Joseph's brothers,28 when they saw that their father loved him more than all the other sons, hated him: at every word they spoke to him, at every glance at him, a gloomy confusion boiled up in them. And he did not understand the illness that had seized them: his pure soul saw everyone pure and well-intentioned. With trust, he opened his heart to them. This gentle heart has already been chosen by God as a vessel of mysterious revelations. The grace of the Holy Spirit, in accordance with the youthful years of Joseph, began to manifest its presence and action in significant dreams. Strange dreams were vividly drawn by a mysterious hand in the virgin imagination. Joseph was seventeen years old when he had his first prophesied dream. With a frankness that does not suspect any evil, he recounts it to his brothers: apparently, the dream left an extraordinary impression in the soul of the young man, which needed to be explained. He {p. 17} wanted to evoke, to hear this explanation from the lips of his elder brothers. "I dreamed," he said to them, "that we were all knitting sheaves in the field; my sheaf suddenly rose up and stood upright, and your sheaves turned to my sheaf and bowed down to it." The brothers answered: "Will you really reign over us, or will you become our master?" Joseph has a new dream. With childlike innocence, as if to justify the first dream and to prove that significant dreams come to him involuntarily, independently of him, he tells the dream to his father and brothers: "I saw," he says, "that the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars worshipped me." The father, hearing his son's story, stopped the young man. "What is the dream that you saw? he told him. The experienced and spiritual father stopped his son, not because he recognized his dream as a vain dream, his own product of a soul suffering from arrogance, but in order to protect the young soul from falling into arrogance and, at the same time, by a stern reprimand, to extinguish in some way the envy and hatred in the brothers.

Thus, Christian ascetic teachers command not to pay special attention to all phenomena in general that appear to the spiritual and bodily senses: they command to observe prudent coldness and salutary caution in all manifestations in general [29]. There are dreams from God, of which Joseph's dreams serve as an example and proof, but the state of the dreamer and vision is dangerous, very close to self-deception. The sight of our shortcomings is a safe vision! The sight of our fall and redemption is the most necessary vision! The spirit is contrite and humble [30] — this is a state that is essentially beneficial, devoid of self-deception, a state that God favors! Reasoning, capable of comprehending, appreciating, and explaining visions, is characteristic of only those who succeed in spiritual struggle: it is acquired over a long period of time, it is a gift of God. St. James had this gift of God: he stopped his son, who was telling a prophesied dream, and he himself, according to the Scriptures, kept in mind his words, which bore the anointing of the Spirit.

{p. 18}

This was not the effect of the new dream on Joseph's brothers: it only increased their hatred and envy of him. One day they drove the flocks to Shechem. Jacob said to Joseph, "Your brothers are in Shechem, I want to send you to them." Joseph answered: "I am ready." "Go," continued Jacob, "see if your brethren are well, and if our sheep are well. Then come back and tell me."

Sometimes people part easily: when parting, they seem not to part, saying goodbye, they almost never say goodbye. And such a farewell is often a farewell forever; it is often followed by a long, sorrowful separation. The elder did not know, letting Joseph go, that he would not see his beloved son for a long, long time! Could he have thought that by sending Joseph to his brothers, he was sending him to murderers? He knew their hatred for the young man; but could it have occurred to him that this hatred would grow into a plan, into a conspiracy, into a determination to commit fratricide? The elder's innocence was experienced kindness — not the childish kindness that Joseph was filled with, walking straight to the knife like a lamb. The wise Jacob, with all his spiritual success, with all the experience accumulated over many years of suffering, could not imagine that his violent sons were capable of the terrible crime of fratricide. It is characteristic of the holy not to think evil of one's neighbors; it tends to consider the most open, open villains less evil than they really are. And we see many holy people who have not been deceived by obvious sin, who have been deceived by much love and their trust in their neighbors. Old man! for a long time you will part with your beloved son Joseph! Thou hast the gift of prophecy and clairvoyance; but for this time God, Who incomprehensibly arranges the fate of man, has closed the future from you with an impenetrable veil. Thou hast sent Joseph away for a few days, and thou shalt see him after many years of sorrow. And he will see the land of Canaan, the place where your tabernacle is spread, when the days of your burial come, and only for the short days of this burial! His bones will be brought here; here his numerous descendants will return with them, and with an armed hand will come into possession of the inheritance of their forefather, now the youth Joseph.

