Joseph Sold into Egypt
Genesis 37
The story of Joseph being sold into Egypt is one of the most memorable and important narratives in the Book of Genesis. It begins with jealousy and family conflict, develops into betrayal and human suffering, and sets in motion a remarkable series of events that will eventually transform Joseph from an enslaved young man into one of the most powerful figures in Egypt. It also establishes the background for the eventual migration of Jacob’s family into Egypt, an event that will shape the future history of the Israelites.
At its heart, this is a story about favoritism, resentment, betrayal, and the unexpected ways in which human circumstances can change. It introduces Joseph as a young man whose dreams seem to promise greatness, but whose immediate future brings humiliation, separation, and hardship.
Joseph and His Family
Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel, and the first son born to Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife. Rachel had been unable to have children for many years, and Joseph’s birth was therefore especially significant to Jacob. Later, Rachel gave birth to another son, Benjamin, but she died during his birth.
Jacob had twelve sons by four women: his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and their servants, Bilhah and Zilpah. These sons would eventually become the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Joseph was seventeen years old when the events of this story began. He lived with his father and brothers in the land of Canaan, where the family maintained flocks and herds.
Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was the child of his old age and the first son born to Rachel. This preference became painfully obvious to the rest of the family. Jacob made Joseph a special garment, described in many translations as a coat of many colors or an ornamented robe. Whatever its precise appearance, the garment was distinctive and represented Joseph’s favored position within the family.
The special treatment created resentment among Joseph’s brothers. They could see that their father preferred Joseph, and they felt increasingly alienated and angry. The garment became a visible reminder of their father’s favoritism.
The biblical narrator makes clear that the brothers hated Joseph and could no longer speak peacefully to him.
The situation was made worse by Joseph’s own behavior. He sometimes brought Jacob unfavorable reports about his brothers’ activities while they were tending the family flocks. Although the text does not explain the circumstances behind these reports, they contributed to the growing hostility.
Joseph was young, apparently confident of his father’s affection, and perhaps unaware of how deeply his brothers resented him. His actions and privileged position created an increasingly dangerous family situation.
Joseph’s Dreams
The tension between Joseph and his brothers grew even worse when Joseph began having dreams that appeared to suggest that he would eventually rule over his family.
In his first dream, Joseph and his brothers were binding sheaves of grain in a field. Suddenly, Joseph’s sheaf stood upright while the sheaves belonging to his brothers gathered around it and bowed down before it.
Joseph told his brothers about the dream.
They immediately understood its apparent meaning. They interpreted it as a suggestion that Joseph expected to become their ruler and that they would one day bow down before him.
Their resentment intensified.
They asked him sarcastically whether he actually expected to reign over them or exercise authority over them. The biblical account says that they hated him even more because of his dreams and the way he spoke about them.
Joseph then had another dream.
In this second dream, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed down before him. Once again, he described the dream to his family.
This time, even Jacob questioned him. He asked whether Joseph really believed that his father, mother, and brothers would someday come and bow down before him.
Jacob rebuked Joseph, but the text adds an interesting detail. Although Jacob questioned the dream, he kept the matter in mind.
The brothers, however, became increasingly jealous and hostile.
From the perspective of the biblical narrative, these dreams are important because they foreshadow Joseph’s eventual position of authority in Egypt. At this point, however, neither Joseph nor his brothers could have understood how these dreams might be fulfilled.
The dreams would eventually become central to the story of Joseph’s rise to power and the reconciliation of his family.
Joseph Is Sent to Find His Brothers
One day, Joseph’s brothers took their father’s flocks to pasture near Shechem, a considerable distance from the family’s home.
Jacob remained concerned about the welfare of his sons and their animals. He asked Joseph to go and find out whether his brothers and the flocks were safe.
Joseph agreed and set out on his journey.
When he reached Shechem, he discovered that his brothers were no longer there. A man encountered him wandering in the countryside and asked what he was looking for.
Joseph explained that he was searching for his brothers and their flocks.
The man told him that he had heard the brothers say they were going to Dothan. Joseph continued his journey and eventually found them there.
This seemingly ordinary assignment would become the turning point in Joseph’s life.
His father had sent him on an innocent errand, but the resentment that had been building among his brothers was about to erupt into violence.
The Brothers Plot Against Joseph
When Joseph’s brothers saw him approaching in the distance, they recognized him immediately.
Rather than welcoming him, they began plotting against him.
They referred to him mockingly as the dreamer and discussed killing him. Their plan was to murder him, throw his body into a pit, and then tell their father that a wild animal had killed him.
They would finally be rid of the brother they despised, and his dreams would appear to have come to nothing.
The biblical account describes their hatred in stark terms. Their resentment had developed into a willingness to commit murder.
Reuben, the oldest of the brothers, objected to the plan.
He urged them not to kill Joseph or shed his blood. Instead, he suggested that they throw him into a pit in the wilderness without actually harming him.
The narrator explains that Reuben intended to return later and rescue Joseph, bringing him safely back to their father.
