Genesis 48:16
The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
The verse belongs to the time when Joseph was ruler in Egypt during the famine, when Jacob's ten sons came from Canaan to buy grain and bowed before him without recognizing him. In it Jacob lays his hands on Ephraim and Manasseh to make them full sons of Israel, praying to the God before whom Abraham and Isaac walked to bless the lads. The laying on of hands was a meaningful, reverent Jewish act in which fathers laid hands reverently on their children's heads when blessing or dedicating them, as a priest laid a hand on a sacrificial animal.
In the same sense, the laying on of hands on Paul and Barnabas was an act of asking God to bestow His blessing upon those devoted to the specific work God had chosen for them. The verse is Jacob's evening-of-life review looking back over fraud, exile, and retribution and recognizing the sustaining power of God. The God who fed him all his life long and the Angel who redeemed him from all evil are God Himself as his preserver, support, and provider through his whole pilgrimage, who rescued him from every evil and gives light at eventide.
The blessing carries no spirit of self-dependence and no reliance on human power or cunning, offers no complaint about past evil days, no longer views trials and sorrows as against him, and remembers only mercy and loving-kindness. After distress, Jacob repented, sought to right his wrong to Esau, wrestled in weeping supplication and prevailed, and was forgiven, blessed, and transformed from supplanter to prince with God. He was delivered not only from his brother but from himself with the power of evil in his nature broken and his character changed, proving that through grace the curse is transformed into blessing without annulling the law that what is sown is reaped.