Parshat Vayeshev5 min read

The Brothers Debated How to Kill Joseph Before He Arrived

Before Joseph reached Dothan the brothers cycled through plans, including dogs. God heard every word and answered: we shall see whose word stands.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Plans Made Before Joseph Arrived
  2. What Simon Said About the Master of Dreams
  3. God's Answer to Every Word They Said
  4. The Plan That Held

The Plans Made Before Joseph Arrived

When Joseph's brothers saw him coming across the fields at Dothan, he was still far enough away that they had time to talk. They had already seen him from a distance, had recognized the coat their father had given him, had made a decision about what to do before he got close enough to hear them. Genesis 37 says they conspired to slay him. What it does not say is that they went through several plans first and that God was listening to every one.

The first plan was to set the dogs on him. Not to kill Joseph themselves but to let the animals do it, keeping their hands technically clean of his blood. The tradition preserved in the Legends of the Jews records this plan as real, proposed and considered, then discarded. The text does not say why they rejected it. The tradition preserves the fact that they did.

What Simon Said About the Master of Dreams

Simon then spoke directly to Levi. He named Joseph by his reputation rather than his name: the master of dreams, the one who had told them their sheaves would bow to his. He said that the master of dreams was coming, that this man's descendant would be the one to introduce the worship of Baal into Israel, naming a king who would not exist for centuries: Jeroboam, the first king of the northern tribes after the kingdom split, the man who installed golden calves at Bethel and Dan and led ten tribes into the syncretism the prophets called harlotry.

Simon could not have known this. He was not making a prophecy. He was insulting Joseph by associating his dreams with the worst possible future outcome his imagination could supply. But the tradition preserved the name Jeroboam, because the tradition recognized in Simon's careless contempt an accidental accuracy. Joseph's line did produce Jeroboam. The idolatry that Jeroboam introduced was real. The connection between a young man's dreams of future authority and the eventual abuse of that authority by a descendant was not something Simon understood. He was simply naming a future that the tradition knew had happened.

Come, Simon said to Levi. Let us kill him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams.

God's Answer to Every Word They Said

The tradition notes that God heard every plan they made. The dogs. Simon's speech to Levi. The various proposals and counter-proposals about the pit. And God's response to all of it was a single sentence that the tradition delivers without attribution to any particular source, as if it belongs to the air above Dothan itself: we shall see whose word stands, yours or Mine.

This is the statement that frames the entire pit episode in the midrashic reading. The brothers were not making plans in a vacuum. They were making plans in the presence of the God who had already told Abraham in Genesis 15 that his descendants would go down to Egypt and suffer there four hundred years and then come out. The pit at Dothan was not a deviation from that decree. It was the mechanism by which the decree would be fulfilled. The brothers who thought they were ending Joseph's story about sheaves and future authority were, in the precise logic of the tradition, setting it in motion.

The Plan That Held

Reuben interrupted before Simon's argument could conclude. Put him in this pit that is in the wilderness, he said, but lay no hand upon him. Reuben had his own plan: he would come back after the others had dispersed and pull Joseph out and return him to Jacob. The plan failed. By the time Reuben came back from wherever he had gone, the pit was empty. The caravan to Egypt had already passed through. But the pit was the plan that held longest, long enough for Joseph to go into it and the caravan to find him.

The tradition does not moralize extensively about the brothers here. It records what they said, notes that God heard it, and delivers God's reply. The brothers would spend decades in Egypt watching Joseph's word stand and theirs fail to. The bowing they had mocked would be real. The authority they had tried to prevent would be real. And their descendants would go down to Egypt as Jacob's prophecy said they would, not because of Joseph's crime but because of the decree the brothers were trying to overthrow when they set the dogs on him, which they then did not do, and then planned his murder, which they also did not do, settling finally for a pit and a caravan and a silence that lasted all the way to Goshen.

JosephBrothersJealousyProphecyEgyptDivine ProvidenceGenesis
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Legends of the Jews 1:18Legends of the Jews

The story of Joseph, as retold in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, opens with just that kind of primal animosity.

The scene: Joseph, the favored son, approaches his brothers. But instead of a warm welcome, he's met with a chilling conspiracy. "When his brethren saw him afar off, they conspired against him, to slay him." It's harsh, brutal, and sets the stage for one of the most dramatic narratives in the Torah.

Their initial plan? To unleash dogs upon him. But the brothers, fueled by envy and resentment, quickly escalate their intentions. Simon turns to Levi, singling out Joseph as a danger, a threat to their way of life. "Behold, the master of dreams cometh with a new dream," Simon says, painting Joseph as a harbinger of unwelcome change. He even goes on to connect Joseph's lineage to Jeroboam, a future king who, according to Simon, will lead the people astray with the worship of Baal – a foreign deity.

It’s a stunning accusation, isn't it? They see Joseph not just as an annoying younger brother, but as a seed of future apostasy.

"Come now, therefore, and let us slay him," Simon urges, "that we may see what will become of his dreams." It's a chillingly pragmatic statement: kill the dreamer, kill the dream. Eliminate the threat before it takes root.

