Study Desk

Then his brothers went to pasture their father's flock in Shechem.

Then the man said, "They have journeyed from here; for I heard them saying, ‘Let us go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

So now, come and let us kill him and cast him into one of the pits; and we will say, ‘A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!"

But Reuben heard this and delivered him out of their hands and said, "Let us not strike down his life."

Reuben further said to them, "Shed no blood. Cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not put forth your hands against him"—that he might deliver him out of their hands to return him to his father.

Now it happened, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him;

And Judah said to his brothers, "What gain is it that we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers listened.

Then Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he tore his garments.

Then he returned to his brothers and said, "The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?"

So Jacob tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.

Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, "Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son." So his father wept for him.

Now it happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

Then Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

And Onan knew that the seed would not be his; and it happened that when he went in to his brother's wife, he wasted it on the ground in order not to give seed to his brother.

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up"; for he thought, "I am afraid lest he also die like his brothers." So Tamar went and lived in her father's house.

And after a considerable time, Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died. Then Judah was comforted, and he went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

Then it was told to Tamar, "Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep."

So he turned aside to her by the road and said, "Here now, let me come in to you"; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, "What will you give me, that you may come in to me?"

Then Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite to take the pledge from the woman's hand, but he did not find her.