Joseph Is Sold into Egypt

Joseph is seventeen, the son of Jacob's old age and of Rachel, the wife he loved. Jacob makes him a special robe, traditionally "a coat of many colours." His brothers see that their father loves him more "and could not speak peaceably unto him."

Then Joseph dreams, and tells them. Their sheaves of grain bow down to his sheaf. In another dream the sun, moon and eleven stars bow to him. Even Jacob rebukes him, "but his father observed the saying."

Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers, who are pasturing the flocks near Shechem. He finds them at Dothan. They see him coming: "Behold, this dreamer cometh… let us slay him… and we shall see what will become of his dreams." Reuben, the eldest, talks them into throwing him into a dry cistern instead, intending to rescue him later.

They strip off his robe, throw him in, and sit down to eat. A caravan of Ishmaelites appears, coming from Gilead with spices, balm and myrrh for Egypt. Judah speaks: "What profit is it if we slay our brother… Come, and let us sell him." Midianite merchants pass by; Joseph is drawn up and sold for twenty pieces of silver and taken to Egypt. Reuben returns to an empty pit and tears his clothes: "The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?"

The brothers dip Joseph's robe in goat's blood and bring it to their father. "Know now whether it be thy son's coat or no." Jacob recognizes it: "an evil beast hath devoured him." He tears his clothes and refuses comfort: "I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning." Meanwhile, in Egypt, Joseph is sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

People from Canaan in Egypt

The tomb of the governor Khnumhotep II at Beni Hasan (about 1890 BC) shows 37 "Aamu," people from the Levant, arriving with donkeys and goods, led by a chief named Abisha. They wear patterned, colorful wool garments, very different from the Egyptians' white linen. The scene is often compared with Joseph's robe and with the movement of Jacob's family. It does not depict them, but it shows the world Genesis describes.

Another document is even closer to Joseph's situation. The Brooklyn Papyrus (about 1740 BC) lists the servants of an Egyptian household. Many are described as Asiatics, people from the Levant, and several have been given new Egyptian names. Joseph too will receive an Egyptian name.

The road through Dothan

Dothan lies on the route from the hill country down to the Jezreel valley and the coastal road to Egypt. Caravans carrying gum, balm and resin from Gilead (east of the Jordan) to Egypt are exactly the trade Genesis 37:25 describes; Gilead's balm was proverbial (Jeremiah 8:22).

Twenty shekels

Kenneth Kitchen argued that the price of a slave rose over time: about 20 shekels in the early second millennium BC (as in Hammurabi's era), about 30 in the later second millennium (compare Exodus 21:32), and 50 or more in the first millennium. On that view, Joseph's price fits the early period. Critics note that prices varied by place, age and condition, so the argument is suggestive rather than decisive.

Ishmaelites, Midianites, and Medanites