Joseph
Isaac was the son of Abraham
and Sarah, and he married Rebecca. And they had two sons, Jacob and
Esau (EE-sow). And Jacob married two women (this was allowed then),
Rachel and Leah, who were sisters. Jacob and Leah had many sons, and
then Jacob and Rachel had two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, whom Jacob
loved best, because he loved Rachel best. Jacob made Joseph a fancy
wool coat , and the other boys
were all jealous.
Now one day the boys were all out tending the sheep
(because the Jews are still nomads;
this is now around maybe 1300 BC), when the
older ones decided to get rid of Joseph. They threw him in a pit, and
when some slave traders came by
they sold Joseph to the slave traders.
The slave traders took Joseph to Egypt
and sold him to the Pharaoh's captain of the guard, to be his slave.
The captain's name was Potiphar (POT-ih-far). Joseph worked hard, but
he got into trouble anyway. Potiphar's wife fell in love with Joseph,
and when Joseph told her to go away and leave him alone, she lied to
Potiphar and told him that Joseph had attacked her. (compare the Greek
story of Phaedra).
So Potiphar had Joseph thrown into prison.
When Joseph was in prison, he interpreted a dream for the Pharaoh,
because it was known that he was good at interpreting dreams. He did
so well that he was released from prison and made the main advisor of
the Pharaoh, and not a slave anymore, and he married the daughter of
the Priest of On.
There came a time when there was another drought
in Israel and Canaan, and the Jews did not have enough to eat. Joseph's
bad brothers came to Egypt looking for food,
and Joseph gave it to them, and finally after testing them he told them
who he was, and forgave them. They were really sorry. Then Joseph and
all his brothers and his father Jacob lived in Egypt for many years,
and so did their children and their childrens' children.
Moses
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