He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death.
Parallel Translations
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He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death.
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And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:
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And he said: 'Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Genesis 27:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- James 4:14 Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
- Proverbs 27:1 Don’t boast about tomorrow; for you don’t know what a day may bring.
- Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.
- Mark 13:35 Watch therefore, for you don’t know when the lord of the house is coming, whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning;
- Genesis 47:29 The time came near that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please don’t bury me in Egypt,
- Genesis 48:21 Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers.
- 1 Samuel 20:3 David swore moreover, and said, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, ‘Don’t let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved;’ but truly as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”
- Isaiah 38:1 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’ ”
- Isaiah 38:3 and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 2. Behold, now I am old, I know not…
2. Behold, now I am old, I know not the day of my death. There is not the least doubt that Isaac implored daily blessings on his sons all his life: this, therefore, appears to have been an extraordinary kind of benediction. Moreover, the declaration that he knew not the day of his death, is as much as if he had said, that death was every moment pressing so closely upon him, a decrepit and failing man, that he dared not promise himself any longer life. Just as a woman with child when the time of parturition draws near, might say, that she had now no day certain. Every one, even in the full vigor of age, carries with him a thousand deaths. Death claims as its own the foetus in the mother’s womb, and accompanies it through every stage of life. But as it urges the old more closely, so they ought to place it more constantly before their eyes, and should pass as pilgrims through the world, or as those who have already one foot in the grave. In short, Isaac, as one near death, wishes to leave the Church surviving him in the person of his son.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 27:2 And he said, Behold now, I am…
Gen 27:2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:
Ver. 2. I am old, I know not the day of my death.] No more doth any, though never so young. There be as many young skulls as old, in Golgotha. But, young men, we say, may die; old men must die. To the old, death is pro ianuis; to the young, in insidiis. Senex, quasi semi-nex. Old men have pedem in cymba Charontis, one foot in the grave already. Our decrepit age both expects death, and solicits it: it goes grovelling, as groaning for the grave. Whence Terence {a} calls an old man Silicernium; and the Greeks γηροντα, πασα το εις γην οραν, of looking toward the ground, whither he is tending; or, as others will have it, of loving earth and earthly things; which old folk greedily grasp at, because they fear they shall not have to suffice them while alive, and to bring them honestly home, as they say, when they are dead; as Plutarch gives the reason, {b}
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{a} Vel quod curvus silices cernat; vel quod mox silentiqus umbris cernendus sit. - Ter, in Adelph.
{b} Tους θριψαντας, και τους θαψαντας.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he said, behold, now I am old,.... See…
And he said, behold, now I am old,.... See Gill on Gen 27:1,
I know not the day of my death; how soon it will be; everyone knows he must die, but the day and hour he knows not, neither young nor old; and though young men may promise themselves many days and years, an old man cannot, but must or should live in the constant expectation of death.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain I am old, and know not the day of…
I am old, and know not the day of my death - How soon I may die.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. I know not the day of my…
Verse 2. I know not the day of my death] From his present weakness he had reason to suppose that his death could not be at any great distance, and therefore would leave no act undone which he believed it his duty to perform. He who lives not in reference to eternity, lives not at all.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Gen 27:2. I know not the day of my…
Gen 27:2. I know not the day of my death — How soon I may die; a declaration which every man may make, and which every man ought well to consider, and lay to heart. It is great mercy and wisdom in God to conceal from us the time of our dissolution. Hereby foreboding fear on the one hand, and vain presumption on the other, are prevented, and a strong motive is afforded us always to live and walk in the Spirit, and be like men waiting for their lord, that when Jesus cometh to call us hence, we may be found prepared to meet him.
“Is death uncertain?
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Therefore be thou fix’d:
Fix’d as a sentinel; all eye, all ear:
All expectation of the coming foe.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. Know not the day of my death —…
2. Know not the day of my death — He lived forty-three years after this. Gen_35:28.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. I know not the day of my death]…
2. I know not the day of my death] Isaac expects that death is at hand, and fears lest he should die without having pronounced the blessing on his son. The dying utterance was deemed prophetic Gen_48:21, Gen_50:24; 2Sa_23:1-5.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And he (i.e. Isaac) said, Behold now, I am…
And he (i.e. Isaac) said, Behold now, I am old, and know not the day of my death. Isaac had manifestly become apprehensive of the near approach of dissolution. His failing sight, and probably the recollection that Ishmael, his half-brother, had died at 137 (if that was Isaac"s age at this time; wide supra), occasioned the suspicion that his own end could not be remote, though he lived forty-three or sixty-three years longer, according to the calculation adopted, expiring at the ripe age of 180. (vide Gen_30:28)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.