Genesis 48:4

4 He said to me, 'I will make you fruitful and numerous; I will make many nations [come from] you, and I will give this land as an eternal possession to your descendants to come.'^[a]

Genesis 48:4 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 48:4

And said unto me, behold, I will make thee fruitful
In a spiritual sense, in grace and good works; in a literal sense, in an increase of worldly substance, and especially of children: and multiply thee;
make his posterity numerous as the sand of the sea: and I will make of thee a multitude of people;
a large nation, consisting of many tribes, even a company of nations, as the twelve tribes of Israel were; and I will give this land unto thy seed after thee, [for] an
everlasting possession;
the land of Canaan, they were to possess as long as they were the people of God, and obedient to his law; by which obedience they held the land, even unto the coming of the Messiah, whom they rejected, and then they were cast out, and a "Loammi" (i.e. not my people, ( Hosea 1:9 ) ) written upon them, and their civil polity, as well as church state, at an end: and besides, Canaan was a type of the eternal inheritance of the saints in heaven, the spiritual Israel of God, which will be possessed by them to all eternity.

Genesis 48:4 In-Context

2 When Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has come to you," Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.

3 Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

4 He said to me, 'I will make you fruitful and numerous; I will make many nations [come from] you, and I will give this land as an eternal possession to your descendants to come.'

5 Your two sons born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are now mine. Ephraim and Manasseh belong to me just as Reuben and Simeon do.

6 Children born to you after them will be yours and will be recorded under the names of their brothers with regard to their inheritance.

Footnotes

• [a] Gn 35:9-12