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Joseph and his dreams

Joseph's jealous brothers sell him into slavery.
Contributed by Sue Bentley
Story also available on our translated websites: Portuguese, German, Hindi
1
Once there was a young man called Joseph and he lived with his father Jacob and 11 other brothers in the land of Canaan. Joseph was the favourite child of his father and one day he was given a coat of many colours. This made the other brothers very jealous and they hated Joseph. – Slide 1
2
One day Joseph had a dream and he told his brothers that in the dream they were all binding sheaves of wheat and all the brothers’ wheat bowed down to Joseph’s wheat. This made the brothers hate him even more and they said to Joseph ‘Shall you rule over us?’ – Slide 2
3
Then Joseph had another dream and he told his brothers and father about it. This time the sun and moon and 11 stars bowed down to Joseph. It made his brothers hate him more than ever and even his father wondered what was meant by the dream. – Slide 3
4
One day Jacob wanted to know if his sons were doing their job properly and looking after his sheep. So he sent Joseph to find out but he could not find them. Then a man saw Joseph and told him that the brothers had gone with their sheep to a place called Dothan. – Slide 4
5
When the brothers saw Joseph coming towards them they decided they would kill him. But one of them, Reuben, said they should not hurt Joseph but instead throw him into a pit until they could decide what to do with him. Reuben said this because he wanted to rescue Joseph when he had the chance. – Slide 5
6
Joseph was put in an empty well and felt very sad and afraid. As he sat in the darkness he could hear his brothers above him talking and eating. He cried for help but they ignored him. They had taken his coat of many colours. – Slide 6
7
Whilst Reuben was away, some merchants came towards the brothers. They were taking spices down to Egypt to sell in the markets. Judah, another one of the brothers, thought they should sell Joseph to the merchants. Everyone thought this was a good idea and the merchants gave them 20 pieces of silver and took Joseph away. – Slide 7
8
When Reuben returned he was very upset that Joseph had been sold. All of the brothers decided to go to their father with the coat of many colours and say that a wild animal had killed Joseph and all that was left was his coat. Jacob cried and cried and none of his sons were able to comfort him. – Slide 8
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Slide 9