47:19. Why therefore shall we die before thy eyes? we will be thine, both we and our lands: buy us to be the king's servants, and give us seed, lest for want of tillers the land be turned into a wilderness. 47:20. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt, every man selling his possessions, because of the greatness of the famine. And he brought it into Pharao's hands: 47:21. And all its people from one end of the borders of Egypt, even to the other end thereof, 47:22. Except the land of the priests, which had been given them by the king: to whom also a certain allowance of food was given out of the public stores, and therefore they were not forced to sell their possessions. 47:23. Then Joseph said to the people: Behold, as you see, both you and your lands belong to Pharao; take seed and sow the fields, 47:24. That you may have corn. The fifth part you shall give to the king; the other four you shall have for seed, and for food for your families and children. 47:25. And they answered: our life is in thy hand; only let my lord look favourably upon us, and we will gladly serve the king. 47:26. From that time unto this day, in the whole land of Egypt, the fifth part is paid to the kings, and it is become as a law, except the land of the priests, which was free from this covenant. 47:27. So Israel dwelt in Egypt, that is, in the land of Gessen, and possessed it; and grew, and was multiplied exceedingly. 47:28. And he lived in it seventeen years: and all the days of his life came to a hundred and forty-seven years. 47:29. And when he saw that the day of his death drew nigh, he called his son Joseph, and said to him: If I have found favour in thy sight, put thy hand under my thigh; and thou shalt shew me this kindness and truth, not to bury me in Egypt. 47:30. But I will sleep with my fathers, and thou shalt take me away out of this land, and bury me in the burying place of my ancestors. And Joseph answered him: I will do what thou hast commanded. 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.