He was so beautiful that he was called the Moon of Canaan, and he had on one of his shoulders a luminous point like a star, a token that the spirit of prophecy rested upon him. The brothers of Joseph, however, heard of the dreams, and they were greatly enraged, and they said, “Joseph and Benjamin are more loved of their father than we ten; let us kill Joseph, or drive him out of the country, and when we have done this, we will repent at our leisure, and God will forgive us.”[401]
One day the brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. Then Israel said to Joseph, “Do not thy brethren feed in Shechem? I am afraid lest the Hivite come upon them and smite them, and repay on me what Simeon and Levi did to Shechem and Hamor, because of Dinah their sister. I will send thee to them to caution them to go elsewhere.”
And he said, “I am ready.” So Joseph arose, and went to Shechem; and Gabriel, in the likeness of a man, found him wandering in the field. And he said to him, “Thy brethren have journeyed hence. I heard of them, when I was in the presence of God, behind the veil, and that, from this day, the bondage of Egypt begins.”[402]
When Joseph came in sight, the brothers conspired to slay him, but Judah said, “Slay not Joseph, for to slay is a crime; but cast him into a well on the way that the caravans pass, that he may be found by a caravan, and be drawn out.” Joseph was then aged seventeen.
His brethren fell on him and stripped him, and were about to cast him into the well which was by the wayside to Jerusalem, when he said, “O my brothers, wherewith shall I cover my nakedness in this pit?”
They replied, “Bid the sun, the moon, and the stars, which adored thee, bring thee clothes to cover thy nakedness.”
Having thus mocked him, they let him down into the well. There was much water in it; and a stone had fallen into it: on this Joseph stood, and was above the surface of the water.[403] Not so, say the Rabbis, it was dry, but it was full of scorpions and adders.[404]
Judah, according to the Mussulman account, had not consented to this, he being absent; and when he had learned what had been done, he took food and let it down into the well, and told Joseph to be of good cheer, his brothers’ anger would turn away, and then he would bring him back to them. But the Jews say that Reuben was absent, as he was fasting on a mountain, because he had incurred his father’s anger, and was in disgrace, and he hoped, by restoring Joseph to Israel, to recover his father’s favor.
The sons of Jacob then slew a lamb and dipped the garment of Joseph in the blood, and brought it to their father, and said, “We left Joseph in charge of our clothes, and a wolf has fallen upon him, and has devoured him.”
But Jacob looked at the garment and said, “I see that it is bloody, but I see no rents; the wolf was merciful to my son Joseph, for he ate him and left his garment whole!”[405]