Why Jacob Told Laban His Days Were Full and Counted to Eighty

"Give me my wife" (Genesis 29:21). And is any man so brazen as all this? Rather, because Jacob was old and it was incumbent upon him to engage in being fruitful and multiplying, he said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for my days are full" (Genesis 29:21). The days of the years of a man are seventy years, "and if with strength, eighty years" (Psalms 90:10), and eighty years had already passed. For we maintain that at the time when Isaac sent away Jacob his son, at that very period Ishmael died, as it is said, "And Esau saw" (Genesis 28:8), and it is written, "And Esau went to Ishmael" (Genesis 28:9). From the implication of what is said, "the daughter of Ishmael," do I not know that she is the sister of Nebaioth? Rather, it teaches that Ishmael her father betrothed her and died, and Nebaioth her brother gave her in marriage. And Ishmael was born thirteen years before Isaac, as it is written, "And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old" (Genesis 17:25), and in that year Isaac was born. And the days of the years of Ishmael were one hundred thirty-seven, and at the time Jacob was born, Isaac was sixty years old. Take out from the one hundred thirty-seven years the sixty years of Isaac, and the thirteen of [those before] Jacob was born—behold, that is seventy-three; sixty-four remained for Jacob. And fourteen [years] that he lay hidden in the house of Eber his teacher before he came to Laban. Therefore he said to Laban, "for my days are full."