One Year Pray for America Bible - Flipbook - Page 77
67
January 18
18 When
Joseph’s brothers saw him
coming, they recognized him in the
distance. As he approached, they
made plans to kill him. 19 “Here comes
the dreamer!” they said. 20 “Come on,
let’s kill him and throw him into one
of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.’
Then we’ll see what becomes of his
dreams!”
21 But when Reu
ben heard of their
scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue.
“Let’s not kill him,” he said. 22 “Why
should we shed any blood? Let’s just
throw him into this empty cistern here
in the wilderness. Then he’ll die without our laying a hand on him.” Reu
ben was secretly planning to rescue
Joseph and return him to his father.
23 So when Jo
seph arrived, his
brothers ripped off the beautiful robe
he was wearing. 24 Then they grabbed
him and threw him into the cistern.
Now the cistern was empty; there was
no water in it. 25 Then, just as they
were sitting down to eat, they looked
up and saw a caravan of camels in the
distance coming toward them. It was
a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a
load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin
from Gilead down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What
will we gain by killing our brother?
We’d have to cover up the crime.* 27 Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to
those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is
our brother—our own flesh and blood!”
And his brothers agreed. 28 So when the
Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled
him out of the cistern and sold him to
them for twenty pieces* of silver. And
the traders took him to Egypt.
29 Some time later, Reuben returned
to get Joseph out of the cistern. When
he discovered that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes in grief. 30 Then
he went back to his brothers and lamented, “The boy is gone! What will
I do now?”
31 Then the brothers killed a young
goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in its
blood. 32 They sent the beautiful robe
to their father with this message: “Look
at what we found. Doesn’t this robe belong to your son?”
33 Their father recognized it immediately. “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s
robe. A wild animal must have eaten
him. Joseph has clearly been torn to
pieces!” 34 Then Jacob tore his clothes
and dressed himself in burlap. He
mourned deeply for his son for a long
time. 35 His family all tried to comfort
him, but he refused to be comforted.
“I will go to my grave* mourning for
my son,” he would say, and then he
would weep.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianite traders* arrived in Egypt, where they sold
Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pha
raoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was
captain of the palace guard.
38:1 About
this time, Judah left home
and moved to Adul
lam, where he
stayed with a man named Hi
rah.
2 There he saw a Ca
naanite woman,
the daughter of Shua, and he married her. When he slept with her, 3 she
became pregnant and gave birth to a
son, and he named the boy Er. 4 Then
she became pregnant again and gave
birth to another son, and she named
him Onan. 5 And when she gave birth
to a third son, she named him Shelah.
At the time of Shelah’s birth, they were
living at Kezib.
6 In the course of time, Ju
dah arranged for his firstborn son, Er, to
marry a young woman named Ta
mar. 7 But Er was a wicked man in the
Lord’s sight, so the Lord took his
life. 8 Then Judah said to Er’s brother
Onan, “Go and marry Tamar, as our
law requires of the brother of a man
who has died. You must produce an
heir for your brother.”
9 But Onan was not willing to have
a child who would not be his own
heir. So whenever he had intercourse
with his brother’s wife, he spilled the
semen on the ground. This prevented
her from having a child who would
belong to his brother. 10 But the Lord
considered it evil for Onan to deny a
child to his dead brother. So the Lord
took Onan’s life, too.
