Earlier Joseph had had a dream about him and his brothers working in the fields. And as they were binding their sheaves, Joseph's sheaves stood upright and his brothers' sheaves bowed down to his. Well his brothers were upset because they didn't want Joseph to rule and reign over them. And the Scripture says they hated him even more.
When they see Joseph coming over the horizon, they plot to kill him. (Think you have sibling issues?) All of them collectively: "Let's kill our brother." When Joseph arrives they don't kill him. Instead, they throw him in a pit.
So here's Joseph, a 17 year old kid, and life's pretty good for him. He's the favored son. He is wearing his cool coat. The next thing he knows, he's in the bottom of a pit.
Joseph hears his brothers up around the campfire, talking about how they're going kill him. And he's saying, "Hey, guys! Ha-ha-ha! Joke's over. Would you get me out of here?" We don't know exactly what he did, but we know he prayed, right? Because you pray when you're in a dry well and your brothers are going kill you. So we know he's praying.
Then his brothers decide, "Oh, let's have mercy" (one of them had the gift of mercy). "Let's don't kill him. Let's just sell him. Yeah, let's just sell him." So they decide to sell him to the Ishmaelites, a band of merchants on their way to Egypt. These merchants hook Joseph up or chain him ankle to ankle, and they walk him 300 miles across a desert.
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