Joseph was hated by his brothers

Title ideas:Joseph’s brothers hated him.Young Joseph dreamed.The sons of Jacob [Israel].

The man, Jacob, had four wives, twelve sons and some daughters. He preferred the son from Rachel, his favorite wife, who had died giving birth. Jacob’s favorite son was named Joseph. (Joseph was the 11th son; a younger son.)

Jacob once ordered weavers to make a beautiful [colorful] coat. He honored his son Joseph by giving this coat to him.

Jacob’s older sons became angry [jealous], because their father considered Joseph more important to him than they were. They often spoke to Joseph with angry words.

One time, when Joseph was aged seventeen years, Jacob sent him [two days’ journey away] to help his brothers tend [guard] large herds [of cattle].

When Joseph returned to his father Jacob, Joseph told him that the brothers were doing bad things. This caused the brothers to hate Joseph even more.

One day, Joseph said to his brothers, “In my dream, I saw that we tied up bundles of grain-stalks. Suddenly, my bundle stood up by itself. Next, all your bundles stood up, came around my bundle, and bowed down to honor my bundle.”

When the brothers heard Joseph tell about his dream, they became more angry, and said to him, “Are you supposing [imagining] that you will become a king, and that we will bow down to honor you?! (You fool!)”

One night, Joseph had another dream, which he told to his father and brothers, “This time, in my dream I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bow down to me.”

Then his father Jacob spoke sharply to Joseph, “That is a very foolish thing to say! You must not think that your mother and I and your brothers should bow down to honor you!”

But Jacob thought about the meaning of those dreams. He wondered whether Joseph would one day become an important man.

Another day after that, Joseph’s brothers were keeping [guarding / tending] their herds far to the north.

After several days, Jacob sent Joseph to find his brothers. Jacob wanted to know if the grass was good for the animals. He told [instructed] Joseph to bring him a good report about his brothers.

So Joseph obeyed and traveled north toward that place where he knew the brothers often camped.

After some days, Joseph saw their camp. When they saw him coming, they recognized him by his clothes.

They were still angry with Joseph because they did not like his dreams.

One of them said, “Look there! That proud dreamer is coming [comes]! Let’s kill him! No one will know!”

The oldest brother, Reuben, even though he was angry, did not want to kill Joseph who was one of their father’s sons. So he said to the others, “Let us just put him down in that empty cistern [well / water collection hole] over there.”

Even though the others were still angry, they agreed to Reuben’s suggestion [idea / plan]. They did not know that Reuben secretly wanted [planned] to rescue Joseph from out of the dry water hole [cistern / well].

When Joseph arrived at his brothers’ camp, they grabbed [seized] him, tore [jerked] off his beautiful [colorful] coat, and threw him down into a dry water hole [well / cistern / water-collection hole].

Later, while Reuben was taking his turn watching the flocks, the other brothers sat down to eat. Joseph was still deep down in the dry water hole, where he was pleading with his brothers to come take him out.

While they were eating, one of them exclaimed [said], “Look there, some traders! Let us sell that dreamer to them as a slave!” Another brother agreed, “They will take him away! That will stop his mouth and we won’t have to kill him ourselves!”

So they sold Joseph to the traders who took Joseph away!

When their oldest brother Reuben returned, he looked in the water hole and shouted, “Oh! Joseph is gone [has escaped]!” Then his brothers told Reuben that they had sold Joseph to traders.

Then the other brothers decided that they would deceive their father. So they tore Joseph’s coat, killed a goat, and smeared its blood on the coat, making it look like Joseph’s blood. When they traveled back to their father Jacob, they deceived him by saying, “We found this bloody coat. Is it Joseph’s?”

When Jacob looked at the coat, he said, “It is Joseph’s coat. A wild beast has killed him.”

He then tore his own clothes in grief, crying, “I will mourn my son until the day I die!”

Meanwhile, as Jacob mourned [wept], the traders who had bought Joseph, took him far away to Egypt Land. In that far country, they sold him [to be a slave] to an important, rich man.