۞ Verily in Joseph and his brethren are signs (or symbols) for seekers (after Truth). 7 When they said: "Truly, Yusuf (Joseph) and his brother (Benjamin) are loved more by our father than we, but we are 'Usbah (a strong group). Really, our father is in a plain error. 8 Kill Joseph or cast him out to [another] land; the countenance of your father will [then] be only for you, and you will be after that a righteous people." 9 Said one of them: "Slay not Joseph, but if ye must do something, throw him down to the bottom of the well: he will be picked up by some caravan of travellers." 10 They said: O our father! Why wilt thou not trust us with Joseph, when lo! we are good friends to him? 11 Send him with us tomorrow, that he may refresh himself and play, and verily we are to be his guards. 12 (Jacob) said: "Really it saddens me that ye should take him away: I fear lest the wolf should devour him while ye attend not to him." 13 Said they: "Surely, if the wolf were to devour him notwithstanding that we are so many - then, behold, we ought ourselves to perish!" 14 And so, when they went away with him, they decided to cast him into the dark depths of a well. Then We revealed to him Our will, "You shall [one day] tell them of this deed of theirs, when they do not realize who you are." 15 And they came to their father at nightfall, weeping. 16 They said:"O our father! We went racing with one another, and left Yusuf (Joseph) by our belongings and a wolf devoured him; but you will never believe us even when we speak the truth." 17 And they came with false blood on his shirt. He said: Nay, but your minds have beguiled you into something. (My course is) comely patience. And Allah it is Whose help is to be sought in that (predicament) which ye describe. 18 And there came a caravan of travellers; they sent their water-drawer, and he let down his bucket (into the well). He said: "What good news! Here is a boy." So they hid him as merchandise (a slave). And Allah was the All-Knower of what they did. 19 In selling him they asked for a very small price and even then no one wanted to buy him. 20