Genesis 47:19

19 Wherfore latest thou us dye before thyne eyes and the londe to goo to noughte? bye us and oure landes for bread: and let both vs and oure londes be bonde to Pharao. Geue vs seed that we may lyue and not dye and that the londe goo not to wast.

Genesis 47:19 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 47:19

Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our
land?
&c.] Beholding their miserable condition, and not helping them; die they must unless they had bread to eat, and their land die also if they had not seed to sow; that is, would become desolate, as the Septuagint version renders it; so Ben Melech observes, that land which is desolate is as if it was dead, because it produces neither grass nor fruit, whereas when it does it looks lively and cheerful:

buy us and our land for bread;
they were willing to sell themselves and their land too for bread to support their lives, nothing being dearer to a man than life:

and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh;
both should be his; they would hold their land of him, and be tenants to him:

and give [us] seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land may
not be desolate;
entirely so; some parts of it they could sow a little upon, as on the banks of the Nile, or perhaps that river might begin to overflow, or they had some hopes of it, especially from Joseph's prediction they knew this was the last year of famine, and therefore it was proper to sow the ground some time in this, that they might have a crop for the provision of the next year; and they had no seed to sow, and if they were not furnished with it, the famine must unavoidably continue, notwithstanding the flow of the Nile.

Genesis 47:19 In-Context

17 And they brought their catell vnto Ioseph. And he gaue them bread for horses and shepe and oxen and asses: so he fed them with bread for all their catell that yere.
18 When that yere was ended they came vnto him the nexte yere and sayde vnto him: we will not hydest from my lorde how that we haue nether money nor catell for my lorde: there is no moare left for my lorde but euen oure bodies and oure londes.
19 Wherfore latest thou us dye before thyne eyes and the londe to goo to noughte? bye us and oure landes for bread: and let both vs and oure londes be bonde to Pharao. Geue vs seed that we may lyue and not dye and that the londe goo not to wast.
20 And Ioseph boughte all the lande of Egipte for Pharao. For the Egiptians solde euery man his londe because the derth was sore apo them: and so the londe be came Pharaos.
21 And he appoynted the people vnto the cities from one syde of Egipte vnto the other:
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