Hebrews 11:21

By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) Both the sons.—Rather, each of the sons. The separate character of the two blessings is thus brought out (Genesis 48:14-19). (See the last Note.) In the case of the two events mentioned in this verse the order of time is reversed, probably that the blessing of Jacob may immediately follow the similar record of Hebrews 11:20.

And worshipped.—The incident referred to will be found in Genesis 47:31. After receiving from Joseph a promise, confirmed by oath, that he shall be buried with his fathers, “Israel bowed himself upon” (or, worshipped towards) “the bed’s head.” In the LXX. and in the Targums the words are understood as denoting an act of worship. The Greek translators have taken the last word of the Hebrew verse to denote “staff” (Genesis 32:10), not “bed,” the words which bear these different meanings differing very slightly in form. The whole clause is given here as it stands in the LXX., the difference between the renderings being immaterial for the purpose which the writer had in view. The quotation of the familiar words serves to recall the scene, and brings before us Israel’s thankful and devout satisfaction when assured that he should rest with his fathers in the land of Canaan; by this, at the point of death, he expressed his faith in the promise by which Abraham and his seed received Canaan as their inheritance.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:20-31 Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, concerning things to come. Things present are not the best things; no man knoweth love or hatred by having them or wanting them. Jacob lived by faith, and he died by faith, and in faith. Though the grace of faith is of use always through our whole lives, it is especially so when we come to die. Faith has a great work to do at last, to help the believer to die to the Lord, so as to honour him, by patience, hope, and joy. Joseph was tried by temptations to sin, by persecution for keeping his integrity; and he was tried by honours and power in the court of Pharaoh, yet his faith carried him through. It is a great mercy to be free from wicked laws and edicts; but when we are not so, we must use all lawful means for our security. In this faith of Moses' parents there was a mixture of unbelief, but God was pleased to overlook it. Faith gives strength against the sinful, slavish fear of men; it sets God before the soul, shows the vanity of the creature, and that all must give way to the will and power of God. The pleasures of sin are, and will be, but short; they must end either in speedy repentance or in speedy ruin. The pleasures of this world are for the most part the pleasures of sin; they are always so when we cannot enjoy them without deserting God and his people. Suffering is to be chosen rather than sin; there being more evil in the least sin, than there can be in the greatest suffering. God's people are, and always have been, a reproached people. Christ accounts himself reproached in their reproaches; and thus they become greater riches than the treasures of the richest empire in the world. Moses made his choice when ripe for judgment and enjoyment, able to know what he did, and why he did it. It is needful for persons to be seriously religious; to despise the world, when most capable of relishing and enjoying it. Believers may and ought to have respect to the recompence of reward. By faith we may be fully sure of God's providence, and of his gracious and powerful presence with us. Such a sight of God will enable believers to keep on to the end, whatever they may meet in the way. It is not owing to our own righteousness, or best performances, that we are saved from the wrath of God; but to the blood of Christ, and his imputed righteousness. True faith makes sin bitter to the soul, even while it receives the pardon and atonement. All our spiritual privileges on earth, should quicken us in our way to heaven. The Lord will make even Babylon fall before the faith of his people, and when he has some great thing to do for them, he raises up great and strong faith in them. A true believer is desirous, not only to be in covenant with God, but in communion with the people of God; and is willing to fare as they fare. By her works Rahab declared herself to be just. That she was not justified by her works appears plainly; because the work she did was faulty in the manner, and not perfectly good, therefore it could not be answerable to the perfect justice or righteousness of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

By faith Jacob, when he was a dying - Genesis 47:31; Genesis 48:1-20. That is, when he was about to die. He saw his death near when he pronounced this blessing on Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph.

And worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff - This is an exact quotation from the Septuagint in Genesis 47:31. The English version of that place is, "and Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head," which is a proper translation, in the main, of the word מטּה miTTah. That word, however, with different vowel points - מטּה maTTeh, means a branch, a bough, a rod, a staff, and the translators of the Septuagint have so rendered it. The Masoretic points are of no authority, and either translation, therefore, would be proper. The word rendered "head" in Genesis 47:31 - "bed's head" - ראשׁ ro'sh, means properly head, but may there mean the top of anything, and there is no impropriety in applying it to the head or top of a staff. The word rendered in Genesis 47:31 as "bowed" - וישׁתחו wayishtachuw - implies properly the idea of "worshipping." It is bowing, or prostration for the purpose of worship or homage.

