P haraoh must not have known the words to the “Happy Birthday” song. Instead of asking “How old are you now?” when he met Yaakov Avinu he questioned “How many are the days of the years of your life?” Rav Hirsch sees this not as a clumsy choice of words but as an indication of the deep impression Yaakov made on Pharaoh.
Units of measure typically reflect the nature of the commodity they describe. Coffee is measured in teaspoons the work day is quantified by hours a road trip is reckoned in miles and age is enumerated in years. Pharaoh and Yaakov however speak of days and years. “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years ” Yaakov replied “[but] the days of the years of my life have been few….”
Yaakov Avinu was able to recount his life in days — because he made each day count. In Rav Hirsch’s words: “Only a few select people value each day and see it as a special mission. A true human being does not live years but days.”
When the Torah describes a person as zakein old it’s a title of honor the Shelah says for it means he lived each day to its fullest. By contrast a wicked person may be biologically aged but spiritually juvenile because so few of his days were worthwhile. In his modesty Yaakov told Pharaoh that his days of sojourning on earth were 130 but his days of living were few.
