Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 47:20

"So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was sore upon them: and the land became Pharaoh`s." — Genesis 47:20 (ASV)

So the land became Pharaoh’s. —Joseph has been accused of reducing a free people to slavery by his policy. Undoubtedly, he did vastly increase the royal power; but from what we read of the vassalage under which the Egyptians lived to a multitude of petty sovereigns, and also to their wives, their priests, and their embalmers, an increase in the power of the king, so as to make it predominant, would be to their advantage.

The statement made here that the land in Egypt belonged entirely to the king is confirmed by Herodotus and other Greek authorities. The same is the case in India today; only, instead of the rent being a fifth part of the produce, it is in India a fixed annual sum, which is settled at comparatively distant intervals. In Burma, the agriculturists hold their land directly from the Crown.