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empty, there was no water in it.” As Judah thought of Joseph dying
in the pit, suffering a lingering death by starvation, he was troubled.
For a short time, he with others of his brethren, seemed to possess a
satanic frenzy. But after they had begun to accomplish their wicked
purposes to the helpless, innocent Joseph, some of them were ill at
ease. They did not feel that satisfaction they thought they should have
to see Joseph perish. Judah was the first one to express his feelings.
“He said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and
conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let
not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh; and his
brethren were content. Then there passed by Midianites, merchantmen;
and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to
the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph
into Egypt.”
The thought of being sold as a slave was more dreadful to Joseph
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than to die. He manifested the deepest anguish, and appealed first to
one of his brethren, then to another, for compassion. Some of their
hearts were moved with pity, but through fear of derision from the rest,
kept silent. They all thought that they had gone too far to repent of
their acts, for Joseph might expose them to their father, and he would
be exceedingly angry with them for their treatment of his much-loved
Joseph. They steeled their hearts against his distress, and would not
listen to his entreaties for his father’s sake to let him go, but sold him
as a slave.
Reuben went away from his brethren that they might not learn his
purpose in regard to Joseph. He advised them to put him in the pit, and
designed to return and take him to his father. “And Reuben returned
unto the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit, and he rent his
clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not;
and I, whither shall I go?” His brethren told him that they had sold
Joseph.
“And they took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and
dipped the coat in the blood, and they sent the coat of many colors,
and they brought it to their father, and said, This have we found; know
now whether it be thy son’s coat or no.” They caused their father
intense anguish, as he pictured to himself the violent death his son
must have suffered by being torn in pieces by wild beasts. His sons
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had not imagined that their father’s grief would be so deep. All his