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Genesis 46:31-34
Joseph lays out what he will report to Pharaoh and coaches the family’s answers so they can settle in Goshen.
Meaning in context
Joseph lays out what he will report to Pharaoh and coaches the family’s answers so they can settle in Goshen.
Section 7 of 7
Joseph prepares the Pharaoh interview strategy
Joseph lays out what he will report to Pharaoh and coaches the family’s answers so they can settle in Goshen.
Movement
From creation to covenant family
Artifact
Genealogies and covenant promises
Biblical Timeline
Creation
Genesis context: 4000 BC - 2000 BC
Biblical Timeline
Creation
Genesis context
Creation / 4000 BC - 2000 BC
Genesis context is set in creation, where Beginning of biblical history.
Scripture Text
Thesis
Joseph lays out what he will report to Pharaoh and coaches the family’s answers so they can settle in Goshen.
Verse by Verse
Joseph’s plan to inform Pharaoh Joseph tells his brothers and the wider family group that he will go to Pharaoh first. He will report that his brothers and his father’s household have arrived from Canaan and have come to him in Egypt.
Joseph’s description of their work and assets Joseph plans to identify them as men who work with animals: shepherds and livestock keepers. He will also mention that they have brought their flocks, herds, and everything they own, signaling they are relocating with dependents and property.
Coaching their answer and explaining the goal Joseph anticipates Pharaoh will summon them and ask their occupation. He instructs them to answer in a specific way: they are Pharaoh’s “servants” and have been keepers of cattle from youth until now, as were their fathers. Joseph explains the intended outcome: this framing allows them to live in Goshen, because Egyptians find shepherds detestable.
Literary Context
These verses come as Jacob’s household arrives in Egypt during the famine and Joseph prepares the next step: formal recognition and placement under Pharaoh’s authority. The larger chapter records the migration of the whole family and lists the clans who come down, showing the move is not a private visit but a major relocation. Immediately after the travel and family accounting, the narrative narrows to strategy: how Joseph will frame the family’s identity and how they should speak for themselves when questioned by the king.
Historical Context
The scene assumes Egypt has a strong centralized court where foreigners need official approval to reside and where land assignments are controlled by royal decision. Pastoral work is treated as socially low-status by Egyptians in the story, creating a risk of prejudice during the audience. Joseph uses that social reality rather than fighting it, aiming to secure a place for his kin on the margins of Egyptian society where livestock work fits. Goshen is portrayed as an area suitable for herds and somewhat separated from the Egyptian mainstream.
Theological Significance
Genesis 46:31–34 shows Joseph managing a risky political moment. He plans to speak to Pharaoh first, then prepare his family for the questions Pharaoh is likely to ask—especially about their work (explicit in the text).
Questions
Keep Studying
The passage assumes that identity statements in a royal court matter. Joseph treats “occupation” as a key to placement and permission. He also assumes Egyptians will react negatively to shepherds, so he aims for a settlement in Goshen, a place suited for livestock and some separation (explicit in v. 34).
Some readers take “abomination” (v. 34) to mean Egyptians saw shepherding as morally offensive, almost like a religious taboo. Others think it simply means strong social contempt or prejudice against pastoralists, without claiming shepherding was intrinsically “sinful.”
Some also differ on Joseph’s coaching: is he practicing wise diplomacy (accurate but carefully framed), or is he encouraging a misleading presentation by emphasizing “keepers of cattle” in a way that downplays “shepherds”?
The word “abomination” can cover a range from moral disgust to social loathing, and the passage does not explain the reason for Egypt’s reaction. Also, Joseph uses more than one livestock label (“shepherds” and “keepers of cattle”), which can be read either as normal overlap or as deliberate rebranding.
This scene contributes a concrete picture of how Israel’s family becomes an officially recognized immigrant community in Egypt: Joseph leverages court protocol, expects questioning, and prepares consistent answers (vv. 31–33). It also introduces the social distance between Egyptians and shepherding peoples as a factor in Israel’s location in Goshen (v. 34). Without adding motives not stated, the text portrays Joseph’s strategy as practical: secure land and safety for the whole household by anticipating prejudice and navigating it.
father (’ā·ḇî)