Sold As A Slave

Stories From The Hebrew Bible
THE RICH MAN’S SON WHO WAS SOLD AS A SLAVE

After Jacob came back to the land of Canaan with his eleven sons, another son was born to him, the second child of his beloved wife Rachel. Do you remember how Jacob worked a long time for Laban so that he might marry Rachel? We learned about that in story thirteen. Soon after that Rachel gave birth to her second baby, and then she died. Jacob was filled with sorrow. Even to this day you can see the place where Rachel was buried on the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Jacob named the child whom Rachel left, Benjamin; and now Jacob had twelve sons. Most of them were grown-up men, but Joseph was a boy, seventeen years old, and his brother Benjamin was almost a baby.

Of all his children, Jacob loved Joseph the best. Jacob gave to Joseph a coat of bright colors. This was a special mark of Jacob’s favor to Joseph, and it made his older brothers very envious of Joseph.

Then, too, Joseph did what was right, while his older brothers often did very wrong acts, of which Joseph sometimes told their father. This made them very angry at Joseph. But they hated him still more because of two strange dreams. One day Joseph said:

Listen to this dream that I have dreamed. I dreamed that we were out in the field binding sheaves, when suddenly my sheaf stood up and all your sheaves came around it and bowed down to my sheaf. And his brothers said scornfully, “Do you suppose that the dream means that you will some time rule over us, and that we shall bow down to you?” Then a few days later Joseph said, “I have dreamed again. This time I saw in my dream the sun and the moon and eleven stars all come and bow down to me.”

And his father said to him, “Why do you dream such dreams? Shall I and your mother and your brothers come and bow down before you?”

His brothers hated Joseph and would not speak kindly to him; but his father thought much of what Joseph had said.

At one time, Joseph’s ten older brothers were taking care of the flock in the fields near Shechem, which was nearly fifty miles from Hebron, where Jacob’s tents were spread. And Jacob called Joseph and said, “Your brothers are near Shechem with the flock. I want to know if they are well, and if the flocks are doing well; and bring me word from them.”

That was a big errand for a boy. He would have to travel alone over the country, finding his way for fifty miles, and then walk back home. But Joseph was a boy that could take care of himself and he could be trusted. So Joseph left on his journey, walking northward over the mountains, past Bethlehem and Jerusalem and Bethel. Except for Jerusalem, we cannot be sure that any of these cities were built at this time.

When Joseph reached Shechem, he could not find his brothers, because they had taken the flocks to another place. A man met Joseph wandering in the field and asked him, “Whom are you seeking?” Joseph said, “I am looking for my brothers, the sons of Jacob. Can you tell me where I can find them?” And the man said, “They are at Dothan; for I heard them say that they were going there.” Then Joseph walked over the hills to Dothan, which was fifteen miles farther. His brothers saw him a long way off coming toward them. They knew him by his bright garment; and one said to another: “Look, that dreamer is coming! Come, let us kill him and throw his body into a pit and say that some wild beast has eaten him; and then we will see what becomes of his dreams.”

One of the brothers, named Reuben, felt more kindly toward Joseph than the others; but he did not dare oppose them openly. Reuben said: “Let us not kill him; but let us throw him into this pit, here in the wilderness, and leave him there to die.”

But Reuben intended, after they had gone away, to lift Joseph out of the pit and take him home to his father. The brothers did as Reuben told them; they threw Joseph into the empty pit. Then they sat down to eat dinner, while their brother was in a pit.

After dinner, Reuben chanced to go to another part of the field, so that he was not at hand when a group of men passed by with their camels, heading for Gilead, on the east of the river Jordan. They were going to sell spices to the Egyptians. Then Judah, another of Joseph’s brothers, said,

What good will it do us to kill our brother? Would it not be better for us to sell him to these men and let them carry him away? After all, he is our brother, and we better not kill him.

The brothers agreed to stop the men who were passing by and they pulled Joseph up from the pit. Then for twenty pieces of silver they sold Joseph to these men who took him away with them down to Egypt.

After a while, Reuben came to the pit, where he had left Joseph and looked into it; but Joseph was not there. Reuben was now in great trouble and he came back to his brothers saying, “The boy is not there! What shall I do?”

Then his brothers explained to Reuben what they had done, and they all agreed together to deceive their father. They killed one of the goats and dipped Joseph’s coat in its blood, and they brought it to their father and said: “Look at this coat we found and see if you think it was your son’s.” And Jacob knew it at once. He said, “It is my son’s coat. Some wild beast has eaten him. There is no doubt that Joseph has been torn in pieces!”

Though they all tried to comfort him, Jacob’s heart was broken over the loss of Joseph. He said: “I will go down to the grave mourning for my poor lost son.”

So the old man sorrowed for his son Joseph; and all the time the wicked brothers knew that Joseph was not dead, but sold as a slave. They would not tell their father the dreadful deed that they had done to their little brother Joseph.