# Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors

_Retold by Talerie (talerie.com) from King James Version_ · 37 min read · ages 7+

Sold into Egypt by his jealous brothers, Joseph rises from slave and prisoner to governor of Egypt after he explains Pharaoh’s dreams of plenty and famine. When Joseph’s brothers come to buy grain, he tests them, then weeps and tells them who he is, and their father Jacob learns in Canaan that his son is still alive.

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Jacob lived in the land of Canaan, the land where his own father had lived as a stranger. This is the story of Jacob’s family.

When Joseph was seventeen years old, he looked after the flocks of sheep and goats with his brothers. He was still only a boy, and he worked alongside the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, two of his father’s wives. Whenever those brothers did something wrong, Joseph went and told his father.

Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him when he was already old. He had a coat of many colors made for him, a long coat with long sleeves.

His brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than all of them, and they hated him for it. They could not say a single kind word to him.

One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

“Listen to the dream I had,” he said to them. “We were out in the field, tying up sheaves of grain. All at once my sheaf rose and stood up straight, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”

“So you think you’re going to be our king?” his brothers said. “You think you’re going to rule over us?” And they hated him even more, because of his dreams and because of the way he talked.

Then Joseph had another dream, and he told that one to his brothers too. “Listen,” he said. “I’ve had another dream. This time the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

He told it to his father as well as to his brothers, and his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” Jacob said. “Are your mother and I and your brothers really going to come and bow down to the ground in front of you?”

His brothers were jealous of him. But his father did not forget what Joseph had said, and he kept turning it over in his mind.

Some time later, Joseph’s brothers took their father’s flocks to graze near Shechem.

Jacob said to Joseph, “Your brothers are out with the flocks near Shechem, aren’t they? Come, I want to send you to them.”

“I’m ready,” Joseph said.

“Go and see whether all is well with your brothers and with the flocks,” said Jacob, “and come back and tell me.” So he sent him off from the valley of Hebron, and Joseph went to Shechem.

There a man found him wandering about in the fields. “What are you looking for?” the man asked.

“I’m looking for my brothers,” Joseph said. “Can you tell me where they’re grazing their flocks?”

“They’ve moved on from here,” said the man. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.

They saw him coming from a long way off, and before he reached them, they made a plan to kill him.

“Look, here comes the dreamer,” they said to one another. “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these pits. We’ll say a wild animal ate him. Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”

But Reuben heard this and tried to save Joseph from them. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben meant to rescue Joseph from them later and take him back to their father.

So when Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped off his coat, the coat of many colors he was wearing. Then they grabbed him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to eat their meal. As they ate, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelite traders coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm, and myrrh, which they were taking down to Egypt.

Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain if we kill our brother and hide what we’ve done? Come, let’s sell him to these Ishmaelites. Let’s not lay a hand on him. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” And his brothers agreed.

So when the Midianite merchants of the caravan came past, the brothers pulled Joseph up out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And the traders took Joseph to Egypt.

When Reuben came back to the pit, Joseph was not in it. Reuben tore his clothes in grief.

He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do now?”

Then they took Joseph’s coat, killed a young goat, and dipped the coat in its blood. They brought the coat of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Look at it closely. Is it your son’s coat or not?”

Jacob knew it at once. “It is my son’s coat,” he said. “A wild animal has eaten him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”

Jacob tore his clothes, wrapped rough sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son for a long time.

All his sons and all his daughters came to comfort him, but he would not be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to the grave mourning for my son.” And Joseph’s father wept for him.

Meanwhile, the traders had brought Joseph down to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officers and the captain of his guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites.

God was with Joseph, and everything went well for him. He lived in the house of his master, the Egyptian.

His master saw that God was with Joseph and that God made everything he did turn out well. So Potiphar grew fond of Joseph and made him his own servant. He put him in charge of his household and trusted him with everything he owned.

From the time Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his house and everything he had, God blessed the Egyptian’s household because of Joseph. God’s blessing was on everything Potiphar owned, in the house and in the fields.

So Potiphar left everything in Joseph’s care. With Joseph there, he did not give a thought to anything except the food he ate. And Joseph was strong and handsome.

