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Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob. He was the first son of Rachel. His name literally meant, "To add - to take away". Seems contradictory, but his coming did just that. He was the promise of another son to Rachel, Benjamin, and he took away the shame that Rachel felt because she had no children.
Chapter 37 begins our story when Joseph was 17 years old. He went out to tend sheep with his brothers. He learned of some evil thing that his brothers had done and told his father about it. This, coupled with the obvious favoritism of their father for Joseph and a dream that Joseph had, causes the other brothers to dislike Joseph very much. In one dream, Joseph saw the sheaves of his brothers bowing down to his sheaves. In another dream he sees the sun, moon and stars bowing down to him. This disturbed the brothers and caused his father some concern. The next time Joseph goes out to check on his brothers, they devise a plan to get rid of him.
When Joseph arrived at where his brothers were, they stripped him of his coat of many colors, dug a pit and cast him into it. Afterwards they realized that someone would eventually come by and find Joseph before he died and rescue him from the pit and then Joseph would go home and tell his father what they had done to him, so they needed to change their plans. Seeing a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way to Egypt, they take Joseph and sell him to them for 20 pieces of silver. Then they take his coat and dip it in the blood of a goat; they take it to their father with a story that Joseph had been literally torn to pieces by a wild animal. Jacob went into mourning. Meanwhile, Joseph is taken to Egypt where he was sold to a man by the name of Potiphar, an officer in Pharaoh's guard.
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