Read the story then click on the links below it to do the exercises.
JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS
Joseph, his eleven brothers and one sister were growing up. His father and his father's wives took care of Joseph because his mother had died. Joseph had become a handsome young man. He was now seventeen years old.
Jacob loved all of his children, but he had a special feeling for Joseph. One day he said to Joseph, "I have a present for you. It's a beautiful coat with stripes and many colours."
Joseph was proud of his new coat. He wore it all the time. When his brothers saw him wearing it, they were jealous. They wished that Jacob had given them coats like Joseph's.
One night Joseph had an unusual dream. The next day he gathered his brothers together and said, "I had a really interesting dream. I was in a field with all of you. We were tying bundles of wheat together. The wheat that I tied into a bundle suddenly stood up by itself. Then the wheat that you tied into bundles stood up, too. Your wheat made a circle around mine and bowed down to my wheat."
His brothers were very angry. "Do you mean to rule over us?" they said, "Is that what your dream means?"
Soon after this, Joseph had another dream that was quite similar. His brothers now hated him even more.
One day Jacob said to Joseph, "Your brothers have gone far away with the sheep. Please go and find them."
Joseph put on his beautiful coat. He got his things together. Then he walked until he saw his brothers and the sheep in the distance.
The brothers looked up and saw him coming closer. One shouted, "Look! Here comes Joseph the dreamer in his special coat. Let's kill him!"
The brother called Reuben heard what his brothers said. He was worried. He thought to himself, "I am the oldest. Father says that I am responsible for my brothers.”
Then Reuben said to his brothers, "Let's not kill Joseph. Instead let’s throw him into that deep pit." Then he wandered off to see how the sheep were doing in the field.
As Joseph came closer to his brothers, they grabbed him, pulled off his beautiful coat and threw him into a deep, empty pit. He tried and tried to get out, but he couldn't do it.
All of the brothers then sat down to eat bread and to rest. As they were sitting and resting and talking, they noticed people way off in the distance.
"It looks like a caravan of camels and men. They must be taking things to Egypt to sell."
The brother called Judah said, "I have an idea. Let's sell Joseph to those men who are going to Egypt. Then we can get rid of him and he won't bother us anymore."
The men pulled Joseph out of the pit. They paid the brothers and they set off for Egypt with Joseph.
As the brothers watched the caravan leave, Reuben came back. He thought, "Joseph has learned his lesson. Now I'll pull him out of the pit and take him home."
But what a shock he got when he looked into the pit. "Oh my goodness, oh no, oh no!" he yelled. He looked all around. "Joseph's gone! What will I tell Father?"
Suddenly one of the brothers said, "I have a good idea! Let's tell Father that a wild animal attacked Joseph while he was in the field."
"That's a good idea," said the others. They took Joseph's coat and dipped it into the blood of a goat. When they returned home, they showed it to Jacob. They told him a story that wasn't true.
Jacob was very, sad. He cried and cried. The brothers were quiet. They didn't know how to tell their father the truth.
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