Why, after purchasing all the land on behalf of Pharaoh, did Yosef keep moving the people from one town to another (from town to outlying area, and from outlying area to town [Targum Yonasan])?
Rashi: To remind them that they were serfs to Pharaoh, and that they did not own the land. His underlying motive, however, was to prevent the Egyptians from referring to his brothers as strangers and treating them as such. 1
Rashbam: To prevent them from making a Chazakah on the land. 2
Seforno: He did not move them permanently, only so that they should ask him to acquire them together with their land on behalf of Pharaoh, with the consent of their neighbors.
Moshav Zekenim asks, this was before the brothers descended! Tzidkiyah the doctor answered that he knew through Ru'ach ha'Kodesh that they would descend.
Rashbam: Like Sancheriv, who moved all the people whose lands he captured from one country to another (See Melachim II 18:32).
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes: '"Yosef transferred the people [to cities]' - [i.e.] from one city to another." What is Rashi adding?
Gur Aryeh: Yosef did not scatter them among the various cities of Egypt; what would he gain by doing so? Rather he transferred the inhabitants of every Egyptian city to some other city (for the reason Rashi tells us).
Rashi writes: "'From one extremity of Egypt's border, to the other' - I.e. Yosef did so to every city in the Kingdom of Egypt, from one end to the other." What is Rashi clarifying for us?
Gur Aryeh: We should not interpret the verse to mean that Yosef sent the residents of Egypt's northernmost city, for example, all the way to the southernmost city. If so, all the cities in the middle would not get displaced! Rather, it means that he transferred the inhabitants of all the cities, without exception.
