Genesis 47:13-22 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

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Bible Comments

And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.

There was no bread ... This probably refers to the second year of the famine (Genesis 45:6), when any little stores of individuals or families were exhausted, and when the people had become universally dependent on the government. At first they obtained supplies for payment. Before long the money failed.

Verse 16. And Joseph ... Give your cattle. 'This was the wisest course that could be adopted for the preservation both of the people and the cattle, which, being bought by Joseph, were supported at the royal expense, and very likely returned to the people at the end of the famine, to enable them to resume their agricultural labours.'

Verse 20. The land became Pharaoh's. The people parted with it permanently under that dynasty; because Herodotus ('b. 2:, chapter 109: cf. Diodorus Siculus, 1:, 73; Strabo, 17:, with Wilkinson's 'Ancient Egypt,' 1:,

263) speaks of the land as being in the absolute possession of the monarch; and the account in the book of Genesis explains how this came to pass. On the supposition that the events described in it took place under the dynasty of the shepherd kings, "the people" in this passage will denote the Egyptians; and this will further explain the statement of Herodotus, that Sesostris, the great conqueror of the eighteenth dynasty, gave (or rather restored) to the people the ground which the usurpers had taken from them (Drew's 'Scripture Lands').

Verse 21. As for the people ... The removal, obviously for the convenience of the country people who were doing nothing, was to the cities where the grain stores were situated.

Verse 22. Only the land of the priests ... These lands were inalienable, being endowments by which the temples were supported. The priests for themselves received a daily allowance of provision from the state, and it would evidently have been the height of cruelty to withhold that allowance when their lands were incapable of being tilled (cf. Rawlinson's 'Herodotus,' b 2:, chapter 37:, note 4; also chapter clxviii., note

8).

Related Commentaries of Genesis 47:13

Genesis 47:13-22

13 And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.

14 And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

15 And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.

16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.

17 And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fedc them with bread for all their cattle for that year.

18 When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:

19 Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.

20 And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's.

21 And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.

22 Only the land of the priestsd bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.