⁵⁶ When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians,^(A) for the famine^(B) was severe throughout Egypt.^(C)

⁶ Now Joseph was the governor of the land,^(A) the person who sold grain to all its people.^(B) So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.^(C)

²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.^(A)

³⁵ For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth.

³ And he said to me, “This is the curse^(A) that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief^(B) will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely^(C) will be banished.

¹⁷ At the end of seventy years,^(A) the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution^(B) and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.^(C)

¹⁴ Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying,^(A) and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace.^{(B) 15} When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone,^(C) all Egypt came to Joseph^(D) and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes?^(E) Our money is all gone.”

¹⁶ “Then bring your livestock,^(F)” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.^(G)” ¹⁷ So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses,^(H) their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys.^(I) And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.

¹⁸ When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone^(J) and our livestock belongs to you,^(K) there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. ¹⁹ Why should we perish before your eyes^(L)—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food,^(M) and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh.^(N) Give us seed so that we may live and not die,^(O) and that the land may not become desolate.”

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^(P) for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, ²¹ and Joseph reduced the people to servitude,^[a](Q) from one end of Egypt to the other. ²² However, he did not buy the land of the priests,^(R) because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment^(S) 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^(T) for you so you can plant the ground.^{(U) 24} But when the crop comes in, give a fifth^(V) 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.”