Genesis 48:14 - Exposition

And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head ,—the first instance of the imposition of hands being used as a symbol of blessing. Though not necessarily connected with the form of benediction, it is not without a natural fitness to suggest the transmission of spiritual benefit. Accordingly it afterwards became the recognized mode of conveying to another some supernatural power or gift, and was employed in the Old Testament Church in the dedication of priests ( Numbers 27:18 , Numbers 27:23 ; Deuteronomy 34:9 ), and in the New in the ordination of Christian office-bearers ( Acts 6:6 ; Acts 8:17 ; 1 Timothy 4:14 ; 2 Timothy 1:6 ), as well as by the Savior and his apostles in the performance of many of their miracles— who was the younger (literally, and he the little one, i.e. the younger), and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly ;—literally, he placed his hands, prudently, i.e. of set purpose, the piel of שָׂכַל , to look at, conveying the intensive signification of acting with prudence and deliberation (Gesenius, Furst); intelligere fecit manus suas hoc est, docte, scite, et petite imposuit eis manus ; a rendering of the words which has been adopted by the best scholars (Calvin, Dathe, Rosenmüller, Keil, Kalisch, Murphy, Taylor Lewis, and others), though the translation, " he crossed his hands," which regards שִׂכֵּל as the pile of an unused root signifying to intertwine, ἐναλλὰξ τὰς χεῖρας ( LXX .), commutans marius (Vulgate), is not entirely destitute of learned supporters (Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, Pererius, Knobel, Delitzsch, Gerlach, and others)— for Manasseh was the firstborn .