Joseph lived for 110 years – which seems like a long time to us, but was significantly shorter than the lives of his ancestors, including his father Jacob, who died at the age of 147.
Only a small part – just 11 years – of Joseph's life was spent in the land of Canaan. About 93 years were spent in
Egypt.
Some of the ages mentioned above are calculated from other details. For example, the age at which he left Paddan-aram, how old he was when he interpreted the dream for the butler and the baker, and his age when Jacob died.
The synchronisation of ages between Jacob and Joseph is found through computation, based on the following facts.
- We know Jacob's age when he went to Egypt because in Genesis
47:9 he tells Pharaoh that he was 130 years old.
- Joseph's age at that time is computed from:
- Genesis 41:46 says that Joseph was 30 years old when he entered Pharaoh's service. As soon as he did so, the time of plenty predicted by Pharaoh's dreams began.
- Genesis 41:47 and 53 tell us that 7 years of plenty came in Egypt, followed by famine.
- Genesis 45:6 and 11 tell us that when Joseph sent his brothers back to
Canaan to bring Jacob to Egypt, there had been two years of famine.
Thus we can say that Joseph was 39 years old when Jacob went to Egypt.
Interestingly, this synchronisation also allows us to work out that Jacob was 91 years old when Joseph was born.
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