Genesis 47:8

8 Then Pharaoh said to Jacob, "{How old are you}?"

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 you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them live in the land of Goshen, and if you know there is among them men of ability, then appoint them overseers of my own livestock."

7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

8 Then Pharaoh said to Jacob, "{How old are you}?"

9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my sojourning [are] one hundred and thirty years. Few and hard have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the days of the years of the lives of my ancestors in the days of their sojourning."

10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and he went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "How many are the days of the years of your life?"