Genesis 48:5

5 Your two sons, who were born here in Egypt before I came, will be counted as my own sons. Ephraim and Manasseh will be my sons just as Reuben and Simeon are my sons.

Genesis 48:5 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 48:5

And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh
Ephraim was the youngest, but is mentioned first, as he afterwards was preferred in the blessing of him: which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt, before I came unto
thee into Egypt;
and therefore must be twenty years of age, or upwards: for Jacob had been in Egypt seventeen years, and he came there when there had been two years of famine, and Joseph's sons were born to him before the years of famine began, ( Genesis 41:50 ) ; of these Jacob says, they [are] mine: as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine;
that is, by adoption; should be reckoned not as his grandchildren, but as his children, even as his two eldest sons, Reuben and Simeon; and so should be distinct tribes or heads of them, as his sons would be, and have a distinct part and portion in the land of Canaan; and thus the birthright was transferred from Reuben, because of his incest, to Joseph, who in his posterity had a double portion assigned him.

Genesis 48:5 In-Context

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

4 He said to me, 'I will give you many children. I will make you the father of many peoples, and I will give your descendants this land forever.'

5 Your two sons, who were born here in Egypt before I came, will be counted as my own sons. Ephraim and Manasseh will be my sons just as Reuben and Simeon are my sons.

6 But if you have other children, they will be your own, and their land will be part of the land given to Ephraim and Manasseh.

7 When I came from Northwest Mesopotamia, Rachel died in the land of Canaan, as we were traveling toward Ephrath. This made me very sad, and I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath." (Today Ephrath is Bethlehem.)