Though the Septuagint and the apostle here have, therefore, given a somewhat different version from that commonly given of the Hebrew, and sustained by the Masoretic pointing, yet it cannot be demonstrated that the version is unauthorized, or that it is not a fair translation of the Hebrew. It has also the probabilities of the case in its favour. Jacob was tenderly affected in view of the goodness of God, and of the assurance that he would be conveyed from Egypt when he died, and buried in the land of his fathers. Deeply impressed with this, nothing was more natural than that the old man should lean reverently forward and incline his head upon the top of his staff, and adore the covenant faithfulness of his God. Such an image is much more natural and probable than that he should "bow upon his bed's head" - a phrase which at best is not very intelligible. If this be the true account, then the apostle does not refer here to what was done when he "blessed the sons of Joseph," but to an act expressive of strong faith in God which had occurred just before. The meaning then is, "By faith when about to die he blessed the sons of Joseph; and by faith also he reverently bowed before God in the belief that when he died his remains would be conveyed to the promised land, and expressed his gratitude in an act of worship, leaning reverently on the top of his staff." The order in which these things are mentioned is of no consequence, and thus the whole difficulty in the case vanishes. Both the acts here referred to were expressive of strong confidence in God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. both the sons—Greek, "each of the sons" (Ge 47:29; 48:8-20). He knew not Joseph's sons, and could not distinguish them by sight, yet he did distinguish them by faith, transposing his hands intentionally, so as to lay his right hand on the younger, Ephraim, whose posterity was to be greater than that of Manasseh: he also adopted these grandchildren as his own sons, after having transferred the right of primogeniture to Joseph (Ge 48:22).

and worshipped—This did not take place in immediate connection with the foregoing, but before it, when Jacob made Joseph swear that he would bury him with his fathers in Canaan, not in Egypt. The assurance that Joseph would do so filled him with pious gratitude to God, which he expressed by raising himself on his bed to an attitude of worship. His faith, as Joseph's (Heb 11:22), consisted in his so confidentially anticipating the fulfilment of God's promise of Canaan to his descendants, as to desire to be buried there as his proper possession.

leaning upon the top of his staff—Ge 47:31, Hebrew and English Version, "upon the bed's head." The Septuagint translates as Paul here. Jerome justly reprobates the notion of modern Rome, that Jacob worshipped the top of Joseph's staff, having on it an image of Joseph's power, to which Jacob bowed in recognition of the future sovereignty of his son's tribe, the father bowing to the son! The Hebrew, as translated in English Version, sets it aside: the bed is alluded to afterwards (Ge 48:2; 49:33), and it is likely that Jacob turned himself in his bed so as to have his face toward the pillow, Isa 38:2 (there were no bedsteads in the East). Paul by adopting the Septuagint version, brings out, under the Spirit, an additional fact, namely, that the aged patriarch used his own (not Joseph's) staff to lean on in worshipping on his bed. The staff, too, was the emblem of his pilgrim state here on his way to his heavenly city (Heb 11:13, 14), wherein God had so wonderfully supported him. Ge 32:10, "With my staff I passed over Jordan, and now I am become," &c. (compare Ex 12:11; Mr 6:8). In 1Ki 1:47, the same thing is said of David's "bowing on his bed," an act of adoring thanksgiving to God for God's favor to his son before death. He omits the more leading blessing of the twelve sons of Jacob; because "he plucks only the flowers which stand by his way, and leaves the whole meadow full to his readers" [Delitzsch in Alford].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph: Jacob did not degenerate from his progenitors, but by the same excellent faith (being heir to the birthright and blessing, by God’s appointment, and his father’s confirmation, as Genesis 28:1,3,4) doth, as a grandfather and a prophet, near expiring, weak in body, but strong in faith, bless Joseph, and each of his sons, Genesis 48:15-20, preferring Ephraim the younger before Manasseh the elder, by laying his right hand on his head, and his left on the other’s; and so adopts them to be his children, gives them the blessing of the covenant, as to their persons, and the inheritance of two tribes amongst his sons, as belonging to Joseph, as his birthright, Genesis 49:22-26. These by faith he foretold, and applied particularly to each of them from God himself through prayer.

And worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff: another effect of his faith, is his worshipping God, having bequeathed his body to the burial in a firm expectation of the promised inheritance, as the history clears, Genesis 47:29-31 48:21,22. For having sent for Joseph, he raiseth up himself on the pillow at the bed’s head, and for his support used his staff, leaning on the head of it, when in faith he declares his will to his son Joseph, and binds him by an oath to bury him in Machpelah in Canaan, with Abraham and Isaac, heirs of the same promise, as an earnest and handsel of the twelve tribes’ possessing it; which Joseph having solemnly sworn to him, Jacob bowed himself and worshipped, lifting up his heart to God in thankfulness for his continual providence in the gradual accomplishment of his promise to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This he did

by faith, adoring his sovereign Lord and Saviour by his humbly bowing before him. There was no need of faith to bow to Joseph, who was inferior to Jacob, and blessed by him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

By faith Jacob, when he was a dying,.... Which was the usual time of blessing with the patriarchs; and the reason of it was, that what was said might be more attended to and regarded, and more strongly impressed upon the mind; and this is a proof that it was done in faith by Jacob, when there was no appearance of the fulfilment of these things, and it was not likely that he should see them; and this shows the truth of what the apostle says in Hebrews 11:1, blessed both the sons of Joseph; whose names were Ephraim and Manasseh; the form of blessing them is recorded in Genesis 48:15 and which was done in faith, and under the direction and inspiration of the Spirit of God, as appears by his setting Ephraim before Manasseh, Genesis 48:13 and when he delivered the blessing he firmly believed it would be fulfilled, though they were then in a strange land:

and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff; not that he "worshipped the top of his staff", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it, either his own, or Joseph's, or any little image upon the top of it; which would be an instance of idolatry, and not faith, contrary to the scope of the apostle; nor is there any need to interpret this of civil worship and respect paid to Joseph, as a fulfilment of his dream, and with a peculiar regard to Christ, of whom Joseph was a type; whereas, on the contrary, Joseph at this time bowed to his father, as was most natural and proper, Genesis 48:12 nor is there any necessity of supposing a different punctuation of Genesis 47:31 and that the true reading is not "mittah", a bed, but "matteh"; a staff, contrary to all the Targums (f), and the Talmud (g), which read "mittah", a bed, seeing it is not that place the apostle cites or refers to; for that was before the blessing of the sons of Joseph, but this was at the same time; and the apostle relates what is nowhere recorded in Genesis, but what he had either from tradition, or immediate revelation; or else he concludes it from the general account in Genesis 48:1 and the sense is, that Jacob, having blessed the two sons of Joseph, being sat upon his bed, and weak, he leaned upon the top of his staff, and worshipped God, and gave praise and glory to him, that he had lived to see not only his son Joseph, but his seed also, see Genesis 48:2.

(f) Onkelos, Jonathan & Jerusalem in Genesis 47.31. (g) T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 16. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

{9} By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.

(9) Jacob.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Hebrews 11:21. The conduct of Jacob, Genesis 48, analogous to the fact adduced Hebrews 11:20. Here, too, the blessing related to the future, and in like manner as Hebrews 11:20, to the pre-eminence of the younger son (Ephraim) over the elder (Manasseh).

ἀποθνήσκων] when he was dying. Reference to Genesis 47:31 : ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀποθνήσκω.

καὶ προσεκύνησεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἄκρον τῆς ῥάβδου αὐτοῦ] and he worshipped (bowing) upon the top of his staff, i.e. in that from weakness he supported himself with his face resting upon the top of his staff. Addition from LXX. Genesis 47:31 (inexactly referred to this place), for the bringing out of the solemn, devotional frame of Jacob in uttering this benediction [the same spirit being breathed in Genesis 49:18]. In the Hebrew the words read: וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ יִשׂרָאֵל עַל־רֹאשׁ הַמִּטָּה (i.e. according to Tuch: “and Israel leaned back upon the head of the bed;” but, more correctly, according to Knobel: “and Israel bowed himself upon the head of the couch, inasmuch as he had before, during his conversation with Joseph, been sitting upright upon his couch (comp. Genesis 48:2), but now leaned forward to the upper end thereof, and blessed God for the granting of the last wish”). The LXX., however, read the vowels הַמַּטֶּה, and their translation was followed by our author in this passage as elsewhere. Strangely does Hofmann perceive in the subordinate particular καὶ προσεκύνησεν κ.τ.λ., a “second thing” adduced as proving the faith of Jacob. The first is, according to him, Jacob’s last testament, the second his departure from life (!).

