Genesis 47:18-21

47:18 When that year was over, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from our ¹  lord that the money is used up and the livestock and the animals belong to our lord. Nothing remains before our lord except our bodies and our land. 47:19 Why should we die before your very eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we, with our land, will become ²  Pharaoh’s slaves. ³  Give us seed that we may live ⁴  and not die. Then the land will not become desolate.” ⁵ 

47:20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. Each ⁶  of the Egyptians sold his field, for the famine was severe. ⁷  So the land became Pharaoh’s. 47:21 Joseph ⁸  made all the people slaves ⁹  from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end of it.

[47:18]  ¹ tn Heb “my.” The expression “my lord” occurs twice more in this verse.

[47:19]  ² tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav here indicates consequence.

[47:19]  ³ sn Pharaoh’s slaves. The idea of slavery is not attractive to the modern mind, but in the ancient world it was the primary way of dealing with the poor and destitute. If the people became slaves of Pharaoh, it was Pharaoh’s responsibility to feed them and care for them. It was the best way for them to survive the famine.

[47:19]  ⁴ tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav here indicates purpose or result.

[47:19]  ⁵ tn The disjunctive clause structure (vav [ו] + subject + negated verb) highlights the statement and brings their argument to a conclusion.

[47:20]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text connects this clause with the preceding one with a causal particle (כִּי, ki). The translation divides the clauses into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

[47:20]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text adds “upon them.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[47:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[47:21]  ⁹ tc The MT reads “and the people he removed to the cities,” which does not make a lot of sense in this context. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the LXX read “he enslaved them as slaves.”