Genesis 37:13-30
One day Joseph’s father told him to go and see how the older brothers were getting along with the flocks at Shechem, which was many miles from their home at Hebron. When Joseph reached there he could not find them, and a man told him that they had moved to Dothan. So Joseph kept on, and it must have seemed a long way to go alone.
His brothers saw him coming, and their hatred of him was so very great that they said to each other, “Come, let us kill him, and cast him in sonic pit, and say some evil beast hath devoured him!” But Reuben, the oldest brother, had pity for Joseph and he told them not to kill him, only to put him in the pit. He thought he could later get Joseph out and send him back to his father.
So when Joseph came up, to his brothers, they took hold of him roughly; pulled off his nice coat, and quickly threw him into a pit. It must have been a deep one, hut “there was no water in it.” They said, “We shall see what will become of his dreams!” They cared not for his pleadings to them, and sat down to eat their meal (Chap. 42:21).
Just then they saw a company of men on camels coming along. They knew they were traders who often bought slaves, and Judah said, “Let us sell our brother”, and the others were willing (only Reuben does not seem to have been with them then). So they got Joseph out of the pit, and for twenty pieces of silver sold him to the traders who took Joseph with them to Egypt. And the cruel brothers were well satisfied with their wicked deed, except Reuben, who felt very had when he came back and found Joseph gone.
ML 10/11/1936