C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Genesis 47:3-6

Gen 47:3-6

Pharaoh asked them about their occupation, and according to Joseph’s instructions they replied that they were herdsmen (צאן רעה, the singular of the predicate, see Ges. §147c), who had come to sojourn in the land (גּוּר, i.e., to stay for a time), because the pasture for their flocks had failed in the land of Canaan on account of the famine. The king then empowered Joseph to give his father and his brethren a dwelling (הושׁיב) in the best part of the land, in the land of Goshen, and, if he knew any brave men among them, to make them rulers over the royal herds, which were kept, as we may infer, in the land of Goshen, as being the best pasture-land.