From: Doug Schiffer <dschiffer@servtech.com>


Deb wrote:
> 
> > I kid you not.  Of course, in the English translations we have today,
> > these episodes have been "sanitized" by saying something like "so and so
> > put his hand under his thigh" - but the original language (Hebrew) has
> > no such Victorian sensibilities!
> 
>   do you have any references on where this may be found?

From "Is it God's Word" by Joseph Wheliss - page 158 - 

                         PHALLUS HOMAGE

     Of another phallic practice of the Hebrew religion, of
  universal sanctity among them and their Semitic neighbors, we have
  frequent testimony, from first to last, in their Scriptures. This
  was the solemn phallic form of oath prevalent among them. As the
  phallus was the object of most sacred reverence in Israel, as
  everywhere else, the most solemn oaths and vows were taken upon it;
  the form of ceremony being for the person to be obligated to take
  in his hand the member of the person to whom he swore
  (euphemistically translated "put hand under the thigh"), and
  register thus his oath. As stated by a recent authority, "In
  exceptional cases the hand might be placed under the thigh of the
  person imposing the oath (Gen. xxiv, 2; Deut. lxvii, 29), as a sign
  of regard for the mystery of generation, whose source was God."
  [New Stand. Bible Dict., p. 630, art. Oath. The Encyclopedia
  Biblica says: "'Thigh' refers to the generative organ" (Vol. III,
  col. 3453, art. Oath). Josephus, Antiq., 1, 16, 1, describes how
  the ceremony was performed.] Thus, Father Abraham called his
  majordomo, and said to him: "Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my
  thigh: and I will make thee swear by Yahveh. ... And the servant
  put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swear to
  him concerning that matter" (Gen. xxiv, 2, 9). So Jacob, when he
  came to die in Egypt, called his son Joseph to him, and said: "Put,
  I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh; ... bury me not, I pray thee,
  in Egypt. ... And he swear unto him" (Gen. xlvii, 29-31).

     This phallic practice was not confined to the ancient
  patriarchs; it prevailed throughout Bible history. When Solomon was
  crowned king over all Israel, the ceremony of taking the oath of
  allegiance is related in 1 Chronicles xxix, 24: "And all the
  princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king
  David, gave the hand under Solomon." In other words, the spectacle
  was presented of all the mighty men of Israel lined up as at a
  Presidential New Year's reception, and filing by before the Wise
  King; as each came up he would take the royal phallus in his good
  sword hand, and with low obeisance pronounce upon it the solemn
  oath of fealty. In Lamentations, the weeping prophet bewails the
  dire distress of the Chosen People, and declares: "We have given
  the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied
  with bread" (Lam. v, 6) -- taken the phallic oath of fealty to
  those foreign nations in return for protection and provisions.
  Other instances might be cited, but these suffice to show the time-
  honored practice, in private and in public, of all Israel. In
  modern times we evidence the solemnity of an official or judicial
  oath by putting the hand on the Bible, as a sacred thing, and
  kissing it. It is much the same in effect as the older custom, and
  very little different as a matter of taste.