When money failed in the land of Egypt and of
Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Ioseph and said: give us
sustenance: wherefore sufferest thou us to die before thee: for our
money is spent. Then said Ioseph: bring your cattle, and I will give
yow for your cattle, if ye be without money. And they brought their
cattle unto Ioseph. And he gave them bread for horses and sheep, and
oxen and asses: so he fed them with bread for all their cattle that
year. When that year was ended, they came unto him the next year and
said unto him: we will not hide it from my lord, how that we have
neither money nor cattle for my lord: there is no more left for my
lord, but even our bodies and our lands. Wherefore lettest thou us die
before thine eyes, and the land to go to nought? buy us and our lands
for bread: and let both us and our lands be bond to Pharao. Give us
seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land go not to waste.
And Ioseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharao. For the Egyptians
sold every man his land because the dearth was sore upon them: and so
the land became Pharao's. And he appointed the people unto the cities,
from one side of Egypt unto the other: only the land of the Priests
bought he not. For there was an ordinance made by Pharao for the
priests, that they should eat that which was appointed unto them: which
Pharao had given them wherefore they sold not their lands. Then Ioseph
said unto the folk: behold I have bought you this day and your lands
for Pharao. Take there seed and go sow the land. And of the increase,
ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharao, and four parts shall be your
own, for seed to sow the field: and for you, and them of your
households, and for your children, to eat. And they answered: Thou hast
saved our lives. Let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and let us
be Pharao's servants. And Ioseph made it a law over the land of Egypt
unto this day: that men must give Pharao the fifth part, except the
land of the priests only, which was not bond unto Pharao. And Israel
dwelt in Egypt: even in the country of Gosan. And they had their
possessions therein, and they grew and multiplied exceedingly. Moreover
Iacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, so that the hole age
of Iacob was an hundred and forty seven years. When the time drew nye,
that Israel must die: he sent for his son Ioseph and said unto him: If
I have found grace in thy sight, put thy hand under my thigh and deal
mercifully and truly with me, that thou bury me not in Egypt: but let
me lie by my fathers, and carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their
burial. And he answered: I will do as thou hast said. And he said:
swear unto me: and he sware unto him. And then Israel bowed him unto
the bed's head.
Chapter .xlviij.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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