16 “I’m looking for my brothers,” he said. “Please tell me where they’re grazing.”
17 The man said, “They moved on from here. For I heard them saying, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.
18 Now they saw him from a distance. Before he was close to them they plotted together against him in order to kill him.
19 They said to one another, “Here comes the master of dreams!
20 Come on now! Let’s kill him and throw him into one of those pits, so we can say that an evil animal devoured him. Then let’s see what becomes of his dreams.”
21 But Reuben heard and rescued him out of their hands, saying, “We must not beat him to death.”
22 In order to rescue him from their hand and to return him to his father, Reuben said to them, “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him!”