Genesis 37–38

Joseph’s Dreams

37Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed,^s the land of Canaan.^t

²This is the account^u of Jacob’s family line.

Joseph,^v a young man of seventeen,^w was tending the flocks^x with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah^y and the sons of Zilpah,^z his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report^a about them.

³Now Israel^b loved Joseph more than any of his other sons,^c because he had been born to him in his old age;^d and he made an ornate^a robe^e for him.^{f 4}When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him^g and could not speak a kind word to him.

⁵Joseph had a dream,^h and when he told it to his brothers,ⁱ they hated him all the more.^{j 6}He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷We were binding sheaves^k of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”^l

⁸His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?”^m And they hated him all the moreⁿ because of his dream and what he had said.

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

¹⁰When he told his father as well as his brothers,^r his father rebuked^s him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”^{t 11}His brothers were jealous of him,^u but his father kept the matter in mind.^v

Joseph Sold by His Brothers

¹²Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem,^{w 13}and Israel^x said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem.^y Come, I am going to send you to them.”

“Very well,” he replied.

¹⁴So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers^z and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.^a

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, ¹⁵a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

¹⁶He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”

¹⁷“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.^b’ ”

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. ¹⁸But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.^c

¹⁹“Here comes that dreamer!^d” they said to each other. ²⁰“Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns^e and say that a ferocious animal^f devoured him.^g Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”^h

²¹When Reubenⁱ heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said.^{j 22}“Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern^k here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.^l

²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe^m he was wearing—²⁴and they took him and threw him into the cistern.ⁿ The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites^o coming from Gilead.^p Their camels were loaded with spices, balm^q and myrrh,^r and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.^s

²⁶Judah^t said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?^{u 27}Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother,^v our own flesh and blood.^w” His brothers agreed.

²⁸So when the Midianite^x merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern^y and sold^z him for twenty shekels^b of silver^a to the Ishmaelites,^b who took him to Egypt.^c

²⁹When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.^{d 30}He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”^e

³¹Then they got Joseph’s robe,^f slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.^{g 32}They took the ornate robe^h back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

³³He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animalⁱ has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”^j

³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes,^k put on sackcloth^l and mourned for his son many days.^{m 35}All his sons and daughters came to comfort him,ⁿ but he refused to be comforted.^o “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son^p in the grave.^q” So his father wept for him.

³⁶Meanwhile, the Midianites^cr sold Joseph^s in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.^t

Judah and Tamar

38At that time, Judah^u left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam^v named Hirah.^{w 2}There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua.^x He married her and made love to her; ³she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er.^{y 4}She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan.^{z 5}She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah.^a It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.

⁶Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.^{b 7}But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight;^c so the Lord put him to death.^d

⁸Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.”^{e 9}But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. ¹⁰What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.^f

¹¹Judah then said to his daughter-in-law^g Tamar,^h “Live as a widow in your father’s householdⁱ until my son Shelah^j grows up.”^k For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.

¹²After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua,^l died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah,^m to the men who were shearing his sheep,ⁿ and his friend Hirah the Adullamite^o went with him.

¹³When Tamar^p was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”^{q 14}she took off her widow’s clothes,^r covered herself with a veil^s to disguise herself, and then sat down^t at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah.^u For she saw that, though Shelah^v had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute,^w for she had covered her face. ¹⁶Not realizing^x that she was his daughter-in-law,^y he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”^z

“And what will you give me to sleep with you?”^a she asked.

¹⁷“I’ll send you a young goat^b from my flock,” he said.

“Will you give me something as a pledge^c until you send it?” she asked.

¹⁸He said, “What pledge should I give you?”

“Your seal^d and its cord, and the staff^e in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.^{f 19}After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes^g again.

²⁰Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite^h in order to get his pledgeⁱ back from the woman, but he did not find her. ²¹He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute^j who was beside the road at Enaim?”

“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.

²²So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’ ”

²³Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has,^k or we will become a laughingstock.^l After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”

²⁴About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”

Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”^m

²⁵As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”ⁿ

²⁶Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I,^o since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.^p” And he did not sleep with her again.

²⁷When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.^{q 28}As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife^r took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist^s and said, “This one came out first.” ²⁹But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out,^t and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez.^{au 30}Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist,^v came out. And he was named Zerah.^bw