And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.
Parallel translations
- WEB As for the people, he moved them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end of it.
- BSB and Joseph reduced the people to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other.
- NKJV And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end.
- NASB As for the people, he relocated them to the cities from one end of Egypt’s border to the other.
- NLT As for the people, he made them all slaves, from one end of Egypt to the other.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Joseph relocates the people to the cities across Egypt. This reorganization accompanied the land becoming Pharaoh's.
Overview
With the land now belonging to Pharaoh, the population is moved or organized about the cities, likely for orderly distribution of grain. Some ancient texts read that he made the people servants, but either way the verse reflects the sweeping administrative changes of the famine years. Joseph governs with the comprehensive care needed to preserve a whole nation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 1
- Gen 41:48And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.
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From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 47:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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