Genesis 47:3

3 and Pharaoh saith unto his brethren, `What [are] your works?' and they say unto Pharaoh, `Thy servants [are] feeders of a flock, 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 And Joseph cometh, and declareth to Pharaoh, and saith, `My father, and my brethren, and their flock, and their herd, and all they have, have come from the land of Canaan, and lo, they [are] in the land of Goshen.'

2 And out of his brethren he hath taken five men, and setteth them before Pharaoh;

3 and Pharaoh saith unto his brethren, `What [are] your works?' and they say unto Pharaoh, `Thy servants [are] feeders of a flock, both we and our fathers;'

4 and they say unto Pharaoh, `To sojourn in the land we have come, for there is no pasture for the flock which thy servants have, for grievous [is] the famine in the land of Canaan; and now, let thy servants, we pray thee, dwell in the land of Goshen.'

5 And Pharaoh speaketh unto Joseph, saying, `Thy father and thy brethren have come unto thee: