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Gen_47:3 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.
Ver. 3. What is your occupation?] That they had an occupation Pharaoh took for granted. God made Leviathan to play in the sea; {Psa_104:26} but none to do so upon earth. Turks and Pagans will rise up in judgment against the idle. {See Trapp on "Gen_46:33"} Periander made a law at Corinth, that whosoever could not prove that he lived by his honest labour, he should suffer as a thief. The apostle bids "him that stole steal no more, but labour with his hands the thing that is good," &c. {Eph_4:28} Not to labour, then, with hand, or head, or both, is to steal. Every one must bring some honey into the common hive, unless he will be cast out as a drone. {a} "Thou idle and evil servant," saith our Saviour. {Mat_25:26} To be idle, then, is to be evil; and he shall not but do naughtily that does nothing. God wills that men should earn their bread afore they eat it, {2Th_3:12} neither may they make religion a mask for idleness. {Gen_47:11}
{a} Ignavum fucos pecus, &c.