Genesis 47:9

9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.”

Genesis 47:9 in Other Translations

9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning."

9 Jacob replied, “I have traveled this earth for 130 hard years. But my life has been short compared to the lives of my ancestors.”

9 Jacob answered Pharaoh, "The years of my sojourning are 130 - a short and hard life and not nearly as long as my ancestors were given."

9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

9 Jacob answered Pharaoh, "The length of my stay on earth has been 130 years. The years of my life have been few and difficult, fewer than my ancestors' years."

9 Jacob said to Pharaoh, "My pilgrimage has lasted 130 years. My years have been few and hard, and they have not surpassed the years of my fathers during their pilgrimages."

9 Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The years of my journey through life are 130. My years have been few and hard. They aren't as many as the years of my fathers before me."

Genesis 47:9 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 47:9

Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my
pilgrimage [are] an hundred and thirty years
He calls his life a "pilgrimage"; as every good man's is; they are not at home in their own country, they are seeking a better, even an heavenly one: Jacob's life was very emphatically and literally a pilgrimage; he first dwelt in Canaan, from thence he removed to Padanaram, and sojourned there awhile, and then came to Canaan again; for some time he dwelt at Succoth, and then at Shechem, and after that at Hebron, and now he was come down to Egypt, and he had spent one hundred and thirty years of his life in this way: and with this perfectly agrees the account of Polyhistor from Demetrius ^F14, an Heathen writer, who makes the age of Jacob when he came into Egypt one hundred and thirty, and that year to be the third year of the famine, agreeably to ( Genesis 45:6 ) ; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been;
see ( Job 14:1 ) ; he calls his days but "few", in comparison of the long lives of the patriarchs in former times, and especially in comparison of the days of eternity: and "evil", because of the many afflictions he had met with; as from Esau, from whose face he was obliged to flee lest he should kill him, ( Genesis 27:41 ) ; and in Laban's house, where he served for a wife fourteen years, and endured great hardships, ( Genesis 31:41 ) ; and at Shechem, where his daughter was ravished, ( Genesis 34:2 ) , and his sons made that slaughter of the Shechemites, ( Genesis 34:25 ) , which he feared would cause his name to stink, ( Genesis 34:30 ) ; and at Ephrath, where he buried his beloved Rachel, ( Genesis 35:16 ) ; and at Hebron, where his sons brought him such an account as if they believed his beloved son Joseph was destroyed by a wild beast, ( Genesis 37:32 ) ; and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my
fathers in the days of their pilgrimage;
his grandfather Abraham lived to be one hundred amnd seventy five years of age, ( Genesis 25:7 ) , and his father Isaac lived to the age of one hundred and eighty, ( Genesis 35:28 ) .

---

FOOTNOTES:

F14 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. p. 21. p. 425.

Genesis 47:9 In-Context

7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh,

8 Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”

9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.”

10 Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.

11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed.

Cross References

• 1. S Genesis 25:7
• 2. S Genesis 3:17; Psalms 39:4; Psalms 89:47; Hebrews 11:9,13
• 3. Genesis 35:28; Job 8:9; Psalms 39:12