Although goat's milk was widely used as a remedy for a chest cold (Proverbs 27:27), the rabbis frowned upon the rearing of goats. Goats were regarded as "armed robbers who would jump over people's fences and destroy their plants (see illustration below).[2] Although sheep and goats both belong to the category of small cattle called (tzon) in Hebrew, there is a marked difference in the grazing habits of each species. Sheep crop at an even height several centimeters above ground level. The goat, on the other hand, not only crops much closer to the ground, but also tears leaves, buds and fruit off trees.

A Greek inscription prohibiting the breeding of goats has been uncovered at Heracleas. So, too, is the goat's unsavory reputation clearly expressed in the New Testament: According to a reference to the Day of Judgment in Matthew 25 – "When the Son of Man comes... he will separate men into two groups, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left...."

During the destruction of the second Temple (70 CE) and the terrible wars that devastated the Land of Israel in the ensuing years, much of the fertile land was turned into desert wasteland. Unavoidable conflict arose between the shepherds who took advantage of the increase in thickets and forests, and the landowners who wanted to reclaim their fields for cultivation. The rabbis issued strict injunctions regarding the grazing of both sheep and goats to help overcome these conflicts and to restore the destroyed agricultural base. "Sheep and goats are not to be raised in the land of Israel but are permitted in the desert located in Judea and in the desert bordering Acco [Acre]."[3] Acco is located in the lower western Galilee, an area not familiar to us today as being associated with desert; clearly during the period after the destruction of the Second Temple, this once-fertile area had been transformed into desert, fit only for grazing.

Detail from David Roberts' painting of Nazareth, 1830s
Click to view detail enlarged

An incident related in the Talmud vividly illustrates how meticulous the sages were in following the ruling concerning the raising of sheep and goats only in the desert and thickets.

In a later passage in the Talmud, Rav Yosef (early fourth century, Babylon) said: "He who dreams of a goat, his year will be blessed; he who dreams about goats, his years shall be blessed, as it is written (Proverbs 27:27): 'The goats' milk will suffice for your food.'" [5]  Rav Yosef, who taught in Babyon more than 200 years after Rabban Gamliel, has no negative associations with the goat. Focusing on the Biblical verse in Proverbs, he has no reason to infer anything relating to daily livelihood problems in the Land of Israel.