1. Jacob continued to live in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived.
2. This is the account of Jacob and his descendants.Joseph was a seventeen-year-old young man. He took care of the flocks with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph told his father about the bad things his brothers were doing.
3. Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because Joseph had been born in Israel’s old age. So he made Joseph a special robe with long sleeves.
4. Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them. They hated Joseph and couldn’t speak to him on friendly terms.
5. Joseph had a dream and when he told his brothers, they hated him even more.
6. He said to them, “Please listen to the dream I had.
7. We were tying grain into bundles out in the field, and suddenly mine stood up. It remained standing while your bundles gathered around my bundle and bowed down to it.”
8. Then his brothers asked him, “Are you going to be our king or rule us?” They hated him even more for his dreams and his words.
9. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream: I saw the sun, the moon, and 11 stars bowing down to me.”
10. When he told his father and his brothers, his father criticized him by asking, “What’s this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers come and bow down in front of you?”
11. So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept thinking about these things.
12. His brothers had gone to take care of their father’s flocks at Shechem.
13. Israel then said to Joseph, “Your brothers are taking care of the flocks at Shechem. I’m going to send you to them.”Joseph responded, “I’ll go.”
14. So Israel said, “See how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring some news back to me.” Then he sent Joseph away from the Hebron Valley.When Joseph came to Shechem,
15. a man found him wandering around in the open country. “What are you looking for?” the man asked.
16. Joseph replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they’re taking care of their flocks.”
17. The man said, “They moved on from here. I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
18. They saw him from a distance. Before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.