​​This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, used to tend the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he informed his father about the bad reputation his brothers had. Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. As his brothers knew that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.[...] When they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the ornate robe he was wearing, and they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm, and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. So when the Midianite merchants passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. (Genesis 37:2–4 and 18–28:

Jacob had 13 sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin). Joseph’s older brothers, jealous of the favoritism their father showed for Joseph, decided to get rid of him. First, they thought about killing him, but in the end, they decided to sell him to some merchants who were on their way to Egypt. When he got there, he was sold to the captain of the Pharaoh’s army, and thanks to his gift for interpreting dreams, he became a minister of the sovereign. The brothers made their father believe that Joseph had been attacked by wild animals.

The scene represents the moment of the transaction: one of the brothers is receiving coins from one of the merchants, who are dressed in robes and turbans, accompanied by their camels and servants. One of the merchants is taking young Joseph away with his hands tied to stop him from escaping, while he looks sadly at his brothers.