John Calvin Commentary Genesis 47:9

"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." — Genesis 47:9 (ASV)

Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been. Jacob may seem here to complain that he had lived only a short time, and that, in this short period, he had endured many and grievous afflictions. Why does he not rather recount the great and numerous favors of God which formed an abundant compensation for every kind of evil?

Besides, his complaint concerning the shortness of life seems unworthy of him; for why did he not consider a whole century and a third part of another sufficient for him? But if anyone rightly weighs his words, he rather expresses his own gratitude, in celebrating the goodness of God toward his fathers.

For he does not so much deplore his own decrepitude as he extols the vigor divinely granted to his fathers. Certainly it was no new and unusual thing to see a man, at his age, broken down and failing, and already near to the grave. Therefore, this comparison (as I have said) was only intended to ascribe glory to God, whose blessing toward Abraham and Isaac had been greater than to himself.

But he does not compare himself with his fathers in sufferings, as if they had been treated with greater indulgence; for we know that they had been tried to the utmost with all kinds of temptations: he merely states that he had not attained their age, as if he had said, “I, indeed, have arrived at those years which, by others, are considered a mature old age, and which complete the proper term of life; but the Lord so prolonged the life of my fathers, that they far exceeded this limit.”

He mentions evil days in order to show that he was not so much broken down and consumed by years as by labors and troubles; as if he had said, “My senses might still have flourished in their vigor, if my strength had not been exhausted by continual labors, by excessive cares, and by most grievous sufferings.” We now see that nothing was further from the mind of the holy man than to expostulate with God.

Yet it may seem absurd that he speaks of his life as being shorter than that of his fathers. For, on what basis does he conjecture that so little time would still remain for him, preventing him from attaining their age? If anyone should answer that he formed this conjecture from the weakness of his body, which was half dead, the solution will not be satisfactory. For Isaac had dimness of sight and trembling limbs thirty years before his death.

But it is not absurd to suppose that Jacob was every moment giving himself over to death, as if the sepulcher were before his eyes. He was, however, uncertain what length of time was decreed for him in God's secret counsel. Therefore, being unconcerned about the remainder of his life, he speaks just as if he were about to die the next day.