Genesis 37-38

Holman Christian Standard Bible

Joseph’s Dreams

37 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.^{(A) 2} These are the family records of Jacob.

At 17 years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives,^(B) and he brought a bad report about them to their father.^(C)

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age,^(D) and he made a robe of many colors^[a] for him. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.

⁵ Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”^(E)

⁸ “Are you really going to reign over us?” his brothers asked him. “Are you really going to rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.

⁹ Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me.”

¹⁰ He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him. “What kind of dream is this that you have had?” he said. “Are your mother and brothers and I going to come and bow down to the ground before you?” ¹¹ His brothers were jealous of him,^(F) but his father kept the matter in mind.^(G)

Joseph Sold into Slavery

¹² His brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. ¹³ Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers, you know, are pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready. I’m sending you to them.”

“I’m ready,” Joseph replied.

¹⁴ Then Israel said to him, “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron,^(H) and he went to Shechem.

¹⁵ A man found him there, wandering in the field, and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

¹⁶ “I’m looking for my brothers,” Joseph said. “Can you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”

¹⁷ “They’ve moved on from here,” the man said. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’”^(I) So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

¹⁸ They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.^{(J) 19} They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer!^{[b] 20} Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal ate him. Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”

²¹ When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from them.^[c] He said, “Let’s not take his life.”^{(K) 22} Reuben also said to them, “Don’t shed blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him”—intending to rescue him from their hands and return him to his father.

²³ When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off his robe, the robe of many colors that he had on. ²⁴ Then they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵ Then they sat down to eat a meal.^(L) They looked up, and there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead.^(M) Their camels were carrying aromatic gum, balsam, and resin, going down to Egypt.^(N)

²⁶ Then Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh,” and they agreed. ²⁸ When Midianite^(O) traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for 20 pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took Joseph to Egypt.^(P)

²⁹ When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.^{(Q) 30} He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?”^{[d] 31} So they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood. ³² They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it. Is it your son’s robe or not?”

³³ His father recognized it. “It is my son’s robe,” he said. “A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces!”^{(R) 34} Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵ All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” And his father wept for him.

³⁶ Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard.

Judah and Tamar

38 At that time Judah left his brothers and settled near an Adullamite^(S) named Hirah. ² There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua; he took her as a wife and slept with her. ³ She conceived and gave birth to a son, and he named him Er.^{(T) 4} She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and named him Onan. ⁵ She gave birth to another son and named him Shelah. It was at Chezib that^[e][f] she gave birth to him.

⁶ Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷ Now Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the Lord’s sight, and the Lord put him to death.^{(U) 8} Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law^(V) and produce offspring for your brother.”^{(W) 9} But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he released his semen on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother. ¹⁰ What he did was evil in the Lord’s sight, so He put him to death also.

¹¹ Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.”^(X) For he thought, “He might die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

¹² After a long time^[g] Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah^(Y) to the sheepshearers. ¹³ Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” ¹⁴ So she took off her widow’s clothes, veiled her face,^(Z) covered herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim,^[h] which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife. ¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

¹⁶ He went over to her and said, “Come, let me sleep with you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.^(AA)

She said, “What will you give me for sleeping with me?”

¹⁷ “I will send you a young goat from my flock,” he replied.

But she said, “Only if you leave something with me until you send it.”

¹⁸ “What should I give you?” he asked.

She answered, “Your signet ring, your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she got pregnant by him. ¹⁹ She got up and left, then removed her veil and put her widow’s clothes back on.

²⁰ When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get back the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her. ²¹ He asked the men of the place, “Where is the cult prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”

“There has been no cult prostitute here,” they answered.

²² So the Adullamite returned to Judah, saying, “I couldn’t find her, and furthermore, the men of the place said, ‘There has been no cult prostitute here.’”

²³ Judah replied, “Let her keep the items for herself; otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send this young goat, but you couldn’t find her.”

²⁴ About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law, Tamar, has been acting like a prostitute, and now she is pregnant.”

“Bring her out!” Judah said. “Let her be burned to death!”^(AB)

²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent her father-in-law this message: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Examine them. Whose signet ring, cord, and staff are these?”

²⁶ Judah recognized them and said, “She is more in the right^[i] than I,^(AC) since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her intimately again.

²⁷ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb. ²⁸ As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand, and the midwife took it and tied a scarlet thread around it, announcing, “This one came out first.” ²⁹ But then he pulled his hand back, and his brother came out. Then she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez.^{[j](AD) 30} Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread tied to his hand, came out, and was named Zerah.^[k]