When the Joseph story was composed, I think around the time of the Northern Kingdom, Israelites knew that Egyptians called them "Hebrews" and despised them for several reasons. One was that Hebrews ate the wrong foods: cattle and sheep. At Elephantine, Jews there would sacrifice rams which offended the local (upper-)Egyptians. Those who kept sheep were further despised, although here I have trouble understanding why. If you keep a sacred animal, as opposed to an unclean animal (like a swineherd), shouldn't you be exalted?
Levine may offer a notion why. For Israel, and certainly for the Maccabees, and above all for Christians: shepherds are associated with King David and with Psalm 23. However. When Israel did not have a kingdom, nor even a credible resistance-movement, shepherds became a problem. The Mishnah pipes in to advise Galileian Jews not to train younger Jews in that trade, alongside camel-drivers and merchants - even sailors (which a later rabbi must correct). Some were people who must drift out of the community and its oversight. They might get up to Mischief and be a shonde.
So shepherds wouldn't be outcast. But they may be held in suspicion, especially near cities with a heavy foreign police-presence. A respectable rabbi - like a respectable Egyptian diplomat - would not recommend that line of work. Herod likely had a garrison at Bethlehem given its political charge; he'd be stupid not to.
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