What the texts say. After Joseph swears to bury him in Canaan, Jacob, called Israel, bows down. The Masoretic text says he bowed “upon the bed’s head” (KJV; the JPS 1917 agrees). The Septuagint says he bowed “leaning on the top of his staff” (Brenton). Hebrews 11:21, listing Jacob among the heroes of faith, follows the Greek: he “worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.”
Why the two readings exist. Hebrew was first written with consonants only. The word here is spelled with the three letters m-ṭ-h. Pointed one way it is mittah, “bed”; pointed another way it is matteh, “staff.” The Masoretes, who added the vowel marks between about the sixth and tenth centuries, read “bed.” The Greek translators, centuries earlier, read “staff.” Neither reading requires a different Hebrew text (Very Strong). Which vocalization the author of Genesis intended cannot be proven (Debated); both make sense, since Genesis 48:2 pictures Jacob on his bed.
What the Orthodox Church reads. The Orthodox Church reads the Septuagint, so Genesis and Hebrews agree: Jacob bowed on the top of his staff. St John of Damascus, defending the holy icons against the iconoclasts, cited this act to distinguish kinds of worship: Jacob bowed in honour “on the point of his staff,” but did not give it the adoration due to God alone. In the same work he quotes Leontius of Neapolis in Cyprus (called both Leo and Leontius in the English translation), who answered the charge of worshipping the wood of the Cross by pointing to Jacob, who was not worshipping wood. The Latin of Hebrews 11:21 is stronger still: the Douay-Rheims renders it “adored the top of his rod.”
How translations handle it. Translations of Genesis from the Hebrew, such as the KJV, the Reina-Valera and the JPS, read “bed”; the Douay-Rheims, from the Vulgate, reads “turning to the bed’s head.” In Hebrews, translations have “staff” or “rod,” because the Greek of Hebrews says so. The KJV and Reina-Valera 1909 therefore have “bed” in Genesis and “staff” in Hebrews.
What it does and does not change. Nothing in the faith depends on whether Jacob leaned on a staff or bowed on his bed; the point in Hebrews is that he blessed Joseph’s sons in faith as he was dying. The verse does show, simply and clearly, that the New Testament quotes the Greek Old Testament the Orthodox Church still reads.