The supposition that τῷ Ἰωσήφ is to be supplemented to προσεκύνησεν (so Chrysostom: τουτέστι καὶ γέρων ὢν ἤδη προσεκύνει τῷ Ἰωσήφ, τὴν παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ προσκύνησιν δηλῶν τὴν ἐσομένην αὐτῷ; Theodoret, Photius in Oecumenius, Theophylact, and others), is, equally with the view akin thereto, that αὐτοῦ is to be referred to Ἰωσήφ, and ἐπὶ τὸ ἄκρον τῆς ῥάβδου αὐτοῦ is to be regarded as the object to προσεκύνησεν (so the Vulgate: et adoravit fastigium virgae ejus; Primasius: virgae ejus i. e. virgae Jos.; Oecumenius: τοσοῦτον … ἐπίστευσε τοῖς ἐσομένοις, ὅτι καὶ προσεκύνησε τῇ ῥάβδῳ, δοκῶν ὁρᾶν τὰ ἐσόμενα; Clarius, Bisping, Reuss: “Jacob, after having received the oath of Joseph, bowed (s’inclina) towards the head of the latter’s staff, in token of submission, that is to say, in order solemnly to acknowledge Joseph as head of the family. The staff is the symbol of power;” and others), to be rejected as untenable. The first-named has against it the fact, that in that which precedes, the discourse is not of Joseph himself, but of his sons; the latter, that the making of ἐπί τι a note of object to προσκυνεῖν is opposed to all the usage of the language.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. both the sons] Rather, “each of the sons.” He made a marked difference between them (Genesis 48:17-19).

worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff] In this verse there is an allusion to two separate events. The first is the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48:1-20); the other an earlier occasion (Genesis 47:29-31). In our version it is rendered “And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head,” but in the LXX. and Peshito as here, it is “upon the top of his staff.” The reason for the variation is that having no vowel points the LXX. understood the word to be matteh, “staff,” not mittah, “bed,” as in Genesis 48:2. If they were right in this view, the passage means that Jacob, rising from his bed to take the oath from Joseph, supported his aged limbs on the staff, which was a type of his pilgrimage (Genesis 32:10), and at the end of the oath bowed his head over the staff in sign of thanks and reverence to God. The Vulgate. (here following the Itala) erroneously renders it adoravit fastigium virgae ejus, Jacob “adored the top of his (Joseph’s) staff,” and the verse has been quoted (e.g. by Cornelius a Lapide) in defence of image-worship. Yet in Genesis 47:31 the Vulgate has “adoravit Deum, conversus ad lectuli caput.” Probably all that is meant is that, being too feeble to rise and kneel or stand, Jacob “bowed himself upon the head of his couch” in an attitude of prayer, just as the aged David did on his deathbed (1 Kings 1:47).