After a while, his master’s wife took notice of Joseph. She wanted him for herself, and she asked him to be with her.

But he refused. “Listen,” he said to her. “With me here, my master doesn’t worry about anything in the house. He has trusted me with everything he owns. No one in this house is greater than I am. He has kept nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

She kept asking Joseph day after day, but he would not listen to her or have anything to do with her.

One day Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were inside. She caught hold of his cloak and said, “Be with me!” But Joseph left the cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and run outside, she called her servants.

“Look!” she said. “My husband brought this Hebrew here to disgrace us. He came in after me, and I screamed. When he heard me scream, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”

She kept his cloak beside her until her husband came home. Then she told him the same story. “That Hebrew slave you brought us came in to disgrace me,” she said. “But when I screamed, he left his cloak beside me and ran out.” It was a lie.

When Potiphar heard his wife say, “This is what your slave did to me,” he was furious.

He took Joseph and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were kept in chains. And there Joseph stayed, in the prison.

But God was with Joseph and was kind to him, and God made the prison warden like him.

Soon the warden put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners, and Joseph saw to everything that was done there. The warden did not have to check on anything Joseph looked after, because God was with Joseph and made everything he did turn out well.

Some time after this, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker of the king of Egypt did something to anger their master, the king. Pharaoh was furious with these two officials, and he had them locked up in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was held.

The captain of the guard put them in Joseph’s care, and Joseph looked after them. They were there in custody for some time.

Then one night in the prison, the cupbearer and the baker each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning.

When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they looked troubled.

Pharaoh’s two officials were held there with him, and he asked them, “Why do you look so sad today?”

“We both had dreams,” they said, “and there’s no one to tell us what they mean.”

“Don’t the meanings of dreams belong to God?” Joseph said. “Tell me your dreams.”

So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. “In my dream,” he said, “I saw a vine in front of me. The vine had three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand. I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and put the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”

“This is what it means,” Joseph told him. “The three branches are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and give you back your place. You will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to when you were his cupbearer.

“But when all is well with you again, remember me. Be kind to me and mention me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this prison. I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being thrown into this dungeon.”

When the chief baker saw that the meaning was good, he said to Joseph, “I had a dream too. There were three baskets of white bread on my head. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”

“This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head, right off your shoulders. He will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat the flesh from your bones.”

On the third day it was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. In front of them all, he had the chief cupbearer and the chief baker brought out of prison.

He gave the chief cupbearer back his place, and once again the cupbearer put the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. But Pharaoh hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had said.

Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph. He forgot all about him.

Two whole years went by. Then Pharaoh had a dream. He was standing beside the Nile when seven cows, sleek and fat, came up out of the river and grazed among the reeds.

After them seven other cows came up out of the Nile, ugly and thin, and stood beside the fat cows on the riverbank. Then the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. And Pharaoh woke up.

He fell asleep again and had a second dream. Seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on a single stalk.

After them seven more ears sprouted, thin and scorched by the east wind. And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. Then Pharaoh woke up, and he knew it had been a dream.

In the morning he was deeply troubled. He sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt and told them his dreams, but no one could tell him what they meant.

Then the chief cupbearer spoke up. “Today I must confess a mistake to Pharaoh,” he said. “Once Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and he put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard. One night we both had dreams, and each dream had its own meaning.

“A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he told each of us what his dream meant. And things turned out exactly as he said: I was given back my place, and the baker was hanged.”

So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they hurried him out of the dungeon. Joseph shaved, changed his clothes, and came before Pharaoh.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can tell me what it means. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can explain it.”

“I cannot do it,” Joseph answered. “But God will give Pharaoh an answer that will set his mind at rest.”

Then Pharaoh told Joseph his dream. “In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile,” he said. “Out of the river came seven cows, fat and sleek, and they grazed among the reeds. After them came seven other cows, scrawny, thin, and very ugly. I have never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt.

“The thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows. But even after they had eaten them, no one could have told that they had eaten anything; they looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.

“In my dream I also saw seven ears of grain, full and good, growing on one stalk. After them seven other ears sprouted, withered and thin and scorched by the east wind. And the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. I told all this to the magicians, but none of them could explain it to me.”

Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s two dreams are one and the same. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears of grain are seven years. It is one dream. The seven thin, ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and so are the seven empty ears scorched by the east wind. They are seven years of famine.

“It is just as I told Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Seven years of great plenty are coming to all the land of Egypt. After them will come seven years of famine. Then all the plenty in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will eat up the land. No one will even remember the good years, because the famine that follows will be so terrible.

“The dream came to Pharaoh twice because God has firmly decided this, and God will make it happen soon.

“So now Pharaoh should look for a wise man with good judgment and put him in charge of the land of Egypt.

“Let Pharaoh do this: let him appoint officials over the land and take a fifth of Egypt’s harvest during the seven years of plenty. Let them gather all the food of the good years that are coming and store up the grain under Pharaoh’s authority, and keep the food in the cities. This food will be held in reserve for the country, for the seven years of famine that are coming to Egypt, so that the land will not be ruined by the famine.”

The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials.

Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find anyone like this man, a man who has the spirit of God in him?”

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is no one as wise and as sensible as you. You will be in charge of my palace, and all my people will do as you say. Only my throne will make me greater than you.”

“See, I am putting you in charge of the whole land of Egypt,” Pharaoh told Joseph.

Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his finger and put it on Joseph’s. He had him dressed in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in his second chariot, and men ran ahead of him shouting, “Bow down!” So Pharaoh put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.

“I am Pharaoh,” he said to Joseph, “but without your word no one will lift a hand or a foot in all the land of Egypt.”

Pharaoh gave Joseph the Egyptian name Zaphenath-Paneah, and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph traveled all over the land of Egypt.

Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He left Pharaoh’s presence and went throughout the land.

During the seven years of plenty, the land produced great heaps of grain. Joseph gathered up all the food grown in Egypt in those seven years and stored it in the cities. In each city he stored the food from the fields around it.

Joseph stored up so much grain that it was like the sand of the sea. In the end he stopped counting, because there was too much to count.

Before the years of famine came, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore Joseph two sons.

Joseph named the first one Manasseh. “God has made me forget all my troubles and all my father’s house,” he said.

He named the second one Ephraim. “God has made me fruitful in the land where I have suffered,” he said.

Then the seven years of plenty in Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every country, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

When all of Egypt began to go hungry, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph, and do whatever he tells you.”

The famine spread over the whole earth, and it grew severe in Egypt too, so Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians. People from every country came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was terrible everywhere.

When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you just sitting there looking at one another? I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.”

So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s own brother, with the others. “Something might happen to him,” he said.

Jacob’s sons went along with the crowds who were coming to buy grain, for the famine had reached the land of Canaan too.

Now Joseph was governor of the land, and he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them. But he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked.

“From the land of Canaan,” they said, “to buy food.”

Joseph knew his brothers, but they did not know him. Then Joseph remembered the dreams he had had about them.

“You are spies!” he said. “You have come to see where our land is weak.”

“No, my lord,” they said. “Your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants are not spies.”

“No,” he said. “You have come to see where our land is weak.”

“Your servants were twelve brothers,” they said, “the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father now, and one is no more.”

“It is just as I told you,” Joseph said. “You are spies! And this is how you will be tested. As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you to fetch your brother, and the rest of you will stay in prison. That way your story will be tested, to see whether you are telling the truth. If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!”

And he put them all in custody for three days.

On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this, and you will live, for I fear God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here, locked up in the prison where you are. The rest of you go and take grain back to your hungry families. But you must bring your youngest brother to me. Then your words will be proved true, and you will not die.” And they agreed to do it.

They said to one another, “We are surely being punished because of our brother. We saw how frightened he was when he begged us for mercy, and we would not listen. That is why this trouble has come upon us.”

Reuben answered them, “Didn’t I tell you not to harm the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must pay for his blood.”

They did not know that Joseph could understand them, because he was speaking to them through an interpreter.

Joseph turned away from them and wept. Then he came back and talked with them again. He took Simeon from among them and had him tied up before their eyes.

