Jacob lived in Canaan. Seventeen-year-old Joseph tended flocks with his brothers and reported their misconduct to their father. Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons and made him a special long robe. Seeing their father’s preference, the brothers hated Joseph and could not speak kindly to him.
Joseph dreamed that the brothers’ bundles of grain bowed to his bundle. They asked whether he intended to rule them and hated him more. He later dreamed that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed to him. His father rebuked him but remembered the report, while his brothers became jealous.
When the brothers grazed flocks near Shechem, Jacob sent Joseph to check on them. A man directed him to Dothan. The brothers saw Joseph from a distance and plotted to kill the dreamer, throw him into a pit, and claim that a wild animal had eaten him.
Reuben intended to rescue Joseph and proposed putting him in a wilderness pit without shedding blood. When Joseph arrived, they stripped off his robe and threw him into an empty cistern. As they ate, they saw a caravan traveling toward Egypt.
Judah argued that they should not kill and conceal their own brother but sell him. They agreed, pulled Joseph from the pit, and sold him for twenty pieces of silver. The traders carried him toward Egypt. Reuben later found the pit empty and tore his clothes.
The brothers dipped Joseph’s robe in goat’s blood and sent it to Jacob. Recognizing it, Jacob concluded that a wild animal had torn Joseph apart. He mourned and refused comfort. Meanwhile, the traders sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s official and captain of the guard.