Bengel's Gnomen

Hebrews 11:21. Ἀποθνήσκων, when dying) near death; Genesis 47:29.—τῶν υἱῶν Ἰωσὴφ, the sons of Joseph) He also blessed his own sons, Genesis 49, and divided the land of Canaan among them, as if it had been already in their possession; but the blessing of the sons of Joseph, on both of whom he laid his hands, had many things extraordinary; for he knew his own sons long ago; whereas he could not distinguish the sons of Joseph by sight, and yet he distinguished them by faith, Genesis 48:10; and, from being grand-children, he declared them to be his sons, when he had transferred the right of primogeniture to Joseph, and had adopted his two children.—καὶ προσεκύνησεν) and worshipped the Lord; Genesis 47:31. The apostle has respect to that very thing which Moses mentioned as having been done by Israel, when the oath of Joseph gave him the assurance that he would be buried in the Land of Promise; comp. Hebrews 11:22 : whence the mind and body of the godly old man were raised.—ἐπὶ τὸ ἄκρον τῆς ῥάβδου αὐτοῦ) So plainly the LXX., in the passage quoted above, on the top of his staff. They read הַמַּטֶּה for that which is read in the Hebrew הַמִּטָּה, τῆς κλίνης, of the bed; as we find it also in the Chaldee Paraphrast, Aquila, and Symmachus. Jacob’s bed is also mentioned immediately after, Genesis 48:2; Genesis 49:33; and yet we may suppose that even then Jacob had a staff at his hand, for that is usual in the case of weak old men. Hombergkius compares Homer, who brings in his heroes speaking, and commonly uses the expression, σκήπτρῳ ἐρεισάμενος, leaning on his staff or sceptre; but the same individual afterwards translates the word προσεκύνησεν, bent himself, which weakens the sense. Moses does not mention Jacob speaking, much less standing, during that act of worship. There was greater reason for Moses mentioning both the bed and the head of the bed, than for his mentioning the rod and the top of the rod. For in like manner, in 1 Kings 1:47, King David worshipped on his bed: and Jacob, having slightly changed that position of body in which, reclining, he had received the oath of Joseph, sworn on his thigh [Genesis 47:29], and having turned his face from the other part of the bed and towards the top, where the bolster is (ראש ἄκρον, the top of a mountain, of a wall, etc.), seems on his knees, and with collected strength to have worshipped, as in Genesis 48:2. However he might on the bed itself support his side or arm with a staff. “Thus some writers of both the Old and New Testament are accustomed to supply what has been omitted by others, and, as opportunity offers, to insert some things from the tradition of their ancestors, which were not much known in the course of ages.”—Surenhusius. Whether the apostle knew, from divine or human evidence, that the circumstance concerning the staff also was true, or considered that it made no difference in the main facts, he rightly retains the reading of the LXX., as afterwards at Hebrews 11:23.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. Here two distinct incidents are referred to, both at the close of Jacob's life. That first mentioned, the blessing of the sons of Joseph (Genesis 48:2), closely resembles the dying act of Isaac already spoken of, and has a similar significance. In both cases, too, human intention is overruled, in that the younger son obtains the higher blessing; and each patriarch accepts alike the Divine intimation to this effect, thus further evincing faith in a power and a will above his own. The latter part of the verse, "and worshipped," etc., is quoted from Genesis 47:31, and refers to a previous instance of the dying Jacob's faith, in his charge to Joseph to bury him with his fathers in the land of promise. The reversal in the text of the historical order of the two instances may be because the one referred to first is cognate with the instance of Isaac's faith which has gone before, the other with that of Joseph's which follows. For the benedictions of Isaac and Jacob, when a-dying, expressed faith in revelations made to them about the several races of their future seed; the deathbed charges of Jacob and Joseph expressed faith in the chosen seed's inheritance of the Promised Land. Though in the verse before us Jacob's charge to Joseph, with a view to this inheritance, is not mentioned, yet the quotation from the account of it in Genesis, "and worshipped," etc., would be sufficient, in this concise summary of instances, to recall it to the mind of readers, and so intimate the writer's meaning. The variation of the LXX., which is here followed as usual, from the Massoretic text, in reading "staff" instead of "bed," is due to the ambiguity of the Hebrew word, which has one meaning or the other according to its pointing. "Bed" seems more likely to have been intended, inasmuch as the bed on which the patriarch lay is twice again mentioned (Genesis 48:2; Genesis 49:33) in the account of the closing scene; and we find also a similar expression used of David in his old age (1 Kings 1:47). Bat the variation is unimportant, the essence of the passage being in the word translated "bowed himself," which in the Hebrew as well as the Greek certainly expresses an act of worship. The only difference is that, according to one rendering, this worship was expressed by his bowing over the staff on which he leant as he sat upon the bed (Genesis 48:2); according to the other, by his turning round to prostrate himself with his head upon the pillow. The view of some of the Fathers, who, adopting the LXX. rendering and supposing the staff to be Joseph's, regard the act as expressing reverence to Joseph himself, in fulfillment of Gem 38:5-11, has little probability in its favor, and is controverted by St. Augustine. But so Chrysostom, and apparently Theodoret. And suitably to this idea, the Vulgate has in Hebrews, "et adoravit fastigium virgae ejus," though in Genesis, "adoravit Israel Deum, conversus ad lectuli caput." Quite untenable, and only worthy of mention because of the use that has been made of it in support of image-worship, is the idea that Joseph's staff was surmounted by some sacred image which Jacob adored. Hebrews 11:21

Vincent's Word Studies

When he died (ἀποθνήσκων)

Rend. "when dying." It is quite superfluous to explain this as emphasizing the strength in contrast with the weakness of approaching death; or that, in the birth of Joseph's two sons before Jacob's death, Jacob discerned a monition to adopt them into the direct line of his own sons. The meaning is simply that these events took place in Jacob's last hours.

Blessed each (ἕκαστον εὐλόγησεν)

See Genesis 48:17-20. Each son received a separate and distinct blessing, although Joseph had expected only one common blessing for both. Jacob's discernment of faith appeared in this, as in the precedence assigned to the younger son.

And worshipped leaning on the top of his staff (καὶ προσεκύνησεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἄκρον τῆς ῥάβδου αὐτοῦ)

From the lxx of Genesis 47:31. It seems to have been loosely included by our writer among the incidents of Jacob's last hours (ἀποθνήσκων), although it belongs to a different part of the narrative. The promise given by Joseph to remove his father's remains to the family sepulchre may have been regarded as preparatory to the blessing, or introduced in order to emphasize the devotional character of the entire proceeding. The words upon the head of his staff are from the lxx; the Hebrew being "Jacob bowed himself upon the head of the bed." Comp. 1 Kings 1:47. According to its vowel-points the same Hebrew word signifies either staff or bed. The lxx has chosen the former, and renders by ῥάβδος staff. According to the Hebrew, the meaning is that Jacob, having been sitting during the conversation, lay down when it was finished, probably overcome by weakness, and breathing a prayer as he fell back on his pillow.