103 
Nevertheless,, it is worth while to inquire whether there was 
not a solemn interchange of mutual reverence. 
The son Joseph obeys his father's behest by swearing to * 
fulfil his injunction to bury him in the Makpelah. 
But in making that request Jacob had observed a ceremo- 
nial reverence as towards a lord ; “ If now I have found grace 
in thy sight/' being evidently mindful of the high place of 
authority held by Joseph, which, indeed, was ultimately 
manifested by the royal pomp of the obsequies accorded to 
Jacob. 
Whose, then, was “the staff" in question, to the head of 
which Jacob bowed himself down ? If Joseph's, it was the 
symbol of the high authority of “the lord over all the land of 
Egypt," the deputy of the Pharaoh, “ at whose mouth every 
one should kiss and Jacob might well remember his own 
old incredulous question — should he, indeed, come to bow down 
himself to Joseph ? 
It would be an act of homage rendered in express fulfilment 
of the Divine prognostic of the dream. 
This explanation receives, I think, a new and striking light 
from the researches of the very eminent Egyptologist, Chabas, 
who mentions the use of the “head of the staff" 
in making oath, by touching that part of the symbol of 
authority in token of homage. 
The staff of office may be seen in the British Museum, of 
ebony or other wood, and its head of ivory carved as a 
papyrus flower. This mutual solemnity of the filial oath of 
Joseph in the Hebrew manner, and the Divinely-ordered 
homage of Jacob after the Egyptian form, is moreover the 
only occasion on which the fulfilment of the dream on Jacob's 
part is recorded. 
The patriarch had, indeed, blessed the Pharaoh, J who was 
worshipped by his own subjects as a veritable god. 
But here, where no profanation could be supposed, Jacob 
renders homage to the Pharaoh's vicegerent in the person of 
his own long-lost son. 
Jacob’s Death and Obsequies . 
The process of embalming has been often described. It is 
interesting that the Hebrew word used in Gen. 1. occurs 
nowhere else in Holy Scripture except in reference to the 
J Gen. xlvii. 7. 
* Pierret, Vocab., 405. f Cat. of B.M., 39. 
