"His brethren envied him."--_Genesis 37:11._
I TOLD you how Jacob went away from home, and how God promised to take
care of him. He did take care of him: He led him to his uncle, and with
him Jacob lived many years, and then came back with flocks of sheep and
goats, camels and cows. And he had twelve sons. The best one of them
was named Joseph. Jacob loved him very much, and gave him a striped
dress of many colors, such as the son who is to be the heir wears in
those countries. But his brothers hated and envied him, and were all
the time finding fault with him.
One day, when Joseph was seventeen years old, ten of the brothers were
out with their sheep, and Jacob desired Joseph to go and see what they
were about. He would not tell his father how unkind they were to him,
but he went; and as they saw him coming some of them were so wicked as
to say that they would kill him, and never let him go home. Reuben, who
was the eldest brother, tried to hinder them; but when he saw he could
not stop them, he said the best way would be, not to kill him, but to
let him down into a dry well just by.
There they meant to let him starve to death; and they let him down
without any pity for him. Reuben meant to come by-and-by and take
Joseph out of the pit and save him; but there was another brother,
named Judah, who did not want to have him killed, and who saw a great
party of men, with camels and asses laden with goods, going on a
journey. He knew they were merchants, going to sell and buy in Egypt,
and he advised the other brothers to persuade them to buy Joseph; for
in those days men and women used to be bought and sold, and were called
slaves.
[Illustration: JOSEPH SOLD BY HIS BRETHREN.--Gen. 37:28.]
So Joseph was drawn up out of the pit; and when the merchants saw
what a fine young man he was, they paid the price for him and carried
him off, away from his father and all he had ever known or cared for
before. The cruel brothers kept his colored dress; and they killed a
kid and stained it in the blood, and then carried it to their father,
telling him they had found it. Jacob thought some wild beast had met
Joseph and killed and eaten him, and he mourned and wept. His sons
pretended to comfort him; but not one of them would tell him that
Joseph was not dead.