Joseph went from his father's house from Hebron, and came to Shechem. His brothers were no longer there. He did not know where to find them and began to look for them and ask questions. Suddenly, a stranger met him and asked him whom he was looking for. Joseph answered him: "I am looking for my brethren; tell me, do you not know where they are with their flocks?" The stranger answered: "They have departed from here; I heard them say among themselves, 'Let us go to Dothaim.'" According to this man, whom fate seemed to have deliberately brought to meet Joseph in order to direct him to his predestination, the young man begins again to look for his brothers, the victim of his priests, and finds them in Dothaim. From a distance they recognized him and began to conspire to kill him. In the assembly of the brothers, terrible words were heard about the brother: "Here comes a dreamer. Let us kill him and say: he was eaten by a predatory beast. Let's see what will happen to his dreams then!" But Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob, took him away from them. "Let us not kill him," he said to them, "with our own hands! Lower him into one of the ditches here; Do not lay your hands on him!" and the softened Reuben thought to return his beloved son to the elder-father. They stripped Joseph of his motley clothes and threw him into a deep, dry well, alive in a terrible grave. In the pit of Joseph, in the jaws of death.. Holy youth, your spiritual experience begins with a difficult experience! Wondrous firmness of your soul, which has endured such fierce sorrow! Firmness in adversity is given by an immaculate, irreproachable conscience. Teach us to acquire both your purity and firmness, which are powerful supports for the heart in the vicissitudes of life.

Joseph in the ditch. What do the brothers do? they sat down to eat... Ripe hatred.. When some passion matures in the soul, the soul no longer feels its mortal illness. It is more terrible to be with the heart in this depth of malice than with the body, with the angelic soul in a deep pit. The sons of Jacob committed an evil deed, as if they had fulfilled their duty: so much was their hatred for their brother. And gray eat bread [31], says the Scriptures.

When this meal was served, of course, nothing good was present at it. It was carried out violently. How else could the murderers have dined? Loud laughter broke the terrible silence: it was the laughter of a soul that has thrown off the garment of modesty, enjoys the assimilated, satiated malice. From time to time, infernal words jumped out, as if from a dark abyss, from hearts that had decided to commit fratricide. {p. 20} Gloomy, bestial were the faces of the diners. Their sight and hearing wandered sullenly, wildly everywhere. Prudence no longer ruled here. What prudence! When the passions take possession of a person, then the mind, deprived of dominion, serves as an obsequious and inventive servant of the passions to satisfy their cunning, capricious, criminal demands.

The sons of Jacob are feasting over the grave with the living dead, and now their darting eyes suddenly see travelers. They were Ishmaelites, merchants. They appeared from Gilead, on the road to Egypt. Their camels were abundantly loaded with styrax, balsam, and frankincense, which they carried to Egypt for sale. At a frantic meal, a voice was heard: "What does it profit us if we kill our brother and hide his blood? Let's sell it to these Ishmaelites! And let not our hands be upon him: for he is our brother and our flesh!" Judas offered to sell a righteous brother. Many centuries later, another Judas will appear, he will say about another Righteous One, about the God-Man Himself: "What do you want to give me, and I will deliver Him to you?" [32]

The gold boxes rang out... Joseph had already been pulled out of the well and hastily sold to the Arabs. Not a single controversial word about the price or the prisoner was uttered on either side. The Scriptures would not have been silent about the word worthy of memory, if it had been spoken. The Scriptures in this story also convey those words that are in any way worthy of remark. Zlatnitsa are sounding... There were twenty of them. How similar this ringing is to the ringing of thirty pieces of silver.. Blessed young man, sold for twenty gold pieces! thou hast been deemed worthy to be the transformation of Him Who was sold for thirty pieces of silver!

