91 : Joseph Purchases Land
When the year was ended, they came to him the second year, saying to him:
"We will not hide from my lord that, since our money is gone and my lord has our herds of cattle, there is nothing left in the sight of my lord, except our bodies and our land.
Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land?
"Buy us and our land for bread, and we may live and not die and that our land may not be barren."
So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh.
Every Egyptian sold his field, for the famine prevailed over them, and all the land became the property of Pharaoh.
The people removed to cities from one end of border of Egypt to the other.
Only the priests kept their lands, for Pharaoh had assigned them a portion of food,
and they lived on the portion Pharaoh had given them.
The priests therefore did not sell their lands.
And Joseph said to the people: "Now, I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh.
So, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land.
When the harvest time comes, you will give the fifth part of the harvest to Pharaoh,
and four parts shall be your own for seed for the field
and for your food and the food of your little ones."
"You have saved our lives," they said. "Let us find grace in the sight of my lord,
and we will be the servants of Pharaoh."
Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt that Pharaoh should have the fifth part from the harvest of the land, except from the land of the priests.
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