John Calvin Commentary Genesis 47:16

"And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail." — Genesis 47:16 (ASV)

Give your cattle. It was a miserable spectacle, and one which might have softened hearts of iron, to see rich farmers, who previously had kept provision stored in their granaries for others, now begging for food. Therefore, Joseph might be deemed cruel because he does not give bread gratuitously to those who are poor and exhausted, but robs them of all their cattle, sheep, and donkeys.

However, since Joseph was transacting the business of another, I do not dare to charge his strictness with cruelty. If, during the seven fruitful years, he had extorted grain by force from an unwilling people, he would now have acted tyrannically in seizing their flocks and herds. But since they had been free to store up, in their private reserves, what they had sold to the king, they now pay the just penalty for their negligence.

Joseph also perceived that they were deprived of their possessions by a divine intervention, so that the king alone might be enriched by the spoils of all. Besides, since it was lawful for him to offer grain for sale, it was also lawful for him to exchange it for cattle.

Indeed, the grain belonged to the king; why then should he not demand a price from the purchasers? But they were poor, and therefore it was only right to help them in their need. If this rule were to prevail, most sales would be unlawful, for no one freely parts with what he possesses.

Therefore, if his valuation of the cattle was fair, I do not see what was blameworthy in Joseph's conduct. This is especially true since he was not dealing with his own property but had been appointed prefect over the grain with the condition that he should acquire gain, not for himself, but for the king.

If anyone should object that Joseph ought at least to have urged the king to be content with the abundant financial wealth he had obtained, I answer that Moses, by the way, relates only a few things out of many. Anyone, therefore, may easily conjecture that a business of such great consequence was not transacted by Joseph without the king's knowledge and judgment.

But what if it seemed to the king’s counselors to be an equitable arrangement that the farmers should receive food for the whole year in return for their cattle? Lastly, since we stand or fall by God's judgment alone, it is not for us to condemn what His law has left undecided.