Reuben was not at dinner. He was not a participant in the criminal intent and conspiracy, nor was he at the feast at which the successful villainy was celebrated. Secretly he came to the moat and called the buried. There is no answer. Calling again... There is no answer! In despair, he tears his clothes, runs to his brothers, says to them: "There is no young man in the pit! Where will I go now?.." There were twenty of them: the nine brothers who were present at the sale proved that they had not forgotten the missing tenth. {p. 21} Meanwhile, the sons of Jacob were contriving a way to conceal from the elder-father their deed with Joseph. They slaughtered the kid, stained the motley clothes in its blood, and sent it to the father with a stern question: "We have found this; know whether this is your son's garment or not?" he said, "This is my son's garment: has the fierce beast eaten it? A fierce beast has stolen Joseph!" Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son for many days. Sons and daughters gathered to him; they consoled the elder. But he did not want to be comforted, he said: "I will go down to hell with groaning to my son." He repeated these words for a long time and wept for a long time.

The Ishmaelites brought Joseph to Egypt [33]; there they resold it to Pentephrius, to the nobles of Pharaoh — the kings of Egypt were called pharaohs — to the chief of the king's bodyguard. And the Lord was with Joseph, mysteriously watching over him, helping him. Soon the lord noticed the blessing of heaven over his servant and loved him very much. The consequence of this special love was that Pentephrius entrusted Joseph with the administration of all his household and all his possessions. The Lord, for Joseph's sake, blessed the inheritance of the Egyptian: the grace of God was poured out on all his possessions, on his house and on his fields. Pentephrius gave himself up to his disposition with all careless credulity, he did not even inspect anything himself, did not pay attention to anything. Joseph was very stately and handsome. His beauty attracted the eyes of his wife Pentephrius. Passion seized her: openly, directly she declared her passion to the young man. The young man did not agree to lawlessness. He admonished his wife, who was burning with insane and criminal lust; he said to her: "My lord has so entrusted himself to me, and has so rested in my cares, that he does not even know anything that is in his house. He has delivered all his goods indistinctly into my hands: in his house there is no one higher than me; everything is in my possession except you, his wife. How then shall I act according to thy words? How can I sin before God?" — The criminal wife does not hear the wise words of the son of Jacob: the passion that has taken possession of her says something else. She hears only the voice of passion: Joseph's words flew past her ears like empty sounds without meaning or significance. From time to time the wife repeats the proposal, always with the same open, fiery insolence. One day Joseph was engaged in the house according to {p. 22} of his office; it happened that there was no one from the household, except the mistress. She grabs him by the clothes, begs him, demands that her wish be immediately fulfilled. Joseph escapes from her arms and runs away; his outer garment remained in the hands of the Egyptian woman. Unsatisfied criminal love suddenly turns into frenzied hatred: the one who sought to enjoy the delights of beautiful flesh for a minute is now frantically thirsty to drink blood. A frenzied Egyptian woman cries, with a loud screech and scream, calls her family. They come running. "Look," said the Egyptian woman to them, "this young Hebrew has been brought into our house to mock us.. He came to me... He told me... I screamed in a loud voice... when he heard my cry, he fled from me... behold his outer garment in my hands!" Once again, the clothes are mute, heard false witnesses against Joseph. When the nobleman returned, his wife told him the event. She spoke piteously and quietly: "A young Jew came to me, whom you brought to us to dishonor us, and offered me iniquity. When I screamed loudly, he ran away, leaving his outer garment with me." Hearing a plausible story, in which the simplicity and coldness of the story were skilfully concealed by a terrible storm of soul and infernal slander, seeing in the hands of his wife the proof of the incident — Joseph's clothes — proof against which, apparently, there was no refutation, Pentephrius was greatly indignant. He recognized the questioning and the trial as superfluous, unnecessary, so the slave's crime was clear, vivid, and obvious in his eyes. He ordered Joseph to be thrown into the prison in which the state criminals were kept, into a stronghold: this is how the Scriptures call this prison.

