Bible Strands
Genesis 47:4
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.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jacob’s brothers address Pharaoh after identifying their profession as shepherds, requesting temporary residence in Goshen to escape the severe famine in Canaan.
The words — The Hebrew לָג֣וּר (la/Gur) means "to sojourn" or "live for a time," paired with בָּא֣נוּ (ba/nu) "we have come," establishing their presence as provisional rather than permanent.
The thread — The request mirrors the ancestral pattern of foreign sojourning in Genesis 15:13 and Deuteronomy 26:5, while the explicit mention of shepherd flocks directly sets up the cultural warning in Genesis 46:34.
Why it lands — The text records a pragmatic plea for survival in a famine, leaving the political outcome and future status of the family to the authority of Pharaoh and God.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Genesis 46:34 you are to say, ‘Your servants have raised livestock ever since our youth—both we and our fathers.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”
- 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.
- 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 and numerous.
- Genesis 43:1 Now the famine was still severe in the land.
- Psalms 105:23 Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham.
- Acts 7:11 Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food.
- Genesis 12:10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
- Isaiah 52:4 For this is what the Lord GOD says: “At first My people went down to Egypt to live, then Assyria oppressed them without cause.
- Acts 7:6 God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.