In verses 20-22 all the farms and people in Egypt, except the priests and their farms, become the property of the king.

Verse 20 may be seen as two consequences followed by a cause and another consequence. So Joseph bought … for Pharaoh and the Egyptians sold their fields form the two consequences. Because the famine was severe upon them is the reason or cause for the Egyptians selling and Joseph buying. The land became Pharaoh’s is the final consequence. In this case translators may find it more natural to restructure this verse to say, for example, “The famine was so bad in Egypt that the Egyptians sold their fields to Joseph, who bought them for the king. As a result the king owned all the land in Egypt.”

Another view of verse 20 is that the first clause is a summary or consequence of verses 18 and 19: “Thus Pharaoh acquired all the land” (New Jerusalem Bible). A translation of the verse that follows this view is: “In this way Joseph bought all their land for the king. The famine was severe for them, and it forced everybody to sell their land to get food, and all the land in the country became the king’s.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .