³⁹ But He replied to them, An evil and adulterous generation (a generation ^[a]morally unfaithful to God) seeks and demands a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

⁴⁰ For even as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.^(A)

⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, Someone more and greater than Jonah is here!^(B)

⁴² The queen of the South will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, Someone more and greater than Solomon is here.^(C)

⁴³ But when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it roams through dry [arid] places in search of rest, but it does not find any.

⁴⁴ Then it says, I will go back to my house from which I came out. And when it arrives, it finds the place unoccupied, swept, put in order, and decorated.

⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and make their home there. And the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first. So also shall it be with this wicked generation.

⁴⁶ Jesus was still speaking to the people when behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to Him.

^47 [b]Someone said to Him, Listen! Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to You.

⁴⁸ But He replied to the man who told Him, Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?

⁴⁹ And stretching out His hand toward [not only the twelve disciples but all] ^[c]His adherents, He said, Here are My mother and My brothers.

⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother!

37 So Jacob dwelt in the land in which his father had been a stranger and sojourner, in the land of Canaan.

² This is the history of the descendants of Jacob and this is Jacob’s line. Joseph, when he was seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s [secondary] wives; and Joseph brought to his father a bad report of them.

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a [distinctive] long tunic with sleeves.

⁴ But when his brothers saw that their father loved [Joseph] more than all of his brothers, they hated him and could not say, Peace [in friendly greeting] to him or speak peaceably to him.

⁵ Now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him still more.

⁶ And he said to them, Listen now and hear, I pray you, this dream that I have dreamed:

⁷ We [brothers] were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves stood round about my sheaf and bowed down!

⁸ His brothers said to him, Shall you indeed reign over us? Or are you going to have us as your subjects and dominate us? And they hated him all the more for his dreams and for what he said.

⁹ But Joseph dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brothers [also]. He said, See here, I have dreamed again, and behold, [this time not only] eleven stars [but also] the sun and the moon bowed down and did reverence to me!

¹⁰ And he told it to his father [as well as] his brethren. But his father rebuked him and said to him, What is the meaning of this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow down ourselves to the earth and do homage to you?

¹¹ Joseph’s brothers envied him and were jealous of him, but his father observed the saying and pondered over it.

¹² Joseph’s brothers went to shepherd and feed their father’s flock near Shechem.

¹³ [One day] Israel said to Joseph, Do not your brothers shepherd my flock at Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them. And he said, Here I am.

¹⁴ And [Jacob] said to him, Go, I pray you, see whether everything is all right with your brothers and with the flock; then come back and bring me word. So he sent him out of the Hebron Valley, and he came to Shechem.

¹⁵ And a certain man found him, and behold, he had lost his way and was wandering in the open country. The man asked him, What are you trying to find?

¹⁶ And he said, I am looking for my brothers. Tell me, I pray you, where they are pasturing our flocks.

¹⁷ But the man said, [They were here, but] they have gone. I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

¹⁸ And when they saw him far off, even before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him.

¹⁹ And they said one to another, See, here comes this dreamer and master of dreams.

²⁰ So come on now, let us kill him and throw his body into some pit; then we will say [to our father], Some wild and ferocious animal has devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams!

²¹ Now Reuben heard it and he delivered him out of their hands by saying, Let us not kill him.

²² And Reuben said to them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit or well that is out here in the wilderness and lay no hand on him. He was trying to get Joseph out of their hands in order to rescue him and deliver him again to his father.

²³ When Joseph had come to his brothers, they stripped him of his [distinctive] long garment which he was wearing;

²⁴ Then they took him and cast him into the [well-like] pit which was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵ Then they sat down to eat their lunch. When they looked up, behold, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites [mixed Arabians] coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum [of the styrax tree], balm (balsam), and myrrh or ladanum, going on their way to carry them down to Egypt.

²⁶ And Judah said to his brothers, What do we gain if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?

²⁷ Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites [and Midianites, these mixed Arabians who are approaching], and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brothers consented.

²⁸ Then as the Midianite [and Ishmaelite] merchants were passing by, the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the well. And they sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took Joseph [captive] into Egypt.

²⁹ Then Reuben [who had not been there when the brothers plotted to sell the lad] returned to the pit; and behold, Joseph was not in the pit, and he rent his clothes.

³⁰ He rejoined his brothers and said, The boy is not there! And I, where shall I go [to hide from my father]?

³¹ Then they took Joseph’s [distinctive] long garment, killed a young goat, and dipped the garment in the blood;

³² And they sent the garment to their father, saying, We have found this! Examine and decide whether it is your son’s tunic or not.

³³ He said, My son’s long garment! An evil [wild] beast has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.

³⁴ And Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned many days for his son.

³⁵ And all his sons and daughters attempted to console him, but he refused to be comforted and said, I will go down to Sheol (the place of the dead) to my son mourning. And his father wept for him.

³⁶ And the Midianites [and Ishmaelites] sold [Joseph] in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain and chief executioner of the [royal] guard.