Genesis 37

Question 1

Genesis 37:1

Answer 1

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

Question 2

Genesis 37:2

Answer 2

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

Question 3

Genesis 37:3

Answer 3

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.

Question 4

Genesis 37:4

Answer 4

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Question 5

Genesis 37:5

Answer 5

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.

Question 6

Genesis 37:6

Answer 6

He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:

Question 7

Genesis 37:7

Answer 7

We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

Question 8

Genesis 37:8

Answer 8

His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

Question 9

Genesis 37:9

Answer 9

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

Question 10

Genesis 37:10

Answer 10

When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”

Question 11

Genesis 37:11

Answer 11

His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Question 12

Genesis 37:12

Answer 12

Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem,

Question 13

Genesis 37:13

Answer 13

and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.” “Very well,” he replied.

Question 14

Genesis 37:14

Answer 14

So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem,

Question 15

Genesis 37:15

Answer 15

a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

Question 16

Genesis 37:16

Answer 16

He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”

Question 17

Genesis 37:17

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Genesis 37:18

Answer 18

But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

Question 19

Genesis 37:19

Answer 19

“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other.

Question 20

Genesis 37:20

Answer 20

“Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

Question 21

Genesis 37:21

Answer 21

When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said.

Question 22

Genesis 37:22

Answer 22

“Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

Question 23

Genesis 37:23

Answer 23

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe - the richly ornamented robe he was wearing -

Question 24

Genesis 37:24

Answer 24

and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

Question 25

Genesis 37:25

Answer 25

As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

Question 26

Genesis 37:26

Answer 26

Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

Question 27

Genesis 37:27

Answer 27

Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

Question 28

Genesis 37:28

Answer 28

So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Question 29

Genesis 37:29

Answer 29

When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.

Question 30

Genesis 37:30

Answer 30

He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”

Question 31

Genesis 37:31

Answer 31

Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.

Question 32

Genesis 37:32

Answer 32

They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

Question 33

Genesis 37:33

Answer 33

He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”

Question 34

Genesis 37:34

Answer 34

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.

Question 35

Genesis 37:35

Answer 35

All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.” So his father wept for him.

Question 36

Genesis 37:36

Answer 36

Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.