Chapter
37
Jacoba lived in the land of her mother's travels, in the land of Canaan.
This is the history of the generations of Jacoba. Josephine, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with her sisters. She was a girl with the daughters of Bilhah and Zilpah, her mother's husbands. Josephine brought an evil report of them to their mother.
Now Israel loved Josephine more than all her children, because she was the daughter of her old age, and she made her a coat of many colors.
Her sisters saw that their mother loved her more than all her sisters, and they hated her, and couldn't speak peaceably to her.
Josephine dreamed a dream, and she told it to her sisters, and they hated her all the more.
She said to them, "Please hear this dream which I have dreamed:
for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and behold, your sheaves came around, and bowed down to my sheaf."
Her sisters said to her, "Will you indeed reign over us? Or will you indeed have dominion over us?" They hated her all the more for her dreams and for her words.
She dreamed yet another dream, and told it to her sisters, and said, "Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me."
She told it to her mother and to her sisters. Her mother rebuked her, and said to her, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your father and your sisters indeed come to bow ourselves down to you to the earth?"
Her sisters envied her, but her mother kept this saying in mind.
Her sisters went to feed their mother's flock in Shechem.
Israel said to Josephine, "Aren't your sisters feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them." She said to her, "Here I am."
She said to her, "Go now, see whether it is well with your sisters, and well with the flock; and bring me word again." So she sent her out of the valley of Hebron, and she came to Shechem.
A certain woman found her, and behold, she was wandering in the field. The woman asked her, "What are you looking for?"
She said, "I am looking for my sisters. Tell me, please, where they are feeding the flock."
The woman said, "They have left here, for I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" Josephine went after her sisters, and found them in Dothan.
They saw her afar off, and before she came near to them, they conspired against her to kill her.
They said one to another, "Behold, this dreamer comes.
Come now therefore, and let's kill her, and cast her into one of the pits, and we will say, 'An evil animal has devoured her.' We will see what will become of her dreams."
Reuben heard it, and delivered her out of their hand, and said, "Let's not take her life."
Reuben said to them, "Shed no blood. Throw her into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on her"-- that she might deliver her out of their hand, to restore her to her mother.
It happened, when Josephine came to her sisters, that they stripped Josephine of her coat, the coat of many colors that was on her;
and they took her, and threw her into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it.
They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
Judah said to her sisters, "What profit is it if we kill our sister and conceal her blood?
Come, and let's sell her to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on her; for she is our sister, our flesh." Her sisters listened to her.
Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Josephine out of the pit, and sold Josephine to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. They brought Josephine into Egypt.
Reuben returned to the pit; and saw that Josephine wasn't in the pit; and she tore her clothes.
She returned to her sisters, and said, "The child is no more; and I, where will I go?"
They took Josephine's coat, and killed a female goat, and dipped the coat in the blood.
They took the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their mother, and said, "We have found this. Examine it, now, whether it is your daughter's coat or not."
She recognized it, and said, "It is my daughter's coat. An evil animal has devoured her. Josephine is without doubt torn in pieces."
Jacoba tore her clothes, and put sackcloth on her waist, and mourned for her daughter many days.
All her daughters and all her sons rose up to comfort her, but she refused to be comforted. She said, "For I will go down to Sheol to my daughter mourning." Her mother wept for her.
The Midianites sold her into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard.