And he said to him, Go now, and see if your brothers are well and how the flock is; then come back and give me word. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

And he said, I am looking for my brothers; please give me word of where they are keeping their flock.

But they saw him when he was a long way off, and before he came near them they made a secret design against him to put him to death;

Let us now put him to death and put his body into one of these holes, and we will say, An evil beast has put him to death: then we will see what becomes of his dreams.

But Reuben, hearing these words, got him out of their hands, saying, Let us not take his life.

Do not put him to a violent death, but let him be placed in one of the holes; this he said to keep him safe from their hands, with the purpose of taking him back to his father again.

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they took off his long coat which he had on;

Then seating themselves, they took their meal: and looking up, they saw a travelling band of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead on their way to Egypt, with spices and perfumes on their camels.

And some traders from Midian went by; so pulling Joseph up out of the hole, they gave him to the Ishmaelites for twenty bits of silver, and they took him to Egypt.

Now when Reuben came back to the hole, Joseph was not there; and giving signs of grief,

Then they took Joseph's coat, and put on it some of the blood from a young goat which they had put to death,

Then Jacob, giving signs of grief, put on haircloth, and went on weeping for his son day after day.

And in Egypt the men of Midian gave him for a price to Potiphar, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house.

Now at that time, Judah went away from his brothers and became the friend of a man of Adullam named Hirah.

And there he saw the daughter of a certain man of Canaan named Shua, and took her as his wife.

And Judah took a wife for his first son Er, and her name was Tamar.

Now Er, Judah's first son, did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that he put him to death.

Then Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife and do what it is right for a husband's brother to do; make her your wife and get offspring for your brother.

But Onan, seeing that the offspring would not be his, went in to his brother's wife, but let his seed go on to the earth, so that he might not get offspring for his brother.

And what he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that he put him to death, like his brother.

And after a time, Bath-shua, Judah's wife, came to her end; and after Judah was comforted for her loss, he went to Timnah, where they were cutting the wool of his sheep, and his friend Hirah of Adullam went with him.

She took off her widow's clothing, and covering herself with her veil, she took her seat near Enaim on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was now a man, but she had not been made his wife.

When Judah saw her he took her to be a loose woman of the town, because her face was covered.

Then she got up and went away and took off her veil and put on her widow's clothing.

And he put questions to the men of the place, saying, Where is the loose woman who was in Enaim by the wayside? And they said, There was no such woman there.

So he went back to Judah, and said, I have not seen her, and the men of the place say that there is no such woman there.

And while she was being taken out, she sent word to her father-in-law, saying, The man whose property these things are, is the father of my child: say then, whose are this ring and this cord and this stick?

And while she was in the act of giving birth, one of them put out his hand; and the woman who was with her put a red thread round his hand, saying, This one came out first.

Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar the Egyptian, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house, got him for a price from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

And the Lord was with Joseph, and he did well; and he was living in the house of his master the Egyptian.

And having a high opinion of Joseph as his servant, he made him the overseer of his house and gave him control over all he had.

And from the time when he made him overseer and gave him control of all his property, the blessing of the Lord was with the Egyptian, because of Joseph; the blessing of the Lord was on all he had, in the house and in the field.

And he gave Joseph control of all his property, keeping no account of anything, but only the food which was put before him. Now Joseph was very beautiful in form and face.

And after a time, his master's wife, looking on Joseph with desire, said to him, Be my lover.

But he would not, and said to her, You see that my master keeps no account of what I do in his house, and has put all his property in my control;

So that no one has more authority in this house than I have; he has kept nothing back from me but you, because you are his wife; how then may I do this great wrong, sinning against God?

Now one day he went into the house to do his work; and not one of the men of the house was inside.

And pulling at his coat, she said, Come to my bed; but slipping out of his coat, he went running away.

She sent for the men of her house and said to them, See, he has let a Hebrew come here and make sport of us; he came to my bed, and I gave a loud cry;

Then she gave him the same story, saying, The Hebrew servant whom you have taken into our house came in to make sport of me;

And hearing his wife's account of what his servant had done, he became very angry.

But the Lord was with Joseph, and was good to him, and made the keeper of the prison his friend.

And the keeper of the prison put all the prisoners under Joseph's control, and he was responsible for whatever was done there.

And the keeper of the prison gave no attention to anything which was under his care, because the Lord was with him; and the Lord made everything he did go well.

Now after these things the chief servant who had the care of the wine, and the chief bread-maker in Pharaoh's house, did something against Pharaoh's orders;

And he put them in prison under the care of the captain of the army, in the same prison where Joseph himself was shut up.

And these two had a dream on the same night; the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker of the king of Egypt, who were in prison, the two of them had dreams with a special sense.

