Genesis 37:21-22

21Now Reuben [the eldest] heard this and rescued him from their hands and said, “Let us not take his life.”

22Reuben said to them, “Do not shed his blood, but [instead] throw him [alive] into the pit that is here in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him [to kill him]”—[he said this so] that he could rescue him from them and return him [safely] to his father.