Genesis 46:31-34

"And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto his father's house, I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and will say unto him, My brethren, and my father's house, who were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me; and the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of cattle; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have. And it shall come to pass when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation? that ye shall say, Thy servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth, even until now, both we and our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians."

"I will go and tell Pharaoh ..." This cannot mean that the coming of Israel was in any manner news to Pharaoh. What was new lay in the fact of their having brought all their properties, consisting largely of great flocks and herds of cattle. That indeed was a new development, for Pharaoh had invited them to come without regard to possessions left behind (Genesis 45:20). Joseph also knew that by stressing their occupation as SHEPHERDS, there would be eliminated the possibility that Pharaoh might seek an amalgamation of the people with the Egyptians by settling them in the cities. The incompetent manner in which some of the critics try to make this some kind of trick by which Joseph secured the favored land of Goshen for his brethren is totally unacceptable!

"Thy servants have been keepers of cattle ..." (Genesis 46:34). This should be rendered, "Thy servants are shepherds," for that is what the expression "keepers of cattle" meant. The Good News Bible and other translations have so rendered it. Besides, in Joseph's projection of what he would do (Genesis 46:32), Pharaoh would already have been informed by Joseph himself that his brethren were shepherds. What Joseph guarded against here was any move on the part of his brethren to hide or soften this fact. Joseph himself was certainly not ashamed of it, but he might have feared that some of his brethren might be timid because of it.

ON BEING ASHAMED OF HUMBLE WORK

"Every shepherd is an abomination unto Egyptians ..." This is a sad comment upon their civilization, that those who produced the principle supply of their food should have been despised. There indeed must be discovered one of the reasons why their highly sophisticated and proud civilization eventually perished from the earth. Our Lord Jesus Christ was an apprentice carpenter. Even Jesus' church is reminded that, "We are workers ...!" In the next chapter, the old shepherd, Israel, blessed the monarch himself, a blessing which was to perpetuate that society for nearly a millennium into the future. And it was only after they reversed their policies and began their oppression of Israel that the blessing of God was withdrawn and their nation was eventually destroyed. "Although this disdain for cattle-raisers is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible, it is described vividly in Egyptian literature."[9] This matter of the Hebrews being unacceptable to Egyptians socially, due to their occupation, must be seen as precisely one of the reasons why God moved them into that situation. Simeon and Judah, perhaps others, of the Twelve Sons had already broken over the boundary in the marriage of Canaanite wives (pagans). And God's answer to that was simply the placement of them in a situation where intermarriage with the Egyptians would have been very difficult.