47:31. And he said: Swear then to me. And as he was swearing, Israel adored God, turning to the bed's head.
To the bed's head. . .St. Paul, Heb. 11.21, following the Greek translation of the Septuagint, reads adored the top of his rod. Where note, that the same word in the Hebrew, according to the different pointing of it, signifies both a bed and a rod. And to verify both these sentences, we must understand that Jacob leaning on Joseph's rod adored, turning towards the head of his bed: which adoration, inasmuch as it was referred to God, was an absolute and sovereign worship: but inasmuch as it was referred to the rod of Joseph, as a figure of the sceptre, that is, of the royal dignity of Christ, was only an inferior and relative honour.
Genesis Chapter 48
Joseph visiteth his father in his sickness, who adopteth his two sons Manasses and Ephraim, and blesseth them, preferring the younger before the elder.
48:1. After these things, it was told Joseph that his father was sick; and he set out to go to him, taking his two sons Manasses and Ephraim.
48:2. And it was told the old man: Behold thy son Joseph cometh to thee. And being strengthened, he sat on his bed.
48:3. And when Joseph was come in to him, he said: God almighty appeared to me at Luza, which is in the land of Chanaan, and he blessed me,
48:4. And said: I will cause thee to increase and multiply, and I will make of thee a multitude of people: and I will give this land to thee, and to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.
48:5. So thy two sons, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt before I came hither to thee, shall be mine: Ephraim and Manasses shall be reputed to me as Ruben and Simeon.
48:6. But the rest whom thou shalt have after them, shall be thine, and shall be called by the name of their brethren in their possessions.