Genesis 47:13–26

Joseph and the Famine

¹³There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine.^{x 14}Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying,^y and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace.^{z 15}When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone,^a all Egypt came to Joseph^b and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes?^c Our money is all gone.”

¹⁶“Then bring your livestock,^d” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.^e” ¹⁷So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses,^f their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys.^g And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.

¹⁸When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone^h and our livestock belongs to you,ⁱ there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. ¹⁹Why should we perish before your eyes^j—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food,^k and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh.^l Give us seed so that we may live and not die,^m and that the land may not become desolate.”

²⁰So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severeⁿ for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, ²¹and Joseph reduced the people to servitude,^co from one end of Egypt to the other. ²²However, he did not buy the land of the priests,^p because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment^q Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.

²³Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed^r for you so you can plant the ground.^{s 24}But when the crop comes in, give a fifth^t of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”

²⁵“You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord;^u we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”^v

²⁶So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth^w of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.^x