Genesis 48:4

4 He said to me, 'I am going to give you children. I will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of nations. And I will give this land to your children after you. It will belong to them forever.'

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 Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has come to you." So Israel became stronger and sat up in bed.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, "The Mighty God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan. He blessed me there.
4 He said to me, 'I am going to give you children. I will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of nations. And I will give this land to your children after you. It will belong to them forever.'
5 "Now then, two sons were born to you in Egypt. It happened before I came to you here. They will be counted as my own sons. Ephraim and Manasseh will belong to me, in the same way that Reuben and Simeon belong to me.
6 "Any children who are born to you after them will belong to you. Any territory they receive will come from the land that is given to Ephraim and Manasseh.
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