Genesis 47:8

8 And Pharaoh saith unto Jacob, `How many [are] the days of the years of thy life?'

Genesis 47:8 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 47:8

And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, how old [art] thou?
] Or, "how many are the days of the years of thy life?" which way of speaking Jacob takes up, and very pertinently makes use of in his answer that follows: Dr. Lightfoot ^F13 thinks Pharaoh had never seen so old a man before, so grave a head, and so grey a beard, and in admiration asked this question.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Works, vol. 1. p. 667.

Genesis 47:8 In-Context

6 the land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land cause thy father and thy brethren to dwell -- they dwell in the land of Goshen, and if thou hast known, and there are among them men of ability, then thou hast set them heads over the cattle I have.'

7 And Joseph bringeth in Jacob his father, and causeth him to stand before Pharaoh; and Jacob blesseth Pharaoh.

8 And Pharaoh saith unto Jacob, `How many [are] the days of the years of thy life?'

9 And Jacob saith unto Pharaoh, `The days of the years of my sojournings [are] an hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their sojournings.'

10 And Jacob blesseth Pharaoh, and goeth out from before Pharaoh.