Overall meaning : Allah, Exalted be He, says: Surely in the story of Joseph and his brothers there are lessons and proofs attesting to Allah’s power and wisdom for those who want to know about their story. They said to each other, 'Surely Joseph and his full brother are dearer to our father than we are and he prefers them to us even though we are a group of so many and are of greater benefit to him. Indeed, our father is clearly mistaken. Kill Joseph or cast him out to some unknown, faraway land so that your father’s attention will become exclusively yours and you will have no rivals in his love, and then you can thereafter repent and become righteous.’
One of them said, 'Do not kill Joseph. But if you must do something, throw him down to the bottom of a well; some travellers will pick him up, and you will thus get rid of him without there being any need to kill him.’