JOSEPH IS HATED BY HIS BRETHREN. THEY SELL HIM TO THE ISHMAELITES, WHO CARRY HIM INTO EGYPT, WHERE HE IS SOLD TO POTIPHAR. POTIPHAR PUTS HIM IN PRISON. HE INTERPRETS THE DREAMS OF THE CHIEF BUTLER, AND THE CHIEF BAKER, AND OF KING PHARAOH; AND IS MADE RULER OVER EGYPT.
JACOB had twelve sons: Benjamin, who was born near Bethlehem after Jacob came back to Canaan, was the youngest of them all, and Joseph was next to the youngest. Joseph was seventeen years old, and one day he went out in the field with his brethren to feed his father's flock. And he came home to his father and told him of some wicked thing that his brethren had done. It was right in him to tell of it, so that his father might speak with his brethren about it, and command them to do so no more. Now Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other children, because God had given Joseph to him when he was an old man. Yet it was not only for this he loved him the most, but also because Joseph was more obedient and kind than his other children. And the Bible says that Jacob made him a coat of many colors. We cannot tell what kind of a coat this was, except that it was different from the coats his brethren wore, and more beautiful than theirs.
When his brethren saw how much their father loved Joseph, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and told it to his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. He said to them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. We were binding sheaves in the field (sheaves are large bundles of grain), and my sheaf rose and stood up, and your sheaves stood round about, and they bowed down to my sheaf. Then his brethren were angry, because, if their sheaves bowed down to Joseph's sheaf, it seemed to mean that they were to bow down to Joseph. And they said to him, Shalt thou, indeed, rule over us?
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said, I have dreamed a dream more. The sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars, bowed down to me. Now there were just eleven of Joseph's brethren, so they thought the eleven stars meant them, and the sun and moon meant their father and mother. And they were displeased at Joseph, because it seemed as if some day he would be greater than they. He told this dream to his father also, and his father found fault with him, and said, Shall I, and thy mother, and thy brethren, come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
And his brethren went to feed their father's flock at Shechem; Shechem was a good way from Hebron, where Jacob lived. And Jacob said to Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send thee to them. And Joseph was willing to go. Then his father said, Go see whether it is well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks, and bring me word again. So Jacob sent Joseph away from Hebron to Shechem, where his brethren fed the flock.
And Joseph came to Shechem, but his brethren were not there. As he was wandering in the field, a man found him, and said to him, What seekest thou? Joseph said, I seek my brethren; tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks? The man answered, They are gone from here, for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. Dothan was still farther off than Shechem: so Joseph went after his brethren and came toward Dothan. And when they saw him coming, even while he was yet a good way off, they began to talk with each other about killing him. They said to one another, See, this dreamer comes; now let us kill him, and throw him into some pit, and we will say some evil beast has devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
When Reuben, one of his brethren, heard what they said, he wanted to save Joseph from them; so he persuaded them to put him into the pit without harming him: he said, Lower him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not hurt him. Reuben thought that afterward, he would come back, when the others were gone, and take Joseph out and bring him home to his father. So they concluded to do as Reuben said. And When Joseph came to them, they stripped off his coat of many colors that was on him, and took him and put him into the pit: there is often water at the bottom of deep pits in the ground, but this one was dry, there was no water in it.
And they sat down to eat their food. But looking up, they saw some men, called Ishmaelites, coming that way with their camels: these men were merchantmen who carried things to sell, and they were going down into Egypt. When Judah, another of Joseph's brethren, saw them, he asked what good there would be in killing Joseph. Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, he said; and his brethren were willing to do it.
Then the Ishmaelites with their camels came by, and Joseph's brethren lifted him out of the pit, and sold him for twenty pieces of silver; and the Ishmaelites took him and carried him down into Egypt. But Reuben, the one who had wanted to take him back to his father, was not there when his brethren sold him; afterward he went to the pit to find Joseph, and when he could not, he was greatly distressed: and he came and told his brethren, and said, Joseph is taken away; and I, where shall I go?
