³² The descendants of Joseph: the descendants of Ephraim, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war:^(A)

³⁵ These are the descendants of Ephraim according to their clans: of Shuthelah, the clan of the Shuthelahites; of Becher, the clan of the Becherites; of Tahan, the clan of the Tahanites.^{(A) 36} And these are the descendants of Shuthelah: of Eran, the clan of the Eranites. ³⁷ These are the clans of the Ephraimites by the number of those enrolled: thirty-two thousand five hundred. These are the descendants of Joseph by their clans.^(B)

¹⁸ “On the west side shall be the regimental encampment of Ephraim by companies. The leader of the people of Ephraim shall be Elishama son of Ammihud, ¹⁹ with a company as enrolled of forty thousand five hundred.

Jacob Blesses Joseph’s Sons

48 After this Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. ² When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” he^[a] summoned his strength and sat up in bed. ³ And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty^[b] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and he blessed me^{(A) 4} and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers; I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for a perpetual holding.’^{(B) 5} Therefore your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are now mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are.^{(C) 6} As for the offspring born to you after them, they shall be yours. They shall be recorded under the names of their brothers with regard to their inheritance. ⁷ For when I came from Paddan, Rachel, alas, died in the land of Canaan on the way, while there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.”^(D)

⁸ When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” ⁹ Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.”^{(E) 10} Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, and he could not see well. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.^{(F) 11} Israel said to Joseph, “I did not expect to see your face, and here God has let me see your children also.”^{(G) 12} Then Joseph removed them from his father’s knees,^[c] and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. ¹³ Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right, and brought them near him. ¹⁴ But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn.^{(H) 15} He blessed Joseph and said,

¹⁷ When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, so he took his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.^{(K) 18} Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father! Since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.” ¹⁹ But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.”^{(L) 20} So he blessed them that day, saying,

So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. ²¹ Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your ancestors.^{(M) 22} I now give to you one portion^[d] more than to your brothers, the portion^[e] that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”^(N)

²⁰ To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.^(A)

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

39 Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.^{(A) 2} The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; he was in the house of his Egyptian master.^{(B) 3} His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands.^{(C) 4} So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.^{(D) 5} From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field.^{(E) 6} So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and with him there he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate.

Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking. ⁷ And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”^{(F) 8} But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. ⁹ He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”^{(G) 10} And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her. ¹¹ One day, however, when he went into the house to do his work, and while no one else was in the house, ¹² she caught hold of his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside.^{(H) 13} When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, ¹⁴ she called out to the members of her household and said to them, “See, my husband^[a] has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice, ¹⁵ and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.” ¹⁶ Then she kept his garment by her until his master came home, ¹⁷ and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to insult me,^{(I) 18} but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.”

¹⁹ When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, “This is the way your servant treated me,” he became enraged.^{(J) 20} And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; he remained there in prison.^{(K) 21} But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love; he gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.^{(L) 22} The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.^{(M) 23} The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was in Joseph’s care because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.^(N)

Joseph Dreams of Greatness

37 Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan.^{(A) 2} These are the descendants of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. ³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him an ornamented robe.^{[a](B) 4} But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.^(C)

⁵ Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed. ⁷ There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”^{(D) 8} His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.^(E)

⁹ He had another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” ¹⁰ But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?”^{(F) 11} So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.^(G)

Joseph Is Sold by His Brothers

¹² Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. ¹³ And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.” ¹⁴ So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.

He came to Shechem,^{(H) 15} and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” ¹⁶ “I am seeking my brothers,” he said; “tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” ¹⁷ The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.^{(I) 18} They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them they conspired to kill him.^{(J) 19} They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. ²⁰ Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” ²¹ But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.”^{(K) 22} Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. ²³ So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the ornamented robe^[b] that he wore, ²⁴ and they took him and 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 caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.^{(L) 26} Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?^{(M) 27} Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed.^{(N) 28} When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.^(O)

²⁹ When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes.^{(P) 30} He returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where can I turn?”^{(Q) 31} Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood.^{(R) 32} They had the ornamented robe^[c] taken to their father, and they said, “This we have found; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.” ³³ He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”^{(S) 34} Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.^{(T) 35} All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father bewailed him.^{(U) 36} Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.^(V)