Reading I
Gen 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a
Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had him in his old age: and he made him a coat of divers colours.
And his brethren seeing that he was loved by his father, more than all his sons, hated hem, and could not speak peaceably to him.
And when his brethren abode in Sechem, feeding their father's flocks,
Israel said to him: Thy brethren feed the sheep in Sichem: come, I will send thee to them. And when he answered:
And the man said to him: They are departed from this place: for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothain. And Joseph went forward after his brethren, and found them in Dothain.
And when they saw him afar off, before he came nigh them, they thought to kill him:
And said one to another: Behold the dreamer cometh.
Come, let us kill him, and cast him into some old pit: and we will say: Some evil beast hath devoured him: and then it shall appear what his dreams avail him:
And Ruben hearing this, endeavoured to deliver him out of their hands, and said:
Do not take away his life, nor shed his blood: but cast him into this pit, that is in the wilderness, and keep your hands harmless: now he said this, being desirous to deliver him out of their hands and to restore him to his father.
And as soon as he came to his brethren, they forthwith stript him of his outside coat, that was of divers colours:
And cast him into an old pit where there was not water.
And sitting down to eat bread, they saw some Ismaelites on their way coming from Galaad, with their camels, carrying spices, and balm, and myrrh to Egypt.
And Juda said to his brethren: What will it profit us to kill our brother, and conceal his blood?
It is better that he be sold to the Ismaelites, and that our hands be not defiled: for he is our brother and our flesh. His brethren agreed to his words.
And when the Madianite merchants passed by, they drew him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ismaelites, for twenty pieces of silver: and they led him into Egypt.