| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2This is the account of Jacob's family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had: |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it." |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?" |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem, |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13and Israel said to Joseph, "As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them." "Very well," he replied. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14So he said to him, "Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me." Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?" |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16He replied, "I'm looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?" |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17"They have moved on from here," the man answered. "I heard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19"Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20"Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams." |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22"Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him." Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe--the ornate robe he was wearing-- |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? |
| 27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed. |
| 28[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 28So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. |
| 29[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 29When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. |
| 30[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 30He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy isn't there! Where can I turn now?" |
| 31[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 31Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. |
| 32[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 32They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe." |
| 33[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 33He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces." |
| 34[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 34Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. |
| 35[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 35All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave." So his father wept for him. |
| 36[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 36Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard. |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
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