Verses 34 and 35 also begin with third person commands in the Hebrew, rendered by Revised Standard Version as “let” commands addressed to the king. See comments on verse 33 above.

Let … appoint overseers over the land: overseers refers to other officials, probably on a regional and local basis. Some translations call these overseers “governors,” “commissioners,” or “supervisors.” In some languages these persons are called “smaller bosses.”

Take the fifth part of the produce … during the seven plenteous years: it appears that the task of these overseers is to collect from the farmers a fifth of their crops during the years of abundant crops. It is assumed that they will do this each growing season. There is no indication, however, whether this fifth is taken as a tax or is purchased. But the Hebrew is also open to other interpretations. For example, some scholars understand it to mean “to divide the land into five parts.” Speiser understands it to mean “to organize or to regiment the land,” and this is followed by New Jerusalem Bible and New American Bible. Most modern translations follow Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, which is recommended. In this case we may translate, for example, “and let these officials collect a fifth of all the crops grown in Egypt during the seven years of good crops” or “order these overseers to collect a fifth of every farmer’s crops every season during the good years.” Where the concept of a fifth part is difficult to express, some translators say “divide all the food they produce into five heaps [parts]: four of these are for food and one is to be held in storage.”

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 .