The Beginning:
Joseph, favored by his father Jacob, receives a distinctive robe and reports on his brothers, which deepens their resentment. He also shares dreams that suggest his family will one day bow to him, and his brothers respond with jealousy and hostility. Jacob keeps the matter in mind, but tension in the household grows.
The Middle:
When Joseph is sent to check on his brothers near Dothan, they plot against him. Reuben intervenes to prevent murder, and Joseph is instead thrown into a pit. While Reuben is away, Judah proposes selling Joseph rather than killing him, and the brothers sell Joseph to passing traders, who take him toward Egypt. The brothers then dip Joseph’s robe in goat’s blood and present it to Jacob to imply Joseph has been killed by a wild animal.
The End:
Jacob mourns deeply, refusing comfort, believing his son is dead. Joseph, however, is carried into Egypt and sold to Potiphar, an Egyptian official. The chapter closes with Joseph alive but enslaved, setting the stage for God’s unfolding purposes through his suffering.
This story displays how God’s covenant purposes advance even through human wrongdoing. The text does not excuse the brothers’ sin, yet it shows that betrayal and injustice cannot finally overturn God’s providential governance of history. Joseph’s descent into slavery becomes the beginning of a larger deliverance narrative for Jacob’s family, preserving the line through which God’s promises to Abraham will continue.
Caravans transporting goods between Canaan and Egypt are well attested in the ancient Near East, and the biblical mention of traders traveling with commodities reflects established trade routes. Selling a person into slavery functioned as a grim but real economic practice in that world, and Egypt was a major destination where foreign slaves could be purchased by officials and households.
“Then some Midianite traders passed by. So they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him…” — Genesis 37:28
Answer the questions below. When you choose an option, you will see the result and an explanation.
1. What did Joseph’s brothers do to his robe to make Jacob think Joseph had been killed by a wild animal?
2. After Joseph was taken into Egypt, to whom was he sold?