Take the 2-minute tour ×  In Bereishis 37:29:  And Reuven
returned to the pit and look! Yosef wasn't in the pit.  But
neither the verse nor Rashi, for that matter, explain if he ever
found out what the brothers had done. The narrative simply
proceeds with the cover up.  Did Reuven find out what had
happened to Yosef?  share|improve this question  3 Answers 3  up
vote 12 down vote accepted  Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer (Chapter 38)
says that when Reuven returned and found the pit empty he
accused the brothers of killing Yosef. They then told him that
they sold him instead.  share|improve this answer Thanks
Menachem. –  shnozolla Dec 4 '12 at 20:27  The earliest source
of what happened appears to be the Jewish historian Flavius
Josephus, who was familiar with both Jewish oral tradition and
Scripture.  In the First Century, he wrote in Book 2, Chapter 3,
of his Antiquity of the Jews:  (32) But Judas, being one of
Jacob’s sons also, seeing some Arabians, of the posterity of
Ismael, carrying spices and Syrian wares out