Joseph was born to Jacob and Rachel. When Rachel gave birth, she spoke of God taking away her disgrace and gave him his name. Scripture does not describe Joseph’s childhood or tell us when he first imagined that Egypt would become his home. When it begins to follow him closely, he is seventeen and tending flocks with sons of Jacob’s other wives. He brought a bad report about them to his father. Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons and made him a special robe, and his brothers came to hate him. They could not speak peacefully to him.
Joseph had two dreams. In the first, the bundles of grain tied by his brothers bowed to his bundle. In the second, the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed to him. His brothers hated him still more and asked whether he intended to rule over them. Jacob rebuked Joseph over the second dream, but kept the matter in mind. Later, when the brothers were grazing their father’s flocks near Shechem, Jacob sent Joseph to see whether they were well. Joseph could not find them there, learned that they had gone to Dothan, and followed them. Seeing him from a distance, the brothers began to plan his death.
Reuben urged them not to kill Joseph but to throw him into a pit. He intended to rescue Joseph later and return him to Jacob. When Joseph arrived, they stripped off his robe and threw him into an empty pit. As they sat down to eat, a caravan of Ishmaelites came into view. Judah said they should sell Joseph rather than kill him and hide his blood. Joseph was sold for twenty shekels of silver and taken to Egypt. When Reuben returned and found the pit empty, he tore his clothes, but it was too late. The brothers dipped Joseph’s robe in goat’s blood and sent it to their father. Jacob believed a wild animal had torn Joseph to pieces and refused comfort for a long time. In Egypt, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.
Joseph worked in Potiphar’s house, and the work entrusted to him prospered. Potiphar eventually put his household and possessions in Joseph’s care. Potiphar’s wife repeatedly asked Joseph to sleep with her. Joseph refused, saying that he could not betray what his master had trusted him with or commit such evil before God. One day she caught hold of his garment, and Joseph fled outside, leaving it behind. She used the garment as evidence and said that Joseph had attacked her. Potiphar put him in the prison where the king’s prisoners were held. Joseph had lost his freedom, but he was again placed over work in the prison. The keeper trusted him so fully that he did not supervise what was under Joseph’s care.
Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and chief baker were in the prison with him. One night each man had a troubling dream. Joseph said that interpretations belong to God and asked them to tell him the dreams. He said the cupbearer would return to his office in three days and that the baker would be executed in three days. Both things happened as he had said. Joseph asked the cupbearer to remember him, but the cupbearer forgot him. Joseph remained in prison.
Two full years later Pharaoh dreamed of seven thin cows swallowing seven fat cows and of thin ears of grain swallowing seven good ears. None of Egypt’s wise men could explain the dreams. Then the cupbearer remembered Joseph and told Pharaoh about him. Joseph was hurried out of prison, changed his clothes, and stood before Pharaoh. He said the power to interpret did not belong to him, but that God would give Pharaoh an answer of peace. The two dreams, Joseph explained, carried one message: seven years of great plenty would come to Egypt, followed by seven years of severe famine. He advised Pharaoh to appoint someone to collect grain during the plentiful years.
Pharaoh said that no one else had the spirit of God as Joseph did and placed him over the affairs of Egypt. He gave Joseph his signet ring, fine linen, a gold chain, and the second chariot. Pharaoh said that only the throne would place Pharaoh above him. Joseph was thirty when he stood before Pharaoh. He traveled through Egypt and gathered grain through the plentiful years. He married Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, and before the famine had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. When the seven plentiful years ended, famine began just as Joseph had said. Egypt’s stored grain drew hungry people to Joseph to buy food.
The famine reached Canaan too. Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy grain, keeping Benjamin at home. When the brothers came before Joseph and bowed to the ground, they did not recognize the brother who had become Egypt’s ruler. Joseph recognized them. He accused them of spying and said that they would have to bring their youngest brother to prove they were telling the truth. Simeon remained in Egypt while the others returned with grain. Jacob was reluctant to send Benjamin, but when the famine continued he finally allowed him to go. When the brothers returned, Joseph saw Benjamin, wept, and had them eat in his house.
Before their first visit ended, Joseph secretly had the brothers’ silver returned in their sacks. They opened a sack on the road, found the money, and were afraid. At home they told Jacob that Egypt’s ruler had demanded to see their youngest brother. Jacob grieved that Joseph was gone, Simeon was gone, and now Benjamin might be taken too. When the grain ran out, Judah said that the man would not see them again unless Benjamin came. He took responsibility for bringing Benjamin home safely. On the second journey Joseph had Simeon brought out, told his steward to calm their fear about the returned money, and gave Benjamin a portion five times as large as the others. Joseph did not yet reveal himself. He watched how the brothers now spoke of their father and treated their youngest brother.
Joseph prepared one last test. He had his silver cup placed in Benjamin’s sack, then sent men after the brothers and charged them with stealing it. When the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack, the brothers tore their clothes and all returned to Joseph. Judah said that they could not go home without Benjamin; their father would die if he lost the boy. Judah offered to remain as Joseph’s servant in Benjamin’s place. At that, Joseph could no longer keep his identity hidden. After sending the Egyptian attendants out, he wept and told his brothers that he was Joseph. They were too afraid to answer. Joseph told them not to be grieved or angry with themselves because God had sent him ahead to preserve life.
Joseph told his brothers to bring their father and the whole household to Egypt. Jacob at first could not believe that Joseph was alive, but when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent, his spirit revived. After offering sacrifices at Beersheba, he traveled to Egypt with his family. Joseph met him in Goshen, embraced him, and wept for a long time. Jacob’s family settled in Goshen, and Joseph supplied them with food through the famine. As the famine worsened, the Egyptians exchanged money, livestock, and land for grain. Joseph bought the land for Pharaoh, except the land of the priests, and required the people to give a fifth of their harvest to Pharaoh.
When Jacob was old and ill, Joseph brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to him. Jacob received the two boys born to Joseph in Egypt as his own sons, saying that they would receive a share like Reuben and Simeon. Joseph placed Manasseh, the firstborn, near Jacob’s right hand and Ephraim near his left. But Jacob crossed his hands and placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head. Joseph thought his father was mistaken and tried to move his hands, but Jacob said that he knew what he was doing. Manasseh too would become a great people, he said, but Ephraim would become greater. Joseph had once been a boy telling dreams in which his brothers bowed before him. Now he stood while his father placed a blessing on Joseph’s two sons and marked the family’s inheritance for another generation.
Jacob lived seventeen more years in Egypt and died at one hundred forty-seven. Joseph had his father’s body prepared with spices and, with Pharaoh’s permission, led his brothers and Egyptian officials to Canaan to bury Jacob in the cave of Machpelah. After the burial, the brothers feared that Joseph would take revenge now that their father was gone. They asked for forgiveness, and Joseph wept. He said that although they had planned evil against him, God had meant it for good, to preserve many lives, and he promised to care for them and their children. Joseph lived to one hundred ten. He saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children and the children of Machir, Manasseh’s son. Before he died, he told the Israelites that God would surely visit them and asked them to carry his bones up from Egypt. Joseph died at one hundred ten, was embalmed, and was placed in a coffin in Egypt. Genesis ends his life there.