Genesis 44:7

¹⁶He turned to her by the way, and said, “Please come, let me come in to you,” for he didn’t know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”

¹⁷He said, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” She said, “Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?”

¹⁸He said, “What pledge will I give you?” She said, “Your signet and your cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” He gave them to her, and came in to her, and she conceived by him.

²²While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

¹⁸They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. ¹⁹They said to one another, “Behold, this dreamer comes. ²⁰Come now therefore, and let’s kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, ‘An evil animal has devoured him.’ We will see what will become of his dreams.”

²¹Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, “Let’s not take his life.” ²²Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. ²³When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him; ²⁴and they took him, and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it.

²⁵They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. ²⁶Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? ²⁷Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him. ²⁸Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The merchants brought Joseph into Egypt.

²⁹Reuben returned to the pit, and saw that Joseph wasn’t in the pit; and he tore his clothes. ³⁰He returned to his brothers, and said, “The child is no more; and I, where will I go?” ³¹They took Joseph’s tunic, and killed a male goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood. ³²They took the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, “We have found this. Examine it, now, and see if it is your son’s tunic or not.”

¹⁸Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things.

¹A good name is more desirable than great riches, and loving favor is better than silver and gold.

²²“The Mighty One, God, the LORD, the Mighty One, God, the LORD, he knows; and Israel shall know: if it was in rebellion, or if in trespass against the LORD (don’t save us today), ²³that we have built us an altar to turn away from following the LORD; or if to offer burnt offering or meal offering, or if to offer sacrifices of peace offerings, let the LORD himself require it.

²⁴“If we have not out of concern done this, and for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your children might speak to our children, saying, “What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? ²⁵For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you children of Reuben and children of Gad. You have no portion in the LORD.”’ So your children might make our children cease from fearing the LORD.

²⁶“Therefore we said, ‘Let’s now prepare to build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice; ²⁷but it will be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we may perform the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings;’ that your children may not tell our children in time to come, ‘You have no portion in the LORD.’

²⁸“Therefore we said, ‘It shall be, when they tell us or our generations this in time to come, that we shall say, “Behold the pattern of the LORD’s altar, which our fathers made, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice; but it is a witness between us and you.”’

²⁹“Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD, and turn away today from following the LORD, to build an altar for burnt offering, for meal offering, or for sacrifice, besides the LORD our God’s altar that is before his tabernacle!”

²⁵On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. ²⁶They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. ²⁷Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. ²⁸They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field, ²⁹and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house. ³⁰Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.”

³¹They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?”

¹A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.

²⁰Joab answered, “Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.

¹³Hazael said, “But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he could do this great thing?” Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Syria.”