What Does Genesis 47:3 Mean?
And Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your work? And they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, we and also our fathers.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers.THE KEY
The brothers’ “occupation” is not just a title: their word for shepherd names the repeated work of tending a flock.
THE MEANING
The question asks what you do, and the brothers answer with a shared practice: they tend flocks, as their fathers do. The Hebrew word for shepherd carries the sense of pasturing and tending, so their work is care enacted over time.
THE ROOT
רֹעֵה צֹאן
ro'eh tson
GROWS FROM
רעה
ra'ah
To pasture, tend, or feed a flock.
The word translated “shepherds” carries the action of tending and feeding within it. The brothers name their work as an ongoing practice, shared with their fathers, rather than only as a job title.
ALSO GROWS
ro'eh: One who pastures or tends a flock.
רֹעֶה
This is the form used for the brothers’ occupation: the shepherd is named by the work of tending.
mir'eh: A place where a flock grazes.
מִרְעֶה
The same root links the shepherd’s work to the pasture that sustains the flock.
מַּעֲשֵׂיכֶם
ma'aseikhem
GROWS FROM
עשה
asah
To do or make.
“occupation” in this verse is ma'aseikhem. Pharaoh’s question uses a word built from the root “do” or “make”: literally, what are your works? The brothers’ answer gives that work a concrete shape, tending flocks, a practice carried across generations.
ALSO GROWS
asah: To perform or bring about an action.
עָשָׂה
This verb is the seed behind the question about what the brothers do.
ma'aseh: An act or work performed.
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun shares the form behind “occupation,” keeping the question focused on lived work.
THE PATTERN
Shepherding is sustained tending: the shepherd feeds, guides, and bears responsibility for the flock.
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I do not come up short.I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his living soul for the sheep.Shepherd the flock of God among you, watching over it, not by force but willingly, according to God; and not for shameful gain but eagerly.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I do not come up short.Genesis calls the brothers shepherds with רֹעֵה (ro’eh), from רעה (ra’ah), meaning to pasture or tend. Psalm 23 uses the same root in “my shepherd,” turning the brothers’ occupation into an image of the care the LORD gives now.
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