The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the
lads,
&c.] Ephraim and Manasseh, now about twenty years old or
upwards: this is not to be understood of a created angel he
wishes to be their guardian, but of an eternal one, the Son of
God, the Angel of God's presence, the Angel of the covenant; the
same with the God of his father before mentioned, as appears by
the character he gives him, as having "redeemed [him] from all
evil"; not only protected and preserved him from temporal evils
and imminent dangers from Esau, Laban, and others; but had
delivered him from the power, guilt, and punishment of sin, the
greatest of evils, and from the dominion and tyranny of Satan the
evil one, and from everlasting wrath, ruin, and damnation; all
which none but a divine Person could do, as well as he wishes,
desires, and prays, that he would "bless" the lads with blessings
temporal and spiritual, which a created angel cannot do; and
Jacob would never have asked it of him: and let my name be
named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham
and Isaac;
having adopted them, he foretells they would be called not only
the sons of Joseph, but the children of Israel or Jacob, and
would have a name among the tribes of Israel, and be heads of
them, as well as would be called the seed of Abraham and of
Isaac, and inherit their blessings: and let them grow into a
multitude in the midst of the earth; where they increased as
fishes, as the word signifies F19, and more than any other of
the tribes; even in the times of Moses the number of them were
85,200 men fit for war, ( Numbers
26:34 Numbers
26:37 ) ; and their situation was in the middle of the land
of Canaan.