Listening A1: Genesis Chapter 1 - Genesis 37

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

This is the story of Jacob's family.

Joseph was seventeen years old.

He was feeding the sheep with his brothers.

He was with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives.

Joseph told his father bad things about them.

Jacob loved Joseph more than all his sons because Joseph was born when Jacob was old.

Jacob made him a coat with many colors.

His brothers saw that their father loved him more than them.

They hated him and they could not speak to him in peace.

Joseph had a dream.

He told his brothers.

They hated him more.

He said, "Please listen to my dream.

We were tying up bundles of grain in the field.

My bundle stood up and your bundles came and bowed to mine."

His brothers said, "Will you be our ruler?

Will you be above us?"

They hated him more because of his dreams and his words.

He had another dream.

He told it to them again.

He said, "The sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed to me."

He told it to his father and his brothers.

His father said, "What is this dream?

Will I and your mother and your brothers bow down to you on the ground?"

His brothers were jealous, but his father kept the words in his mind.

His brothers went to care for their father's sheep in Shechem.

Jacob said to Joseph, "Are not your brothers caring for the sheep in Shechem?

Come, I will send you to them."

Joseph said, "Here I am."

Jacob said, "Go now and see if your brothers are well and if the sheep are well.

Bring me word again."

So he sent Joseph from the valley of Hebron, and Joseph went to Shechem.

A man saw Joseph wandering in the field.

The man asked, "What are you looking for?"

Joseph said, "I am looking for my brothers.

Please tell me where they are feeding the sheep."

The man said, "They are gone.

I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan."

Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.

They saw him from far away.

Before he came near, they planned to kill him.

They said, "Look!

This dream man is coming."

"Let us kill him and throw him into a hole.

We will say a wild animal ate him.

We will see what happens to his dreams."

Reuben heard and saved him, saying, "Let us not kill him."

Reuben said, "Do not shed blood.

Throw him into this hole in the desert, but do not touch him.

Maybe I can bring him back to our father."

When Joseph came near, they took off his coat with many colors.

They put him into the hole.

The hole had no water.

They sat down to eat bread.

They looked up and saw a group of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels.

The camels carried spices, balm, and myrrh.

They were going to take the goods to Egypt.

Judah said, "What good is it if we kill our brother and hide his blood?

Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites.

Let us not hurt him with our hands.

He is our brother."

His brothers agreed.

Some Midianite traders came.

They pulled Joseph from the hole and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.

The people took Joseph to Egypt.

Reuben came back to the hole.

Joseph was not there.

He tore his clothes.

He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy is not there.

What shall I do?"

They took Joseph's coat.

They killed a male goat and dipped the coat in the blood.

They took the coat to their father.

They said, "We found this.

Please tell us if it is your son's coat."

Jacob knew it and said, "It is my son's coat.

A wild animal has eaten him.

Joseph is dead."

Jacob tore his clothes.

He put on rough cloth and cried for his son many days.

All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he would not be comforted.

He said, "I will go down to the grave to cry for my son."

His father wept for him.

The Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.