Genesis 47:3

3 Par`oh said to his brothers, "What is your occupation?" They said to Par`oh, "Your servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers."

Genesis 47:3 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 47:3

And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, what [is] your occupation?
&c.] Which is the question he had told his brethren beforehand would be asked them, and prepared them to give an answer to it, ( Genesis 46:33 Genesis 46:34 ) ; which was perhaps an usual question Pharaoh asked of persons that came to settle in his dominions, that he might have no idle vagrants there, and that he might know of what advantage they were like to be of in his kingdom, and might dispose of them accordingly:

and they said unto Pharaoh, thy servants [are] shepherds, both we
[and] also our fathers;
see ( Genesis 46:34 ) .

Genesis 47:3 In-Context

1 Then Yosef went in and told Par`oh, and said, "My father and my brothers, with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own, have come out of the land of Kana`an; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen."

2 From among his brothers he took five men, and presented them to Par`oh.

3 Par`oh said to his brothers, "What is your occupation?" They said to Par`oh, "Your servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers."

4 They said to Par`oh, "We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks. For the famine is severe in the land of Kana`an. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen."

5 Par`oh spoke to Yosef, saying, "Your father and your brothers have come to you.