The Selling of Joseph
The brothers throw seventeen-year-old Joseph into a pit and sell him into Egypt; Jacob mourns him as dead for twenty-two years.
Jacob loves Joseph more than his other sons and makes him a striped coat. Joseph tells his brothers his dreams—sheaves bowing to his sheaf, then the sun, moon and eleven stars—and their hatred grows. Sent to check on them near Shechem, he finds them at Dothan, and they see him from afar: "Here comes the dreamer… let us kill him and see what becomes of his dreams." Reuben persuades them to cast him into a pit instead, meaning to rescue him; Judah proposes selling him. They strip his coat, throw him into an empty pit—which, says the Talmud, held no water but did hold snakes and scorpions—and sell him to a passing Ishmaelite caravan for twenty pieces of silver. The caravan carried fragrant spices rather than foul-smelling pitch, so the righteous man would not suffer. The coat is dipped in a goat's blood and brought to Jacob, who tears his clothes and refuses comfort. In Egypt Joseph is bought by Potiphar and, after refusing his wife, spends twelve years in prison. In all, Jacob mourned his son as dead for twenty-two years.
How we know
Sources
Tanakh
- Bereishit 37 — the dreams, Dotan, the pit, the sale, and the blood-stained tunic
- Bereishit 39–40 — Potiphar’s house, the prison, the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bereishit Rabbah 84 — the brothers’ hatred and its roots — the details of the midrash
- Shabbat 22a — “the pit was empty, there was no water in it” — but there were snakes and scorpions
- Shabbat 10b — two sela of silk: what singling out one son leads to
Rishonim
- Rashi on Bereishit 37:25 — a caravan of spices instead of tar — a kindness to the righteous man
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.
People and places
Jacob · Rachel · Joseph · Judah · Benjamin · Shechem · Egypt (Goshen) · Genesis · Reuven