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.