Genesis 37-39

1Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had resided, the land of Canaan.

2This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors.

4When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

5Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

6He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:

7We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.”

8“Do you intend to reign over us?” his brothers asked. “Will you actually rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and his statements.

9Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

10He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream that you have had? Will your mother and brothers and I actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”

11And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what he had said.

12Some time later, Joseph’s brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks near Shechem.

13Israel said to him, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them.” “I am ready,” Joseph replied.

14Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. And when Joseph arrived in Shechem,

15a man found him wandering in the field and asked, “What are you looking for?”

16“I am looking for my brothers,” Joseph replied. “Can you please tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”

17“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

18Now Joseph’s brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him.

19“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to one another.

20“Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams!”

21When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue Joseph from their hands. “Let us not take his life,” he said.

22“Do not shed his blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this so that he could rescue Joseph from their hands and return him to his father.

23So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the robe of many colors he was wearing—

24and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.

25And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt.

26Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

27Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed.

28So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

29When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes,

30returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?”

31Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.

32They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe or not.”

33His father recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!”

34Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

35All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him.

36Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

1About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite.

2There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her.

3So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and Judah named him Er.

4Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan.

5Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah; it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him.

6Now Judah acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

7But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; so the LORD put him to death.

8Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”

9But Onan knew that the offspring would not belong to him; so whenever he would sleep with his brother’s wife, he would spill his seed on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother.

10What he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, so He put Onan to death as well.

11Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

12After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah.

13When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,”

14she removed her widow’s garments, covered her face with a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that although Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife.

15When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.

16Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired.

17“I will send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah answered. But she replied, “Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it.”

18“What pledge should I give you?” he asked. She answered, “Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.

19Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments again.

20Now when Judah sent his friend Hirah the Adullamite with the young goat to collect the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her.

21He asked the men of that place, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?” “No shrine prostitute has been here,” they answered.

22So Hirah returned to Judah and said, “I could not find her, and furthermore, the men of that place said, ‘No shrine prostitute has been here.’”

23“Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.”

24About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

25As she was being brought out, Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Please examine them. Whose seal and cord and staff are these?”

26Judah recognized the items and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again.

27When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb.

28And as she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it around his wrist. “This one came out first,” she announced.

29But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez.

30Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah.

1Meanwhile, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, where an Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

2And the LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.

3When his master saw that the LORD was with him and made him prosper in all he did,

4Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household and entrusted him with everything he owned.

5From the time that he put Joseph in charge of his household and all he owned, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s household on account of him. The LORD’s blessing was on everything he owned, both in his house and in his field.

6So Potiphar left all that he owned in Joseph’s care; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,

7and after some time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

8But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has entrusted everything he owns to my care.

9No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”

10Although Potiphar’s wife spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be near her.

11One day, however, Joseph went into the house to attend to his work, and not a single household servant was inside.

12She grabbed Joseph by his cloak and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his cloak in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.

13When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,

14she called her household servants. “Look,” she said, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, but I screamed as loud as I could.

15When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”

16So Potiphar’s wife kept Joseph’s cloak beside her until his master came home.

17Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me,

18but when I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”

19When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is what your slave did to me,” he burned with anger.

20So Joseph’s master took him and had him thrown into the prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. While Joseph was there in the prison,

21the LORD was with him and extended kindness to him, granting him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

22And the warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care, so that he was responsible for all that was done in the prison.

23The warden did not concern himself with anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.