Reuben’s intervention was significant. Although he did not openly defend Joseph or confront his brothers about their hatred, he attempted to prevent his murder.
The brothers accepted his suggestion.
When Joseph arrived, they seized him, stripped him of his special robe, and threw him into an empty pit. The pit contained no water, leaving Joseph trapped and helpless.
The robe was particularly symbolic. It had represented Jacob’s special affection for Joseph, and now the brothers removed it as an act of humiliation and rejection.
The young man who had once enjoyed his father’s favor was suddenly at the mercy of his own family.
Joseph Is Sold to the Traders
After throwing Joseph into the pit, the brothers sat down to eat.
While they were eating, they saw a caravan of traders approaching from the direction of Gilead. The traders were traveling toward Egypt, carrying spices, balm, and other valuable merchandise.
The biblical account describes them as Ishmaelites. Later in the same chapter, they are also referred to as Midianite traders. The precise relationship between these descriptions has been discussed by biblical scholars, who have noted that the chapter may preserve different traditional accounts of Joseph’s sale.
Judah, another of Joseph’s brothers, suggested that they should sell Joseph rather than kill him.
He reasoned that there was little advantage in murdering their own brother and concealing his death. Selling him to the approaching traders would allow them to profit from the situation while avoiding direct responsibility for his murder.
The brothers agreed.
They pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the traders for twenty pieces of silver.
The traders then continued their journey toward Egypt with Joseph as their captive.
For Joseph, this was a devastating change of circumstances. He had been sent by his father to check on his brothers. Instead, he had been betrayed by them, stripped of his clothing, imprisoned in a pit, and sold into slavery.
He was now being taken away from his family and homeland, with no apparent possibility of returning.
The biblical account does not describe Joseph’s emotional reaction in detail. It does not tell us exactly what he said or whether he pleaded with his brothers to release him. Later biblical passages, particularly when the brothers remember their treatment of Joseph, suggest that his suffering was considerable.
Reuben, meanwhile, had apparently been absent when the sale took place.
When he returned to the pit and discovered that Joseph was gone, he was devastated. He tore his clothing in grief and returned to his brothers, asking where he could possibly go now that Joseph had disappeared.
The brothers had made their decision, and Joseph was already on his way to Egypt.
The Deception of Jacob
Having disposed of Joseph, the brothers now needed to explain his disappearance to their father.
They took Joseph’s special robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the garment in its blood.
They then brought the bloodstained robe to Jacob and asked him whether he recognized it.
They did not directly tell him what had happened. Instead, they allowed him to draw his own conclusion.
Jacob recognized the garment immediately.
He assumed that a wild animal had attacked Joseph and torn him apart. Overcome with grief, he declared that his beloved son had been killed.
Jacob tore his own clothing, put on sackcloth, and mourned Joseph for many days.
His grief was profound. His other sons and daughters attempted to comfort him, but he refused to be consoled. He declared that he would continue mourning until he joined Joseph in death.
The deception was especially cruel because Jacob had been led to believe that Joseph was dead when, in reality, he was still alive.
The brothers had not only betrayed Joseph but had also inflicted terrible suffering upon their father.
There is a further irony in the story. Jacob himself had once deceived his father, Isaac, by disguising himself as his brother Esau and using clothing and animal skins to create a false impression. Now Jacob was deceived through the use of clothing and the blood of an animal.
The biblical narrator does not explicitly identify this as a deliberate parallel, but the resemblance is striking.
Jacob’s earlier family deception had contributed to years of conflict. Now another deception had brought grief into his own household.
Joseph Arrives in Egypt
While Jacob mourned in Canaan, Joseph continued his journey toward Egypt.
The final verse of Genesis 37 tells us that the Midianite traders sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the royal guard.
Joseph had arrived in a foreign country where he knew no one, spoke a different language, and had no family or social protection.
He was no longer the favored son of a prosperous family. He was an enslaved foreigner whose future depended upon the people who now controlled his life.
Potiphar occupied an important position in Egyptian society. As an officer connected with Pharaoh’s household and security establishment, he would have possessed considerable authority.
Joseph’s arrival in Potiphar’s household introduces the next major chapter of his life.
Although Joseph had been brought to Egypt against his will, his story was far from over. His experiences there would eventually lead him into positions of responsibility, bring him into contact with Pharaoh, and place him in a position to save Egypt and his own family from famine.
The dreams that had angered his brothers would ultimately take on a meaning that none of them could have anticipated.
The Deeper Meaning of the Story
The story of Joseph being sold into Egypt is more than an account of family jealousy and betrayal. It introduces several important themes that run throughout the remaining chapters of Genesis and, indeed, much of the Bible.
Family Favoritism and Jealousy
The conflict begins with Jacob’s unequal treatment of his children. His special affection for Joseph creates resentment among the other brothers and contributes directly to the tragedy.
The story illustrates how favoritism within a family can produce lasting divisions. Jacob’s love for Joseph may have been understandable, given his relationship with Rachel, but his failure to treat his children equally had serious consequences.
The brothers’ response, however, was far worse than the original problem. Their jealousy developed into hatred, deception, and violence.
