12. Then his brothers went to graze their father’s flocks at Shechem.
13. Israel said to Joseph, “Aren’t your brothers grazing the flocks in Shechem? Come, let me send you to them.” “Here I am,” he said to him.
14. Then he said to him, “Go now, and check on the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flocks and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron and he went to Shechem.
15. A man found him there, wandering in the field, and the man asked him, “What are you looking for?”
16. “I’m looking for my brothers,” he said. “Please tell me where they’re grazing.”
17. The man said, “They moved on from here. For I heard them saying, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.
18. Now they saw him from a distance. Before he was close to them they plotted together against him in order to kill him.
19. They said to one another, “Here comes the master of dreams!
20. Come on now! Let’s kill him and throw him into one of those pits, so we can say that an evil animal devoured him. Then let’s see what becomes of his dreams.”
21. But Reuben heard and rescued him out of their hands, saying, “We must not beat him to death.”
22. In order to rescue him from their hand and to return him to his father, Reuben said to them, “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him!”
23. So as soon as Joseph came up to his brothers they stripped Joseph of his tunic (the long sleeved tunic that he had on).
24. Then they took him and threw him into the pit. (Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.)
25. Then they sat down to eat bread. When they looked up, behold, there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balsam, and myrrh—going to bring them down to Egypt.