Genesis 47:16-31 ▼

16 And Joseph says, “Give your livestock; and I give to you for your livestock, if the money has ceased.”

17 And they bring in their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gives to them bread, for the horses, and for the livestock of the flock, and for the livestock of the herd, and for the donkeys; and he tends them with bread, for all their livestock, during that year.

18 And that year is finished, and they come to him on the second year, and say to him, “We do not hide from my lord, that since the money has been finished, and possession of the livestock [is] to my lord, there has not been left before my lord except our bodies, and our ground;

19 why do we die before your eyes, both we and our ground? Buy us and our ground for bread, and we and our ground are servants to Pharaoh; and give seed, and we live, and do not die, and the ground is not desolate.”

20 And Joseph buys all the ground of Egypt for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians have each sold his field, for the famine has been severe on them, and the land becomes Pharaoh’s;

21 as for the people, he has removed them to cities from the [one] end of the border of Egypt even to its [other] end.

22 Only the ground of the priests he has not bought, for the priests have a portion from Pharaoh, and they have eaten their portion which Pharaoh has given to them, therefore they have not sold their ground.

23 And Joseph says to the people, “Behold, I have bought you today and your ground for Pharaoh; behold, seed for you, and you have sown the ground,

24 and it has come to pass in the increases, that you have given a fifth to Pharaoh, and four of the parts are for yourselves, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for those who [are] in your houses, and for food for your infants.”

25 And they say, “You have revived us; we find grace in the eyes of my lord, and have been servants to Pharaoh”;

26 and Joseph sets it for a statute to this day, concerning the ground of Egypt, [that] Pharaoh has a fifth; only the ground of the priests alone has not become Pharaoh’s.

27 And Israel dwells in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they have possession in it, and are fruitful, and multiply exceedingly;

28 and Jacob lives in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and the days of Jacob, the years of his life, are one hundred and forty-seven years.

29 And the days of Israel are near to die, and he calls for his son, for Joseph, and says to him, “Now if I have found grace in your eyes, please put your hand under my thigh, and you have done kindness and truth with me; please do not bury me in Egypt,

30 and I have lain with my fathers, and you have carried me out of Egypt, and buried me in their burying-place.” And he says, “I do according to your word”;

31 and he says, “Swear to me”; and he swears to him, and Israel bows himself on the head of the bed.