which weakens the sense. Moses does not mention Jacob speaking, much less standing, during that act of worship. There was greater reason for Moses mentioning both the bed and the head of the bed, than for his mentioning the rod and the top of the rod. For in like manner, in 1 Kings i. 47, King David worshipped on his bed : and Jacob, having slightly changed that position of body in which, reclining, he had received the oath of Joseph, sworn on his thigh [Gen. xlvii. 29], and having turned his face from the other part of the bed and towards the top, where the bolster is (GPfcO axpov, the top of a mountain, of a wall, etc.), seems on his knees, and with collected strength to have worshipped, as in Gen. xlviii. 2. However he might on the bed itself support his side or arm with a staff. " Thus some writers of both the Old and New Testament are accus tomed to supply what has been omitted by others, and, as opportunity offers, to insert some things from the tradition of their ancestors, which were not much known in the course of ages." — Surenhusius. Whether the apostle knew, from divine or human evidence, that the circumstance concerning the staff also was true, or considered that it made no difference in the main facts, he rightly retains the reading of the LXX., as after wards at ver. 23
22. 'Eftvvifjttovevffe, [made mention of] remembered) He mentioned, what he had never forgotten, the promise made to their fathers, and as it were renewed it for the future. — Kepi ruv offreuv, con cerning his bones) so that even though dead he might leave Egypt, and come into the Land of Promise. Those who are without faith, either take no care, or a vain and foolish concern about their bones.
23. ttlffrsi, by faith) It is not the faith of Moses that is refer red to in this verse, but that of his parents ; as in ver. 30 it is not the faith of the citizens of Jericho, but that of the Israelites. — Kurspuv, of his fathers) In Exod. ii. 2, the LXX. relate the fact as follows : and seeing that he was a goodly (affrsTov) child, they [not she, as in the Hebrew] hid him three months ; and when they could no longer hide him, the mother took to him an ark or wicker-basket. In the Hebrew, the whole is ascribed to the mother ; by the apostle, to the fathers. By the term, fathers, the Syrians understand father and mother ; but we can scarcely prove that this was the case