Vayeshev

Jacob settles in Canaan, and the story turns to Joseph, seventeen, favored by his father with an ornamented coat, and hated by his brothers. Joseph tells his dreams — sheaves bowing to his sheaf, then sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing to him — and their hatred deepens. Sent to check on his brothers near Dothan, he is seized, stripped of his coat, and thrown into a pit; at Judah's suggestion he is sold for twenty pieces of silver to traders bound for Egypt. The brothers dip the coat in goat's blood, and Jacob, recognizing it, mourns his son as torn by beasts, refusing all comfort.

The narrative pauses with Judah, whose sons Er and Onan die, leaving Tamar a childless widow twice over. Denied the third brother, Tamar veils herself at the roadside; Judah, not recognizing her, leaves his seal, cord, and staff as pledge. When her pregnancy is discovered and she is condemned, she produces the pledge — "by the man to whom these belong" — and Judah declares, "She is more righteous than I." She bears twins, Perez and Zerah.

In Egypt, Joseph rises in the house of Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, until everything is entrusted to his hand. Potiphar's wife presses him day after day; he refuses, and her false accusation lands him in the king's prison. There too he prospers, put in charge of the prisoners. He interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's imprisoned cupbearer and baker — restoration for one in three days, death for the other — and both come to pass. But the cupbearer, restored, forgets him.