5a Joseph the Dreamer [Genesis 37]
5a Joseph the Dreamer [Genesis 37]
The Story:
Joseph, about age 17, was tending the flocks with his brothers and brought bad reports back to his father about them.
Seeing that Jacob (also called Israel) loved Joseph more than he loved them, they hated him.
Joseph had a dream and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
He told them, “I dreamed that we were binding sheaves of grain out in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, and your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
His brothers asked, “Do you really expect to rule over us?” They hated him even more because of the dream.
He had another dream and told his brothers and his father, “I dreamed that the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to me.”
Sometime later, the older brothers were tending the sheep out in the field and Jacob sent Joseph to check on them. When they saw him coming from a distance, “They said among themselves, “Here comes the dreamer! Let’s kill him. That will put an end to that dreaming.”
The oldest brother, Reuben, said, “Don’t kill him. Put him down a well and leave him there.” He was thinking that he could come back later and rescue his brother.
When Joseph arrived where his brothers were, they stripped off his robe and threw him down an empty well.
As they sat down to eat, they saw a merchant caravan that was headed toward Egypt.
Judah said to the other brothers, “Let’s don’t kill Joseph. After all, he is our brother. Let’s sell him to the merchants.”
The brothers slaughtered a goat and dipped Joseph’s coat into the blood.
They took the robe back to their father and asked him, “Isn’t this Joseph’s coat? We found it in the wilderness.”
Jacob (Israel) recognized the robe and cried, “Wild animals must have killed my son. I will mourn him for the rest of my life.”
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