Joseph was good and kind, serving his father and family well as a
shepherd in the fields. His brothers resented the way in which Jacob
doted on Joseph and their anger against him grew after their father
gave his favourite son a dazzling coat of many colours.

Joseph was a dreamer; his dreams told him that he was to become a great
man and be far more successful than any of his brothers. On hearing this
they decided that something had to be done about young Joseph.

Out in the fields the brothers attacked Joseph, stripped him of his
coat and were about to throw him into a pit to face certain death when
a band of Ishmaelites passed by. The brothers sold Joseph to them as
a slave and returned to their father with the sad news of Joseph’s death".

In Egypt, Joseph was then sold to Potiphar, the captian of the
Pharoah's gaurds. Joseph was rapidly made head of the servants. Things
seemed to be going well for him until Potiphar's wife tried to seduce
him. Joseph turned down her offer (it was against his religion) and she
became so enraged that she called for Potiphar and told him that Joseph
was trying to seduce her. Potiphar had Joseph promptly thrown into prison.

In his jail cell, Joseph explained the meanings of the dreams of two
of Pharoah's servant, who had fallen out of favor with the king. One of
the men became Pharoah's cupservant after he got out of jail. Several
years later, Pharaoh was disturbed by savage dreams and his cupservant
told him about Joseph's uncanny ability to interpret dreams. Joseph was
brought before Pharaoh and translated the dreams (the dreams told him of
a coming famine), in return he was made the second most powerful man in
Egypt, the overseer of food supplies.

His brothers fared did not fare so well, famine and plague dominated
the Canaan, so they left to seek food in Egypt. They stood before Joseph,
and, although none of them recognized him, he took pity on them giving
each a sack of food. However, to test his brothers he planted a gold cup
in the sack given to the youngest, Benjamin.

As they tried to leave Joseph stopped them to investigate the "theft"
of the precious cup. It was discovered in Benjamin’s bag. The others
took the blame and refused to let anyone think that Benjamin was in any way
dishonest. Joseph now realized that his brothers were truly honest and
revealed his true identity to them.

Jacob was brought from Canaan and the family was reunited.

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