Study Desk

Then they journeyed from Bethel; and there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and Rachel gave birth, and she suffered severely in her labor.

For their possessions had become too great for them to live together, and the land where they sojourned could not sustain them because of their livestock.

And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and so they hated him and could not speak to him in peace.

Then Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; so they hated him even more.

Then his brothers said to him, "Are you really going to reign over us? Or are you really going to rule over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

And he said, "I am seeking my brothers; please tell me where they are pasturing the flock."

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.

And they saw him from a distance, and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death.

and they took him and cast him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it.

And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted up their eyes and saw, and behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, going to bring them down to Egypt.

Then some Midianite traders passed by, so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt.

So they took Joseph's tunic and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood;

and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, "We found this; please recognize it—whether it is your son's tunic or not."

And the captain of the bodyguard appointed Joseph as overseer over them, and he attended to them; and they were in confinement for some time.

Now Joseph came to them in the morning and saw them, and behold, they were dejected.

Then they said to him, "We have had a dream, and there is no one to interpret it." Then Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Recount it to me, please."

For I was in fact stolen from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing that they should have put me into the pit."

And behold, from the Nile there came up seven cows, sleek and fat; and they grazed in the reeds.

Then behold, seven other cows came up after them from the Nile, ugly and thin, and they stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile.

Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, and they rushed him out of the pit; and he shaved himself and changed his clothes, and he came to Pharaoh.