The transaction between Joseph and the Egyptians gives a clue to the meaning attached to "buy" and "bought with money." See Gen. xlvii. 18-26. The Egyptians proposed to Joseph to become servants, and that he should _buy_ them. When the bargain was closed, Joseph said, "Behold I have _bought you_ this day," and yet it is plain that neither of the parties dreamed that the persons _bought_ were in any sense articles of property, but merely that they became thereby obligated to labor for the government on certain conditions, as a _compensation_ for the entire support of themselves and families during the famine. And that the idea attached to "buy us," and "behold I have bought you," was merely the procuring of services voluntarily offered, and secured by contract, as a return for _value received_, and not at all that the Egyptians were bereft of their personal ownership, and made articles of property. And this buying of _services_ (they were to give one-fifth part of their crops to Pharaoh) is called in Scripture usage, _buying the persons_. This case deserves special notice, as it is the only one where the whole transaction of buying servants is detailed--the preliminaries, the process, the mutual acquiescence, and the permanent relation resulting therefrom. In all other instances, the _mere fact_ is stated without entering into particulars. In this case, the whole process is laid open. 1. The persons "bought," _sold themselves_, and of their own accord. 2. Obtaining permanently the _services_ of persons, or even a portion of them, is called "buying" those persons. The objector, at the outset, assumes that servants were bought of _third_ persons; and thence infers that they were articles of property. This is sheer _assumption_. Not a single instance is recorded, of a servant being sold by any one but himself; not a case, either under the patriarchal, or the Mosaic systems, in which a _master sold his servant_. That the servants who were "bought" _sold themselves_, is a fair inference from various passages of Scripture.