What Does Genesis 47:28 Mean in the King James?
And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same life-root names both Jacob’s years in Egypt and his whole lifespan: the narrow place is inside his life, not outside it.
THE MEANING
The passage places seventeen years in Egypt within one whole life of 147 years. A constricted season is not a blank interval; it remains lived time, included in the whole that is being counted. Your life is not waiting to begin after the narrow place passes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The years spent in a constricted season do not count as my real life; my life begins only after it ends.
THE ROOT
וַיְחִי
vayechi
GROWS FROM
חיה
chayah
To live; to be alive.
Hebrew places וַיְחִי (vayechi, “he lived”) beside חַיָּיו (ḥayyāw, “his life”), echoing one seed across both the seventeen years in Egypt and Jacob’s whole lifespan. Egypt is counted inside his living, so a narrow season is not a pause outside life.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Alive; living.
חַי
The living quality in this branch is present even within the years the verse locates in Egypt.
chayyim: Life; living.
חַיִּים
The verse’s verb “lived” and its closing measure of Jacob’s “life” carry the same root through the particular years and the whole span.
THE PATTERN
Life remains present through constricted seasons, and those seasons belong to the whole.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;THE THREAD
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.The earlier חַיָּי (ḥayyay, “my life”) shares the חיה (chayah, “to live; to be alive”) root with וַיְחִי (vayechi, “he lived”) here. Although Jacob calls his years few and hard, they remain part of the life counted in full, including his years in Egypt.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us