מדרש על בראשית 47:29

And Jacob sat in the land (Gen. 37:1). Whenever Scripture uses the expression and he sat (also translated “and he dwelt”), it connotes misfortune: And Israel sat in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, … and the time drew near that Israel must die (Gen. 47:29); And the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to make merry (Exod. 32:37); And there fell of the people on that day three thousand men (Exod. 38:28); And they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites (Gen. 37:25); And Judah and Israel sat safely (I Kings 5:5); And the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon (ibid. 11:14); And Israel sat among the cedars, etc., and the people began to commit harlotry (Num. 25:1). You may explain every other use of “and he sat” with this negative implication. In this instance And Jacob sat is followed by and Joseph brought evil report of them unto his father (Gen. 37:2).

And the time drew near that Israel must die (Gen. 47:29). It is stated in Scripture in reference to this verse: For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no hoping (I Chron. 29:15). Our days are as a shadow. Would that they were as the shadow of a wall or a tree,¹That our days might be as permanent as a wall. but the fact is that they are as the shadow of a bird, as it is said: His days are as a shadow that passeth away (Ps. 144:14).

And the time drew near that Israel must die (Gen. 47:29). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver him that is given to it (Eccles. 8:8). R. Joshua of Sikhnin declared in the name of R. Levi: Prior to the death of Moses, the Holy One, blessed be He, hid the shofars that Moses had fashioned in the wilderness, lest some person (Moses) might blow upon them and cause all the Israelites to assemble before him.²In an attempt to postponse his death. Some copies of the parallel passage Bereshit Rabbah 96:3 imply that the subject of “should not blow them” is Moses. He did this to fulfill the verse Neither hath he power over the day of death.