The table below presents presents two contradictory verselets. Both verselets speak about the relationship of Pharoh to his Egyptian subjects The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verselet says And they said: 'Thou hast saved our lives. Let us find favour in the sight of my lord, while the other verselet states we will be Pharaoh's slaves.' ' Which is it? Were they saved and happy about their new plight or were they becoming slaves (Slaves to not have a high mortality rate--you don't save somebody by making them your slave). Rashi simply resolves this using the broad-literal method: Recall that the Egyptians were totally helpless and pawned all their goods and themselves for food. Pharoh literally owned them. He could have done whatever he wanted with them. But instead he gave them back their land, on a rental basis, and only charged them 20% of yield (as tax). Hence the people were grateful that despite their official slave status Pharoh only wanted money and only 20%.

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
Egyptians received back their land	Gn47-25c	And they said: 'Thou hast saved our lives. Let us find favour in the sight of my lord,
The Egyptians had lost all ownership of both their land and themselves and were literally owned by Pharoh	Gn47-25c	we will be Pharaoh's slaves.'
Resolution:	Broad-literal	Recall that the Egyptians were totally helpless and pawned all their goods and themselves for food. Pharoh literally owned them. He could have done whatever he wanted with them. But instead he gave them back their land, on a rental basis, and only charged them 20% of yield (as tax). Hence the people were grateful that despite their official slave status Pharoh only wanted money and only 20%.