17. The man said, “They have departed from here. I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ”So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.
18. When they saw him some distance away, before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.
19. They said one to another, “The master of dreams comes!
20. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into some pit, and we will say, ‘Some evil beast has devoured him.’ Then we will see what will become of his dreams.”
21. But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not kill him.”
22. Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him,” so that he might rescue him out of their hands and deliver him to his father again.
23. When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his coat—his coat of many colors that he had on.
24. And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty, and there was no water in it.