GENESIS

Early Life

Chapter 37

"I had another dream last night " Joseph suddenly said to his family as they were all having dinner.

His brothers all glared at him
What again this time
They thought.

His father stopped eating and looked at his favourite son intently.

Joseph cleared his throat in discomfort as he noticed how thin the air had become.

"Go on son" Israel said. Joseph's eyes quickly flashed to his dad's and a smile began to form on his face.

"I was standing in space, darkness all around me; he sun, moon and eleven stars surrounded me. I was a bit confused, I didn't know what was going on and before I could do anything,  they all slowly, but surely, bowed down to me"

Isreal frowned at his " are you trying to say that your mum, your brothers and I would bow down to you ?"

"Before it was his sheaves and ours, now this" Issachar said with disgust but was silenced by the glare of his father.

"We're never going to hear the end of this" Gad whispered to Asher, making him snicker.

"Enough " Reuben said and his brothers immediately kept quiet.

Benjamin stared blankly between Joseph and his other brothers, a bit too young to understand what was going on.

"Go to bed" Israel said firmly and they all stood up and left. When they were all gone, Isreal placed his hand on his forehead and stared into space pondering on what Joseph had said.

"Move Dreamer" Naphtali said shoving Joseph hard. Joseph stumbled and he held his brother's hand tightly. Benjamin winced in pain.

"Be careful or he'll snitch you to dad" Zebulum said.

The others burst into laughter and were immediately silenced by Reuben, the eldest.

He waited as the rest of his brothers entered their room but Joseph hung back to thank him.

"Reuben... thank you for that" Joseph began but got discouraged by the dirty look he received.

"Don't think for a moment that you can take my role as the leader just because you're dad's favourite " he flatly said and entered the room.

Joseph stared at his brother's back. It had always been like this and he just made it worse. He thought.

He looked down at Benjamin and smiled at him. At least I have you.

***

After some days, Joseph was sent by his father to Shechem to check on his brothers who were with his flock. Not seeing them there, he was redirected to Dothan.

"Hey look who's coming" Zebulum said to the others when he noticed Joseph trekking towards them from afar.

The brothers looked up and frowned.
"Here comes the dreamer" Gad said.

"What is he doing here?" Judah said.

"I can't stand his sight anymore " Isaachar said.

"You and me both" replied Dan.

"Let's get rid of him " Asher said and the others chorused in agreement while Simeon and Levi shrugged.

Reuben immediately stood up.
"We can't do that"

"And why not" Zebulum said "nobody wants him here" the others chorused again in agreement.  Reuben was taken aback by their rebellion.

He looked around him and noticed a deep pit close by.

"Why don't we put him in that pit " he said pointing to it " he can starve to death there, it's more fun" he said hoping his brothers would not catch on that he was going to free him.

The others looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

About a minute after Joseph arrived.
"Father sent me to check on you " he said and not a second after, his brothers pounced on him.

Joseph tried to struggle and run away but he was to weak to go against his brothers.

They tied him up and threw him into the pit as he begged them to stop.

"Shut up!" Gad shouted as he closed the pit.

Then they all sat down to eat and laugh at what they had just done. Reuben stood up and went away to pee, as he was gone, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites taking goods on camels to sell in Egypt.

"Why don't we sell him" Judah said with a smirk on his face " we get the money and punish our brother."

They agreed and brought him out, selling him for 20 pieces of silver. By the time Reuben returned, he tore his clothes in anxiety when didn't see his brother.

"Where is he?!" Reuben shouted.

"Would you calm down" Judah said, showing him the pieces of silver. "We sold him" Reuben's eyes widened

"What are we going to tell Dad"

"Relax" Simeon said, holding up the coat of many colours he removed form Joseph. The coat Israel had specially made for him. " we just soak this in blood and say he was killed"

"We'll kill just one goat, it's believable" Levi said, making his way towards the pasture.

After they told Isreal the story, giving him the cloth, he mourned for days, refusing to be comforted while Joseph was sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard...