Genesis 47:9

Jacob changed *Pharaoh’s word ‘life’. (See verse 8.) Instead, he said, ‘I have stayed on the earth’. He meant that it was a temporary stay. Jacob knew that his stay on the earth was temporary. After it, he would be with his fathers and with God.

Jacob called 130 years ‘few’. It was less than his father Isaac’s life, which was 180 years. But it was not ‘few’ years. We can only guess why Jacob called 130 years ‘few’. The Egyptians did not live for so many years. Jacob did not say, ‘We live for more years than you do.’ To say that would be not to respect *Pharaoh. So he said, ‘The years of my life have been few.’

Jacob calls his life ‘evil’. Perhaps this is to respect *Pharaoh. He does not say, ‘I have lived a better life than you have.’ Instead, he says the opposite. But this also has another meaning. Jacob remembers that he has done many things that were wrong. For example, he cheated his brother Esau and his father Isaac. (See Genesis 27:19.) And he cheated Laban. (See Genesis 31:20.) And Jacob had much trouble in his life.