Joseph’s brothers try to kill him

Joseph’s brothers took care of their father’s sheep. Sometimes they had to travel far away from where they lived to find good grazing for the sheep. On this occasion, they had taken the sheep to graze near a place called Shechem. Jacob sent Joseph to them to find out how they were doing. When Joseph arrived in Shechem, his brothers had already moved on to a place called Dothan. Joseph continued his journey to find his bothers. The brothers saw Joseph coming when he was still far away. They weren’t happy to see Joseph. His brothers hated him so much that they made plans to kill him.

“Let’s kill the dreamer!” they said. “Then we’ll see if his dreams come true!” They decided to kill him and throw him in an empty well. But Reuben, Joseph’s oldest brother, didn’t want to kill Joseph. He tried to save his life. He said to his brothers, “Don’t kill him. Just throw him in the well.”

His plan was that he would come back later and save Joseph. When Joseph reached his brothers, they took his beautiful robe and threw him into an empty well. Then they sat down to eat. While they were eating, they saw traders travelling to Egypt. “Let’s sell Joseph to the traders!” Judah, one of Joseph’s brothers, said. So the brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him to the traders. Then they killed a goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in the blood. They took the robe back to their father and told him they found it lying on the ground. “That is Joseph’s robe!” Jacob said. “A wild animal must have killed him!” Jacob was very sad. His other children tried to comfort him, but he remained sad. “I will miss Joseph until the day I die,” he said. Genesis 37:12–36