The Lord, who had chosen Joseph from the days of his childhood, the Lord who had helped him in captivity and in the house of Pentephrius, did not leave him in prison. The heart of the prison governor was well disposed towards Joseph: he entrusted the young prisoner with the entire prison, all the prisoners imprisoned in it, and, like Pentephrius, he rested with all his trust in the care of Joseph. After some time, two of his nobles sinned before the Egyptian king: the elder cupbearer and the elder over the bread [34]. The angry Pharaoh (p. 23} locked them up in the same prison in which Joseph was kept. The captain of the prison entrusted them to Joseph. When they had been in prison for several days, each of them had a dream on the same night. In the morning, Joseph came to them and noticed that they were both confused. He asks the nobles of Pharaoh: "Why is there sorrow on your faces?" They answer: "Each of us has had a dream, but there is no one to interpret our dreams." Joseph said: "Does not God give the gift of explaining the dreams that are sent from Him? Tell me your dreams." From Joseph's words one can see his spiritual progress, the fruit of temptations. When he had dreams as a child, he felt only that there was a meaning in them, and he recounted them to his father and brothers, as if seeking an explanation, but not daring to add any interpretation. And here, as soon as he hears that the elders have had a dream, he already hopes to find the solution of his mysterious dreams in God, to Whom he has drawn near, to Whom he has assimilated through sorrows, faith, purity, and prayer. Dreams led him into the furnace of sorrows; dreams will lead him out of this furnace, into which Providence usually plunges people destined for great deeds. The elder cupbearer began to tell his dream: "I dreamed," he said, "that before me was a vineyard; in the garden I see three vines, juicy, sprouting and giving ripe fruit. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand. I took a bunch of grapes, squeezed the juice into a bowl and gave it to Pharaoh." Joseph answered: "This is the meaning of this dream: three vines for three days. Three more days will pass, and Pharaoh will remember you, and restore you to your former rank as cupbearer: you will give the cup to Pharaoh as before. Then, in thy well-being, remember me. Have mercy on me: tell Pharaoh about me and lead me out of these gloomy walls. I was stolen from the Jewish land and did nothing wrong here, and I was thrown into this terrible prison." The elder above the granaries, hearing the favorable interpretation, also related his dream to Joseph: "And I," he said, "had a dream. I imagined that I was holding three baskets of bread on my head. In the upper basket were all kinds of biscuits used by the pharaoh. Suddenly, birds flew in and started pecking at cookies." Joseph answered: "Here is the meaning of the dream: three baskets – three days. Three more days will pass, and Pharaoh will take your head off you! thy corpse shall be hanged on a tree; the birds of the air will eat up your body." The third day came: it was Pharaoh's birthday. He gave a feast to his courtiers; {p. 24} In conversation with them, the king remembered the two imprisoned elders: he restored the elder Cupbearer to his former rank, and he again began to give the cup to Pharaoh, and ordered the elder over the granaries to be executed, according to Joseph's prediction. And the cupbearer elder forgot about Joseph. The righteous man also needed to languish in prison! He also needed solitude and the darkness of prison, so that his soul would sink deeper into prayer, with it it would draw even closer to God, and be illumined even more brightly by spiritual reason.

Two years passed, and Pharaoh had a dream [35]. It seemed to him that he was standing by the river: seven cows, fat and beautiful, came out of the river, and began to walk along the coastal pasture. Behind them, seven other cows, skinny and unpleasant-looking, came out of the river, and also began to walk with the first along the bank of the river. Suddenly, the lean cows devoured the fat ones, and it was not noticeable that the fat ones rose in them: they retained their former appearance of exhaustion. Pharaoh woke up. Then he falls asleep again, sees another dream: he sees that seven ears of corn filled with ripe grains grew from one stalk, and after them grew another seven ears, thin, as if dried up by heat and wind. These thin ears of corn swallowed up the first seven full ears. Pharaoh woke up, his soul was troubled; when morning came, he ordered all the scholars and sages of Egypt to be summoned and told them his dream. But they could not interpret the dream, which made the king thoughtful and embarrassed. Then the cupbearer elder said to Pharaoh, "Now I remember my transgression! And when thou, O king, was angry with thy servants, with me, and with the elder over the granaries, and commanded us to be locked up in prison, which was in the house of the chief of the guards, each of us, on the same night, had a dream. There was a young Jew with us, a slave to the chief of the bodyguard; We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them. I was predicted to be restored to my rank, and my comrade to be executed. And so it happened to both of us."