Joseph was one of twelve sons. His father was Jacob. They lived in the land of Canaan. Jacob was very fond of his son Joseph. Benjamin, the youngest brother looked up to Joseph, but his older brothers disliked him for bragging about the gifts his father gave him.
When Joseph was seventeen years old, Jacob gave him a coat made of many colors of cloth. It was a beautiful coat. Joseph's brothers became jealous and hated him. "Our father loves Joseph more than he loves us," they grumbled. "Look at that coat. It is finer than any of our coats."
One night Joseph had a dream. When he told his brothers about the dream the next day, they hated him even more. In his dream all the brothers had been cutting wheat in the fields and each one bound what he had cut into a bundle. Then Joseph's sheaf of wheat stood up and all the others bowed down to it.
A few nights later Joseph dreamed again. Once more he told his brothers what he had dreamed. This time he saw the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowing down to him. And then even his father was angry. "What is this?" Jacob said. "Am I and your mother and your brothers all to kneel before you?"
Later all the brothers except Joseph and Benjamin went out to look after sheep. When they had been away several days, Jacob sent out Joseph to see them and to find out how they were getting along.
As his brothers saw him coming toward them, but still a long way off, they decided that they would kill him. The brothers took Joseph's coat from him and then threw him into a hole. Then they noticed an Ishmaelite camel train on its way to Egypt with all kinds of spices to sell there. One of the brothers, Judah, had a plan. He suggested that they sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites to be sold again as a slave in Egypt.
The brothers took Joseph's coat and tore it. Then they dipped it in the blood of a goat they had killed. They sent this blood-stained coat back to Jacob. When Jacob saw the coat he was terribly upset. He believed that a wild animal had killed his favorite son.
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