Does Genesis 47:31 say 'bed' or 'staff,' and does it matter?
The ancient witnesses genuinely diverge: the Hebrew Bible reads 'bed,' while the Greek Old Testament reads 'staff' — and the author of Hebrews quotes the Greek version when he says Jacob 'worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff.' The difference comes down to how one Hebrew word was vowel-pointed, not to any textual corruption.
At the end of Genesis 47, after Joseph swears to bury Jacob in Canaan, the narrator records a worship act — and the word in the middle of it has looked different depending on which ancient Bible you read.
The Masoretic Text (the Hebrew Bible as preserved by Jewish scribes after AD 70) reads: "Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed" — עַל רֹאשׁ הַמִּטָּה (al rosh ha-mittah, H4296). The Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint, translated from a Hebrew text centuries older than the surviving Masoretic manuscripts) reads: "Israel worshipped upon the top of his staff" — ἐπὶ τὸ ἄκρον τῆς ῥάβδου αὐτοῦ (LXX Gen 47:31). The author of Hebrews, quoting this passage as an act of faith, follows the Greek: "by faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, worshipping over the top of his staff" (Hebrews 11:21).
How can the same verse produce both readings? The answer is that the consonantal Hebrew text is identical in both traditions. The word is spelled מטה — the same four letters in both Bibles. What differs is the vocalization: the Masoretic scribes pointed those consonants as מִטָּה (mittah, bed, H4296); the translators who produced the Greek version read the same consonants as מַטֶּה (matteh, staff, H4294). Both words exist in Hebrew. Both meanings are internally plausible.
No Dead Sea Scrolls fragment survives for Genesis 47:31, so there is no older Hebrew manuscript to resolve the question. The consonants alone are the shared data.
"And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed."
— Genesis 47:31 (MT)
"And Israel worshipped upon the top of his staff."
— LXX Genesis 47:31
The "bed" reading fits the next chapter well: when Joseph comes to visit in Genesis 48:2, "Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed" — the same word, the same object. The "staff" reading fits the image of an aged patriarch leaning on a walking stick as he bows in worship, an image the author of Hebrews found compelling enough to highlight as a faith-act.
The theology is unaffected by the variant. Both traditions agree on the verb — שָׁחָה (shachah, H7812) in the Hebrew, προσκυνέω in the Greek — and on its meaning: Jacob worshipped. That is what Hebrews calls faith. A dying man, having secured the oath that anchors his bones to the land of promise, bows in anticipation of a burial he cannot arrange himself. Whether he leans on a bed-post or a walking staff, the act is the same: he trusted the covenant and worshipped.
The same kind of vocalization question appears one chapter earlier — seventy persons in the Hebrew of Genesis 46:27, seventy-five in the Greek, the number Stephen follows in Acts 7:14. Neither of these is a theological crisis; both are honest textual-witness facts, worth knowing because honesty about the text is part of taking it seriously.
The full study lays out the MT and LXX side by side, explains the vocalization mechanics, and shows how Hebrews 11:21 uses the passage in Jacob Blessed Pharaoh.
What does 'few and evil days' mean in Genesis 47:9?
Jacob is giving an honest, unsentimental assessment of his 130 years: genuinely fewer than his fathers' lifespans and genuinely marked by hardship — flight from Esau, twenty years under Laban, the rape of Dinah, the loss of Rachel, the supposed death of Joseph. This is not false modesty before a king.
Why did Israel multiply so much in Egypt?
Because Egypt was where God fulfilled the creation mandate he had promised to the patriarchs. 'Be fruitful and multiply' was the command God gave at creation and renewed to Jacob at Bethel — and Genesis 47:27 is the first verse in the Bible where the narrator reports it actually happened.
Why did Jacob bless Pharaoh instead of the other way around?
Because Jacob was the greater party — not by political power, but by covenant standing. The author of Hebrews makes the principle explicit: the lesser is always blessed by the greater, and the old, dependent patriarch was the one carrying the Abrahamic blessing into Egypt.
Why did Jacob make Joseph swear with his hand under his thigh?
The hand-under-thigh gesture is the most solemn oath the patriarchal narratives know, and it appears only twice in the entire Bible — both times about the land of promise. Jacob is invoking the full weight of the covenant, not just making a personal request.