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Heb 11:21. Ἀποθνήσκων, when dying) near death; Gen 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, Gen 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; Gen 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. Heb 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, Gen 48:2; Gen 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 1Ki 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 [Gen 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 Gen 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 Heb 11:23.