actually to shed their brother's blood, he proposed to cast him into one of those cisterns, and leave him

there to perish, hoping, however, himself secretly to rescue and to restore him to his father. The others

readily acceded to the plan. A Greek writer has left us a graphic account of such wells and cisterns. He

describes them as regularly built and plastered, narrow at the mouth, but widening as they descend, till at

the bottom they attain a width sometimes of one hundred feet. We know that when dry, or covered with

only mud at the bottom, they served as hiding-places, and even as temporary prisons.(Jeremiah 38:6; Isaiah

24:22) Into such an empty well Joseph was now cast, while his brothers, as if they had finished some work,

sat down to their meal. We had almost written, that it so happened - but truly it was in the providence of

God, that just then an Arab caravan was slowly coming in sight. They were pursuing what we might call the

world-old route from the spice district of Gilead into Egypt - across Jordan, below the Sea of Galilee, over the

plain of Jezreel, and thence along the sea-shore. Once more the intended kindness of another of his brothers

well-nigh proved fatal to Joseph. Reuben had diverted their purpose of bloodshed by proposing to cast

Joseph into "the pit," in the hope of being able afterwards to rescue him. Judah now wished to save his life

by selling him as a slave to the passing Arab caravan. But neither of them had the courage nor the

uprightness frankly to resist the treachery and the crime. Again the other brothers hearkened to what

seemed a merciful suggestion. The bargain was quickly struck. Joseph was sold to "the Ishmaelites" for

twenty shekels - the price, in later times, of a male slave from five to twenty years old (Leviticus 27:5), the

medium price of a slave being thirty shekels of silver, or about four pounds, reckoning the shekel of the

sanctuary, which was twice the common shekel (Exodus 21:32), at two shillings and eight-pence. Reuben

was not present when the sale was made. On his return he "rent his clothes" in impotent mourning. But the

others dipped Joseph's princely raiment in the blood of a kid, to give their father the impression that Joseph

had been "devoured by a wild beast." The device succeeded. Jacob mourned him bitterly and "for many

days," refusing all the comfort which his sons and daughters hypocritically offered. But even his bittere st

lamentation expressed the hope and faith that he would meet his loved son in another world - for, he said: "I

will go down into the grave (or into Sheol) unto my son, mourning."

Except by an incidental reference to it in the later confession of his brothers (Genesis 42:21), we are not told

either of the tears or the entreaties with which Joseph vainly sought to move his brethren, nor of his journey

into Egypt. We know that when following in the caravan of his new masters, he must have seen at a

distance the heights of his own Hebron, where, all unsuspecting, his father awaited the return of his

favorite. To that home he was never again to return. We meet him next in the slave-market. Here, as it might

seem in the natural course of events, "Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian,

bought him off the hands of the Ishmaelites." The name Potiphar frequently occurs on the monuments of

Egypt (written either Pet-Pa-Ra, or Pet-P-Ra), and means: "Dedicated to Ra," or the sun. According t o some

writers, "at the time that Joseph was sold into Egypt, the country was not united under the rule of a single

native line, but governed by several dynasties, of which the fifteenth dynasty of Shepherd -kings was the

predominant one, the rest being tributary to it."  56 At any rate, he would be carried into that part of Egypt

which was always most connected with Palestine.

Potiphar's office at the court of Pharaoh was that of "chief of the executioners," most probably (as it is

rendered in our Authorized Version) captain of the king's body-guard. In the house of Potiphar it went with

Joseph as formerly in his own home. For it is not in the power of circumstances, prosperous or adverse, to

alter our characters. He that is faithful in little shall also be faithful in much; and from him who knoweth not

how to employ what is committed to his charge, shall be taken even that he hath. Joseph was faithful,

honest, upright, and conscientious, because in his earthly, he served a heavenly Master, Whose presence

he always realized. Accordingly "Jehovah was with him," and "Jehovah made all that he did to prosper in

his hand." His master was not long in observing this. From an ordinary domestic slave he promoted him to

be "overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand." The confidence was not misplaced.

Jehovah's blessing henceforth rested upon Potiphar's substance, and he "left all that he had in Joseph's

hand; and he knew not ought that he had, save the bread which he did eat." The sculptures and paintings of

the ancient Egyptian tombs bring vividly before us the daily life and duties of Joseph. "The property of

great men is shown to have been managed by scribes, who exercised a most methodical and minute

supervision over all the operations of agriculture, gardening, the keeping of live stock, and fishing. Every