" Pharaoh took the opportunity to question Jacob because he saw his unkempt gray hair and his dirty and wrinkled face. But there are two kinds of gray hair. Sometimes it is the result of age, and sometimes it is the result of trouble. People are said to become gray from worries and heartache, as the German expression “This could give me gray hair!” puts it. And in Ps. 6:7 we read: “My eye wastes away because of grief, it grows weak because of all my foes.” It is as if the psalmist were saying: “I am surrounded to such an extent by enemies and vexations that the moment one vexation has come to an end, three other far more serious vexations follow.” For no disaster is alone, as a common saying goes.
But such tribulations and troubles hasten the coming of gray hair, wrinkles, and finally death itself. This is the source of the well-known complaints of afflicted people who say: “You will make me turn gray; you will kill me!” For grievous trials certainly mortify and kill. Therefore Solomon warns as follows in Eccl. 11:9: “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.” A young person should be happy. A young man should not torment himself with the anxious and biting cares that consume strength and exhaust the vigor of life. Do not start tormenting yourself when you are young. Later, when age approaches and you are preoccupied with troubles of all kinds, worries and vexations of every kind will also follow. Trouble itself will surely be your teacher.
Therefore Jacob says: “I am an old man, not in years but in the multitude of evils, which are more effective killers than the number of years.” And if we look at the age in which we live, how few there are today who reach 60 years! How many thousands of men there are who are killed by the sword, plague, sorrow, and tribulations before this time! And old age is now 40 or 50 years."
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