And he said, “Swear to me”; and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed.
An old man in Egypt arranges his own funeral, and the arrangement turns into worship. Jacob makes Joseph swear to bury him in Canaan, then bows — and Hebrews 11 looks back at that bow as the high point of his faith.
The oath about burial
This is not sentiment about a family grave. Jacob refuses to let Egypt become the resting place of a family God had promised a land.
L. M. GrantJacob wants to be sure that he is not buried in Egypt, but in the burial place of his fathers in Canaan. This was the land of promise, the land God had sworn to give to the seed of Abraham, confirming it to Isaac and also to Jacob himself. Jacob and his children are not to forget their homeland.
A promise between father and son would have been enough. Jacob wants an oath — and he had asked for nothing else in all his years in Egypt.
J. G. BellettWe never find him urgent about the conditions of his life in Egypt. He seems willing to take what they give him and to be what they make him. But as to his burial, he is all urgency and decision. He will have it confirmed by an oath: his son will carry his dead body to the land where God made him the promise. He is earnest and firm now, as he was indifferent before. For faith likes to read its title clear, full, and beyond dispute.
Bed or staff
Hebrews 11 describes the same moment, but says he bowed over the head of his staff, not his bed. Commentators differ on which reading is right. One answer keeps both records.
The Bible TreasuryThe Hebrew and the Greek differ only in the vowel marks. One word means a staff, the other a bed, and both come from the same root. There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the "bed" in the Old Testament, nor of the "staff" in the New Testament. The staff was in his hand while he bowed himself down upon the bed's head.
Others take staff as the right reading in Genesis too:
The Bible TreasuryThis would appear to be the correct reading. The Greek Old Testament has it so, and so does the Apostle in Hebrews 11… The staff is a picture of the word of God, the support and defence of the soul. This small action of Jacob's must matter, or we would not have it recorded twice… The fact is that now Jacob returns to the simplicity of entire dependence on God. While he was prosperous he had said that he set out and crossed the Jordan with only his staff, and that he had gained great wealth since. Now he is going to leave it all and come back to the bare staff; leaning on that alone he worships God.
The staff was his own
The staff in his hand is not borrowed from Joseph. It carries his own history.
William KellyThere is not the least ground for making the rod or staff to be Joseph's. It was Jacob's. He had once crossed the Jordan with this staff as a poor outcast, as he tells us himself. He said so when he came back with two companies and was afraid of Esau. Now, in Egypt, before Joseph and his sons, the dying pilgrim leans on the staff that had been the companion of his own weary wanderings. He worships the God whose faithfulness he had proved all the way through.
Worship crowns the life
Jacob's story is full of scheming and shortcuts. The bowing at the bed's head is where that ends.
Hamilton SmithWith the goodness of God filling his soul… he has reached the highest moment in his spiritual life — he is a worshipper. We know from the Holy Spirit's comment in Hebrews 11 that this was the crowning act of faith in Jacob's life… The scheming, the taking of another's place, the selfishness and the independence that so often spoiled his path had passed away. At last faith, dependence and worship mark Jacob.
Why he needed the support
Even the way he leaned carries a lesson.
W. T. P. WolstonWhy did he lean on the top of his staff? Because he could not hold himself up without support; he had learned to be dependent. He went off the scene worshipping, and his death was bright, even if his life was not. We should all take a lesson from this, and seek to live brightly for Christ… People sometimes ask, "How did he die?" But I want to know, "How did he live?"
Summary
- Promise — Jacob refuses an Egyptian grave. God had sworn Canaan to Abraham, to Isaac and to him, and Jacob's burial claims that promise.
- Oath — he took whatever Egypt gave him, but on this one thing he is urgent. Faith wants its title clear and beyond dispute.
- Staff — Genesis says bed and Hebrews says staff, and both are true. The staff is his own, the companion of his wanderings, and he ends life holding nothing else.
- Dependence — he leans because he cannot stand alone. The schemer has become a man who rests wholly on God.
- Worship — this bow is the crowning act of faith in his life. A stormy history ends with Jacob as a worshipper.