15
When all the money in Egypt had been spent, and likewise in Kena'an, all the Egyptians approached Yosef and said, "Give us something to eat, even though we have no money; why should we die before your eyes?"
16
Yosef replied, "Give me your livestock. If you don't have money, I will give you food in exchange for your livestock."
17
So they brought Yosef their livestock; and Yosef gave them food in exchange for the horses, flocks, cattle and donkeys -all that year he provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock.
18
When that year was over, they approached Yosef again and said to him, "We won't hide from my lord that all our money is spent, and the herds of livestock belong to my lord. We have nothing left, as my lord can see, but our bodies and our land.
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 enslaved to Pharaoh. But also give us seed to plant, so that we can stay alive and not die, and so that the land won't become barren."
20
So Yosef acquired all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh, as one by one the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine weighed on them so severely. Thus the land became the property of Pharaoh.
21
As for the people, he reduced them to serfdom city by city, from one end of Egypt's territory to the other.
22
Only the priests' land did he not acquire, because the priests were entitled to provisions from Pharaoh, and they ate from what Pharaoh provided them; therefore they did not sell their land.
23
Then Yosef said to the people, "As of today I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you to sow the land.
24
When harvest time comes, you are to give twenty percent to Pharaoh; eighty percent will be yours to keep for seed to plant in the fields, as well as for your food and for that of your households and your little ones."
25
They replied, "You have saved our lives! So if it pleases my lord, we will be Pharaoh's slaves."