Genesis 47:26

Summary

Genesis 47:26 states that Joseph established a chok ("statute", H2706G) requiring a fifth part of Egypt's land produce for Pharaoh, a law still in force "to this day" at the time of writing. The verse closes by noting the sole exception: priestly land, which did not become Pharaoh's property.

Key words

• va.Yasem ("and he established", H7760A) — qal narrative form; the vav-consecutive links this act to the preceding narrative sequence, presenting it as the next event in the story.
• le.Chok ("to/as a statute", H2706G) — noun with prefixed preposition le, marking the purpose or result of Joseph's action: the object otah ("it", referring back to the land arrangement) becomes fixed "as a statute."
• ad-haYom haZeh ("until this day", H5704/H3117L/H2088) — a temporal phrase with double definite article on "day" and demonstrative "this," signaling that the law's validity extends to the narrator's present moment.
• laChomesh ("to/for the fifth part", H2569) — noun with preposition-plus-article, specifying the exact fraction owed to Pharaoh.
• le.vaDam ("for/to themselves alone", H0905H + H9038) — construct noun with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, isolating the priests as the sole group exempted from the arrangement.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure places Yosef ("Joseph", H3130G) as the grammatical subject of va.Yasem ("and he established"), with otah ("it", H0853+H9034) as the direct object referring back to the land arrangement described in the preceding verses. The phrase le.Chok ("to/as a statute") functions predicatively, indicating what Joseph made the arrangement into — not merely an event but an institutionalized rule. The temporal clause ad-haYom haZeh ("until this day") extends the statute's validity beyond the narrative moment into the time of composition, a formula appearing elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible to mark customs still observed when the text was written.

The second half of the verse pivots with rak ("only", H7535), an adverb introducing a restrictive clause. The construct phrase admat haKohanim ("land of the priests") is then qualified by le.vaDam ("for themselves alone"), reinforcing the exclusivity of the exemption. The final clause lo hayetah le.Far'oh ("it did not belong to Pharaoh") uses the qal perfect hayetah ("it belonged/was", H1961), a completed-action form confirming that priestly land, unlike all other land in Egypt, never came under Pharaoh's ownership.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders le.Chok ("to a statute") as εἰς πρόσταγμα ("into a decree/ordinance"), a similar sense of institutional rule. The Vulgate diverges more noticeably, stating "quasi in legem" ("as if into a law") and rendering the fifth-part obligation as owed "regibus" ("to kings," plural) rather than specifically to Pharaoh as in the Hebrew and LXX (τῷ Φαραώ / le.Far'oh). The Vulgate also reorders the verse, placing the temporal clause "ex eo tempore usque in præsentem diem" at the beginning rather than following the verb of establishment, and uses "libera" ("free") to describe the priestly land's status rather than a direct equivalent of lo hayetah le.Far'oh ("it did not belong to Pharaoh").