What Does Genesis 46:33 Mean in the King James?

And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?

Genesis 46:33 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The Hebrew asks, “What are your works?”, so occupation carries the texture of what a person does.

THE MEANING

When authority asks what fills your days, your work comes into view as a practice you carry out. The verse makes that doing something that can be named aloud.

THE ROOT

מַעֲשֵׂיכֶם

maʿaseikhem

GROWS FROM

עשה

to do, make, accomplish

The word translated “occupation” is literally “your works,” from ⁨עשה⁩ (asah), “to do” or “make.” English gives the question the feel of a job category; the Hebrew also lets you hear work as the doing itself, visible in a person’s practice.

ALSO GROWS

asah: to do, make

עָשָׂה

This is the verb beneath “your works”: occupation grows from what someone does.

maʿaseh: work, deed, act

מַעֲשֶׂה

This singular form shares the root and holds together work and deed, the action and what is done.

THE PATTERN

Work becomes a visible part of how a person is described.

And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

Genesis 4:2 · KJVAbel and Cain are described through the work they do.

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

Exodus 3:1 · KJVMoses’s work as a keeper of the flock is named through his daily practice.

And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers.

Acts 18:3 · KJVThe verse identifies Paul, Aquila, and Priscilla through the craft they share.

THE THREAD

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.

Genesis 47:3 · KJV

This is the brothers’ answer to Pharaoh’s question: they name their work as “shepherds.” Their words “both we, and also our fathers” show that this practice reaches across generations.

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