Genesis 48:17

17 videns autem Ioseph quod posuisset pater suus dexteram manum super caput Ephraim graviter accepit et adprehensam patris manum levare conatus est de capite Ephraim et transferre super caput Manasse

Genesis 48:17 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 48:17

And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon
the head of Ephraim, it displeased him
To see the younger preferred to the elder; parents, generally speaking, having the greatest regard to the firstborn with respect to honour and estate, and to them, in those times, the patriarchal blessing particularly was thought to belong; but it did not always go to them, but to the younger, as in Jacob's own case: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head
unto Manasseh's head;
he took him by the right hand, and lifted it up from the head of Ephraim, and held it in order that he might put it by his direction on the head of Manasseh.

Genesis 48:17 In-Context

15 benedixitque Ioseph filio suo et ait Deus in cuius conspectu ambulaverunt patres mei Abraham et Isaac Deus qui pascit me ab adulescentia mea usque in praesentem diem
16 angelus qui eruit me de cunctis malis benedicat pueris et invocetur super eos nomen meum nomina quoque patrum meorum Abraham et Isaac et crescant in multitudinem super terram
17 videns autem Ioseph quod posuisset pater suus dexteram manum super caput Ephraim graviter accepit et adprehensam patris manum levare conatus est de capite Ephraim et transferre super caput Manasse
18 dixitque ad patrem non ita convenit pater quia hic est primogenitus pone dexteram tuam super caput eius
19 qui rennuens ait scio fili mi scio et iste quidem erit in populos et multiplicabitur sed frater eius iunior maior illo erit et semen illius crescet in gentes
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.