Genesis 47:8
“How many years have you lived?” Pharaoh asked.
BSB
ASV
And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How many are the days of the years of thy life?
KJV
And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?
And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, how old art thou? Or, "how many are the days of the years of thy life?" which way of speaking Jacob takes up, and very pertinently makes use of in his answer that follows: Dr. Lightfoot (m) thinks Pharaoh had never seen so old a man before, so grave a head, and so grey a beard, and in admiration asked this question. (m) Works, vol. 1. p. 667.
Jacob's countenance, no doubt, showed him to be very old, for he had been a man of labour and sorrow; in Egypt people were not so long-lived as in Canaan, and therefore Pharaoh looks upon Jacob with wonder; he was as a show in his court. When we are reflecting upon ourselves, this should come into the account, "How old are we?"
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.