¹⁷ And the man said, “They have departed from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in ^(A)Dothan.

¹⁸ Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, ^(B)they conspired against him to kill him. ¹⁹ Then they said to one another, “Look, this ^[a]dreamer is coming! ^20 (C)Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”

²¹ But ^(D)Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, “Let us not kill him.” ²² And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father.

²³ So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they ^(E)stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. ²⁴ Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it.

^25 (F)And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of ^(G)Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, ^(H)balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. ²⁶ So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and ^(I)conceal his blood? ²⁷ Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and ^(J)let not our hand be upon him, for he is ^(K)our brother and ^(L)our flesh.” And his brothers listened. ²⁸ Then ^(M)Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, ^(N)and sold him to the Ishmaelites for ^(O)twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

²⁹ Then Reuben returned to the pit, and indeed Joseph was not in the pit; and he ^(P)tore his clothes. ³⁰ And he returned to his brothers and said, “The lad ^(Q)is no more; and I, where shall I go?”

³¹ So they took ^(R)Joseph’s tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood. ³² Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, “We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?”

³³ And he recognized it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. A ^(S)wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces.” ³⁴ Then Jacob ^(T)tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and ^(U)mourned for his son many days. ³⁵ And all his sons and all his daughters ^(V)arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, “For ^(W)I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.

³⁶ Now ^(X)the ^[b]Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

The Brothers Return to Canaan

²⁵ Then Joseph ^(A)gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to ^(B)restore every man’s money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. ^(C)Thus he did for them. ²⁶ So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there. ²⁷ But as ^(D)one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money; and there it was, in the mouth of his sack. ²⁸ So he said to his brothers, “My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!” Then their hearts ^[a]failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?”