Genesis 47:18 Explained in Context

Selected verse

Verse 18. When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Role in This Section

After the livestock-exchange year ends, the people return in the next year and say that money and animals are gone; only their bodies and land remain before Joseph.

Read It With

Genesis 47:13–26

Read verses 18–20 together. Verse 18 inventories total depletion, verse 19 records the people's proposal for land and service in exchange for food and seed, and verse 20 narrates the land acquisition under famine pressure.

Why It Needs Context

This verse cannot establish the final arrangement by itself; it states the depleted condition that makes the people's next proposal possible.

Read Genesis 47:18–22 together

Why these verses belong together: The next year's depletion leads to the offer of land and labor, royal acquisition, the relocation-or-enslavement textual issue, and the priests' protected exception.

Verse 19. Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.

Verse 20. And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s.

Verse 21. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.

Verse 22. Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.

Continue in Context

Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.

Read Genesis 47:13–26 — Joseph Restructures Egypt During the Famine

Sources used for this context pointer

How certain is this explanation? very strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Displayed text, famine sequence, prior storage and family provision, following contrast, later royal oppression, and canonical resource-justice comparisons.

Exact location: Genesis 47:13–26 with 41:25–57; 47:1–12, 27–31; Exodus 1:1–14; Leviticus 25; 1 Samuel 8; and Nehemiah 5 in the pinned standardized 1769 KJV

Open source ↗

hebrew text morphology and lemma data

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible — Genesis

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project

Open Scriptures, Version 2.2 released 2021; repository inspected 2026

Supports: Exact Hebrew crisis, depletion, livestock, sustenance, person, land, service, acquisition, relocation, allowance, fifth, and statute language.

Exact location: WLC Genesis 47:13–26, especially vattelah in verse 13; vayyittom, mikne, and vaynahalem in 15–17; geviyyatenu, admatenu, avadim, and qanah in 18–23; he'evir oto le'arim in verse 21; hoq in 22 and 26; and hamishit/homesh in 24 and 26

Open source ↗

Open the complete thought-unit research record