Testify!

"In Genesis, Abraham orders his servant Eliezer: "Put your hand under my thigh and... swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites." Later Jacob, now called Israel, asks of his son Joseph, "Put your hand under my thigh, and promise to deal loyally and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers." This is puzzling language until you realize that "thigh" was often used by Bible translators as a euphemism for "penis." In Genesis and Exodus, Jacob's children are said to spring from his "thigh." It seems clear that sacred oaths between the Israelites were sealed by placing a hand on the main member. To swear on that mysterious organ was swear to God. Could the penis as divine idea be expressed more clearly? Though few realize it, least of all in the courtroom, this idea of swearing a sacred oath by "placing a hand under one's thigh" (on or near the testicles) survives today--nearly four thousand years later-- in the word "testify.""
- David Friedman in A Mind of Its Own pg 16-17