Genesis 37:20

Let us slay him. To men who had slain the males of a whole city, the murder of a single individual could hardly seem a grievous sin. Hatred had developed in their hearts to the point that they were ready to kill their own brother in cold blood. They were far from home and its restraining influences. The “pit” into which they intended to cast his body was one of the cisterns common in Palestine. The story they proposed to tell their father would be entirely credible, for Palestine was a wild country during the second millennium B.C., and lions, bears, and other animals roamed at will (see Judges 14:5; 1 Sam. 17:34).