17. The man said, “They have departed from here. I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ”So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.
18. When they saw him some distance away, before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.
19. They said one to another, “The master of dreams comes!
20. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into some pit, and we will say, ‘Some evil beast has devoured him.’ Then we will see what will become of his dreams.”
21. But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not kill him.”
22. Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him,” so that he might rescue him out of their hands and deliver him to his father again.
23. When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his coat—his coat of many colors that he had on.
24. And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty, and there was no water in it.
25. Then they sat down to eat. And looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, carrying it down to Egypt.
26. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
27. Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let us not lay our hand on him, for he is our brother and our own flesh.” So his brothers agreed.
28. Then when the Midianite merchants passed by, they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
29. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes.
30. He returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is not there, and I, where can I go?”
31. They took Joseph’s coat and killed a young goat and dipped the coat in the blood.
32. Then they took the coat of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found. Do you know whether it is your son’s robe or not?”