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LXX Genesis

Septuagint

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Chapter 47

1 And Joseph came and told Pharaoh, saying, My father, and my brothers, and their cattle, and their oxen, and all their possessions, have come out of the land of Canaan, and look, they are in the land of Goshen. 2 And he took of his brothers five men, and set them before Pharaoh. 3 And Pharaoh said to the brothers of Joseph, What is your occupation? and they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers. 4 And they said to Pharaoh, We have come to stay in the land, for there is no pasture for the flocks of your servants, for the famine has prevailed in the land of Canaan; now then, we your servants will dwell in the land of Goshen. 5 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Let them dwell in the land of Goshen; and if you know that there are among them able men, make them overseers of my cattle. So Jacob and his sons came into Egypt, to Joseph; and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, heard of it. And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, Your father, and your brothers, have come to you. 6 Look, the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best land. 7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the years of the days of your life? 9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my life, in which I stay, are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, they have not attained to the days of the life of my fathers, in which days they stayed. 10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and departed from him. 11 And Joseph settled his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh commanded. 12 And Joseph gave provision to his father, and his brothers, and to all the house of his father, grain for each person. 13 And there was no grain in all the land, for the famine prevailed greatly; and the land of Egypt, and the land of Canaan, fainted for the famine. 14 And Joseph gathered all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and the land of Canaan, in return for the grain which they bought, and he distributed grain to them; and Joseph brought all the money into the house of Pharaoh. 15 And all the money failed out of the land of Egypt, and out of the land of Canaan; and all the Egyptians came to Joseph, saying, Give us bread, and why do we die in your presence? for our money is spent. 16 And Joseph said to them, Bring your cattle, and I will give you bread for your cattle, if your money is spent. 17 And they brought their cattle to Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread in return for their horses, and for their sheep, and for their oxen, and for their donkeys; and Joseph maintained them with bread for all their cattle in that year. 18 And that year passed, and they came to him in the second year, and said to him, Must we then be consumed from before our lord? for if our money has failed, and our possessions, and our cattle, brought to you our lord, and there has not been left to us before our lord more than our own bodies and our land. 19 In order, then, that we may not die before you, and the land be made desolate, buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh: give seed that we may sow, and live and not die, so our land shall not be made desolate. 20 And Joseph bought all the land of the Egyptians, for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold their land to Pharaoh; for the famine prevailed against them, and the land became Pharaoh's. 21 And he brought the people into bondage to him, for servants,⁠ from one extremity of Egypt to the other, 22 except only the land of the priests; Joseph did not buy this, for Pharaoh gave a portion in the way of gift to the priests; and they ate their portion which Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land. 23 And Joseph said to all the Egyptians, Look, I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh; take seed for you, and sow the land. 24 And there shall be the fruits of it; and you shall give the fifth part to Pharaoh, and the four remaining parts shall be for yourselves, for seed for the earth, and for food for you, and all that are in your houses. 25 And they said, You have saved us; we have found favor before our lord, and we will be servants to Pharaoh. 26 And Joseph appointed it to them for an ordinance until this day; to reserve a fifth part for Pharaoh, on the land of Egypt, except only the land of the priests, that was not Pharaoh's. 27 And Israel lived in Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they gained an inheritance upon it; and they increased and multiplied very greatly. 28 And Jacob survived seventeen years in the land of Egypt; and Jacob's days of the years of his life were one hundred and forty-seven years. 29 and the days of Israel drew near for him to die: and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If I have found favor before you, put your hand under my thigh, and you shall execute mercy and truth toward me, so as not to bury me in Egypt. 30 But I will sleep with my fathers, and you shall carry me up out of Egypt, and bury me in their tomb. And he said, I will do according to your word. 31 And he said, Swear to me; and he swore to him. And Israel did reverence, leaning on the top of his staff.⁠

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Compare Genesis 47:31 and LXX Genesis 47:31

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Genesis 47 says Israel bowed at the head of his bed after Joseph swore to bury him in Canaan. The Greek Septuagint says he bowed on top of his staff, because the translator misread the Hebrew consonants, which can mean either “bed” or “staff.”

Passages

Genesis 47:31

Hebrew Bible
29 The time for Israel to die approached, so he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30 but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” Joseph said, “I will do as you say.” 31 Jacob said, “Swear to me that you will do so.” So Joseph gave him his word. Then Israel bowed down at the head of his bed.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

LXX Genesis 47:31

Septuagint
29 and the days of Israel drew near for him to die: and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If I have found favor before you, put your hand under my thigh, and you shall execute mercy and truth toward me, so as not to bury me in Egypt. 30 But I will sleep with my fathers, and you shall carry me up out of Egypt, and bury me in their tomb. And he said, I will do according to your word. 31 And he said, Swear to me; and he swore to him. And Israel did reverence, leaning on the top of his staff.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Genesis

References

"... the rendering of mittah "bed," a relatively rare word in Late Hebrew that was not understood by the translator of Genesis. This translator identified it as matteh in 47:31 ("staff" as in the earlier contexts Gen 38:18, 25), thus creating an unusual context: "Then Israel bowed at the head of the bed (NJPS)" — "and Israel did obeisance at the top of his staff (NETS)." Two verses later (48:2) as well as in 49:33 the translator correctly identified this word as "bed."" ..."
Emanuel Tov, “The Septuagint Translation of Genesis,” in Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, Septuagint: Collected Essays, Volume 3 (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 469.
"... The unpointed noun in Genesis could be read as either matteh ("staff") or mittah ("bed"), and the Greek translator inferred that the word staff was meant. Some centuries later, when vowel points were added to the Hebrew biblical texts, the noun in Genesis 47:31 was taken to mean "bed."" ..."
Karen H. Jobes and Moisés Silva, Invitation to the Septuagint (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2000), 24.
"... The Septuagint translator misread the Hebrew "bed" as "staff," since both nouns have the same consonantal spelling (Hebrew mth). In Hebrews 11:21 the writer quotes from the Septuagint, "By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the top of his staff," instead of what the writer of Genesis 47:31 intended to say." ..."
Timothy Michael Law, When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 125.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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