And Joseph's brethren took his coat, and killed a kid and dipped the coat in its blood. Then they brought it to their father, and told him they had found it; he could tell, they said, whether it was Joseph's coat or not. And Jacob knew it, and said, It is my son's coat, an evil beast has devoured him. Joseph is, Without doubt, torn in pieces.
Then Jacob rent his clothes. The men of that country dressed in clothes different from ours. They wore a long coat, or sack, made of linen. It reached from the neck down to the knees, and was fastened around the waist with a belt, or girdle. Over this coat they wore a loose garment, like a shawl or blanket. When in great distress they sometimes took hold of the linen coat, and tore it from the neck down to the girdle. This was called rending the clothes. And Jacob rent his clothes, because he thought Joseph was torn in pieces. He put on sackcloth also. Sackcloth was a dark, coarse kind of cloth, which persons wore to show they were in trouble. Jacob was in great trouble for many days, and no one could persuade him to stop mourning; for, he said, that he would mourn till he should go down into the grave to Joseph; he meant, till he himself should die.
And the Ishmaelites brought Joseph down into Egypt. The king of that country was named Pharaoh, and he had an officer in his army whose name was Potiphar. Potiphar bought Joseph of the Ishmaelites, and Joseph was Potiphar's servant, and lived in his house. And the Lord helped Joseph in serving his master, so that his master was pleased with him, and set him over his other servants. Joseph had the care of his house, and of everything in it, for his master trusted Joseph with all that he had. And the Lord blessed Potiphar, because Joseph was with him.
But after a while, Potiphar's wife persuaded her husband that Joseph was a wicked man. Then Potiphar took him, and put him in prison, where the king's prisoners were kept. But the Lord was kind to Joseph, and made the keeper of the prison his friend, so that he set Joseph over the other prisoners, as Potiphar had set him over his other servants. The keeper gave the care of all the men in the prison to him, neither did he watch over them any longer himself; he let Joseph do it for him. And the Lord helped Joseph to do all things well.
And two of King Pharaoh's servants offended him; one was his chief baker, who attended to cooking his food, and the other was his chief butler, who carried his wine-cup to him when he wanted to drink. Pharaoh was displeased with them both, and put them into the prison where Joseph was, and Joseph had the care of them there. And each of these men dreamed a dream the same night, and when Joseph came in to them in the morning, he saw they looked sad. Then he asked them, Why look ye so sadly to-day? They answered, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it; that is, no one to explain what it means; for an interpreter is a person who explains to us something which we do not understand. And Joseph asked the men if God could not interpret all things; and he told them to tell him their dreams.
So the chief butler told his dream to Joseph. He said that he thought he saw a vine, and on the vine were three branches. While he was looking, there came out buds on the branches, and very soon these buds changed into bunches of ripe grapes. And the butler thought he was holding Pharaoh's wine-cup in his hand, so he took the grapes and pressed the juice out of them into the cup, and gave the cup to Pharaoh that he might drink. This was the chief butler's dream.
And Joseph interpreted it to him, for God showed Joseph what the dream meant. He said, the three branches which the butler saw on the vine, meant three days; for within three days, Pharaoh would send and take him out of prison, and bring him to the king's house again. And there he should wait on the king and give the cup into his hand, as he used to do when he was butler before. Then Joseph asked the chief butler to remember him, when he should come to the king's house, and to speak to Pharaoh about him, so that he might be brought out of the prison; because, Joseph said, he had been stolen away from the land of the Hebrews, that is, the land of Canaan; and since he had been in Egypt, he had not done nothing that they should put him in prison for.
When the chief baker saw that the butler's. dream meant something good, he told Joseph his dream. He said, that he thought he was carrying three baskets on his head, one above the other. In the highest basket were all kinds of cooked meats for Pharaoh, and the birds flew down and ate the meats out of the basket. Then Joseph told him that this was the interpretation of his dream. The three baskets meant three days. Within three days, he said, shall Pharaoh hang thee on a tree, and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee. This meant, that in three days Pharaoh would put the baker to death, and afterward would let him hang where the birds could fly down and eat his flesh.
