⁷ And they said to him, “Why does my lord say these words? Far be it from us that your servants should do such a thing.

¹⁶ Then he turned to her by the way, and said, “Please let me come in to you”; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.

So she said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”

¹⁷ And he said, ^(A)“I will send a young goat from the flock.”

So she said, ^(B)“Will you give me a pledge till you send it?”

¹⁸ Then he said, “What pledge shall I give you?”

So she said, ^(C)“Your signet and cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” Then he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him.

Prayer Requested

^18 (A)Pray for us; for we are confident that we have ^(B)a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably.

The Value of Practical Wisdom

The Value of a Good Name

¹³ So Hazael said, “But what ^(A)is your servant—a dog, that he should do this gross thing?”

And Elisha answered, ^(B)“The Lord has shown me that you will become king over Syria.”

²⁰ And Joab answered and said, “Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy!

²² “The Lord ^(A)God of gods, the Lord God of gods, He ^(B)knows, and let Israel itself know—if it is in rebellion, or if in treachery against the Lord, do not save us this day. ²³ If we have built ourselves an altar to turn from following the Lord, or if to offer on it burnt offerings or grain offerings, or if to offer peace offerings on it, let the Lord Himself ^(C)require an account. ²⁴ But in fact we have done it ^[a]for fear, for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your descendants may speak to our descendants, saying, “What have you to do with the Lord God of Israel? ²⁵ For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between you and us, you children of Reuben and children of Gad. You have no part in the Lord.” So your descendants would make our descendants cease fearing the Lord.’ ²⁶ Therefore we said, ‘Let us now prepare to build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, ²⁷ but that it may be ^(D)a ^[b]witness between you and us and our generations after us, that we may ^(E)perform the service of the Lord before Him with our burnt offerings, with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your descendants may not say to our descendants in time to come, “You have no part in the Lord.” ’ ²⁸ Therefore we said that it will be, when they say this to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say, ‘Here is the replica of the altar of the Lord which our fathers made, though not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between you and us.’ ²⁹ Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord, and turn from following the Lord this day, ^(F)to build an altar for burnt offerings, for grain offerings, or for sacrifices, besides the altar of the Lord our God which is before His tabernacle.”

¹⁸ Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, ^(A)they conspired against him to kill him. ¹⁹ Then they said to one another, “Look, this ^[a]dreamer is coming! ^20 (B)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 ^(C)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 ^(D)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 (E)And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of ^(F)Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, ^(G)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 ^(H)conceal his blood? ²⁷ Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and ^(I)let not our hand be upon him, for he is ^(J)our brother and ^(K)our flesh.” And his brothers listened. ²⁸ Then ^(L)Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, ^(M)and sold him to the Ishmaelites for ^(N)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 ^(O)tore his clothes. ³⁰ And he returned to his brothers and said, “The lad ^(P)is no more; and I, where shall I go?”

³¹ So they took ^(Q)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?”