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Genesis 47:4

in Genesis 47

Then they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live in the land for a time, because there is no pasture for the flocks of your servants, since the famine in the land of Canaan has been severe. So now, please allow your servants to settle in the land of Goshen.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And they said unto Pharaoh, To sojourn in the land are we come; for there is no pasture for thy servants’ flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

KJV

They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

This verse in Genesis 47

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

For to sojourn . . . are we come--The royal conversation took the course which Joseph had anticipated (Ge 46:33), and they answered according to previous instructions--manifesting, however, in their determination to return to Canaan, a faith and piety which affords a hopeful symptom of their having become all, or most of them, religious men.

This site's exposition

So Joseph went and told Pharaoh

on Genesis 47:1-4

Joseph brings five of his brothers before Pharaoh, and they ask leave to stay in the land for a time. The Hebrew behind it is the word Abraham used of himself at Genesis 23:4, a man living among people who own the ground. They name their trade as shepherds, as Joseph told them to at Genesis 46:34, where every shepherd is detestable to the Egyptians. That contempt keeps Israel in Goshen and apart.

This site's exposition

there is no pasture for the flocks of your servants

The brothers give pasture as the reason for the move, and the famine in Canaan as its cause. Grain could travel home on donkeys, while grazing for the flocks had to be found where it grew. Goshen is a request for grass.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), not to settle there for ever, only to sojourn there for a time, while the famine so prevailed in Canaan, which lay high, that it was not habitable for shepherds, the grass being burnt up much more than in Egypt, which lay low, and where the corn chiefly failed, while there was tolerably good pasture.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

They said moreover unto Pharaoh, for to sojourn in the land are we come,....

The words behind it

23 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּאמְר֣וּand they said

    vaiyomeruH5595305 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H4135510 times

  • פַּרְעֹ֗הPharaoh

    parohH6547274 times

  • לָג֣וּרto sojourn

    lagurH148197 times

  • בָּאָרֶץ֮in the land

    baaretzH7762504 times

  • בָּאנוּ֒we have come

    banuH9352568 times

  • כִּי־for

    ki-H35884482 times

  • אֵ֣יןthere not

    ʾeinH369789 times

  • מִרְעֶ֗ה[is] pasture

    mirehH4829

  • לַצֹּאן֙for the sheep

    latzonH6629274 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֣רwhich

    ʾasherH8345497 times

  • לַעֲבָדֶ֔יךָ[belongs] to servants your

    laavadeikhaH5650799 times

  • כִּֽי־for

    ki-H35884482 times

  • כָבֵ֥ד[was] heavy

    khavedH351541 times

  • הָרָעָ֖בthe famine

    haraavH7458101 times

  • בְּאֶ֣רֶץin [the] land of

    beeretzH7762504 times

  • כְּנָ֑עַןCanaan

    kenaanH366794 times

  • וְעַתָּ֛הand therefore

    veatahH6258433 times

  • יֵֽשְׁבוּ־let them dwell

    yeshevu-H34271079 times

  • נָ֥אplease

    na'H4994404 times

  • עֲבָדֶ֖יךָservants your

    ʾavadeikhaH5650799 times

  • בְּאֶ֥רֶץin [the] land of

    beeretzH7762504 times

  • גֹּֽשֶׁן׃Goshen

    goshenH165715 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 15:13

    Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

    it leads to

    • Acts 7:6–7

      God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

    • Exodus 1:11

      So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

    • Exodus 12:40–41

      Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt was 430 years.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 26:5

    and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty…

    it leads to

    • Genesis 46:27

      And with the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt were seventy in all.

    • Deuteronomy 10:22

      Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

    • Genesis 43:1–2

      Now the famine was still severe in the land.

  • Through

    Psalms 105:23

    Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham.

    it leads to

    • Acts 7:11–15

      Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food.

    • Acts 13:17

      The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers. He made them into a great people during their stay in Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out of that land.

About Genesis

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.