Genesis 37–50

37TH CHAPTER

Joseph’s Brothers Sell Him into Slavery

¹Jacob continued to live in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived. 

²This is the account of Jacob and his descendants. 

Joseph was a seventeen-year-old young man. He took care of the flocks with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph told his father about the bad things his brothers were doing. 

³Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because Joseph had been born in Israel’s old age. So he made Joseph a special robe with long sleeves. ⁴Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them. They hated Joseph and couldn’t speak to him on friendly terms. 

⁵Joseph had a dream and when he told his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶He said to them, “Please listen to the dream I had. ⁷We were tying grain into bundles out in the field, and suddenly mine stood up. It remained standing while your bundles gathered around my bundle and bowed down to it.” 

⁸Then his brothers asked him, “Are you going to be our king or rule us?” They hated him even more for his dreams and his words. 

⁹Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream: I saw the sun, the moon, and 11 stars bowing down to me.” 

¹⁰When he told his father and his brothers, his father criticized him by asking, “What’s this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers come and bow down in front of you?” ¹¹So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept thinking about these things. 

¹²His brothers had gone to take care of their father’s flocks at Shechem. ¹³Israel then said to Joseph, “Your brothers are taking care of the flocks at Shechem. I’m going to send you to them.” 

Joseph responded, “I’ll go.” 

¹⁴So Israel said, “See how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring some news back to me.” Then he sent Joseph away from the Hebron Valley. 

When Joseph came to Shechem, ¹⁵a man found him wandering around in the open country. “What are you looking for?” the man asked. 

¹⁶Joseph replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they’re taking care of their flocks.” 

¹⁷The man said, “They moved on from here. I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. 

¹⁸They saw him from a distance. Before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. ¹⁹They said to each other, “Look, here comes that master dreamer! ²⁰Let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and say that a wild animal has eaten him. Then we’ll see what happens to his dreams.” 

²¹When Reuben heard this, he tried to save Joseph from their plot. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. ²²“Let’s not have any bloodshed. Put him into that cistern that’s out in the desert, but don’t hurt him.” Reuben wanted to rescue Joseph from them and bring him back to his father. 

²³So when Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his special robe with long sleeves. ²⁴Then they took him and put him into an empty cistern. It had no water in it. 

²⁵As they sat down to eat, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying the materials for cosmetics, medicine, and embalming. They were on their way to take them to Egypt. 

²⁶Judah asked his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up his death? ²⁷Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let’s not hurt him, because he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. 

²⁸As the Midianite merchants were passing by, the brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern. They sold him to the Ishmaelites for eight ounces of silver. The Ishmaelites took him to Egypt. 

²⁹When Reuben came back to the cistern and saw that Joseph was no longer there, he tore his clothes in grief. ³⁰He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! What am I going to do?” 

³¹So they took Joseph’s robe, killed a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. ³²Then they brought the special robe with long sleeves to their father and said, “We found this. You better examine it to see whether it’s your son’s robe or not.” 

³³He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has eaten him! Joseph must have been torn to pieces!” ³⁴Then, to show his grief, Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son a long time. ³⁵All his other sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “No, I will mourn for my son until I die.” This is how Joseph’s father cried over him. 

³⁶Meanwhile, in Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials and captain of the guard. 

38TH CHAPTER

Judah’s Sin with Tamar

¹About that time Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man from Adullam whose name was Hirah. ²There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man whose name was Shua. He married her and slept with her. ³She became pregnant and gave birth to a son named^aEr. ⁴She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son, whom she named Onan. ⁵Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son, whom she named Shelah. He was born at Kezib. 

⁶Judah chose a wife for his firstborn son Er. Her name was Tamar. ⁷Er angered the Lord. So the Lord took away his life. ⁸Then Judah said to Onan, “Go sleep with your brother’s widow. Do your duty for her as a brother-in-law, and produce a descendant for your brother.” ⁹But Onan knew that the descendant wouldn’t belong to him, so whenever he slept with his brother’s widow, he wasted his semen on the ground to avoid giving his brother a descendant. ¹⁰What Onan did angered the Lord so much that the Lord took away Onan’s life too. 

¹¹Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Return to your father’s home. Live as a widow until my son Shelah grows up.” He thought that this son, too, might die like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father’s home. 

¹²After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah from Adullam went to Timnah where the men were shearing Judah’s sheep. ¹³As soon as Tamar was told that her father-in-law was on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep, ¹⁴she took off her widow’s clothes, covered her face with a veil, and disguised herself. Then she sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. (She did this because she realized that Shelah was grown up now, and she hadn’t been given to him in marriage.) 

¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. ¹⁶Since he didn’t know she was his daughter-in-law, he approached her by the roadside and said, “Come on, let’s sleep together!” 

She asked, “What will you pay to sleep with me?” 

¹⁷“I’ll send you a young goat from the flock,” he answered. 

She said, “First give me something as a deposit until you send it.” 

¹⁸“What should I give you as a deposit?” he asked. 

“Your signet ring, its cord, and the shepherd’s staff that’s in your hand,” she answered. 

So he gave them to her. Then he slept with her, and she became pregnant. ¹⁹After she got up and left, she took off her veil and put her widow’s clothes back on. 

²⁰Judah sent his friend Hirah to deliver the young goat so that he could get back his deposit from the woman, but his friend couldn’t find her. ²¹He asked the men of that area, “Where’s that prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?” 

“There’s no prostitute here,” they answered. 

²²So he went back to Judah and said, “I couldn’t find her. Even the men of that area said, ‘There’s no prostitute here.’ ” 

²³Then Judah said, “Let her keep what I gave her, or we’ll become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you couldn’t find her.” 

²⁴About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has been acting like a prostitute. What’s more, because of it she’s pregnant.” 

Judah ordered, “Bring her out to be burned.” 

²⁵As she was brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law, “I’m pregnant by the man who owns these things. See if you recognize whose signet ring, cord, and shepherd’s staff these are.” 

²⁶Judah recognized them and said, “She’s not guilty. I am! She did this because I haven’t given her my son Shelah.” Judah never made love to her again. 

²⁷The time came for Tamar to give birth, and she had twin boys. ²⁸When she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand. The midwife took a piece of red yarn, tied it on his wrist, and said, “This one came out first.” ²⁹As he pulled back his hand, his brother was born. So she said, “Is this how you burst into the world!” He was named Perez ^[Bursting Into^[. ³⁰After that his brother was born with the red yarn on his hand. He was named Zerah ^[Sunrise^[. 

39TH CHAPTER

Joseph in Potiphar’s House

¹Joseph had been taken to Egypt. Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s Egyptian officials and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. 

²The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. He worked in the house of his Egyptian master. ³Joseph’s master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful. ⁴Potiphar liked Joseph so much that he made him his trusted servant. He put him in charge of his household and everything he owned. ⁵From that time on the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s household because of Joseph. Therefore, the Lord’s blessing was on everything Potiphar owned in his house and in his fields. ⁶So he left all that he owned in Joseph’s care. He wasn’t concerned about anything except the food he ate. 

Joseph was well-built and handsome. ⁷After a while his master’s wife began to desire Joseph, so she said, “Come to bed with me.” 

⁸But Joseph refused and said to her, “My master doesn’t concern himself with anything in the house. He trusts me with everything he owns. ⁹No one in this house is greater than I. He’s kept nothing back from me except you, because you’re his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against…