Genesis 47:14-17

Joseph did not do this himself. He had appointed managers, who organised the work. (See Genesis 41:34.) And the managers had many servants, who helped them. The managers and their servants gathered the money. And the people did not bring the animals to Joseph himself. They brought them to the managers and to their servants.

They did not take the animals away from the people. They let the people keep the animals. But the animals belonged to *Pharaoh.

v18 So that year ended. And in the next year, the people came to Joseph. They said to him, ‘We will not hide from our master that we have spent all our money. All our animals belong to you, our master. We have nothing else that we can give to our master except our bodies and our lands. v19 It is not right that we and our land should die. Take us and take our land. And give food to us. We will be *Pharaoh’s slaves and our land shall belong to *Pharaoh. And give us seed so that we may sow it. So we may live and not die. And so the land may not become a desert.’

v20 So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for *Pharaoh. All the inhabitants of Egypt sold their fields, because the *famine was so bad. The land became *Pharaoh’s. v21 And Joseph made the people slaves in all Egypt. v22 But Joseph did not buy the land of the priests, because *Pharaoh gave to them a regular payment. The priests lived on the payment that *Pharaoh gave to them. Therefore, the priests did not sell their land.