英语故事（七）

One day Joseph told his brothers about a dream he had had. He said they were all binding sheaves of corn in a field when suddenly all their sheaves bowed down to his sheaf. You can imagine how they liked that!
Then he told them of another dream-how the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down to him; and they liked that still less.
Joseph might have been wiser to have kept these dreams to himself, or told them only to his father. But the fact that he told them to his brothers shows how innocent he really was. He never thought they would mind. Perhaps he hoped they would tell him what the dreams meant.
But the ten bigger brothers did mind. Very much. They had no intention of bowing down to this little sneak, as they thought he was. Soon they became so angry with him they even talked of killing him.
One day, when Joseph was seventeen, his brothers saw him coming toward them across the fields and “they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.”
Just then Reuben came on the scene and overheard what the others were suggesting. Although he disliked Joseph as much as the rest, he wasn’t willing to go so far as to kill him. Being the eldest, he knew his father would hold him responsible.
“Let us not kill him,” he said. “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit,” his purpose being to take Joseph out later and send him back home.
The others agreed, then waited for their brother to arrive.
Meanwhile Joseph, who had walked a long, long way-almost fifty miles-looking for his brothers, was feeling very happy that at last he had found them. At the joy of seeing them again he almost forgot how tired and hungry he was. Imagine, then, his disappointment when he saw the ugly looks on their faces. This was not the welcome he had expected. Then, to his horror, some of them seized him, tore off his precious coat of many colors, carried him to a deep pit, and threw him in.
In vain he cried to them to have mercy on him, hut they wouldn’t listen, and soon he found himself left alone at the bottom of the pit, hungry, cold, and heartbroken. He called and called, but no one came. For all he knew, he was to be left there to die of thirst and starvation.
Meanwhile Reuben had gone back to his work, and the others, left to themselves, started to talk about what to do with Joseph. They were in trouble. Having agreed not to kill the boy, they couldn’t leave him in the pit to die; but if they let him go, he would surely run home and tell his father how cruel they had all been to him.
Just then they saw a caravan approaching, and discovered it was a company of Ishmaelites from Gilead “with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.”
At this Judah had a bright idea. “Come,” he said, “let us sell him to the Ishmaelites.”
The very thing!
The rest agreed at once, for not only would this get them out of a very difficult situation, but they would make some money as well.
So the caravan was stopped, and he bargaining began. Finally Joseph was lifted out of the pit and, despite his tears and pleadings, was sold to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.
Thus within an hour or two of his arrival at his brothers’ camp, poor Joseph, pride and joy of his father’s heart, found himself a slave in a caravan bound for Egypt.
How cruel brothers can be sometimes! I hope you never have any thoughts like these about your little brother.
Looking back, we can see that their deed was not only wicked but very foolish. It brought them no good. The twenty pieces of silver didn’t go far among ten. Just two pieces each, which were soon spent. What’s more, they didn’t actually get rid of Joseph, for after he was gone they couldn’t get him out of their minds. They worried about what they had done and what might happen to them if they were ever found out.
And there was always the possibility that they might meet Joseph again someday. Then there were those dreams of his. What did they mean?
Could it be that they had made a dreadful mistake? They surely had.


耶稣的童年