What Does Genesis 47:18 Mean?

And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, "We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land." The population returns in the following year with the final accounting: no money (spent in year one of exchanges), no livestock (exchanged in year two), and only bodies and land remaining. "We will not hide from my lord" is the formal honesty of subjects before an administrator: they are not trying to conceal their situation or claim resources they do not have. They have nothing left to exchange except themselves and their agricultural land.

The itemized accounting: money gone, livestock gone, only bodies and land: is the population's honest presentation of their remaining resources. The progression through silver, then livestock, to land-and-bodies is the complete depletion cycle of an agrarian population through multi-year famine. Silver (portable wealth) goes first; then productive animals (working capital); then the land (capital asset) and labor (human capacity). The population is at the final exchange level: they have nothing left to trade for survival except the only things they have not yet exchanged.

"In the sight of my lord": the phrase acknowledges Joseph's knowledge and authority. They are not being cagey about what they have; they are making the full disclosure in the presence of the authority who already effectively controls everything they depend on. The "sight of my lord" is the administrative transparency of the exchange system: Joseph sees the resource situation; they are reporting it honestly; together they will arrange the next phase of the exchange.