Why did the brothers want to kill Joseph?

Genesis 37:18–20 shows the brothers conspiring as soon as they see Joseph coming. The two dreams had inflamed what the coat began: the certainty that their father had chosen Joseph over them, and Joseph's willingness to tell them about his dreams of supremacy. Reuben talks them back from murder — throw him in the pit instead.

Who saved Joseph from being killed by his brothers?

Reuben (the firstborn) spoke up: "Let us not strike him a fatal blow" — proposing to throw him into a pit instead. Genesis 37:22 reveals Reuben's intent to return later and rescue Joseph, bringing him back to his father. Reuben was not present when the Ishmaelites arrived (Genesis 37:29 — he returned to the pit and Joseph was gone).

What does the pit mean in Joseph's story?

The bor (pit) is a recurring image in Joseph's arc. He is thrown into a waterless pit (37:24), then sold from it. Later, the Hebrew for his Egyptian prison cell is also bor (Genesis 40:15). Each descent precedes an elevation. The pit is not the end — it is a passage through the lowest point before the rise to Pharaoh's court.

The Brothers Plot — Into the Pit

A Father Sends His Son

Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers at Shechem — the same place where Simeon and Levi massacred a city for Dinah. Joseph wanders. A man finds him wandering in a field and tells him his brothers have gone on to Dothan. Joseph goes to Dothan. The brothers see him coming from afar. "The dreamer is coming," they say (Gen 37:19). They conspire to kill him.

Reuben intervenes — do not shed blood, throw him in the pit. He plans to return and rescue him. They strip Joseph of his coat — the ketonet passim — and cast him into an empty pit with no water. Then they sit down to eat.

The text pauses here. They sit. They eat. Their brother is in the pit and they eat.

Key Hebrew

בּוֹר

Bor — Pit, cistern. The word bor appears repeatedly in Joseph's story. He is thrown into the bor (37:20). Later he will be placed in the bor of an Egyptian prison (40:15 — the same word). The pit is a place of death without being death itself. Joseph goes down (yarad) into the pit — the same verb used for his descent to Egypt. In each case the descent precedes an elevation. The Torah uses precise language: what looks like the end is a passage downward before the rise.

Read in Torah — Genesis 37:12 →