Genesis 47:18-28

18 When that year was ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, "We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent, and the cattle * are my lord's. There is nothing left for my lord except * our bodies and our lands.

19 "Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. So give us seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate."

Result of the Famine

20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for every Egyptian sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. Thus the land became Pharaoh's.

21 As for the people, he removed them to the cities from one end of Egypt's border to the other.

22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they lived off the allotment which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore *, they did not sell their land.

23 Then Joseph said to the people, "Behold, I have today bought you and your land for Pharaoh; now, here is seed for you, and you may sow the land.

24 "At the harvest you shall give a ¹fifth to Pharaoh, and four-fifths * shall be your own for seed of the field and for your food and for those of your households and as food for your little ones."

25 So they said, "You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's slaves."

26 Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt valid to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; ²only the land of the priests did not become Pharaoh's.

27 Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in Goshen, and they ³acquired property in it and ⁴were fruitful and became very numerous.

28 Jacob lived in the land of Egypt ⁵seventeen * years; so the length of Jacob's life was one hundred and forty-seven * years.

Genesis 47:18-28 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 47

This chapter gives an account of the presentation of five of Joseph's brethren, and then of his father, to Pharaoh, and of what passed between them, Ge 47:1-10; of Joseph's settlement of them, according to the direction of Pharaoh, in the land of Rameses in Goshen, and of his provision for them there, Ge 47:11,12; of his getting into his hands, for Pharaoh, the money, cattle, and lands, of the Egyptians, excepting the lands belonging to the priests, for corn he had supplied them with, Ge 47:13-22; of his giving them seed to sow with, on condition of Pharaoh's having a fifth part of the produce, Ge 47:23-26, of the increase of Jacob's substance in Egypt, and that of his children; of the time of his living there, and his approaching death, when he called Joseph to him, and obliged him by an oath to bury him in the burying place of his fathers, Ge 47:27-31.

Cross References

• 1. Genesis 41:34
• 2. Genesis 47:22
• 3. Genesis 47:11
• 4. Genesis 17:6; Genesis 26:4; Genesis 35:11; Exodus 1:7; Deuteronomy 26:5; Acts 7:17
• 5. Genesis 47:9

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "second"
• [b] Lit "livestock of the cattle"
• [c] Lit "in the presence of"
• [d] Or "bread"
• [e] Lit "Egypt, every man"
• [f] Lit "ate their allotment"
• [g] Lit "It shall come about...that you shall"
• [h] Lit "four parts"
• [i] Lit "alone did"
• [j] Lit "dwelt"
• [k] Lit "in the land of Goshen"
• [l] Lit "days of Jacob, the years of his life"