Genesis 25:7

Summary

Genesis 25:7 gives a summary statement of the total lifespan of Abraham, stating the number of years he lived as a sum of three components: one hundred, seventy, and five years. This is a formulaic notice marking the end of a life, using redundant temporal vocabulary to introduce the number.

Key words

• yemei ("days of", H3117G) — masculine plural construct noun, opening the construct chain that defines what is being counted: "days."
• shenei ("years of", H8141) — masculine plural construct, the second link in the chain, so the phrase moves from "days" to "years" before naming what those years belong to.
• chayyei ("life of", H2416E) — masculine plural construct, completing the triple chain: "the days of the years of the life of Abraham."
• chai ("he lived", H2421) — qal perfect verb, third person masculine singular, marking completed action; introduced by the relative particle asher ("which", H0834A), forming the clause "which he lived."
• me'at ("one hundred", H3967) — feminine singular construct numeral, the first element of the three-part number that totals the years.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the demonstrative elleh ("these", H0428), pointing forward to the number that will close the verse — a common structure in biblical Hebrew for introducing a lifespan total. Before reaching the number, the text builds a triple construct chain: yemei shenei chayyei Avraham — literally "the days of the years of the life of Abraham." Each noun (yemei, shenei, chayyei) is in construct form, meaning each depends grammatically on the next, producing a layered expression rather than a single word for "lifetime." This construction is not merely decorative; it stacks near-synonyms (days, years, life) to give solemn weight to the notice of a life's total length.

The relative clause asher chai ("which he lived") uses the qal perfect of chai (H2421), marking the living as a completed, bounded action — the life has run its full course. The number itself is presented in three separate constructs joined by the conjunction ve- ("and", H9002): me'at shanah ("one hundred of year"), shiv'im shanah ("seventy year"), and chamesh shanim ("five years"). Each numeral is paired with its own noun for "year," rather than the noun appearing once for the whole sum — a distributive counting style typical of Biblical Hebrew numerical notation, differing from how modern languages state a single total number followed by one unit word.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew's three-part construct chain (yemei shenei chayyei, "days of years of life of") is condensed in the LXXSWETE to two terms, τὰ ἔτη ἡμερῶν ζωῆς ("the years of days of life"), reordering the elements compared to the Hebrew sequence. The VULCLEM further simplifies to a single phrase, dies vitae ("days of life"), dropping the middle term "years" found in the Hebrew chain. Both the LXXSWETE and VULCLEM render the three separately stated numbers (me'at... veshiv'im... vechamesh) as a single combined number, 175, whereas the Hebrew presents the total as an additive sequence of three distinct numeral-plus-noun units.