Genesis 37:1–20

JOSEPH’S DREAMS

37Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.^{c 2}These are the family records of Jacob.

At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives,^d and he brought a bad report about them to their father.^e

³Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age,^f and he made a long-sleeved robe for him. ⁴When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.

⁵Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”^a

⁸“Are you really going to reign over us?” his brothers asked him. “Are you really going to rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.

⁹Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

¹⁰He told his father and brothers, and his father rebuked him. “What kind of dream is this that you have had?” he said. “Am I and your mother and your brothers really going to come and bow down to the ground before you?” ¹¹His brothers were jealous of him,^b but his father kept the matter in mind.^c

JOSEPH SOLD INTO SLAVERY

¹²His brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. ¹³Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers, you know, are pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready. I’m sending you to them.”

“I’m ready,” Joseph replied.

¹⁴Then Israel said to him, “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the Hebron^d Valley, and he went to Shechem.

¹⁵A man found him there, wandering in the field, and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

¹⁶“I’m looking for my brothers,” Joseph said. “Can you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”

¹⁷“They’ve moved on from here,” the man said. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ”^e So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

¹⁸They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.^{f 19}They said to one another, “Oh, look, here comes that dream expert!^{A 20}So now, come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits.^B We can say that a vicious animal ate him. Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”