Genesis 37:3-23

3Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because Joseph had been born in Israel’s old age. So he made Joseph a special robe with long sleeves.

4Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them. They hated Joseph and couldn’t speak to him on friendly terms.

5Joseph had a dream and when he told his brothers, they hated him even more.

6He said to them, “Please listen to the dream I had.

7We were tying grain into bundles out in the field, and suddenly mine stood up. It remained standing while your bundles gathered around my bundle and bowed down to it.”

8Then his brothers asked him, “Are you going to be our king or rule us?” They hated him even more for his dreams and his words.

9Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream: I saw the sun, the moon, and 11 stars bowing down to me.”

10When he told his father and his brothers, his father criticized him by asking, “What’s this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers come and bow down in front of you?”

11So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept thinking about these things.

12His brothers had gone to take care of their father’s flocks at Shechem.

13Israel then said to Joseph, “Your brothers are taking care of the flocks at Shechem. I’m going to send you to them.” Joseph responded, “I’ll go.”

14So Israel said, “See how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring some news back to me.” Then he sent Joseph away from the Hebron Valley. When Joseph came to Shechem,

15a man found him wandering around in the open country. “What are you looking for?” the man asked.

16Joseph replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they’re taking care of their flocks.”

17The man said, “They moved on from here. I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

18They saw him from a distance. Before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19They said to each other, “Look, here comes that master dreamer!

20Let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and say that a wild animal has eaten him. Then we’ll see what happens to his dreams.”

21When Reuben heard this, he tried to save Joseph from their plot. “Let’s not kill him,” he said.

22“Let’s not have any bloodshed. Put him into that cistern that’s out in the desert, but don’t hurt him.” Reuben wanted to rescue Joseph from them and bring him back to his father.

23So when Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his special robe with long sleeves.