Genesis 37
37
Chapter 37
Joseph has dreams about his family
1Jacob lived in Canaan, the land where his father had lived. #37:1 God gave Jacob the new name ‘Israel’. See Genesis 32:28; 35:10. The Bible uses both names for the same person, but here we have used ‘Jacob’.
2This is the report about Jacob and his family.
Joseph was Jacob's son. When he was 17 years old, he was taking care of his father's sheep and goats. He did this together with his brothers. These were the sons of his father's wives, Bilhah and Zilpah. Sometimes Joseph told his father about bad things that his brothers had done.
3Jacob loved Joseph more than he loved any of his other sons. This was because Joseph was born when Jacob was old. So Jacob made a beautiful long robe for Joseph. 4Joseph's brothers knew that Jacob loved him more than he loved them. So they hated Joseph. They could not say anything kind to him.
5One night, Joseph had a dream and he told his brothers about it. When they heard about the dream, Joseph's brothers hated him even more than they did before. 6Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Listen to what happened in my dream. 7We were out in the field tying the crops together into bundles. #37:7 A bundle is many things that people have tied together. Then my bundle stood up. Your bundles stood in a circle round my bundle. And all your bundles bent down to give honour my bundle.’
8Joseph's brothers said to him, ‘Do you really think that you will be like a king and rule over us like that?’ They hated Joseph even more because of what he told them about his dream.
9Then Joseph had another dream and he told his brothers about it. He said, ‘Listen to me. I have had another dream. This is what happened: The sun, the moon and 11 stars bent down in front of me.’
10Joseph also told his father about the dream. Jacob, his father, was angry with him. He said to Joseph, ‘You should not tell us about a dream like that! Do you really think that I, your mother and your brothers will come and bend down in front of you?’ 11Joseph's brothers were very jealous of him. But Jacob thought carefully about what Joseph had said.
12One day, Joseph's brothers had taken their father's sheep to eat grass in the fields. This was near Shechem city. 13Jacob said to Joseph, ‘You know that your brothers have taken my sheep to eat grass near Shechem. I want you to go to them.’
Joseph replied, ‘I am ready to go.’
14So Jacob said to Joseph, ‘Go and see if your brothers are well. See if the sheep have enough grass to eat. Then come back and tell me news about them.’ Then Jacob sent Joseph from Hebron Valley to go to them.
15When Joseph was walking in the fields near Shechem, a man met him. He asked Joseph, ‘What are you looking for?’
16Joseph replied, ‘I am looking for my brothers. They have taken the sheep to eat grass. Please tell me where they are.’
17The man said, ‘They have moved away from here. I heard them say, “We should go to Dothan.” ’
Joseph's brothers sell him
So Joseph went to look for his brothers. He found them at Dothan. 18Joseph's brothers recognized him while he was still far away. Before he reached them, they decided on a way to kill him. 19They said to each other, ‘Here comes the man who likes to dream! 20We will kill him. We can throw him into one of the dry wells. We can tell people that a wild animal ate him. Then his dreams will never become true!’
21When Reuben heard this, he tried to save Joseph from the other brothers. He said, ‘We should not kill him. 22Do not even get his blood on your hands. Just throw him into this dry well here in the wilderness. But do not attack him.’ Reuben said this to save Joseph, so that his brothers would not kill him. Reuben wanted to take Joseph back to his father.
23Joseph reached his brothers. He was wearing his beautiful robe, but they took it off him. 24Then they took hold of Joseph and they threw him into the empty well. It had no water in it.
25Then the brothers sat down to eat their meal. They looked up and they saw a group of Ishmaelites coming towards them. They were coming from Gilead. They had many camels that carried spices and different kinds of oils for medicine. They were taking these things to sell in Egypt.
26Judah said to his brothers, ‘We could kill our brother and then hide his body. But then we will not get anything for ourselves. 27So let us sell him to these Ishmaelites. We do not need to hurt him. We should remember that he is our brother. He is our own relative.’
Judah's brothers agreed with what he said. 28When the Midianite traders came near, Joseph's brothers pulled Joseph out of the dry well. They sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 silver coins. The Ishmaelites took Joseph with them to Egypt.
