180. The Staff of Inheritance

By: James M. Freeman

Numbers 17:2 • 1 min. read • grade level: 9

Numbers 17:2²Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man's name upon his rod. (Numbers 17:2). Take of every one of them a rod, according to the house of their fathers.

In the pictures on the walls of the ancient Egyptian tombs the chief person is always represented with a long staff—the mark of his rank as a land owner, and as the head of his family. In the Abbott Collection there are fragments of two of these rods with hieroglyphic inscriptions.

In the engraving this staff is seen in the left hand. The stick in the right hand is supposed to be a scepter. Sharpe represents this man as “an Egyptian of the reign of Amunmai Thori II, who lived at least two centuries before the time of Moses” (Bible Texts, etc., p. 46).

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