The Story

Joseph was seventeen years old, and he worked with his brothers looking after their father Jacob's flocks. Jacob loved Joseph very much — he was the son of his old age — and Jacob showed his love with a special gift: "he made him a coat of many colours". What a beautiful coat it must have been, bright with many colours, while his brothers wore plain work clothes!

But the special coat made things hard. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of them, they hated him, and they could not speak one kind word to him. Then Joseph began to have dreams. He dreamed that they were all tying up bundles of grain in the field, and his bundle stood up straight while their bundles bowed down to his. Another night he dreamed that the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to him. Joseph happily told everyone his dreams — but his brothers hated him even more, and even his father wondered at the dream. Still, Jacob kept thinking about it.

One day the brothers were far away at Dothan with the flocks, and Jacob sent Joseph to see how they were and bring back word. Joseph walked a long way in his bright coat until he found them. But when the brothers saw him coming in the distance, they made a wicked plan against him. "Behold, this dreamer cometh", they said. They wanted to kill him! Reuben, the oldest, said no — do not kill him; throw him in this pit instead, secretly planning to rescue him later. So they grabbed Joseph, stripped off his beautiful coat of many colours, and dropped him into a pit. The Bible says "the pit was empty, there was no water in it".

Then, while they sat down to eat, a long line of camels came past — traders travelling to Egypt. Judah had an idea: instead of killing their brother, sell him to the traders. So "they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver", and the traders carried Joseph away to Egypt. The brothers dipped Joseph's coat in goat's blood and brought it to their father. Jacob believed a wild beast had killed his dear son, and he cried and cried, and would not be comforted.

Joseph was alone in a strange land, and his brothers had been terribly unkind. But this is not the end of Joseph's story — God had a good plan for Joseph, bigger than anyone could see.