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

23 Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed(E) for you so you can plant the ground.(F) 24 But when the crop comes in, give a fifth(G) 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;(H) we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”(I)

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

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 47:21 Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint (see also Vulgate); Masoretic Text and he moved the people into the cities

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 priests 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.

23 Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.

24 And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.

25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants.

26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's.

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Woes and Judgments

Woe(A) to you who add house to house
    and join field to field(B)
till no space is left
    and you live alone in the land.

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Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

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Human Plans and God’s Plans

Woe to those who plan iniquity,
    to those who plot evil(A) on their beds!(B)
At morning’s light they carry it out
    because it is in their power to do it.

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Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

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They covet fields(A) and seize them,(B)
    and houses, and take them.
They defraud(C) people of their homes,
    they rob them of their inheritance.(D)

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And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

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