And it came true, as Joseph said. For after three days was the king's birth-day, when he made a feast to all his servants. And he sent and brought the chief butler back to his house again, so that he gave the wine-cup into Pharaoh's hand, as he used to do when he was butler before. But he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had told him. Yet the chief butler, when he was taken back to the king's house, did not remember Joseph, and speak to Pharaoh about him; he forgot all the kindness that Joseph had shown to him while he was shut up in prison.
After Joseph had been in prison two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed a dream. He thought he stood by the river that was in Egypt, and saw seven cows come up out of the water. They were fat and well looking, and they went into a meadow and ate the grass there. After them came up seven other cows, but these were thin and starved looking. And the thin and starved looking cows ate up those that were fat and well looking. And Pharaoh awoke.
And he slept and dreamed again. He thought he saw seven ears of corn grow up on one stalk. They were all good and filled with grain. And after them came up seven bad ears, that were spoiled and had no good grain in them. And the seven bad ears did eat up the seven good ones. And Pharaoh awoke and found it was a dream.
In the morning he was troubled, and sent and called for all the wise men of Egypt, and told them his dreams; but they could not interpret them. Then the chief butler spoke, and said, that he remembered when Pharaoh was angry with him, and with the chief baker, and put them both into prison; they each of them had a dream in one night, and a young man who was in the prison interpreted their dreams, and what that young man told them came true.
Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph; and they brought him quickly out of the prison, and he shaved himself, and put on other clothes, and came to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and none can interpret it. And I have heard of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. Joseph answered, that it was not he, but God, who would tell Pharaoh the things he wanted to know. And Pharaoh told Joseph his dreams: the one in which he thought he stood by the bank of the river, and saw the seven bad cows eat up the seven good ones; and after they had eaten them, no person could have told they had eaten anything, for they were as thin and starved looking as before. And Pharaoh told Joseph his dream about the ears of corn also.
Then Joseph said that the king's two dreams both meant the same thing, and that God had showed Pharaoh in these dreams what he was going to do. The seven good cows and the seven good ears of corn, he said, meant seven years; and the seven bad cows and the seven bad ears of corn, meant seven other years, For first there would come seven good years in Egypt, when the grain would grow well, and there would be plenty for the people to eat. But after those seven good years, would come seven bad years, when the people would want bread, because there would be a famine in all the land.
Then Joseph told Pharaoh to look for some wise man, who could attend to saving up the grain for him in the seven good years, so that, when the bad years should come, the people would have bread to eat and not starve. And the king was willing to do as Joseph told him; and he said that as God had taught Joseph how to interpret his dreams, and showed him all these things which were to happen, Joseph was the wisest man and the best one to attend to saving up the grain for him.
So Pharaoh would not let Joseph go back to the prison any more, but he made him a great man. He took off his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and dressed him in rich clothing and put a gold chain about his neck. He made him ride also in the chariot next to the king's chariot; and as he rode along, the people cried, Bow the knee. And Pharaoh made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh said that every man in Egypt should do as Joseph commanded him; and he gave Joseph a wife whose name was Asenath. Joseph was thirty years old when he interpreted Pharaoh's dreams. And he went out over all the land and attended to saving up the grain for Pharaoh. In the seven good years it grew well. When it was ripe and cut down, the people had much more than they could eat.
Then Joseph took a part of it and had it carried into those cities which were near to the fields where it grew. And he put it away in houses called store-houses, that it might be kept safe until the seven years of famine should come. He saved up in this way, very much grain, until he stopped counting how much, for there was more of it than any one could tell. And God gave Joseph two sons, one of whom he named Manasseh and the other Ephraim.
And the seven good years were ended and the seven bad years began. The famine was not only in the land of Egypt, it was in other lands beside: but in Egypt there was bread, because Joseph had saved up the grain before the famine came. When the people had nothing to eat, they cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said, Go to Joseph, and what he says to you, do. And Joseph opened all the store-houses where the grain was kept, and he sold it to the Egyptians. And people came from other countries also, to buy corn, because the famine was in the countries where they lived.