Joseph Sold into Egypt

Joseph is sent from Hebron to find his brothers and report back, and after wandering at Shechem he is directed on to Dothan. His obedience carries him step by step toward them.

S¹²ome time later, Joseph’s brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks near Shechem. ¹³Israel said to him, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them.” ¹⁴Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.” ¹⁵So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. And when Joseph arrived in Shechem, a man found him wandering in the field and asked, “What are you looking for?” ¹⁶“I am looking for my brothers,” Joseph replied. “Can you please tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?” ¹⁷“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

Seeing Joseph from afar, the brothers plot to kill "that dreamer" and bury his future in a pit. Reuben intervenes to spare his life for the moment, and Joseph is stripped and thrown into the empty cistern.

¹⁸Now Joseph’s brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him. ¹⁹“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to one another. ²⁰“Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams!” ²¹When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue Joseph from their hands. “Let us not take his life,” he said. ²²“Do not shed his blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this so that he could rescue Joseph from their hands and return him to his father. ²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe — the robe of many colors he was wearing — ²⁴and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.

While Joseph sits in the pit, Judah turns the moment toward profit rather than bloodshed. The brothers sell Joseph for silver to passing traders, and he is taken toward Egypt.

²⁵And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt. ²⁶Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed. ²⁸So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Reuben returns to find Joseph gone and tears his clothes in alarm. His grief is immediate and helpless.

²⁹When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes, ³⁰returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?”