Genesis 47:31, Jacob's bed, or Jacob's staff?
Genesis 47:31 describes Jacob bowing at his bed in the Masoretic reading and at his staff in the Septuagint. The Hebrew consonants allow both; the vowels distinguish the two readings.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB is translated by a committee of language models that works blind. The translators are never told they are translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and never shown the witnesses listed above. Where the manuscripts disagree, the choice between readings is made before translation by the same kind of translator working the same way: it sees the competing readings and the witnesses by age and class, but never a reference or a manuscript name. There are 14,877 such places. For APB 4.0 every one was decided again in October 2026. GPT-6.1 Sol decided every one first. Claude Fable 5.1, from another model family, decided 2,483 of them second, including every place where the first translator left the base text. A departure from the base text needs both translators to agree and the first to be at least 0.8 confident. There is no third translator, so the base text stands when the two disagree. APB 4.0 is translated over those decisions. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
The APB translation committee’s printed text uses bed in Genesis 47:31: “And Israel bowed down upon the head of the bed.” The verse places this bow after the request for an oath and the oath itself. The printed wording identifies the bed as the object associated with Jacob’s bow.
The argument for each reading
If “staff”
The Septuagint places Jacob’s bow on the top of his staff. This gives the staff reading direct support from the Greek translation. The Hebrew consonants המטה also permit this reading: the distinction between staff and bed depends on the vowels. On this reading, the scene places Jacob’s bow at the top of his staff after the oath. The Septuagint supports that understanding, while the consonantal Hebrew alone does not settle the choice between the two objects.
If “bed”
The Masoretic Text (Westminster Leningrad Codex) points the word as bed. Its vowels give a definite reading to consonants that can also support staff. This is the direct basis for understanding Jacob’s bow as taking place upon the head of the bed. The case for bed rests on that preserved pointing tradition. The consonants agree with this reading, but they cannot distinguish it from staff without the vowels. The choice changes the physical setting of the bow.
The Hebrew consonants alone leave the object uncertain. The Masoretic pointing and the Septuagint give different understandings of the same consonantal form. The choice affects the description of Jacob’s posture and surroundings. His bow and the preceding exchange of an oath remain part of the scene under either reading.
Related entries
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited from the sources linked above.