What does Genesis 47:24 mean?
Joseph is continuing to make his announcement to the people of Egypt, who have sold themselves and their land to Pharaoh in exchange for enough food to keep them alive. Now that Pharaoh, ruler of Egypt, owns them and their land, they will freely be given food to eat and seed to plant in their fields. In a practical sense, everything they own—even their own lives—are mortgaged to Pharaoh. They will continue as they did before the famine with that understanding in place.Legally, the land, animals, and all labor now belong to Pharaoh. The people are using borrowed property to survive. Their annual payment for the use of those things, Joseph now explains, will be one-fifth of each year's harvest. The people will be allowed to keep four-fifths for themselves for food and seed for the next year's planting. This begins what amounts to a twenty percent income tax in Egypt; this would remain in effect through the time Genesis was written (Genesis 47:26).