Genesis 37:18-28 ▼

18 Now as soon as they saw him approaching from a distance, before he arrived they plotted together to kill him.

19 |Look!| they said. |Here comes the Dream Master!

20 Come on! Let's kill him and toss him into one of the cisterns. Then we'll report that some wild animal devoured him and wait to see what becomes of his dreams!|

21 When Reuben heard about it, he tried to save Joseph from their plot. |Let's not do any killing,|

22 Reuben told them. |And no blood shedding, either. Instead, let's toss him into this cistern that's way out here in the wilderness. But don't lay a hand on him.| (Reuben intended to free Joseph and return him to his father.)

23 As it was, when Joseph arrived where his brothers were, they stripped off the tunic that Jacob had given him—that is, the richly-embroidered tunic that he was wearing.

24 They grabbed him and tossed him into the cistern, but the cistern was empty. (There was no water in it.)

25 After this, while they were seated, eating their food, they looked around and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with camels carrying spices, balm, and myrrh for sale down in Egypt.

26 Then Judah suggested to his brothers, |Where's the profit in just killing our brother and shedding his blood?

27 Come on! Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites! That way, we won't have laid our hands on him. After all, he's our brother, our own flesh.| So Judah's brothers listened to him.

28 As the Midianite merchants were passing through, they extracted Joseph from the cistern and sold Joseph for 20 pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who then took Joseph down to Egypt.