¹ Now Jacob was living in the land where his father had made a place for himself, in the land of Canaan.

² These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, a boy seventeen years old, was looking after the flock, together with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph gave their father a bad account of them.

³ Now the love which Israel had for Joseph was greater than his love for all his other children, because he got him when he was an old man: and he had a long coat made for him.

⁴ And because his brothers saw that Joseph was dearer to his father than all the others, they were full of hate for him, and would not say a kind word to him.

⁵ Now Joseph had a dream, and he gave his brothers an account of it, which made their hate greater than ever.

⁶ And he said to them, Let me give you the story of my dream.

⁷ We were in the field, getting the grain stems together, and my grain kept upright, and yours came round and went down on the earth before mine.

⁸ And his brothers said to him, Are you to be our king? will you have authority over us? And because of his dream and his words, their hate for him became greater than ever.

⁹ Then he had another dream, and gave his brothers an account of it, saying, I have had another dream: the sun and the moon and eleven stars gave honour to me.

¹⁰ And he gave word of it to his father and his brothers; but his father protesting said, What sort of a dream is this? am I and your mother and your brothers to go down on our faces to the earth before you?

¹¹ And his brothers were full of envy; but his father kept his words in mind.

¹² Now his brothers went to keep watch over their father's flock in Shechem.

¹³ And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers with the flock in Shechem? come, I will send you to them. And he said to him, Here am I.

¹⁴ 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.

¹⁵ And a man saw him wandering in the country, and said to him, What are you looking for?

¹⁶ And he said, I am looking for my brothers; please give me word of where they are keeping their flock.

¹⁷ And the man said, They have gone away from here, for they said in my hearing, Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after them and came up with them at Dothan.

¹⁸ 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;

¹⁹ Saying to one another, See, here comes this dreamer.

²⁰ 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.

²¹ But Reuben, hearing these words, got him out of their hands, saying, Let us not take his life.

²² 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.

²³ So when Joseph came to his brothers, they took off his long coat which he had on;

²⁴ And they took him and put him in the hole: now the hole had no water in it.

²⁵ 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.

²⁶ And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in putting our brother to death and covering up his blood?

²⁷ Let us give him to these Ishmaelites for a price, and let us not put violent hands on him, for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brothers gave ear to him.

²⁸ 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.

²⁹ Now when Reuben came back to the hole, Joseph was not there; and giving signs of grief,

³⁰ He went back to his brothers, and said, The child is gone; what am I to do?

³¹ Then they took Joseph's coat, and put on it some of the blood from a young goat which they had put to death,

³² And they took the coat to their father, and said, We came across this; is it your son's coat or not?

³³ And he saw that it was, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast has put him to death; without doubt Joseph has come to a cruel end.

³⁴ Then Jacob, giving signs of grief, put on haircloth, and went on weeping for his son day after day.

³⁵ And all his sons and all his daughters came to give him comfort, but he would not be comforted, saying with weeping, I will go down to the underworld to my son. So great was his father's sorrow for him.

³⁶ And in Egypt the men of Midian gave him for a price to Potiphar, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house.

¹ It happened at that time, that Judah went down from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

² Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her, and went in to her.

³ She conceived, and bore a son; and he named him Er.

⁴ She conceived again, and bore a son; and she named him Onan.

⁵ She yet again bore a son, and named him Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bore him.

⁶ Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

⁷ Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Yahweh. Yahweh killed him.

⁸ Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her, and raise up seed to your brother."

⁹ Onan knew that the seed wouldn't be his; and it happened, when he went in to his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest he should give seed to his brother.

¹⁰ The thing which he did was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and he killed him also.

¹¹ Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, "Remain a widow in your father's house, until Shelah, my son, is grown up;" for he said, "Lest he also die, like his brothers." Tamar went and lived in her father's house.

¹² After many days, Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died. Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheepshearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah, the Adullamite.

¹³ It was told Tamar, saying, "Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep."

¹⁴ She took off of her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn't given to him as a wife.

¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

¹⁶ He turned to her by the way, and said, "Please come, let me come in to you," for he didn't know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, "What will you give me, that you may come in to me?"

¹⁷ He said, "I will send you a young goat from the flock." She said, "Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?"

¹⁸ He said, "What pledge will I give you?" She said, "Your signet and your cord, and your staff that is in your hand." He gave them to her, and came in to her, and she conceived by him.

¹⁹ She arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

²⁰ Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend, the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman's hand, but he didn't find her.

²¹ Then he asked the men of her place, saying, "Where is the prostitute, that was at Enaim by the road?" They said, "There has been no prostitute here."

²² He returned to Judah, and said, "I haven't found her; and also the men of the place said, 'There has been no prostitute here.'"

²³ Judah said, "Let her keep it, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this young goat, and you haven't found her."

²⁴ It happened about three months later, that it was told Judah, saying, "Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has played the prostitute; and moreover, behold, she is with child by prostitution." Judah said, "Bring her forth, and let her be burnt."

²⁵ When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, "By the man, whose these are, I am with child." She also said, "Please discern whose are these--the signet, and the cords, and the staff."

²⁶ Judah acknowledged them, and said, "She is more righteous than I, because I didn't give her to Shelah, my son." He knew her again no more.

²⁷ It happened in the time of her travail, that behold, twins were in her womb.

²⁸ When she travailed, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, "This came out first."

²⁹ It happened, as he drew back his hand, that behold, his brother came out, and she said, "Why have you made a breach for yourself?" Therefore his name was called Perez.

³⁰ Afterward his brother came out, that had the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.