42 S Genesis 37:15
the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley
of Hebron.
When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15 a man found him wandering around in
the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are
grazing their flocks?”
17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I h
eard them say,
‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ”
So Joseph went after his brothers and f ound them near Dothan. 18 But they
saw him in the distance, and before he r eached them, they plotted to kill him.
19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, l et’s
kill him and t hrow him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious an
imal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s
not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern
here in the wilderness, but d
on’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to res
cue him from them and take him back to his father.
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they s tripped him of his robe — the
ornate robe he was wearing — 24 and they took him and threw him into the
cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 As they sat down to eat t heir meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of
Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm
and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and
cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our
hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own f lesh and b
lood.” His broth
ers agreed.
28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers p
ulled Joseph up
out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels a of silver to the Ishmaelites,
who took him to Egypt.
29 When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there,
he tore his c lothes. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy i sn’t
there! Where can I turn now?”
31 Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and d
ipped the robe
in the b
lood. 32 They took the ornate robe back to t heir father and said, “We
found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”
33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has
devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”
34 Then Jacob tore his c lothes, put on sackcloth and m
ourned for his son
many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused
to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son
in the grave.” So his father wept for him.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianites b sold Joseph in Egypt to Poti p
har, one of Phar
aoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
Judah and Tamar
38
At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man
of Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaan
ite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; 3 she became preg
nant and gave b
irth to a son, who was n
amed Er. 4 She conceived a
gain and
gave birth to a son and named him Onan. 5 She gave birth to still another son
and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.
6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Ju
dah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.
8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your
duty to her as a brother-in-law to r aise up offspring for your brother.” 9 But
Onan knew that the c hild would not be his; so whenever he s lept with his
a 28
That is, about 8 ounces or about 230 grams b 36 Samaritan Pentateuch,
Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac (see also verse 28); Masoretic Text Medanites