But here's where the story takes a divine turn. According to Legends of the Jews, God intervenes, subtly but powerfully. "Ye say, We shall see what will become of his dreams, and I say likewise, We shall see, and the future shall show whose word will stand, yours or Mine." It's not a direct command, not a thunderous decree. It’s a challenge, a promise, a declaration of divine will. God is essentially saying, "You think you can control destiny? Let's just see about that."

What's so captivating about this passage is the glimpse it gives us into the complex interplay between human intention and divine providence. The brothers plot, driven by their own fears and jealousies. They believe they hold the power to shape their future. But God's response reminds us that there are forces at play far beyond our understanding, that destiny is not always ours to control. The question remains: whose vision will ultimately prevail? The brothers, or God? And what does that say about the power – and the limits – of our own dreams?

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Book of Jubilees 46:15Book of Jubilees

That’s kind of what happened after Joseph's incredible rise to power in Egypt.

Remember Joseph? Sold into slavery by his brothers, then, through a series of unbelievable events, rising to become second-in-command to Pharaoh himself? He saved Egypt from famine, brought his entire family to live in the fertile lands, and for a while, things were good.

As the Book of Jubilees, a fascinating text considered apocryphal by some, tells us, that golden era couldn't last forever. Jubilees divides history into periods of 49 years, called – you guessed it – jubilees, offering a unique chronological perspective.

In Jubilees, Joseph wanted to return to Canaan, the land promised to his ancestors. But he couldn't. Why? Because "another, a new king, had become king of Egypt, and he was stronger than he." (Jubilees 46:1-2).

Imagine that. After all Joseph had done for Egypt, a new Pharaoh comes along who either doesn't remember or doesn't care about Joseph's contributions. The gates of Egypt were closed, and no one could leave or enter. The land Joseph had made safe and prosperous had become a gilded cage.

Jubilees continues, matter-of-factly: "And Joseph died in the forty-sixth jubilee, in the sixth week, in the second year, and they buried him in the land of Egypt, and his brethren died after him." (Jubilees 46:3). That’s it. A simple statement marking the end of an era. All the drama, all the triumphs, all the tribulations…reduced to a single sentence.

What a poignant detail. He was buried in Egypt, not in the land he longed for. It makes you wonder what he thought in his final days. Did he feel a sense of accomplishment? Regret? Or just the quiet acceptance of a life lived far from home?

And the narrative marches on, almost relentlessly: "And the king of Egypt went forth to war with the king of Canaan in the forty-seventh jubilee, in the second week in the second year." (Jubilees 46:4).

War. The cycle of conflict begins anew. The focus shifts from the personal story of Joseph and his family to the larger sweep of history, of nations clashing.

It’s a stark reminder that even the most remarkable lives are just brief chapters in a much longer, more complex story. Joseph's life, though extraordinary, couldn't stop the turning of the ages, the rise and fall of kingdoms.

So, what does this brief passage from Jubilees leave us with? Perhaps a sense of the ephemeral nature of power and the enduring power of longing. Or maybe just a quiet contemplation on the lives of those who came before us, whose stories, like Joseph’s, continue to resonate across the centuries.

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Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 141:5Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

"And they saw him from afar, and before [he came near]" (Genesis 37:18). They said, Let us set the dogs upon him. "And they said, Here comes the master of dreams" (Genesis 37:19). His own comes, loaded with his dreams. Rabbi Levi said: This one is destined to marry us off to mistresses [to make us slaves]. (Genesis 37:20.) The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: You say, "and we shall see what will become of his dreams" now we shall see whose word will stand, Mine or yours.

"And Reuben heard, and he delivered him from their hand" (Genesis 37:21). And where had he been? Rabbi Yose said: Each one served his father on his appointed day, and that day was Reuben's. Rabbi Nehemiah said: He reasoned, I am the firstborn, and all the blame will be laid only upon me. The Rabbis said: He counted me among my brothers, as it is written, "and eleven stars" and I do not save him? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: You opened first with rescue; by your life, the cities of refuge will be set apart first only within your territory, as it is written, "Bezer in the wilderness, in the tableland country, for the Reubenites" (Deuteronomy 4:43).

The Torah taught you proper conduct: when a person does a commandment, let him do it with a glad heart. For had Reuben known that the Holy One, blessed be He, was writing of him, "and Reuben heard and delivered him from their hand," he would have carried Joseph on his shoulders to his father. Had Aaron known that the Holy One, blessed be He, was writing of him, "and behold, he comes out to meet you" (Exodus 4:14), he would have gone out to meet him with drums and dances. Had Boaz known that it would be written of him, "and he handed her parched grain" (Ruth 2:14), he would have brought fattened calves and fed her. In former times a person would do a commandment and the prophets would write it down; now that there are no prophets, who writes it? Elijah and the Messiah, and the Holy One, blessed be He, sets His seal upon it, as it is written, "Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, [and the LORD listened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him]" (Malachi 3:16).

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