Genesis 41:48

48 And Joseph gathered all the food which was produced in Egypt during those seven years of good crops and stored the food in the cities. In every city he stored grain that had been grown in the fields around that city.

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 thirty years old when he began serving the king of Egypt. And he left the king's court and traveled through all the land of Egypt.

47 During the seven good years, the crops in the land grew well.

48 And Joseph gathered all the food which was produced in Egypt during those seven years of good crops and stored the food in the cities. In every city he stored grain that had been grown in the fields around that city.

49 Joseph stored much grain, as much as the sand of the seashore -- so much that he could not measure it.

50 Joseph's wife was Asenath daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On. Before the years of hunger came, Joseph and Asenath had two sons.