⁷ They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!

¹⁶ He turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” ¹⁷ He answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” And she said, “If you give me a pledge, until you send it—” ¹⁸ He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, ^(A)“Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him.

^18 (A)Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.

The Contrast of Wisdom and Folly

¹³ And Hazael said, “What is your servant, ^(A)who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Elisha answered, ^(B)“The Lord has shown me that you are to be king over Syria.”

²⁰ Joab answered, “Far be it from me, far be it, that I should ^(A)swallow up or destroy!

²² “The Mighty One, ^(A)God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! ^(B)He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the Lord, do not spare us today ²³ for building an altar to turn away from following the Lord. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself ^(C)take vengeance. ²⁴ No, but we did it from fear that ^(D)in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? ²⁵ For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the Lord.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord. ²⁶ Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, ²⁷ but to be ^(E)a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we ^(F)do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the Lord.”’ ²⁸ And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be ^(G)a witness between us and you.”’ ²⁹ Far be it from us that we should ^(H)rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord ^(I)by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle!”

¹⁸ They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them ^(A)they conspired against him to kill him. ¹⁹ They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. ²⁰ Come now, ^(B)let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.^[a] Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” ²¹ But when ^(C)Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” ²² And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—^(D)that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. ²³ So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, ^(E)the robe of many colors that he wore. ²⁴ And they took him and ^(F)threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵ Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a ^(G)caravan of ^(H)Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing ^(I)gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. ²⁶ Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it ^(J)if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? ²⁷ Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and ^(K)let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. ²⁸ Then ^(L)Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and ^(M)sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels^[b] of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.

²⁹ When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he ^(N)tore his clothes ³⁰ and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy ^(O)is gone, and I, where shall I go?” ³¹ Then they took ^(P)Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. ³² And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.”