Then Joseph gave orders to fill their sacks with grain, to put each man’s silver back in his sack, and to give them food for the journey. All this was done for them.

They loaded the grain onto their donkeys and set out.

At the place where they stopped for the night, one of them opened his sack to feed his donkey, and he saw his silver lying right there at the top of the sack.

“My silver has been given back!” he said to his brothers. “Here it is in my sack!”

Their hearts sank, and they turned to one another, trembling. “What is this that God has done to us?” they said.

When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him everything that had happened to them.

“The man who is lord of that country spoke harshly to us,” they said, “and he took us for spies. But we said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are not spies. We were twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is with our father now in the land of Canaan.’

“Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, ‘This is how I will know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers here with me. Take grain for your hungry families and go. But bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies but honest men. I will give your brother back to you, and you may trade in the land.’”

Then, as they emptied their sacks, each man found his pouch of silver inside! When they and their father saw the pouches of silver, they were frightened.

Their father Jacob said to them, “You are taking my children from me! Joseph is gone, and Simeon is gone, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!”

Then Reuben said to his father, “You may put both my sons to death if I don’t bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will bring him back.”

But Jacob said, “My son will not go down with you. His brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If anything happens to him on the journey, you will bring my gray hairs down to the grave in sorrow.”

The famine was still severe in the land.

When they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”

But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ If you send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you. But if you won’t send him, we won’t go, because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”

“Why did you bring this trouble on me?” Jacob said. “Why did you tell the man you had another brother?”

“The man kept asking us about ourselves and our family,” they answered. “He asked, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered his questions. How could we possibly know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”

Then Judah said to his father Jacob, “Send the boy with me, and we will get ready and go, so that we may live and not die, we and you and our little ones. I will be responsible for him myself. You can hold me to account for him. If I don’t bring him back to you and set him here in front of you, let me bear the blame forever. If we hadn’t waited so long, we could have been there and back twice by now.”

Then their father Jacob said to them, “If it must be so, then do this. Put some of the best things this land produces in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift: a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. Take twice the silver with you, and take back the silver that was put back at the top of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake.

“Take your brother too, and go back to the man at once. May God Almighty make the man merciful to you, so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I lose my children, I lose them.”

So the men took the gifts and twice the silver, and Benjamin too. They hurried down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to his steward, “Take these men to my house. Slaughter an animal and prepare a meal, for they will eat with me at noon.”

The steward did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph’s house.

The men were frightened when they were taken to Joseph’s house. “We were brought here because of the silver that was put back in our sacks the first time,” they said. “He means to attack us, overpower us, make us his slaves, and take our donkeys too.”

So they went up to Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the door of the house.

“Please, sir,” they said, “we did come down here once before to buy food. But at the place where we stopped for the night, we opened our sacks, and there was each man’s silver, the full amount, at the top of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. We have brought more silver too, to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our sacks.”

“It’s all right,” the steward said. “Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, must have put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

The steward took the men into Joseph’s house and gave them water to wash their feet, and he gave their donkeys feed. They got their gifts ready for when Joseph came at noon, because they had heard that they were to eat there.

When Joseph came home, they brought him the gifts they had carried into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground.

He asked them how they were. Then he said, “How is your father, the old man you told me about? Is he still alive?”

“Your servant our father is well,” they answered. “He is still alive.” And they bowed low before him again.

Joseph looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son. “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” he asked. And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.”

Then Joseph hurried out, for he was deeply moved at the sight of his brother, and he was close to tears. He went into his private room and wept there.

When he had washed his face, he came out again. Holding back his feelings, he said, “Serve the food.”

The servants served Joseph at a table of his own, the brothers at another, and the Egyptians who ate with him at a third, because Egyptians would not eat with Hebrews. To the Egyptians that was a disgrace.

The brothers had been seated in front of him in the order of their ages, from the eldest to the youngest, and they looked at one another in amazement.

Then portions were carried to them from Joseph’s table, and Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as anyone else’s. So they feasted and drank freely with him.

Then Joseph gave his steward these orders: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver at the top of his sack. Then put my cup, the silver cup, at the top of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And the steward did as Joseph said.

As soon as morning came, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys.