The Danger of Resentment
The brothers’ hostility did not develop overnight. It grew through repeated experiences of perceived favoritism, Joseph’s dreams, and their own increasingly bitter interpretations of his behavior.
Their actions demonstrate how resentment, when allowed to dominate human relationships, can destroy the bonds that should unite a family.
The brothers were not strangers or enemies from another nation. They were members of the same family, sharing the same father and ancestral traditions.
Their betrayal makes the story especially painful.
Dreams and Destiny
Joseph’s dreams introduce an important element of divine providence into the narrative.
At the beginning, the dreams appear to be expressions of Joseph’s future greatness. His brothers interpret them as evidence of arrogance, while Jacob remains uncertain about their meaning.
As the story unfolds, however, the dreams become increasingly significant.
Joseph will eventually interpret the dreams of Egyptian officials and Pharaoh himself. His ability to understand dreams will become the means through which he rises to power.
The dreams of Genesis 37 therefore establish a central theme: events that appear confusing or meaningless at one point may become understandable only when viewed from a much larger perspective.
Human Betrayal and Suffering
Joseph’s suffering begins not through any action of an enemy but through the betrayal of his own brothers.
He loses his freedom, his family, his home, and the privileged position he had enjoyed in Canaan.
The story does not minimize the cruelty of what happened to him. His brothers deliberately placed him in danger and sold him into slavery for their own advantage.
Yet his suffering does not mark the end of his life or his usefulness. The events that follow will demonstrate that terrible circumstances do not necessarily determine the final outcome of a person’s life.
Divine Providence
Although God does not speak directly in Genesis 37, the larger Joseph narrative presents his experiences as part of a much greater purpose.
Joseph’s arrival in Egypt will eventually make it possible for him to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, organize preparations for a coming famine, and preserve the lives of countless people.
It will also provide a way for Jacob’s family to escape starvation.
Much later, when Joseph is reunited with his brothers, he will reflect on the meaning of their actions. In Genesis 50:20, he tells them:
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”
This statement provides one of the most important theological interpretations of the entire Joseph story.
It does not suggest that the brothers’ actions were acceptable or that their cruelty was justified. Rather, it expresses the belief that human wrongdoing cannot necessarily defeat the larger purposes of God.
Historical and Scholarly Perspectives
The Joseph narrative is set in the world of ancient Egypt and Canaan, where trade, migration, slavery, and the movement of people between regions were familiar features of life.
Caravans traveled between the Levant and Egypt carrying valuable commodities. Egypt was a major economic and political power, and its agricultural wealth made it an important destination for traders and migrants.
The biblical description of Joseph’s sale into slavery is therefore consistent with the general historical setting of ancient Near Eastern commerce.
However, establishing the precise historical circumstances of Joseph’s life is difficult.
Unlike some later biblical events, the Joseph narrative has not been independently confirmed by Egyptian inscriptions or archaeological discoveries identifying Joseph or his family. Scholars therefore distinguish between the literary and theological significance of the narrative and what can be independently established historically.
There has also been considerable scholarly discussion about the date and composition of the Joseph story. Some scholars regard it as a carefully developed literary narrative that was shaped over time and incorporated into the Book of Genesis. Others have emphasized the possibility that it preserves older traditions about the origins of Israel’s relationship with Egypt.
The story also reflects the biblical tradition that Israel’s ancestors originally lived in Canaan before their descendants became established in Egypt.
From a literary perspective, Genesis 37 marks a major transition. The earlier chapters of Genesis have concentrated primarily on Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the development of their family. The Joseph narrative shifts the focus toward the next generation and establishes the circumstances that will eventually bring the Israelites into Egypt.
It is therefore an essential bridge between the ancestral stories of Genesis and the account of Israel’s enslavement and liberation in the Book of Exodus.
Conclusion
Joseph Sold into Egypt is a story of a family torn apart by favoritism, jealousy, and betrayal. A young man who enjoyed his father’s affection and dreamed of a remarkable future suddenly finds himself stripped of his privileged position and sold into slavery by his own brothers.
His father believes him dead, his brothers conceal their crime, and Joseph is carried away to a foreign land where his future appears uncertain.
Yet the story ends with an important sense of anticipation. Joseph has arrived in Egypt, and the events that will transform his life are about to begin.
What appears to be the destruction of Joseph’s future will eventually become the foundation of his extraordinary rise to power. His experiences will bring him into contact with Pharaoh, allow him to prepare Egypt for a devastating famine, and ultimately provide a means of survival for his entire family.
The story also introduces a central biblical understanding of providence: human beings may act through jealousy, selfishness, and cruelty, but their actions do not necessarily determine the final outcome of history.
Joseph’s journey from favored son to enslaved foreigner is only the beginning. His eventual transformation from prisoner to ruler will become one of the great stories of the Bible, demonstrating how suffering, perseverance, forgiveness, and reconciliation can become part of a much larger story of human and spiritual significance.
Primary biblical reference: Genesis 37.
The next story in the Great Stories of the Bible series: Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife (Genesis 39).