w near to his brother. Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms about his
neck, and kissed him, and they wept.

When Esau looked up and saw the women and the children, he said, "Who
are these with you?" Jacob answered, "The children whom God has so
kindly given me." Then the maid servants with their children came up and
bowed down to the ground. Leah and her children also came and bowed
down, and afterward Joseph and Rachel came up and bowed down before
Esau.

Esau asked, "What do you mean by all this company which I met?" Jacob
answered, "To win your friendship, my lord." Esau said, "I have enough,
my brother; keep what you have." But Jacob replied, "No, if now I have
won your favor, receive this present from me to show that you are my
friend. Take, I beg of you, the gift that I bring to you, for God has
been generous to me, and I have enough." So he urged Esau until he took
it.

Then Esau said, "Let me at least leave with you some of the people who
are with me." But Jacob replied, "What need is there? Let me only enjoy
your friendship, my Lord." So Esau turned back that day on his way to
Seir.

JOSEPH SOLD AS A SLAVE BY HIS BROTHERS

When Joseph was seventeen years old, he and his brothers were shepherds,
but he made them angry, for he brought a bad report about them to their
father. Now Jacob loved his son Joseph, who was born in his old age; and
he made him a long coat with sleeves. When his brothers saw that their
father loved him more than all his other sons, they hated Joseph and
would not speak to him in a friendly way.

Joseph had a dream which he told to his brothers; and they hated him
still more. This is what he said to them, "I dreamed that, as we were
binding sheaves in the field, my sheaf rose up and remained standing,
while your sheaves came around and bowed down to my sheaf." His brothers
said to him, "Will you really be king over us? Will you indeed rule over
us?" So they hated him still more because of his dreams and his words.

Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, "I have
had another dream, and it seemed to me that the sun and the moon and
eleven stars bowed down to me." But when he told it to his father and
his brothers, his father reproved him and said, "What is this dream that
you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come
and bow down to the earth before you?" Therefore his brothers were
jealous of him; but his father remembered the dream.