left here,” the man responded. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ”

So Yosef continued on after his brothers and found them at Dotan, 18 but they saw him from a distance and before he got close to them, they made plans among themselves to kill him. 19 “Look, that master dreamer is coming,” they said to each other. 20 “Here’s our chance to kill him and throw his body into one of the pits around here. We’ll say that a wild animal attacked him. Then we’ll see what his dreams turn into.”

21 But Reuben heard what they were saying, and he tried to rescue Yosef by insisting, “Let’s not take his life.” 22 “Don’t shed blood,” he continued. “Throw him into that pit in the wilderness, but don’t wound him.” He said this because he was planning to rescue Yosef later and return him home to their father. 23 So when Yosef reached his brothers, they grabbed him and ripped off the coloured robe that he was wearing. 24 Then they took him and dropped him into the pit. (The pit was empty with no water in the bottom).

25 Then they sat down to eat, and a bit later when they looked up, look, there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming towards them. They had left Gilead carrying spices and balm and myrrh on their camels that they were going to take down to Egypt. 26 Then Yehudah (Judah) said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Let’s sell him to these Ishmaelites so we won’t be guilty of killing him. After all, he’s our brother—our own flesh and blood.” And his brothers agreed. 28 So when the Midianite traders came past, the brothers pulled Yosef up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. Then the traders took Yosef onwards with them to Mitsrayim.[ref]

29 Later on, Reuben returned to the pit, but wow, Yosef wasn’t down there, so he tore his clothes in despair 30 and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there. What am I going to do?”

31 Then they slaughtered a young goat and took Yosef’s robe and dipped it in the blood. 32 Then they sent the coloured robe back to their father with this message: “We found this. Please examine whether or not it’s your son’s robe.”

33 Yisra’el recognised it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A wild animal must have eaten him. Yosef was almost certainly torn to pieces.” 34 Then Yacob ripped his clothes and put sackcloth around his waist, and he mourned for his son many days. 35 All his other sons and all his daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “I will go down to my son in the grave mourning.” So his father wept for him.

36 Meanwhile, the Midianites arrived in Egypt and sold him to Potiphar—Far’oh’s captain of the guards.