Genesis 48:4

4 and said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.'

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 One told Ya`akov, and said, "Behold, your son Yosef comes to you," and Yisra'el strengthened himself, and sat on the bed.

3 Ya`akov said to Yosef, "El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Kana`an, and blessed me,

4 and said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.'

5 Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Mitzrayim before I came to you into Mitzrayim, are mine; Efrayim and Menashsheh, even as Re'uven and Shim`on, will be mine.

6 Your issue, who you become the father of after them, will be yours. They will be called after the name of their brothers in their inheritance.