Bible Strands
Genesis 47:9
“My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jacob speaks to Pharaoh immediately after being asked how long he has lived, before he blesses the ruler and departs.
The words — מְגוּרַי (me.gu.Ra/i) translates to "my sojournings," and שְׁלֹשִׁים (she.lo.Shim) means "thirty," anchoring the 130-year span to a life of temporary residence rather than permanent settlement.
The thread — The theme of a short, troubled earthly life echoes Job 14:1 and Psalm 39:12, while the lifespan contrast points to Genesis 35:28 where Isaac lived 180 years.
Why it lands — The text records Jacob's direct comparison of his brief, difficult years to his ancestors' longer sojourns, asking the reader to acknowledge human mortality and the transient nature of earthly tenure without romanticizing the experience.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Job 14:1 “Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
- Psalms 39:12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.
- Genesis 35:28 And Isaac lived 180 years.
- Psalms 39:5 You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
- Genesis 50:26 So Joseph died at the age of 110. And they embalmed his body and placed it in a coffin in Egypt.
- Exodus 6:4 I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land where they lived as foreigners.
- Exodus 7:7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
- Deuteronomy 34:7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished.
- Joshua 24:29 Some time later, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110.
- James 4:14 You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.