The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. It contains stories about the origins of the world, humanity and the Jewish people. One of the stories is of Joseph, son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel.
The story shows the importance of forgiveness. Joseph was Jacob’s favourite son because he was born in his old age and was the son of his favourite (deceased) wife. Joseph was hated by his 10 envious half-brothers, all older than himself. One day, the brothers ambushed Joseph and threw him into a deep pit. They sold him as a slave to a caravan headed to Egypt. He was then sold to a wealthy Egyptian merchant, but eventually sent to jail on false charges.
In jail, Joseph demonstrated remarkable skills as a dream interpreter. When the Egyptian Pharaoh had two dreams that he wanted to be interpreted, Joseph was summoned to the court. In one dream, seven sickly cows were eating seven healthy cows.
In the other, seven sickly ears of grain were devouring seven healthy ears of grain. Joseph interpreted these dreams to mean that seven years of good rainfall and abundance would be followed by seven years of famine. Impressed by Joseph’s intelligence, the Pharaoh appointed him the Viceroy of Egypt and ordered him to prepare for famine, which Joseph accomplished efficiently.
People from neighbouring countries used to come to Egypt to buy grains to tide over the famine. Joseph’s brothers too came to Egypt and stood before him, but did not recognise him after 20 years. Joseph recognised them but did not reveal his identity. He wanted to test them. He accused them of being spies.
The brothers protested their innocence and mentioned that they had a younger brother at home. This was Benjamin, Joseph’s only real brother. Joseph asked them to bring Benjamin to him. Though Joseph heard the brothers discussing in Hebrew the wrong that they had done to Joseph, he wanted to further test them.
When Joseph’s brothers returned with Benjamin, Joseph received them hospitably and freed them.
He, however, secretly had an expensive silver cup put in Benjamin’s bag. Joseph’s soldiers intercepted the brothers and searched their bags. The silver cup was found and they were brought back to Egypt. Joseph wanted to see if the brothers were truly repentant of their ill-treatment of Joseph and would try to save Benjamin. He ordered Benjamin to be made his slave.
One of the brothers, Judah, pleaded to be made a slave in his place. Seeing this repentance, Joseph forgave his brothers, revealed his identity to them and invited them to settle down with their father in Egypt.