He walked around the pit, looking at it from every angle, but his eyes did not deceive him. The pit was indeed empty. Fear twisted his gut. Had they killed him? A deep cry of despair pushed past his lips, and he grabbed the neck of his tunic and tore his clothes. This could not be! He had told Judah not to do anything foolish regarding the boy.
What had they done?
Angry now, heart pounding harder than before, he went in search of Judah. He found the three brothers huddled together behind a copse of trees.
“What have you done?” he demanded, facing Judah down. “The boy is gone! What will I do now?”
Judah held Reuben’s hot gaze with a cool one of his own. “We sold him to a caravan of Ishmaelite traders. He is on his way to Egypt as we speak.” Judah shook the pouch at his side, and Reuben heard the clanking of coins. “We couldn’t kill our own flesh and blood. But we couldn’t have him running back to our father and telling him we had thrown him into a pit either, now could we?”
Reuben stared at him, then looked to Simeon and Levi, whose smug faces told him they had agreed with the plan. They had probably all agreed.
“I cannot face our father without the boy,” Reuben said. “What are we supposed to tell him? Have you even thought of that? You know when we return he will ask if we have seen Joseph. Do you just plan to lie and have him send servants to search for him? It would consume him the rest of his days.” Reuben drew in a breath. “And what if he sends men to Egypt and they find Joseph there? Then when Joseph returns, things will go far worse for us than you can even imagine!”
At Reuben’s words, his brothers’ expressions sobered. Judah cleared his throat but did not speak.
“Well? What are we supposed to do?” Reuben paced before them, barely tamping down his fury.
“Let’s kill a goat and dip the boy’s coat in it,” Simeon said. “One of us can take it to our father so he is prepared before we return. Or we’ll pay a messenger and have him say, ‘Look at what we found. Doesn’t this robe belong to your son?’”
Reuben halted his pacing and studied Simeon’s calculating gaze. This brother was the most ruthless among them all. No doubt he would have killed Joseph and done exactly what he was suggesting now.
But the plan was a good one as long as they could keep the truth from ever coming to their father. Let him think the boy dead.
Reuben nodded. “Let it be as you’ve said.” But he knew he would live to regret this day more than he regretted sleeping with his father’s concubine. More than anything he had ever regretted in his life.
Joseph breathed a sigh of relief when the caravan stopped for the night. A young man removed the rope from the camel and led him by the neck to a place near a fire where other prisoners attempted to sit with their feet bound. The man thrust a bowl of some type of mushy grain into his hands. He had no bread to dip into it, so he tilted the bowl to his lips and did his best to get some of it into his mouth.
Moments later, another servant tossed some dry bread at him. It landed in the dirt, and Joseph reached with shaky hands to grab it. Tears wet his cheeks, and he could not stop them despite his efforts. He could not cry aloud. Not here. He had seen others who attempted to even talk to the masters receive blows to the face for opening their mouths.
So Joseph remained silent. But he could not stop himself from looking toward the heavens and crying out to God. Adonai, why is this happening? Where are You?
But as he lay in the dirt without a covering beside a dying fire, still in chains, God did not answer his continual silent pleas. Not even the insects chirped to distract him from the desperate cries coming from his broken heart.
12
Judah licked his fingers, tasting the last of the goat meat, and moved to the front of a cave where they had sheltered the sheep for the night. The robe with the animal’s blood on it rested on a protruding rock in the cave, to protect it from wild animals that might steal the only evidence they had to convince their father of Joseph’s death.
His heart beat with a mixture of relief and guilt, and he could not erase the memory of Joseph’s neck snapped into an iron collar and attached by a chain to a camel far taller than he was. The boy would not fare well trying to keep up with the animal, especially with his feet also shackled.
What have I done?
He rolled onto his side, facing the cave wall. Don’t think about it. He and his brothers would head back to their father with the sheep, and once they drew near, they would find a servant to take the coat to Jacob with the message they had decided on and then show up in time to comfort him. It was a good plan. Once their father was over his grief, life could return to normal.
But Joseph’s cries from the pit, his fighting against them, his pleading for his life, rang in Judah’s ears the whole night. Dawn could not come soon enough, and he rose from a restless half slumber and called to his brothers.
“Wake up, all of you! Let’s get going.”
Grumbling met his ears. Apparently some of them had actually slept, but then, it hadn’t been their idea to sell Joseph.
He turned and headed out of the cave, calling his part of the flock by name. Reuben, Simeon, and Levi soon followed him, and before the sun crested the eastern ridge, they were headed from Dothan back to Hebron.
The journey took several days, as the animals could not move quickly. But at last they were within a few hours of their father’s camp. Judah walked to where his donkey was tethered to a cart with Joseph’s robe draped over the side. He called to Gad, “Come!”
Gad moved at a pace that seemed purposefully slow. “What is it?”
“I want you to run ahead until you reach one of the servants in the fields and give them the robe and the message. Tell him we will be along soon.” Judah took the robe from the donkey’s side and handed it to Gad.
“Why do I have to do this? Pick someone else.” Gad crossed his arms, his stance defiant.
Judah glared at him. “You are the quickest among us. Don’t act like a child. Just do as I say!”
Gad held his stare, unmoving. “You are not lord over us. Do you think you will take Joseph’s place?”
The words unnerved Judah, and he felt like he’d been struck. The weight of the silver suddenly seemed heavier at his side. He reached into the pouch and retrieved a coin. He placed it into Gad’s hand. “Just do your part, please.” He held the coat out again.
Gad turned the coin over in his hand. At last he accepted the coat as well. He took off at a run without another word, and Judah breathed a deep sigh.
Reuben drew up beside him. “We should be home in another hour or so, by the time the sun hits the midpoint in the sky.”
Judah nodded. “We should probably try to get there sooner if we can. I don’t want to see our father’s reaction, but if we are not there, things could be worse. We need to make sure the servant follows through with what we want him to do.”
“Agreed.” Reuben stepped away to tell the rest of their brothers to quicken their pace.
Judah felt his strength fade, and an acrid taste filled his mouth the closer they came to Hebron. But what was done was done now. They had all agreed to the lie. Now it was up to each man to keep it.
HEBRON
Jacob sat with Isaac in the shade of Jacob’s tent awning. A soft breeze blew through the open sides, cooling the air. It was a pleasant time of year, one where a man could feel warm yet not overly so.