29Later, Reuben returned to the dry well. He saw that Joseph was not there. He tore his clothes because he was very upset. 30Reuben went back to his brothers. He said to them, ‘The boy is not in the well! What can I do now?’
31Then the brothers killed a goat. They took its blood and they put the blood all over Joseph's robe. 32They took the robe back to their father and they told him, ‘We found this robe. Look at it. Tell us if it is your son's robe.’
33Jacob saw that it was Joseph's robe. He said, ‘It is my son's robe! A wild animal must have eaten him! The animal has torn Joseph's body into pieces.’
34Jacob was so upset that he tore his own clothes. He put on clothes made from sackcloth to show how sad he was. He wept for many days because of what had happened to his son.
35All Jacob's sons and daughters came to comfort him. But Jacob was very sad, so they could not make him happy. Jacob said, ‘I will be sad until the day that I die, because my son is dead.’ Jacob wept because he thought that Joseph was dead.
36While this was happening, the Midianites took Joseph into Egypt. They sold him to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officers. Potiphar had authority over all of Pharaoh's guards.
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Genesis 37: EASY
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Genesis 37
37
Jacob’s son Joseph had dreams
1Jacob lived in Canaan country. That’s the country where his father Isaac used to have his camp.
2This is the story about what happened to Jacob’s family.
Jacob’s son Joseph was 17 years old. And Joseph and his brothers looked after the sheep that belonged to their father Jacob. Joseph used to help 4 of his brothers to look after those sheep. 2 of those brothers were Bilhah’s sons, and the other 2 were Zilpah’s sons. Bilhah and Zilpah were Jacob’s wives.
And Joseph told his father that those 4 brothers were doing bad things.
3Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph was born when Jacob was an old man. So Jacob gave Joseph a special coat.
4Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than them. So they hated Joseph, and they couldn’t talk in a friendly way to him.
5One night, Joseph had a dream. The next day, he told his brothers about his dream, and they hated him even more. 6This is what Joseph told his brothers. He said, “Listen to this dream that I had. 7In my dream, you mob and me, we were out in the place where the wheat plants grow. We were cutting down those wheat plants to get the seeds from them for food. We cut down those wheat plants, and we put them in piles on the ground. Then we tied up those piles. Suddenly, the pile of wheat that I tied up, it got up from the ground, and it stood up straight, like a person. Then those piles of wheat that you mob tied up, they got up too. They went near to my wheat, and they bent down in front of it, to show it respect.”
8Then Joseph’s brothers thought, “That dream that Joseph had, it shows that he wants to be boss over us.” So they said to him, “Do you think that you are going to be a big boss over us? Do you think that you are going to tell us what to do? No way.”
Joseph’s brothers were really angry about Joseph’s dream, and they were angry about those things that he said to them. So then they hated him even more.
9Later on, Joseph had another dream, and the next day, he told his brothers about his dream. He said to them, “Listen, I had another dream. In my dream, the sun, the moon, and 11 stars, they all bent down in front of me, to show me respect.”
10Joseph told his father about that dream too. Then Joseph’s father talked strongly to Joseph. He said, “That is a stupid dream. Do you really think that me and your mother and your brothers, we will all come and bend down in front of you, to show you respect? That will not happen.”
11Joseph’s brothers were really angry with him about those dreams, and they hated him even more.#Acts 7:9 But Joseph’s father kept on thinking about those things that Joseph said.
Joseph’s brothers sold him to the Midian mob
12Jacob and his sons lived in a place called the Valley of Hebron. One day, Joseph’s brothers took their father’s sheep to the place called Shekem, so that the sheep had grass to eat. That place was a long way from Jacob’s camp. All of Joseph’s brothers went there, but Joseph stayed at home with his father Jacob.
13Then Jacob said to Joseph, “Your brothers are looking after my sheep in Shekem. I want you to go there and see how they are going.”
And Joseph said, “Yes, I will go.”
14So Jacob said to him, “Go and find out if everything is good with your brothers, and if everything is good with the sheep. Then come back here and tell me.”
So Joseph left the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shekem. 15When he got to Shekem, he walked around in the grass lands and looked for his brothers. A man saw him and said, “What are you looking for?”
16Joseph said, “I’m looking for my brothers. They came to this place with my father’s sheep. Please, can you tell me where they are?”
