<b>And the time drew near that Israel must die (Gen. 47:29).</b> It is stated in Scripture in reference to this verse: <i>For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no hoping</i> (I Chron. 29:15). <i>Our days are as a shadow</i>. Would that they were as the shadow of a wall or a tree,<sup class="footnote-marker">1</sup><i class="footnote">That <i>our days</i> might be as permanent as a wall.</i> but the fact is that they are as the shadow of a bird, as it is said: <i>His days are as a shadow that passeth away</i> (Ps. 144:14).
<i>And there is no hoping</i> implies that there is no one who can hope to escape death. All (our patriarchs) realized this and announced their deaths with their own mouths. Abraham said: <i>I go hence childless</i> (Gen. 15:2); Isaac declared: <i>May my soul bless Thee before I die</i> (ibid. 27:4); and Jacob said: <i>When I sleep with my fathers</i> (ibid. 47:30). When did he say this? When he was about to die. Thus it is written: <i>And the time drew near that Israel must die</i>.