Old age

³⁴ But Barzillai replied, “How many years of my life remain, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king?

³⁵ I am now eighty years old. Can I discern what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of singing men and women? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?

You are to rise in the presence of the elderly, honor the aged, and fear your God. I am the LORD.

¹⁰ Now behold, as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive these forty-five years since He spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old,

¹¹ still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. As my strength was then, so it is now for war, for going out, and for coming in.

⁹ For all our days decline in Your fury; we finish our years with a sigh.

¹⁰ The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty if we are strong— yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

¹¹ Who knows the power of Your anger? Your wrath matches the fear You are due.

¹² So teach us to number our days, that we may present a heart of wisdom.

May the bolts of your gate be iron and bronze, and may your strength match your days.”

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of a son is his father.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.

I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”

But many of the older priests, Levites, and family heads who had seen the first temple wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this temple. Still, many others shouted joyfully.

⁵ You whisk them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning—

⁶ in the morning it springs up new, but by evening it fades and withers.

With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”

³ He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,

⁴ who redeems your life from the Pit and crowns you with loving devotion and compassion,

⁵ who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.

He died at a ripe old age, full of years, riches, and honor, and his son Solomon reigned in his place.

Barzillai was quite old, eighty years of age, and since he was a very wealthy man, he had provided for the king while he stayed in Mahanaim.

³⁶ Your servant could go with the king only a short distance past the Jordan; why should the king repay me with such a reward?

³⁷ Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king, and do for him what is good in your sight.”

Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished.

¹¹ And Abraham and Sarah were already old and well along in years; Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.

¹² So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

⁷ Abraham lived a total of 175 years.

⁸ And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.

⁸ “How many years have you lived?” Pharaoh asked.

⁹ “My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”

Now the rest of the acts of Asa, along with all his might, all his accomplishments, and the cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his old age, however, he became diseased in his feet.

When Jehoiada was old and full of years, he died at the age of 130.

¹ When Moses had finished speaking these words to all Israel,

² he said to them, “I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’

⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶ Then Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”

⁷ She added, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

By now Abraham was old and well along in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way.

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” Esau replied.

²⁸ And Isaac lived 180 years.

²⁹ Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Later, Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

¹ A long time after the LORD had given Israel rest from all the enemies around them, when Joshua was old and well along in years,

² he summoned all Israel, including its elders, leaders, judges, and officers. “I am old and well along in years,” he said,

And at that time Eli, whose eyesight had grown so dim that he could not see, was lying in his room.

When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel.

²⁹ When 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,

³⁰ but when I lie down with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me with them.” Joseph answered, “I will do as you have requested.”

Now Joshua was old and well along in years, and the LORD said to him, “You are old and well along in years, but very much of the land remains to be possessed.