They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once. When you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and uses to read the signs? This is a wicked thing you have done.’”

When the steward caught up with them, he said these very words to them.

But they said to him, “Sir, why do you say such things? Your servants would never do anything like that! Look, we even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found at the top of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? If any of your servants is found to have it, he shall die, and the rest of us will become your master’s slaves.”

“Very well, let it be as you say,” the steward said. “But only the one who is found to have it will become my slave. The rest of you will go free.”

Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. Then the steward searched them, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys again and went back to the city.

Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. They threw themselves to the ground before him.

“What is this you have done?” Joseph said to them. “Don’t you know that a man like me can read the signs?”

“What can we say to my lord?” Judah answered. “What can we tell you? How can we prove we are innocent? God has uncovered the guilt of your servants. We are now my lord’s slaves, all of us, and not only the one who was found with the cup.”

“Far be it from me to do such a thing!” Joseph said. “Only the man who was found with the cup will be my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”

Then Judah went up to him and said, “Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word to you, and don’t be angry with me, for you are as great as Pharaoh himself.

“My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ And we answered my lord, ‘We have an old father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’

“Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so that I can see him for myself.’ And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he leaves him, his father will die.’ But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’

“When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said. Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy us a little food.’ But we said, ‘We can’t go down. We will go only if our youngest brother is with us. We can’t see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’

“Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. One of them went away from me, and I said, “He must have been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. If you take this one from me too, and anything happens to him, you will bring my gray hairs down to the grave in sorrow.’

“So now, if I go back to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, it will kill our father, because his life is bound up with the boy’s life. When he sees that the boy isn’t with us, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray hairs of our father down to the grave in sorrow.

“Your servant gave my father his word to answer for the boy. I said, ‘If I don’t bring him back to you, let me bear the blame forever.’

“So now, please, let me stay here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy go home with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn’t bear to see the grief it would bring on my father.”

Then Joseph could no longer control himself in front of all the people standing around him. “Send everyone out of here!” he cried. So there was no one with him when Joseph told his brothers who he was.

He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the news reached Pharaoh’s household.

“I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, because they were terrified to be standing before him.

“Come close to me,” Joseph said to his brothers. And they came close.

“I am your brother Joseph,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt. But don’t be upset now, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. The famine has been in the land for two years now, and for five more years there will be no plowing and no harvest. God sent me ahead of you to make sure you would have descendants on the earth and to save your lives in a great rescue.

“So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me Pharaoh’s chief adviser, lord of his whole household, and ruler of all the land of Egypt.

“Now hurry back to my father and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay. You will live in the land of Goshen and be near me, you and your children and your grandchildren, your flocks and your herds, and everything you have. I will take care of you there, because there are still five years of famine to come. Otherwise you and your household and everyone who belongs to you will be left with nothing.’

“You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really me speaking to you. Tell my father about all the honor I have been given in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And hurry, bring my father down here.”

Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept with his arms around him. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. After that, his brothers talked with him.

When the news reached Pharaoh’s palace that Joseph’s brothers had come, Pharaoh and all his officials were pleased.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers to do this: load your animals and go back to the land of Canaan. Bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the richest food the land has.

“You are also to tell them this: take some wagons from Egypt for your little ones and your wives, and bring your father and come. Don’t worry about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours.”

So Jacob’s sons did as they were told. Joseph gave them wagons, as Pharaoh had ordered, and food for the journey. He gave each of them new clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of clothes.

And this is what he sent to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other food for his father’s journey.

Then he sent his brothers on their way. As they were leaving, he said to them, “Don’t quarrel on the way!”

So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

“Joseph is still alive!” they told him. “He is governor of all the land of Egypt!” Jacob’s heart went numb, because he did not believe them.

But they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, their father Jacob’s spirit came back to life.

“It is enough,” Jacob said. “My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

---

## About this tale

Joseph’s story comes from the Bible, not from a book of fairy tales. It fills the last chapters of Genesis (37 to 50). Genesis opens the Bible, and in the King James text its heading begins “The First Book of Moses”. Those chapters name no author. We retold chapters 37 and 39 to 45 from the King James Version (1611).

