Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 47:19

19 Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes , both we and our land ? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh : and give us seed that we may live and not die, that the land be not desolate .

(i. e.) Whilst thou lookest upon us like an idle spectatour, not pitying and relieving us!

The land is said to die improperly, when it is desolate and barren, and when the fruits of it dye, or which is equivalent to it, do not live.

Pharaoh shall be the sole proprietor and we are content to be his Tenants to manage it for his use.

Because this was the last year of Famine, as Ioseph informed them, and therefore they tilled and sowed the ground for the following year.

Without inhabitants, as it will be if thou sufferest us to die for want of bread.