Комментарий к Берешит 47:25

נמצא חן LET US FIND FAVOUR — [IN THE EYES OF MY LORD] in that you should do for us as you have said.

והיינו עבדים לפרעה, "and we shall remain slaves to Pharaoh." They were careful to describe themselves as Pharaoh's slaves, not as Joseph's.

החייתנו...והיינו עבדים לפרעה, “you have saved our lives, and we have becoming willing slaves of Pharaoh.” The emphasis on the unnecessary word לפרעה was a blunt hint to Joseph that whereas they were willing to become Pharaoh’s slaves, they would not have been willing to become Joseph’s slaves.

That you may do for us as you have said. [Rashi is explaining:] this is not the beginning of a [new] point, that they were now asking to find favor in his eyes. [Rashi knows it cannot mean this] because otherwise it would not be understandable.

והיינו עבדים לפרעה AND WE SHALL BE PHARAOH’S SERVANTS, paying him this tax annually.

Paying him this tax annually... [Rashi is explaining:] it does not mean that they themselves will belong to him as slaves, for it is written before (v. 20), “Yoseif bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh...” [But it does not say he bought the people]. (Re’m)

They also referred to something I mentioned earlier, that Pharaoh had acquired them only as hired labourers, people obligated to work these particular lands. By saying: והיינו עבדים לפרעה, they offered their bodies to Pharaoh also so that Pharaoh owned them outright from then on. Perhaps this is the reason why the new Pharaoh in Exodus 1,9 described the Jewish people as the "nation, the children of Israel," meaning that he could not in good conscience describe them as his slaves as they had never lost their status as a free people.