15. And when the silver was all spent in the land of Mitsrayim and in the land of Kena‛an, all the Mitsrites came to Yosĕph and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the silver is gone!”
16. And Yosĕph said, “Give your livestock, and I give you bread for your livestock, if the silver is gone.”
17. So they brought their livestock to Yosĕph, and Yosĕph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks they owned, and for the herds they owned, and for the donkeys. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.
18. And when that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We do not hide from my master that our silver is all spent, and my master also has the livestock we owned. There has not any been left before my master but our bodies and our lands.
19. “Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and let us and our land be servants of Pharaoh. And give us seed, and let us live and not die, and let the land not lie waste.”
20. And Yosĕph bought the entire land of Mitsrayim for Pharaoh, because every man of the Mitsrites sold his field, because the scarcity of food was severe upon them. And the land came to be Pharaoh’s.
21. And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Mitsrayim to the other end.
22. Only the ground of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had portions allotted to them by Pharaoh, and they ate their portions which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their ground.
23. And Yosĕph said to the people, “Look, I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land.
24. “And it shall be that in the harvest you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh. And four-fifths is your own, as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your households and as food for your little ones.”
25. And they said, “You have saved our lives. Let us find favour in the eyes of my master, and we shall become Pharaoh’s servants.”
26. And Yosĕph made it a law over the land of Mitsrayim to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth, except for the ground of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh’s.