Now Ja-cob had large flocks of sheep and goats at Shech-em, and all of his sons but Jo-seph had gone there to feed them. And Ja-cob said to Jo-seph, Go and see if it be well with thy breth-ren, and with the flocks, and bring me back word.
And Jo-seph went out from the vale of Heb-ron to the land of Shech-em.
When he came there he found that his broth-ers had gone on to Do-than. And Jo-seph went to Do-than and found them. And as soon as he came in sight they thought of a way in which they might get rid of him.
SHECH-EM, THE FIRST CAP-I-TAL OF THE KING-DOM OF IS-RAEL.
Come, let us kill him, they said; and throw him in-to a pit, and say that a wild beast ate him up. Then we shall see what will be-come of his dreams.
But Reu-ben heard it, and saved him out of their hands. And he said, Let us not kill the lad. Shed no blood; but cast him in-to this pit, and lay no hand on him. For he meant to take him out of the pit, and bear him home to his fath-er.
But when Jo-seph came near these men who should have been kind to him, they took off his coat and threw him in-to the pit, which was dry, or he would have drowned. These old dry wells were left as traps in which to catch the wild beasts that prowled round in the dead of night, and well these bad men knew what would be Jo-seph's fate.
As they sat down to eat, they looked up and saw a lot of men and cam-els on their way to E-gypt, with spices, and balm and myrrh.