Genesis Chapter 47 verse 16 Holy Bible
And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.
read chapter 47 in ASV
And Joseph said, Give me your cattle; I will give you grain in exchange for your cattle if your money is all gone.
read chapter 47 in BBE
And Joseph said, Give your cattle, and I will give you for your cattle, if [your] money be all gone.
read chapter 47 in DARBY
And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.
read chapter 47 in KJV
And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money hath failed.
read chapter 47 in WBT
Joseph said, "Give your cattle; and I will give you food for your cattle, if money fails."
read chapter 47 in WEB
and Joseph saith, `Give your cattle; and I give to you for your cattle, if the money hath ceased.'
read chapter 47 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 16, 17. - And Joseph said, Give (literally, bring) your cattle; and I will give you (sc. bread) for your cattle, if money fail. And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks (literally, and for cattle of the flocks), and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses (the severity of these terms of sale and purchase was not so great as at first sight appears, since to a famishing people under-fed cattle and starving horses must have been comparatively worthless): and he fed them - literally, led, in the sense of cared for and maintained, them (cf. Psalm 23:2; Isaiah 40:11) - for all their cattle for that year - this was the sixth year of the famine (vide ver. 23).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersJOSEPH'S POLICY IN EGYPT.(16) Give your cattle.--As the people were in want of food, and their land incapable of cultivation as long as the Nile ceased to overflow, this was a merciful arrangement, by which the owners were delivered from a burden, and also a portion of the cattle saved for the time when they would be needed again for agricultural purposes. As the charge of so many cattle in time of dearth would be a very serious matter (1Kings 18:5-6), we now see the reason why Pharaoh wished the ablest of Joseph's brethren to be employed in the task; and probably while there was no food for them in the Nile Valley, there would still be grass in the alluvial soil of the delta, which men used to move about with cattle would be able to find.
