Genesis 47:3

3 And Pharaoh said to his brethren, What [is] your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Thy servants [are] shepherds, both we, [and] also 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 Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, have come from the land of Canaan; and behold, they [are] in the land of Goshen.

2 And he took some of his brethren, [even] five men, and presented them to Pharaoh.

3 And Pharaoh said to his brethren, What [is] your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Thy servants [are] shepherds, both we, [and] also our fathers.

4 They said moreover to Pharaoh, We have come to sojourn in the land: for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine [is] severe in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

5 And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren have come to thee: