Joseph Goes to Egypt

Jacob’s twelve sons didn’t always get along with each other. They all wanted to be their father’s favorite. But Jacob loved his son Joseph the best. The book of Genesis, in the Bible, tells us about Joseph and his brothers.

ne day, Joseph was out in the fields with his brothers, watching his father’s sheep. Suddenly he heard his father Jacob calling, “Joseph! Joseph!”

“Watch my sheep for me!” Joseph told his brothers. He ran quickly to his father’s tent. “Yes, Father?” he asked.

“Joseph,” Jacob said, “you are very special to me. So I’ve made you a beautiful coat to wear.” He held out a beautiful coat—as colorful as a field full of flowers and as soft as a cloud, trimmed with a border of purple. Joseph could hardly believe his eyes. He was used to plain clothes, made from the skin of goats and the wool of his father’s sheep. He took the coat and slipped it on.

“Thank you, Father!” he said. “I’ll always wear it—even while I’m tending the sheep!” And he ran back to his flock of sheep. “Look, Judah!” he shouted. “Look, Benjamin! Look, all of you! Father made me a special coat!”

His brothers stared at the coat. “Why didn’t I get one?” Judah asked. “I’m older than you are! Why did Father make a coat for you, and not for any of the rest of us?” All the brothers grumbled and complained about Joseph’s coat.

But Joseph wore the coat day and night. He boasted about his coat. He bragged about how much his father loved him. Finally, the other eleven brothers could stand it no more.

One morning, they were all out in a field a long way away from Jacob’s tent when they heard Joseph coming. “Here comes our father’s favorite!” they complained. “Let’s get rid of him so that we never have to hear him brag about his colored coat again!” And when Joseph came, they grabbed him, took his coat away, and threw him into a pit in the ground.

“Look,” they said. “We found this out in the desert. A lion must have killed Joseph!”

Jacob wept and wept, because he thought that Joseph was dead. But the desert traders took Joseph down to Egypt and sold him to the pharaoh of Egypt as a slave.

Down in Egypt, Joseph lived in the house of Potiphar, the captain of the pharaoh’s guards. He missed his father. He cried at nights because his brothers had been so cruel to him. But he worked hard in Potiphar’s house. Soon, Potiphar took notice of him. He trusted Joseph more and more and gave him more and more responsibility. Soon, Joseph was running Potiphar’s whole household!

But Potiphar’s wife decided that Joseph had too much power in her husband’s house. She told lies about Joseph to Potiphar. Potiphar believed his wife—and he had Joseph thrown in jail.

“What will happen to me?” Joseph thought. “Will I never be free? First my brothers sell me as a slave, and then I end up in the pharaoh’s jail! What will I do?”

One morning, one of the other prisoners looked troubled. “What is the matter?” Joseph asked.

“I had a strange dream,” the man said. “I dreamed that a vine grew up out of the ground, right in front of me. The vine grew branches, the branches grew grapes, and the grapes got ripe—right there in front of my eyes! Then I squeezed the grapes into a cup, and gave the cup to Pharaoh.”

“I know what your dream means!” Joseph exclaimed. “It means that Pharaoh is going to take you out of jail and forgive your crimes!”

“How do you know?” the dreamer asked.

“Only God knows what dreams mean,” Joseph said, “and he showed me the answer to your dream.”

Sure enough, three days later soldiers appeared at the jail’s door and took the prisoner away. “You’ve been pardoned,” they said. “You can return to Pharaoh’s palace and work for him again.”

As the dreamer was walking away, Joseph called after him, “Remember me! Tell Pharaoh that I am innocent, so that I can get out of jail!”

But the dreamer forgot all about Joseph, and Joseph stayed in prison for months and months and months.

One night, the pharaoh himself had a terrifying dream.

Then the dreamer remembered Joseph. “Great Pharaoh,” he said, “the Israelite in your prison knows what dreams mean. His god tells him!”

“Get him at once!” the Pharaoh said.

So Joseph was brought from prison, right to the pharaoh’s throne room. Pharaoh said to him, “I had a terrible dream. I dreamed that I was standing by the river Nile, and that seven big, fat cows walked up out of the water and started to graze on the riverbank. Then, seven ugly, thin cows came up from the water—and swallowed the fat cows right up! What does it mean? Can you tell me?”

“My god gives me the wisdom to understand dreams,” Joseph replied. “He tells me that the seven fat cows stand for seven good years, when the Nile will overflow, the crops will grow, and the Egyptians will have plenty to eat. But the seven thin cows stand for seven years of famine. The Nile won’t flood, and your crops will die. Pharaoh, you should choose a wise man and put him in charge of gathering grain during the seven good years. Store the grain, so that the Egyptians will have something to eat during the years of famine.”

“A wise man?” the Pharaoh said. “No one is wiser than you, Joseph. I will put you in charge of gathering the grain. You will be second in command to me.”

So Pharaoh took the ring off his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. And he gave Joseph white linen robes and a gold chain to wear around his neck. He gave Joseph a chariot to ride in, and men to run in front of him and shout “Make way!”

Joseph went all around Egypt, collecting grain from the farmers and storing it. Sure enough, for seven years the Nile overflowed and crops were good. But then famine came. The Nile was low, and the ground became dry and cracked. The sun beat down on the fields, and the crops died. The Egyptians began to get hungry.

Then Joseph started to hand out the grain that he had saved, a little bit for each family.

Up in Canaan, Jacob and his family were starving. There was no water; their sheep and goats were dying and their crops had failed. Finally Jacob said to his sons, “I hear that they have grain in Egypt. Go and get us some!”

Joseph’s brothers walked for days and days and days through the hot sand to reach Egypt. When they got to Pharaoh’s palace, they were tired and thirsty and sweaty. They waited in a long, long line of hungry people before they could go into the room where Joseph sat, giving out grain. When they got there, they didn’t recognize Joseph at all. He had been in Egypt for years and years. He had grown up. And he was dressed like an Egyptian.

But Joseph recognized his brothers. They had sold him as a slave—and now they were here, asking him for food.

For weeks, Joseph didn’t tell his brothers who he was. But finally, he could no longer bear to keep his secret. He invited them for a big dinner. And when dinner was over, he sent all his servants away.

“I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?”

The brothers could hardly believe their eyes. And they were terrified. “Now we are in his power!” they whispered to each other. “He will kill us!”

But Joseph said, “I forgive the evil thing you did to me! God sent me ahead of you so that you could come and get food from me during this famine. Go back to Canaan and get all your flocks and your families and your tents. Come and live in Egypt, where there is plenty of food!”

So Joseph’s father and brothers and all their families—the Israelites—came down to Egypt and lived there, on the banks of the Nile. The Israelite nation grew larger and larger. They kept on worshipping their one god, even though the Egyptians believed in many different gods. And as long as Joseph lived, Pharaoh was kind to the Israelites and let them have a part of Egypt for their very own.