Genesis 41:48

48 Joseph collected all the food grown in Egypt during those seven years and put this food in the cities. In each city he put the food from the fields around it.

Genesis 41:48 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 41:48

And he gathered up all the food of the seven years
That is, of plenty; not all the fruits of the earth, or all that was eatable, but the corn, as in ( Genesis 41:49 ) ; and not all of that the earth produced, but the fifth part of it, as he proposed, which he bought with Pharaoh's money, and therefore: had a right to sell it again as he did: which were in the land of Egypt;
in which only he had a concern, and where only was this plenty: and laid up the food in the cities;
in places built for that purpose, and whither the people round about could easily bring it, and fetch it, when it was wanted: the food of the field, which [was] round about every city, laid he up
in the same;
which was very wisely done, for present carriage, and for the convenience of the people in time of famine. At this day, at old Cairo, is an edifice the most considerable in it, called Joseph's granary; it occupies a square, surrounded by a wall, and has divers partitions contrived within it, where is deposited the corn, that is paid as a tax to the Gram Seignior, brought from different parts of Egypt ^F15.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 Norden's Travels in Egypt vol. 1. p. 72.

Genesis 41:48 In-Context

46 Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh (the king of Egypt). He left Pharaoh and traveled all around Egypt.

47 During the seven good years the land produced large harvests.

48 Joseph collected all the food grown in Egypt during those seven years and put this food in the cities. In each city he put the food from the fields around it.

49 Joseph stored up grain in huge quantities like the sand on the seashore. He had so much that he finally gave up keeping any records because he couldn't measure it all.

50 Before the years of famine came, Joseph had two sons by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest from the city of On.