The reason for this action was because of the dreams he had of his family. One dream was that his family was in the field gathering wheat. All of a sudden, the other wheat sheaves gathered around Joseph's sheaf and bowed down to it. The second dream was that Joseph was standing in the field and the sun, moon, and 11 stars came and all bowed to Joseph. These dreams are what caused the brothers to tie up Joseph and throw him into a pit.
Later that night some merchants were riding by. They were on their way to Egypt to sell spices, so the brothers sold Joseph to the merchants. Joseph spent 27 days with the merchants traveling with them to Egypt and Thebes. Joseph experienced many hardships during his time with them. One of them was that he was treated like a dog. Joseph was tied by the neck to a camel. When it was time to eat, Joseph was untied from the camel and tethered to a tree. I am sure that this must have been very embarrassing. Also, when Joseph was going to be inspected for sale, the customers would look at his teeth, nose, ears, etc. That must have been even worse. This experience for Joseph must have been very humbling because he would have come to know how a slave actually felt. This would teach him not to be mean to others because he would know how it actually felt to be put down.
When Joseph came to Egypt, he was spotted by Potiphar, the captain of the guard. Potiphar noticed Joseph's physical strengths of being tall, strong, well built and handsome. Potiphar brought Joseph home. Joseph was liked very much by Potiphar, and he knew that Joseph was very special. Potiphar greatly respected Joseph and put into Joseph's trust everything that he owned. Potiphar hardly even knew what he had. That is how much he trusted Joseph. Joseph also gained respect with the other servants of Potiphar's house. The workers listened to Joseph and always brought their problems to him.
