Commentaire sur La Genèse 47:9

שני מגורי — means the days of my being a stranger. All my days I have been a stranger in other peoples’ lands.

FEW AND EVIL HAVE BEEN THE DAYS OF THE YEARS OF MY LIFE. I know no reason for this comment by our aged patriarch. Is it ethical for a person to complain to the king? And what sense is there in saying, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers? He may yet possibly attain them and live even longer than they did!
It appears to me that our father Jacob had turned gray, and he appeared very old. Pharaoh wondered about his age, for most people of his time did not live very long as the lifespan of mankind had already been shortened.²³⁶See Ramban, above, 5:4. He therefore asked him, “How many are the days of the years of thy life,²³⁷Verse 8 here. as I have not seen a man as aged as you in my entire kingdom?” Then Jacob answered that he was one hundred and thirty years of age, and that he should not wonder at the years he had lived for they are few when compared with the lifespans of his fathers who had lived longer. However, on account of their having been hard years of toil and groaning, he had turned gray and he appeared extremely old.

מעט ורעים, seeing that Pharaoh’s question of how old he was appeared to Yaakov as being motivated by his extremely old appearance, he told him that he was not nearly as old as he might look, but that the various troubles in his life he had endured had left their mark on his appearance.

מעט ורעים היו ימי שני חיי, concerning your question how many years I am old, I must confess that actually I am relatively young in years, and I have certainly not benefited from any life-extending drugs or herbs, on the contrary, I have experienced enough troubles to hasten my old age and my death. Years during which a person is beset with major problems do not even count as “years of his life.” But if you want to know how many years I have been sojourning on this planet, I am 130 years old.

ימי שני מגורי, the days and years which I have lived so far amount to 130 years. They are few and have been earmarked by many negative experiences. The latter is what he meant by the word רעים. However, how did Yaakov know that his (total) years would be few? He must have assumed that due to the troubles he had already experienced and the effect on his general well being he could not look forward to live to the same age as had his father and grandfather before him.

In seiner Antwort unterscheidet Jakob Leben und Sein: du fragst nach den Tagen der Jahre meines Lebens? gelebt habe ich nicht viel, geweilt bin ich auf Erden hundertunddreißig Jahre. Die Tage der Jahre, die ich mein Leben nennen könnte — (in denen ich meine Aufgabe voll gelöst) — waren nur wenige, und sie eben waren רעים, waren eben die bittersten, sorgenerfülltesten. Es war mir die Aufgabe ge worden, die Pflichten des Unglücks im Unglück zu üben. Der Inhalt meines Lebens ist keineswegs mit dem Lebensinhalt meiner Väter zu vergleichen. Sie haben mehr gelebt, jeder Tag ihres Hierseins war Leben und sie hatten ihre Lebensaufgabe in heiteren Verhältnissen zu lösen. Es ist dies keine Klage über die Kürze des Lebens, sondern Bescheidenheit im Rückblick auf den sittlichen Wert des zurückgelegten Lebens.

ולא השיגו AND THEY HAVE NOT ATTAINED so far as happiness is concerned.

ולא השיגו, they did not match in either length of time or quality of life.