1And Jacob lived in the land of his father’s residences, in the land of Canaan. 2These are the records of Jacob: Joseph, at seventeen years old, had been tending the sheep with his brothers, and he was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3And Israel had loved Joseph most of all his children because he was a son of old age to him. And he made him a coat of many colors. 4And his brothers saw that their father loved him most of all his brothers. And they hated him. And they were not able to speak a greeting to him.
5And Joseph had a dream and told it to his brothers, and they went on to hate him more. 6And he said to them, “Listen to this dream that I had: 7and here we were binding sheaves in the field; and here was my sheaf rising and standing up, too; and, here, your sheaves surrounded and bowed to my sheaf.”
8And his brothers said to him, “Will you rule over us?! Will you dominate us?!” And they went on to hate him more because of his dreams and because of his words.
9And he had yet another dream and told it to his brothers. And he said, “Here, I’ve had another dream, and here were the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowing to me.” 10And he told it to his father and to his brothers.
And his father was annoyed at him and said to him, “What is this dream that you’ve had? Shall we come, I and your mother and your brothers, to bow to you to the ground?!” “And his brothers were jealous of him, and his father took note of the thing.
12And his brothers went to feed their father’s sheep in Shechem. 13And Israel said to Joseph, “Aren’t your brothers feeding in Shechem? Come on and I’ll send you to them.”
And he said to him, “I’m here.”
14And he said to him, “Go, see how your brothers are and how the sheep are and bring me back word.” And he sent him from the valley of Hebron.
And he came to Shechem. 15And a man found him, and here he was straying in a field. And the man asked him, saying, “What are you looking for?”
16And he said, “I’m looking for my brothers. Tell me, where are they feeding?”
17And the man said, “They traveled on from here. Because I heard them saying, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’”
And Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. 18And they saw him from a distance, and before he came close to them they conspired against him: to kill him. 19And the brothers said to one another, “Here comes the dream-master, that one there! 20And now, come on and let’s kill him and throw him in one of the pits, and we’ll say a wild animal ate him, and we’ll see what his dreams will be!” 21And Reuben heard, and he saved him from their hand. And he said, “Let’s not take his life.” 22And Reuben said to them, “Don’t spill blood. Throw him into this pit that’s in the wilderness, and don’t put out a hand against him”—in order to save him from their hand, to bring him back to his father. 23And it was when Joseph came to his brothers: and they took off Joseph’s coat, the coat of many colors, which he had on. 24And they took him and threw him into the pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it. 25And they sat down to eat bread.
And they raised their eyes and saw, and here was a caravan of Ish-maelites coming from Gilead, and their camels were carrying spices and balsam and myrrh, going to bring them down to Egypt. 26And Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover his blood? 27Come on and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let our hand not be on him, because he’s our brother, our flesh.” And his brothers listened.* 28And Midianite people, merchants, passed, and they pulled and lifted Joseph from the pit. And they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty weights of silver. And they brought Joseph to Egypt.** 29And Reuben came back to the pit, and here: Joseph was not in the pit. And he tore his clothes. 30And he went back to his brothers and said, “The boy’s gone! And I, where can I go?”
3IAnd they took Joseph’s coat and slaughtered a he-goat and dipped the coat in the blood. 32And they sent the coat of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “We found this. Recognize: is it your son’s coat or not?”‡
33And he recognized it and said, “My son’s coat. A wild animal ate him. Joseph is torn up!” 34And Jacob ripped his clothes and wore sackcloth on his hips and mourned over his son many days. 35And all his sons and all his daughters got up to console him, and he refused to be consoled, and he said, “Because I’ll go down mourning to my son at Sheol,” and his father wept for him.
36And the Medanites sold him to Egypt, to Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh, chief of the guards.