Genesis 47:18
And they came the second year, and said to him: We will not hide from our lord, how that our money is spent, and our cattle also are gone: neither art thou ignorant that we have nothing now left but our bodies and our lands.
Open Genesis 47:18 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Venerunt quoque anno secundo, et dixerunt ei : Non celabimus dominum nostrum quod deficiente pecunia, pecora simul defecerunt : nec clam te est, quod absque corporibus et terra nihil habeamus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐξῆλθεν δὲ τὸ ἔτος ἐκεῖνο, καὶ ἦλθαν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ ἔτει τῷ δευτέρῳ καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ Μή ποτε ἐκτριβῶμεν ἀπὸ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν· εἰ γὰρ ἐκλέλοιπεν τὸ ἀργύριον ἡμῶν καὶ τὰ ὑπάρχοντα καὶ τὰ κτήνη πρὸς σὲ τὸν κύριον, καὶ οὐχ ὑπολείπεται ἡμῖν ἐναντίον τοῦ κυρίου ἀλλ᾽ ἢ τὸ ἴδιον σῶμα καὶ ἡ γῆ ἡμῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַתִּתֹּם֮ הַשָּׁנָ֣ה הַהִוא֒ וַיָּבֹ֨אוּ אֵלָ֜יו בַּשָּׁנָ֣ה הַשֵּׁנִ֗ית וַיֹּ֤אמְרוּ לוֹ֙ לֹֽא נְכַחֵ֣ד מֵֽאֲדֹנִ֔י כִּ֚י אִם תַּ֣ם הַכֶּ֔סֶף וּמִקְנֵ֥ה הַבְּהֵמָ֖ה אֶל אֲדֹנִ֑י לֹ֤א נִשְׁאַר֙ לִפְנֵ֣י אֲדֹנִ֔י בִּלְתִּ֥י אִם גְּוִיָּתֵ֖נוּ וְאַדְמָתֵֽנוּ
Haydock's commentary
Second; or the next year after they had sold their cattle; the fourth of the famine, or perhaps the last, since they ask for seed, ver. 19. In that year, Joseph gave back the cattle, &c., to the Egyptians, on condition that they should ever after pay the fifth part of the products of the land to the king, the sole proprietor, who had thus full authority to send them to till any part of his dominions. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XVI. Due measure must be observed in liberality, that it may not be expended on worthless persons, when it is needed by worthier ones. However, alms are not to be given in too sparing and hesitating a way. One ought rather to follow the example of the blessed Joseph, whose prudence is commended at great length
80. First of all, then, he gathered up their money, then their implements, last of all he acquired for the king all their rights to the ground. He did not wish to deprive all of them of their property, but to support them in it. He also imposed a general tax, that they might hold their own in safety. So pleasing was this to all from whom he had taken the land, that they looked on it, not as the selling of their rights, but as the recovery of their welfare. Thus they spoke: “Thou hast saved our lives, let us find grace in the sight of our Lord.” For they had lost nothing of their own, but had received a new right. Nothing of what was useful to them had failed, for they had now gained it in perpetuity.