And he said to the servants of Pharaoh who were in prison with him, Why are you looking so sad?

Then they said to him, We have had a dream, and no one is able to give us the sense. And Joseph said, Does not the sense of dreams come from God? what was your dream?

Then the chief wine-servant gave Joseph an account of his dream, and said, In my dream I saw a vine before me;

And on the vine were three branches; and it seemed as if it put out buds and flowers, and from them came grapes ready for cutting.

Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three branches are three days;

But keep me in mind when things go well for you, and be good to me and say a good word for me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison:

For truly I was taken by force from the land of the Hebrews; and I have done nothing for which I might be put in prison.

Now when the chief bread-maker saw that the first dream had a good sense, he said to Joseph, I had a dream; and in my dream there were three baskets of white bread on my head;

And in the top basket were all sorts of cooked meats for Pharaoh; and the birds were taking them out of the baskets on my head.

Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three baskets are three days;

After three days Pharaoh will take you out of prison, hanging you on a tree, so that your flesh will be food for birds.

Now after two years had gone by, Pharaoh had a dream; and in his dream he was by the side of the Nile;

And out of the Nile came seven cows, good-looking and fat, and their food was the river-grass.

And after them seven other cows came out of the Nile, poor-looking and thin; and they were by the side of the other cows.

And the seven thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows. Then Pharaoh came out of his sleep.

But he went to sleep again and had a second dream, in which he saw seven heads of grain, full and good, all on one stem.

And the seven thin heads made a meal of the good heads. And when Pharaoh was awake he saw it was a dream.

And in the morning his spirit was troubled; and he sent for all the wise men of Egypt and all the holy men, and put his dream before them, but no one was able to give him the sense of it.

Then the chief wine-servant said to Pharaoh, The memory of my sin comes back to me now;

Pharaoh had been angry with his servants, and had put me in prison in the house of the captain of the army, together with the chief bread-maker;

And we had a dream on the same night, the two of us, and the dreams had a special sense.

And there was with us a young Hebrew, the captain's servant, and when we put our dreams before him, he gave us the sense of them.

Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they took him quickly out of prison; and when his hair had been cut and his dress changed, he came before Pharaoh.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and no one is able to give me the sense of it; now it has come to my ears that you are able to give the sense of a dream when it is put before you.

Then Joseph said, Without God there will be no answer of peace for Pharaoh.

Then Pharaoh said, In my dream I was by the side of the Nile:

And out of the Nile came seven cows, fat and good-looking, and their food was the river-grass;

Then after them came seven other cows, very thin and poor-looking, worse than any I ever saw in the land of Egypt;

And the thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows who came up first;

And even with the fat cows inside them they seemed as bad as before. And so I came out of my sleep.

And again in a dream I saw seven heads of grain, full and good, coming up on one stem:

And the seven thin heads made a meal of the seven good heads; and I put this dream before the wise men, but not one of them was able to give me the sense of it.

The seven fat cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years: the two have the same sense.

The seven thin and poor-looking cows who came up after them are seven years; and the seven heads of grain, dry and wasted by the east wind, are seven years when there will be no food.

Seven years are coming in which there will be great wealth of grain in Egypt;

And after that will come seven years when there will not be enough food; and the memory of the good years will go from men's minds; and the land will be made waste by the bad years;

And men will have no memory of the good time because of the need which will come after, for it will be very bitter.

And now let Pharaoh make search for a man of wisdom and good sense, and put him in authority over the land of Egypt.

Let Pharaoh do this, and let him put overseers over the land of Egypt to put in store a fifth part of the produce of the land in the good years.

And let them get together all the food in those good years and make a store of grain under Pharaoh's control for the use of the towns, and let them keep it.

And let that food be kept in store for the land till the seven bad years which are to come in Egypt; so that the land may not come to destruction through need of food.

Then Pharaoh said to his servants, Where may we get such a man as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God?

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Seeing that God has made all this clear to you, there is no other man of such wisdom and good sense as you:

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have put you over all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and he had him clothed with the best linen, and put a chain of gold round his neck;

And he made him take his seat in the second of his carriages; and they went before him crying, Make way! So he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh; and without your order no man may do anything in all the land of Egypt.

And Pharaoh gave Joseph the name of Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, the priest of On, to be his wife. So Joseph went through all the land of Egypt.

Now Joseph was thirty years old when he came before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from before the face of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.

And Joseph got together all the food of those seven years, and made a store of food in the towns: the produce of the fields round every town was stored up in the town.

So he got together a store of grain like the sand of the sea; so great a store that after a time he gave up measuring it, for it might not be measured.

And before the time of need, Joseph had two sons, to whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On, gave birth.

And to the first he gave the name Manasseh, for he said, God has taken away from me all memory of my hard life and of my father's house.