SCENE I
Place: Dothan.
Characters: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, Several Ishmaelitish Merchants.
[The ten brothers are sitting and lounging on the ground, eating bread.]
Reuben: Shall we stay longer in this place? Our flocks have fed well in Shechem and Dothan. Let us return again unto Canaan and to the tent of our father, Jacob.
Judah: Oh, why should we go back? Our father loveth us not! It is Joseph, our younger brother, that he favoreth!
Levi: Yes, this Joseph! This dreamer of dreams! He thinketh he is greater than we. He thinketh he shall rule over us!
Judah: Ye heard him when he said, "Hear this dream which I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and bowed down to my sheaf."
Simeon: Ha! Shall he indeed reign over us? Or shall he have dominion over us?