Joseph lived in Canaan with this father Jacob and his family. He had eleven brothers, and he was second youngest.  Jacob  spent a lot of time with Joseph, and Joseph became his favorite.  When Joseph was seventeen years old, Jacob had a special coat made for him. There were many colors in the coat and it was beautiful.

     The coat made Joseph's older brothers jealous and they were very mean to him.

    Joseph had a dream and told his brothers about it.  In the dream, all of the brothers were harvesting grain.  In those times, grain was tied into bunches.  Suddenly Joseph's bunch stood up!  All the other bunches gathered around and bowed to Joseph's bunch.  He told them about a second dream in which the sun, moon and stars bowed to Joseph! If his brothers were jealous before, the dreams made them really angry.   They thought Joseph was way too stuck on himself and told him so. 

     Joseph also told his father Jacob about the dream.  They seemed like pretty strange dreams to Jacob, and he scolded Joseph for making it seem like he would one day rule over the rest of his family,  but Jacob did not forget the dreams and did think about them.

      Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers who were working in fields far away from their home.  Joseph went to find them. The brothers saw Joseph coming and made a plan to kill him.  The oldest, Reuben, didn't want to kill his brother and convinced the others to throw Joseph in an empty well instead.  He didn't tell them, but Reuben planned to come back after his brothers had left and save Joseph.  The brothers agreed.

     When Joseph arrived, they took off his coat of many colors, and threw him into the well.  Reuben was working in a far field when some traveling merchants happened by on their way to Egypt.  Another brother named Judah had a great idea. The brothers could sell Joseph to these men! The brothers wouldn't have to kill Joseph, but they wouldn't ever have to see him again, either. AND they could make some money for themselves besides.  The merchants bought Joseph for 20 pieces of silver and went on their way.  When the travelers reached Egypt, they sold Joseph to a man named Potiphar, who was the captain of the Pharoah's bodyguards.

      The brothers killed a goat and dipped Joseph's coat in its blood and brought it home to Jacob.  They pretended not to know what had happened, and asked Jacob if this was Joseph's coat.  Jacob immediately thought that Joseph had been eaten by a wild animal!  Their father was overwhelmed with sadness, but that didn't bother Jacob's brothers. They were just glad to be rid of him!

       What a terrible thing happened to Joseph!  One minute a favorite son, the next a slave in a strange land. What of Joseph's dreams?  What happened to Joseph in Egypt?  Find out more next month!