Genesis 47:28

“Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.

Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

I am eighty years old, today. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear the voice of singing men and singing women any more? Why then should your servant be a burden to my lord the king?

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.

I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work.

They took their livestock, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt—Jacob, and all his offspring with him,

The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.

Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation.

These were the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone.

Now king David was old and advanced in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn’t keep warm.

But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them;”

Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Yahweh says, “Don’t listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of Yahweh’s house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon;’ for they prophesy a lie to you.

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.

He carried out from there all the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which Solomon king of Israel had made in Yahweh’s temple, as Yahweh had said.

The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

The sons of Levi: Gershom, Kohath, and Merari.

“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.”

“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.

I am a stranger on the earth. Don’t hide your commandments from me.

Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live.

Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.

My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived: one hundred seventy-five years.

She named him Joseph, saying, “May Yahweh add another son to me.”

They also said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live as foreigners in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks. For the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.”

Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees.

These are those who were counted of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari, the family of the Merarites.

Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I find favor.” She said to her, “Go, my daughter.”

She took it up, and went into the city. Then her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned; and she brought out and gave to her that which she had left after she had enough.

There was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats; and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.

At the return of the year, king Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the valuable vessels of Yahweh’s house, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’ ”

His flesh will be fresher than a child’s. He returns to the days of his youth.

Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.

and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea.

Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel.

so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:

Yahweh, you know. Remember me, visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors. You are patient, so don’t take me away. Know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.

The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God; and he carried them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god. He brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.

The God of this people chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they stayed as aliens in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm, he led them out of it.

For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it.

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens.

All the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years, then he died.

This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.

Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and became the father of more sons and daughters.

“I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her servant, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s servant): Dan and Naphtali.

The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.

This is the history of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father.

Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.

Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and evil. They have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”

So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari; and the years of the life of Levi were one hundred thirty-seven years.

Amram took Jochebed his father’s sister to himself as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. The years of the life of Amram were one hundred thirty-seven years.

Now this is the history of the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that Yahweh spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai.

After these things, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred ten years old.

Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old. He had provided the king with sustenance while he stayed at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man.

For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.

After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations.

The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.

So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob lived in the land of Ham.

How many are the days of your servant? When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me?

I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

Within two full years I will bring again into this place all the vessels of Yahweh’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried to Babylon.

So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told their lord all that was done.

For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety toward their own family and to repay their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God.