We worked from the King James text on Project Gutenberg. Our retelling leaves out chapter 38, about Judah and Tamar, and stops at the end of chapter 45, when Jacob hears that Joseph is alive. Two versions are on this page, Gentler and a longer one labelled Original. We wrote both, and neither is the Bible text itself.

> Jacob made him a coat of many colors
>
> King James Version, Genesis 37:3: he made him a coat of many colours.

### Genesis in the King James text and in our two versions

|  | King James Version | Our retelling |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The coat | “a coat of many colours” | many colors; Original adds long sleeves |
| The buyers | Midianites and Ishmeelites | Ishmaelites; Original names Midianites too |
| The price | twenty pieces of silver | twenty pieces of silver |
| Joseph’s new name | Zaphnathpaaneah | only in Original: Zaphenath-Paneah |
| Why God sent him | “to preserve life” | “to save lives” |
| Chapter 38 | Judah and Tamar | left out |
| The ending | chapter 50, Joseph dies at 110 | 45:28, Jacob will go to see Joseph |

### What happens in our retelling

The Gentler version begins with Jacob in Canaan and his favorite son, seventeen years old, in the coat his father made him. Then come the two dreams, the brothers’ plan, the pit and the sale, Joseph’s time in Potiphar’s house and in prison, the cupbearer and the baker, and Pharaoh’s dreams of cows and ears of grain. At thirty Joseph rules Egypt under Pharaoh. When the famine brings his brothers to buy grain, he keeps Simeon as a hostage, has his silver cup hidden in Benjamin’s sack and finally tells them, “I am Joseph!” The Original version follows the chapters more closely and adds details such as the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah and Joseph’s Egyptian name.

The Gentler version cuts the story down but keeps the hard scenes: the brothers talk of killing Joseph, dip his coat in a goat’s blood so that Jacob mourns him as dead, Potiphar’s wife lies about him, and the baker is hanged. Each scene takes only a few plain sentences, but a parent reading to a young child may want to know this in advance.

### Moses comes later, and the sleeves are ours

In the book of Exodus, after Joseph has died, a new king comes to power in Egypt, one “which knew not Joseph”. Our Moses page tells that story, and both of its versions mention Joseph in the first paragraph. Between the two pages lie chapters 46 to 50 of Genesis, which we have not retold: Jacob’s journey to Egypt, his death and Joseph’s death.

Joseph’s coat in the King James Version is simply “a coat of many colours”, and the Gentler version keeps it that way. The long coat with long sleeves in our Original version is our own addition; the King James text says nothing about sleeves.

Sources (claims checked against them on 2026-10-31):
- The King James Version of the Bible, Project Gutenberg eBook #10, Genesis 37 and 39–45 [our source] (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10)
- 1611: The Holy Bible, Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, 1611; title page (Wikisource transcription) (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James_Version,_1611))
- Wikidata Q145746 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q145746)

---

- Read online: https://talerie.com/en/tales/joseph-and-the-coat-of-many-colors-original
- Characters: Jacob, Benjamin, Potiphar
- Version: longer, more faithful retelling; the gentler retelling: https://talerie.com/en/tales/joseph-and-the-coat-of-many-colors.md
- Also in: [German](https://talerie.com/de/maerchen/josef-und-seine-brueder-original.md), [French](https://talerie.com/fr/contes/joseph-et-ses-freres-original.md), [Spanish](https://talerie.com/es/cuentos/jose-el-sonador-original.md), [Portuguese](https://talerie.com/pt/contos/jose-do-egito-original.md), [Czech](https://talerie.com/cs/pohadky/josef-a-jeho-bratri-original.md), [Polish](https://talerie.com/pl/bajki/jozef-egipski-original.md)
- Subject (Wikidata): https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q145746
- Source: King James Version (1611; standard text of 1769), Project Gutenberg #10: Genesis 37, 39–45 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10)
- Public-domain basis: Talerie contemporary retelling (CC0 2026), based on: King James Version (1611; standard text of 1769), Project Gutenberg #10: Genesis 37, 39–45 — EU anonymous-work rule, translation published ≤1769 (+70 passed)
- License: CC0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)