“Look,” said Isaac, “I am now old, and I do not know the day of my death.
Parallel translations
- WEB He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death.
- KJV And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:
- NKJV Then he said, “Behold now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death.
- NASB Then Isaac said, “Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my death.
- NLT “I am an old man now,” Isaac said, “and I don’t know when I may die.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Isaac notes his old age and uncertainty about the day of his death.
Overview
Sensing his end may be near, Isaac moves to confer the patriarchal blessing while he can. His awareness of mortality lends urgency to the moment. The blessing he intends carried real covenantal weight, which makes the ensuing struggle over it so significant.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Jas 4:14You 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.
- Prov 27:1Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
- Mark 13:35Therefore keep watch, because you do not know when the master of the house will return—whether in the evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or in the morning.
- Eccl 9:10Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
- Isa 38:1In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”
- 1 Sam 20:3But David again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”
- Gen 47:29When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise to show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt,
- Isa 38:3saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
- Gen 48:21Then Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 27:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.