THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act I - The Pentateuch, Scene 7
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 7

1       2       3                  4

VOICE THREE:          Two wives, two maidservants, one daughter, and twelve sons.

VOICE ONE:              Children nurtured on the intrigue and bitterness that characterized  a family where long-standing rivalries and unrequited love were the norm.

VOICE TWO:             A life-long fatherly example of scheming and cheating to get what he wanted.

VOICE FOUR:            A new generation of children who had learned their lesson well.

VOICE THREE:          Dinah, the first known instance of date rape.

VOICE TWO:             Simeon and Levi, lying and conniving in order to vent their murderous revenge on Dinah’s defiler.

VOICE ONE:              Jacob, who had come face to face with God, but had never led his family to worship Jehovah. 

VOICE FOUR:            (MOVE FORWARD WITH STOOL)  Joseph…

VOICE THREE:          But Joseph wasn’t like the rest of his brothers.

VOICE ONE:              That’s why they hated him.

VOICE TWO:             It’s why Jacob loved him.

VOICE FOUR:            Joseph, the son of his old age.  The first son of his beloved Rachel.  The youngest except for Benjamin who was still a baby.

VOICE THREE:          Joseph, the son who worshipped God.

VOICE TWO:             Worshipped God?  All he did was claim to see visions.  All of our sheaves bowing down to his.

VOICE ONE:              All of our stars and even the sun and moon worshipping him.  He doesn’t worship God, he worships himself.

VOICE TWO:             Behold the dreamer cometh!

VOICE ONE:              Let’s kill him.

VOICE TWO:             No, sell him to the Midianites.  He’ll be as good as dead down in Egypt.

VOICE ONE:              We’ll dip his coat in blood and tell father that he ran into a lion or a bear.

VOICE THREE:          We’ll finally be rid of the troublemaker, once and for all. 

VOICE FOUR:            But God meant it for good.

VOICE ONE:              God brought him into the favor of Potiphar, captain of the guard.

VOICE TWO:             God protected him from Potiphar’s wife who couldn’t handle rejection.

VOICE THREE:          God prospered him in prison and made him the trusted favorite of the keeper.

VOICE FOUR:            God gave him the interpretation for the dreams of the butler and the baker.

VOICE ONE:              Hey—chief baker.  Get with the program.  The king has had a dream.  A dream!  Remember!  Prison?  Your dream? 

VOICE TWO:             Oh, that’s right.  What was that fellow’s name?  It’s only been two years.  Jerry?  No.  Joseph!  That’s what it was.  Joseph.  I’d better go tell the king.

VOICE FOUR:            God meant it for good.

VOICE THREE:          Joseph woke up in prison that morning and went to bed in the palace.

VOICE ONE:              Seven years of plenty.

VOICE FOUR:            Take twenty percent of every crop raised in the entire country and place it into storage.  Build storeroom facilities in every village and every town.  Fill every granary and silo and barn all the way up and down the Nile.  More corn and grain will belong to Pharoah than we can even start to measure.

VOICE THREE:          Seven years of famine.

VOICE TWO:             We need food.  We’re starving.

VOICE FOUR:            There’s plenty for everyone.  Come to the storehouse and buy what you need from Pharoah.

VOICE ONE:              It’s been two years.  We’re out of money and we’re still hungry.

VOICE FOUR:            You still have cattle don’t you?  Give your cattle to Pharoah and we will compensate you for them with food.

VOICE THREE:          Three years of famine.  Now what are we going to do?

VOICE FOUR:            Sell Pharoah your land and move into the city.  There’s still food in storage for all of you.

VOICE ONE:              Years four and five and six.  When will this ever end?  And what are we to do now that Pharoah has all our land?

VOICE FOUR:            Go back and work the land.  Pharoah will give you seed.  Return twenty percent to him of everything you raise and he will graciously grant you the other eighty percent for yourselves.  His storehouses will remain open until your crops come in.

VOICES ONE, THREE AND TWO:              You have saved our lives.  We will be Pharoah’s servants forever.

VOICE FOUR:            I know.  (PAUSE.  # 1, 2 AND 3 STAND)  And who do you think you are?

VOICE ONE:              We are ten brothers, sons of one man.  The famine waxes sore in Canaan as well and so we are come to Egypt to buy bread.

VOICE FOUR:            Come to buy bread?  More likely you have come to spy out the land and exploit our weaknesses because of the drought.

VOICE THREE:          God forbid, my lord.  We are honest men, good men and true.  Ten sons of one man, our youngest brother is still in Canaan and one brother is dead.

VOICE TWO:             Joseph knew them immediately and as they bowed humbly before him, he couldn’t help but think about sheaves and stars.  God had meant it for good. 

VOICE FOUR:            Bring your brother and come again. 

VOICE ONE:              Even with Simeon in chains down in Egypt, Jacob could not be convinced to allow Benjamin to go back with them.  He was the only memory left of Rachel and of Joseph who had both been taken away from him.  Not until the famine grew grievously sore could they convince him to let them take their brother along.

VOICE FOUR:            This time Joseph could not contain his emotion.  But he forced himself to weep in a chamber apart and then returned to set in motion a plan to discern the hearts of his ten brothers.

VOICE TWO:             Each brother received a sack of food along with a return of the money spent for the food.

VOICE THREE:          Benjamin received a sack of food that concealed a silver cup from the table of the Pharoah’s overlord.

VOICE FOUR:            How could you do this to my lord?  Stealing a cup from his own table?  This young one shall remain behind as servant to my lord.  The rest of you may go.

VOICE ONE:              They all rent their clothes.

VOICE THREE:          They all returned to Egypt.

VOICE TWO:             They all bowed down before Joseph.

VOICE ONE:              Judah offered himself as a bond slave in place of Benjamin.

VOICE FOUR:            Joseph wept.   He wept on Benjamin’s neck.  He wept when his brothers finally understood that he was really Joseph.  He wept when he sent them back to get his father.  He wept when he placed his hand on the head of his father Israel.  He wept when Israel called all his sons, his twelve tribes, together and gave them his final blessing.

ALL:                            God had meant it for good!