17The man said, “Your brothers left this place. I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to the place called Dothan.’ ”
So Joseph left Shekem, and he went to Dothan. He saw his brothers there, and he started to go towards them. 18But Joseph was still a long way away, and his brothers saw him coming. So they talked quickly to each other and made a plan to kill him. 19They said to each other, “Look, there is the young man that has stupid dreams. 20Let’s kill him, and let’s throw his body into one of those big holes in the ground. Then we will tell our father, ‘A wild animal ate Joseph.’ ”
Then they said, “If we kill Joseph, that will show that his dreams are rubbish, and that he will never be boss over us.”
21But Joseph’s oldest brother Reuben, he heard his brothers say those things, and he wanted to save Joseph. So Reuben said, “No. We can’t kill him.”
22Then Reuben said to his brothers, “Don’t murder Joseph. Just chuck him into one of those big holes in the ground, here in the desert. Don’t hurt him yourselves, just leave him there to die.”
You see, Reuben wanted to save Joseph from his brothers. He thought, “Later on, I will pull Joseph out of that hole, and I will take him home to our father.”
23Then Joseph got to his brothers. He was wearing that special coat that his father gave him. So Joseph’s brothers pulled that special coat off him. 24And they grabbed him, and they chucked him into a big hole in the ground. That hole was empty, there wasn’t any water in it.
25Then Joseph’s brothers sat down to eat some food. While they were eating, they looked up, and they saw some men coming towards them with camels. Those men were from the Midian tribe. Their camels were carrying bags on their backs, and those bags had lots of bush medicine and perfumes. Those men were taking those things from Gilead country to Egypt country, to sell them there.
26One of Joseph’s brothers was called Judah. He talked to the rest of his brothers, and he said, “We talked about killing Joseph and tricking our father. But if we kill Joseph, that will be a really bad thing, and we will not get anything for ourselves. 27So let’s not kill him. Let’s sell him to this Midian mob. You know, Joseph is our brother, and we are all in the same family, so we shouldn’t hurt him.”
The rest of Joseph’s brothers agreed to do what Judah said. 28So when that Midian mob got near to them, Joseph’s brothers pulled Joseph out of that hole, and they sold him to the Midian mob for 20 pieces of silver money. Then the Midian mob took Joseph to Egypt country.#Acts 7:9
29Joseph’s brother Reuben was somewhere else, so he didn’t see his brothers sell Joseph to that Midian mob. He thought that Joseph was still in that hole in the ground. And Reuben wanted to save Joseph, so he went to that hole to get him out. But he saw that Joseph wasn’t in that hole any more, and he got really upset. He was so upset that he tore his clothes. 30Then he went back to his brothers, and he said to them, “Our young brother isn’t in that hole any more. I’m his oldest brother, but now there is nothing I can do to help him.”
Joseph’s brothers tricked their father Jacob
31Joseph’s brothers wanted their father to think that an animal killed Joseph. So they killed a goat, and they got some of that goat’s blood, and they put the blood on that special coat that belonged to Joseph. 32Then they went back home, and they took Joseph’s special coat, and they showed it to their father Jacob. They said to their father, “Look, we found this coat. Does it belong to your son?”
33Jacob looked at the coat, and he knew that it belonged to Joseph. So he said, “Yes, that is my son’s coat.” And Jacob saw the blood on that coat, so he said, “I know what happened. A wild animal ate Joseph. Yes, that animal tore him into little bits.”
34So Jacob was really sad, because he thought that Joseph was dead. He was so sad that he tore his clothes. Then he put on some clothes made out of a rough cloth, called sack-cloth, and he cried. You see, in that culture, people sometimes tore their clothes and wore sack-cloth to show that they were sad.
Jacob cried like that for lots of days. 35All of Jacob’s sons and daughters, they talked to Jacob, and they tried to help him feel happy again. But Jacob said, “No, I can’t be happy again. I will keep on crying for my son, until I die and go to join him.” And Jacob cried a lot for Joseph.
36But Joseph wasn’t really dead. That Midian mob, they took Joseph to Egypt country, and they sold him to a man called Potifar. That man Potifar, he worked for the big boss of Egypt, called Pharaoh. Potifar was in charge of all the soldiers that guarded Pharaoh’s house.
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