How does Joseph provide food as the famine exhausts Egypt’s money, cattle and land?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Joseph collects the grain money for Pharao, then exchanges food for cattle. When the people offer themselves and their land, he buys the land for the king and provides seed under a one-fifth payment rule. The priests’ land is excepted because they receive a public food allowance.

Chapter breakdown

Joseph tells Pharao that his father and brothers have come from Chanaan with their sheep, herds and everything they possess, and are staying in Gessen. He presents five men, described as the last of his brothers, to the king. On “The last,” Challoner includes the term “xtremos” and says some interpret it as the chiefest, “and most rightly.” The note then suggests that Joseph instead seems to have chosen those with the plainest appearance so Pharao would not employ them at court, with danger to their morals and religion. This suggested choice and purpose belong to the note, not to an explanation given in the verse.

Pharao asks their occupation. They answer that they and their fathers are shepherds. They have come to sojourn—to stay for a time—in his land because the severe famine in Chanaan has left no grass for their flocks. They ask him to order that they may live in Gessen. The king tells Joseph that his father and brothers have come to him, that Egypt is before him, and that he should settle them in the best place and give them Gessen. If Joseph knows hardworking men among them, he is to put them in charge of the king’s cattle.

Joseph next presents his father to the king, and Jacob blesses him. Asked how many years he has lived, Jacob answers that his pilgrimage has lasted a hundred and thirty years. He calls those years few and evil and says they have not reached the years of his fathers’ pilgrimages. He blesses the king and leaves. As Pharao commanded, Joseph gives his father and brothers a possession in Ramesses, in the best part of Egypt. He feeds them and his father’s whole household, allowing food to everyone.

The account describes a lack of bread throughout the world, with famine pressing especially on Egypt and Chanaan. Joseph gathers all the money paid for grain from those lands and brings it into the king’s treasury. When the buyers have no money left, all Egypt comes to him asking for bread and asking why they should die in his presence. Joseph offers food for their cattle if they have no money. They bring their horses, sheep, oxen and donkeys, and he gives food in exchange, maintaining them that year.

They return the second year and tell Joseph that their money is spent and their cattle gone; he knows they have only their bodies and land left. They ask why they should die before him, offer themselves and their land, and ask to be bought as the king’s servants and given seed so the land does not become a wilderness for lack of people to work it. Joseph buys all Egypt’s land as each man sells his possessions because of the great famine. He brings the land into Pharao’s hands, along with all its people from one end of Egypt’s borders to the other. The priests’ land is excepted: the king had given it to them, and they receive a fixed food allowance from public stores, so they are not forced to sell their possessions.

Joseph tells the people that they and their land now belong to Pharao. He gives them seed and tells them to sow the fields for grain. They must give the king a fifth; the other four parts are for seed and food for their families and children. They answer that their life is in his hand, ask for his favor and say they will gladly serve the king. The narrator says that from that time to his own day, the fifth is paid to the kings throughout Egypt and has become a law. The priests’ land remains free from this agreement.

Israel lives in Egypt, in Gessen, possesses it, grows and multiplies greatly. Jacob lives there seventeen years, and his whole life reaches a hundred and forty-seven years.

As death draws near, Jacob calls Joseph. He asks, if he has found favor, that Joseph put his hand under Jacob’s thigh and show him kindness and faithfulness by not burying him in Egypt. He wishes to rest with his fathers and asks Joseph to take him out of the land and bury him in his ancestors’ burial place. Joseph promises to do what he commands. Jacob asks him to swear, and while Joseph swears, Israel adores God, turning toward the head of the bed. Challoner explains that Hebrews 11:21, following the Greek Septuagint, reads that he adored the top of his rod. The note says different pointing of the Hebrew word gives either bed or rod, and combines the readings by understanding Jacob to lean on Joseph’s rod while turning to his bed’s head. It distinguishes absolute, supreme worship directed to God from lesser, relative honor directed to the rod as a figure of the sceptre and Christ’s royal dignity.

The story inside

The food exchanges follow the resources the people say they still have. Grain purchases first bring their money into the king’s treasury. Once the money is gone, Joseph offers food for cattle and maintains them that year. In the second year they report that only their bodies and lands remain and request service to the king and seed. The resulting arrangement gives them seed to cultivate and four parts of the crop for further seed and household food, with a fifth for the king. The priests’ public food allowance explains their exception. Alongside this account, Joseph settles and feeds his own household, and Jacob later asks him to promise an ancestral burial outside Egypt. These are the arrangements recorded, without an added judgment about the policy or its later effects (Genesis 47:11–31).

Lessons worth keeping

1
The stages of exchange matter. The people first run out of money, then lose their cattle, then offer their bodies and lands. Retaining the order explains why Joseph’s response changes from grain sales to livestock exchange and then seed under a crop-sharing rule (47:14–24).
2
The exception has an explicit cause. The priests receive food from public stores and therefore need not sell their possessions. Their land is also free from the fifth-part agreement; the chapter does not present the rule as having no exceptions (47:22, 26).
3
Jacob’s burial request names both the duty and the promise. He asks Joseph not to bury him in Egypt but to take him to his ancestors’ burial place, receives Joseph’s answer and then asks for an oath. The bed-and-rod explanation that follows is Challoner’s commentary on the worship scene (47:29–31).

