37 ¶ And Jacob dwelt in the land in which his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.

² These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colours.

⁴ And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him.

⁵ ¶ And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren; and they hated him yet the more.

⁶ And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:

⁷ For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to my sheaf.

⁸ And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words.

⁹ And he dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brethren, saying, Behold, I have dreamed another dream; and, behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me.

¹⁰ And he told it to his father and to his brethren; and his father reprehended him and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

¹¹ And his brethren envied him; but his father kept the word.

¹² ¶ And his brethren went to feed their father’s sheep in Shechem.

¹³ And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the sheep in Shechem? Come and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.

¹⁴ And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it is well with thy brethren and well with the sheep and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

¹⁵ And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field; and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?

¹⁶ And he said, I seek my brethren; tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.

¹⁷ And the man said, They are departed from here; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan.

¹⁸ And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.

¹⁹ And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer comes;

²⁰ now therefore, come and let us slay him and cast him into a cistern, and we will say, Some evil beast has devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

²¹ When Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands and said, Let us not kill him.

²² And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood but cast him into this cistern that is in the wilderness and lay no hand upon him that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again.

²³ ¶ And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him;

²⁴ and they took him and cast him into the cistern; and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.

²⁵ And they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing aromas and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.

²⁶ Then Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?

²⁷ Come and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.

²⁸ And when the Midianite merchantmen passed by, they took and lifted up Joseph out of the cistern and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt.

²⁹ And Reuben returned unto the cistern; and, behold, Joseph was not inside, and he rent his clothes.

³⁰ And he returned unto his brethren and said, The young man is not; and I, where shall I go?

³¹ ¶ Then they took Joseph’s coat and killed a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood;

³² and they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father and said, We have found this, recognize now whether it is thy son’s coat or not.

³³ And he knew it and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.

³⁴ Then Jacob rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days.

³⁵ And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.

³⁶ And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s and captain of the guard.