Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons
48
📚And after these things, it came about that some one told Joseph, “Look, your father is sick”. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim 📖. 2 📚And someone told Jacob, and said, “Look, your son Joseph is coming to you”. And Israel summoned his strength and sat up on the bed.3 📚And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty 📖 appeared to me at Luz 📖 in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, 4 📚and said 📖 to me, ‘Look, I will make you fruitful, and increase you in number, and I will make of you a multitude of people, and will give this land to your offspring after you as an everlasting possession.’
5 📚“And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. Just like Reuben and Simeon, they will be mine.
48:5 1 Chron 5:1-2. Joseph’s sons became the fathers of two of the twelve tribes of Israel who divided and possessed the land of Canaan. Levi received no inheritance in the land.⚜
6 📚And your children who will be born to you after them will be yours, and will be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. 7 📚And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by my side on the way in the land of Canaan, while still just a little way before coming to Ephrath. And I buried her there by the Ephrath road. That is Bethlehem”.
8 And Israel saw Joseph’s sons, and said, “Who are these?”
9 📚And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place”. And he said, “Please bring them to me, and I will bless 📖 them”.
10 📚Now Israel’s eyes were dim because of age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near to him, and he kissed them, and embraced them.
11 📚And Israel said to Joseph, “I had not thought to see your face, and lo and behold, God has showed me your offspring too”.
12 📚And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and bowed down with his face to the ground. 13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him. 14 📚And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands. For Manasseh was the firstborn.
48:14 Verses 17-20; Heb 11:21. The tribe of Ephraim became the most powerful in the northern kingdom of Israel after the kingdom divided in the time of Rehoboam.⚜
15 📚And he blessed Joseph, and said,
“God, in whose presence my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has been my shepherd 📖
all my life to this day,
16 📚The Angel 📖 who delivered me
from all evil, bless the lads.
And let them be called by my name,
and the name of my fathers
Abraham and Isaac.
And let them grow into a multitude
among the peoples of the earth”.
17 📚And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took hold of his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 📚And Joseph said to his father, “Not like that, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head”.
19 📚And his father refused, and said, “I know it, my son, I know it. He too will become a people, and he too will be great, but in fact his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a multitude of nations”. 20 📚And he blessed them that day, saying, “Israel will pronounce a blessing in your name, saying, ‘God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’ ” And he put Ephraim before Manasseh 📖.
21 📚And Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am dying, but God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers. 22 📚And I have given to you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow 📖”.