Test your recall

How do the loss of money and cattle lead to the people’s land-and-service offer, what seed and crop terms follow, and why is the priests’ land excepted?

Show answer

When their money runs out, the people exchange cattle for food. When the cattle are gone, they offer their land and themselves in service to Pharao to stay alive. Joseph supplies seed: a fifth of the crop belongs to the king, and the other four fifths remain for seed and family food. The priests keep their land because they already receive a public food allowance and do not have to sell it.

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 5463–5481
Genesis Chapter 47 Jacob and his sons are presented before Pharao: he giveth them the land of Gessen. The famine forceth the Egyptians to sell all their possessions to the king. 47:1. Then Joseph went in and told Pharao, saying: My father and brethren, their sheep and their herds, and all that they possess, are come out of the land of Chanaan: and behold they stay in the land of Gessen. 47:2. Five men also, the last of his brethren, he presented before the king: The last ... xtremos. Some interpret this word of the chiefest, and most rightly: but Joseph seems rather to have chosen out such as had the meanest appearance, that Pharao might not think of employing them at court, with danger of their morals and religion.
Lines 5482–5496
47:3. And he asked them: What is your occupation? They answered: We, thy servants, are shepherds, both we and our fathers. 47:4. We are come to sojourn in thy land, because there is no grass for the flocks of thy servants, the famine being very grievous in the land of Chanaan: and we pray thee to give orders that we thy servants may be in the land of Gessen. 47:5. The king therefore said to Joseph: Thy father and thy brethren are come to thee. 47:6. The land of Egypt is before thee: and make them dwell in the best place, and give them the land of Gessen. And if thou knowest that there are industrious men among them, make them rulers over my cattle.
Lines 5497–5515
47:7. After this Joseph brought in his father to the king, and presented him before him: and he blessed him. 47:8. And being asked by him: How many are the days of the years of thy life? 47:9. He answered: The days of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years, few, and evil, and they are not come up to the days of the pilgrimage of my fathers. 47:10. And blessing the king, he went out. 47:11. But Joseph gave a possession to his father and his brethren in Egypt, in the best place of the land, in Ramesses, as Pharao had commanded. 47:12. And he nourished them, and all his father’s house, allowing food to every one.
Lines 5516–5532
47:13. For in the whole world there was want of bread, and a famine had oppressed the land, more especially of Egypt and Chanaan; 47:14. Out of which he gathered up all the money for the corn which they bought, and brought it in to the king’s treasure. 47:15. And when the buyers wanted money, all Egypt came to Joseph, saying: Give us bread: why should we die in thy presence, having now no money? 47:16. And he answered them: Bring me your cattle, and for them I will give you food, if you have no money. 47:17. And when they had brought them, he gave them food in exchange for their horses, and sheep, and oxen, and asses: and he maintained them that year for the exchange of their cattle.
Lines 5533–5553
47:18. And they came the second year, and said to him: We will not hide from our lord, how that our money is spent, and our cattle also are gone: neither art thou ignorant that we have nothing now left but our bodies and our lands. 47:19. Why therefore shall we die before thy eyes? we will be thine, both we and our lands: buy us to be the king’s servants, and give us seed, lest for want of tillers the land be turned into a wilderness. 47:20. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt, every man selling his possessions, because of the greatness of the famine. And he brought it into Pharao’s hands: 47:21. And all its people from one end of the borders of Egypt, even to the other end thereof, 47:22. Except the land of the priests, which had been given them by the king: to whom also a certain allowance of food was given out of the public stores, and therefore they were not forced to sell their possessions.
Lines 5554–5567
47:23. Then Joseph said to the people: Behold, as you see, both you and your lands belong to Pharao; take seed and sow the fields, 47:24. That you may have corn. The fifth part you shall give to the king; the other four you shall have for seed, and for food for your families and children. 47:25. And they answered: our life is in thy hand; only let my lord look favourably upon us, and we will gladly serve the king. 47:26. From that time unto this day, in the whole land of Egypt, the fifth part is paid to the kings, and it is become as a law, except the land of the priests, which was free from this covenant.
Lines 5568–5573
47:27. So Israel dwelt in Egypt, that is, in the land of Gessen, and possessed it; and grew, and was multiplied exceedingly. 47:28. And he lived in it seventeen years: and all the days of his life came to a hundred and forty-seven years.
Lines 5574–5597
47:29. And when he saw that the day of his death drew nigh, he called his son Joseph, and said to him: If I have found favour in thy sight, put thy hand under my thigh; and thou shalt shew me this kindness and truth, not to bury me in Egypt. 47:30. But I will sleep with my fathers, and thou shalt take me away out of this land, and bury me in the burying place of my ancestors. And Joseph answered him: I will do what thou hast commanded. 47:31. And he said: Swear then to me. And as he was swearing, Israel adored God, turning to the bed’s head. To the bed’s head.... St. Paul, Heb. 11.21, following the Greek translation of the Septuagint, reads adored the top of his rod. Where note, that the same word in the Hebrew, according to the different pointing of it, signifies both a bed and a rod. And to verify both these sentences, we must understand that Jacob leaning on Joseph’s rod adored, turning towards the head of his bed: which adoration, inasmuch as it was referred to God, was an absolute and sovereign worship: but inasmuch as it was referred to the rod of Joseph, as a figure of the sceptre, that is, of the royal dignity of Christ, was only an inferior and relative honour.