Joseph's Brothers Sell Him (Short Version)

Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he was born to him in his old age. He made Joseph a richly ornamented robe. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more, they hated Joseph and could not speak a kind word to him.

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said, "We 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." His brothers said, "Do you intend to reign over us?" They hated him even more because of his dream.

Then Joseph had another dream: "The sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." When he told it to his father and brothers, his father rebuked him but kept the matter in mind.

When his brothers went to graze their flocks in Shechem, Jacob sent Joseph to check on them. They saw him from afar, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. Reuben, the eldest, suggested throwing him into a cistern to rescue him later. When Joseph arrived, they stripped him of his robe and threw him into the cistern.

As they sat down to eat, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Judah said, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, 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." So they pulled Joseph out and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.