(Genesis 37:01 - 37:36)
Jacob took up residence in the land of Canaan where his father Isaac had lived as an immigrant. This is the story of his progeny:
Joseph, although he was only 16 years old, tended the flocks. He worked with his brothers, the sons of his father's concubines Bilhah and Zilpah, but he informed on their misdeeds to his father. Israel loved Joseph more than all his other children, for he was a child of his old age. He had tailored for Joseph a fancy, long-sleeved robe. The other sons noticed how Joseph was always favored above them and came to resent Joseph so much they could hardly speak a civil word to him.
Joseph happened to tell his brothers a dream of his -- which caused them to hate him all the more. "Let me tell you about this dream I had. In it, it seemed we were tying up sheaves of grain in the field. My sheaf stood up straight and tall while your sheaves stood in a circle around mine and bended towards it."
His brothers responded, "Oh, so that means you're going to be our master and rule over us?"
Joseph's dreams and his interpretations of them only serve to increase his brothers' envy and animosity towards him. Nevertheless, he told them about another dream he had.
"In the dream, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were making obeisance to me."
He told this dream not only to his brothers, but to his father, who rebuked him for it. "What is this dream of yours supposed to mean -- that your mother and I and all your brothers are to bow down and pay homage to you?"
His brothers vented their resentment, while his father kept his views to himself.
When the brothers were pasturing their father's flocks in Shechem, Israel said to Joseph, "Aren't your brothers feeding the flocks in Shechem? Well then, I will send you to them."
"I'm willing and ready," Joseph answered.
"Please go there then. Check on your brothers and see how the flocks are getting along. Report back to me on how they're doing."
Joseph set out from the valley of Hebron and arrived at Shechem, where a man noticed him wandering in the fields and asked him what he was looking for.
"I'm seeking my brothers. Can you tell me where they're feeding their flocks?"
The man informed him, "They've left these parts, for I heard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan'."
And so Joseph sought his brothers and found them in Dothan. They observed him approaching from a distance, and even before he drew near, they were conspiring to murder him. They said to one another, "Look, the little dream master comes! Let's do him in, throw his body into some pit, and say that a wild animal killed him. See what will come of his dreams then!"
Reuben heard this, but he suggested a better idea to get rid of Joseph. "Let's not take his life or shed his blood. Instead, let's throw him down a well in the desert. We can thus keep our hands clean." He said this, all the time secretly wanting to rescue Joseph and restore him to his father.
No sooner did Joseph arrive than his brothers stripped off his fancy robe and tossed him down a dry, disused well. Afterwards, they sat down to enjoy a meal. Looking out, they espied a passing caravan of Ishmaelites from Midian with camels bearing loads of spices, turpentine, and myrrh to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, "What good is it if we kill our brother and conceal the crime? Why not sell him to these Ishmaelites instead. In that way, we will have no blood on our hands -- for he's still our brother, our flesh and blood." The brothers agreed.
When the merchants from Midian went by, the brothers raised Joseph from the well and for twenty shekels of silver sold him to them; the merchants then carried Joseph off to Egypt.
When Reuben [who did not know what his brothers had done] returned to the well, he found that Joseph was no longer there. He was beside himself and tore his clothes in frustration. He went to his brothers and told them, "The boy's gone! And as for me, where shall I go to find him?"
The brothers took Joseph's robe and dipped it in the blood of a goat kid they had just killed. They sent a messenger to deliver it to their father and to say, "We came upon this robe. Do you know whether or not it belongs to your son?"
Jacob recognized it and lamented, "It's my son's robe, all right. Indeed, some ferocious beast must have slaughtered him. Joseph has doubtlessly been torn to shreds!"
Rending his clothes, Jacob donned sackcloth and mourned his son for an extended period. His sons and daughters all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be consoled. He declared, "I will die mourning for my son and join him in the grave!" And he continued to weep for him.
Meanwhile, the merchants from Midian sold Joseph in Egypt to one Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh and a captain of the guard.
Notes
1. Joseph (who is either 16 or 17 depending upon the source) learns quickly it's a bad idea to show up his older brothers and to flaunt his position as daddy's favorite. With the recitation of his prophetic dreams, he really rubs it in, but gets more than his comeuppance from his brothers, who have already shown themselves to be, for the most part, a gang of murderous sociopaths. Reuben (the one who is fooling around with his step-mother) is, however, soft hearted and doesn't want to go along with the plans of his blood-thirsty brothers. Judah has a little family feeling and also sees there's a buck to be made in getting rid of their obnoxious kid brother.
2. The dreams of Joseph are meant to be interpreted as prophetic, yet there is no indication so far that they come from Jehovah or any divine source. Later, divination from dreams would be condemned.
3. The garment Jacob gives to Joseph is referred to ambiguously in the Hebrew. It is probably best described as a robe, rather than a coat. It is most likely a royal robe, long, with full sleeves, a garment meant for dress wear rather than working attire. Another possible interpretation of the text is familiarly presented in the King James Version, which says, a "coat of many colours," which means it must have been striped or embroidered or decorated in some way. That seems unlikely since embroidery was not used at that time and place and Jacob's people would have had access to few color dyes. The garment is, at any rate, something special. It becomes a symbol of Jacob's favoritism to his youngest son and, in the hands of his brothers, comes to a bad, bloody end.
4. Again we have the caravan of camels, this time bringing trade goods from Arabia to Egypt. Again it must be mentioned that camels would not be used as beasts of burden for more than a thousand years after this narrative.
5. There are two possible interpretations of the story of Joseph's being sold into slavery. The first narrative: Joseph's brothers decided to sell him to Ishmaelite merchants. Midianite merchants, though, find Joseph, take him out of the well and it is they who sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites. Reuben goes to the well to take Joseph out in accordance with his brothers' plan and finds him gone. A second version is that Joseph's brothers take him out of the well and make the sale to the Ishmaelite merchants, who are the same as the Midianites. The second version is more plausible. Two sets of merchants in the story does not seem credible. Ishmaelites and Midianites are not the same people (although in much later times, some of the Ishmaelites, who were ancestors of the Arabs, would be absorbed by the Midians), but what is meant here is perhaps Ishmaelites dwelling in the land of Midian. If Joseph was not found, the brothers would have no way of knowing that the merchants had sold him. They would likely think he had escaped and would go out to look for him. They would not assume he was forever gone and send the bloody robe to their father to convince him of Joseph's death. The second version, though, assumes that Reuben was not privy to his brother's plans concerning selling Joseph. This is consistent with the story since it was already made clear he disapproved of his brothers' plans to murder him and wanted to spare Joseph. The brothers may have failed to inform Reuben they had sold Joseph so they wouldn't have had to give him his share of the 20 shekels.
6. Twenty shekels was the standard price for a slave of Joseph's age. This would be about 8 ounces of silver, not, it would seem, a very considerable amount. In today's money it would be little more than $180. Slaves were cheap in those days!
7. Ishmaelites, if they are truly descendants of Ishmael, would all be 3rd cousins or so of Joseph. Those of his generation would be grandchildren of Ishmael, who might have had a fairly large number of them since he sired twelve sons.
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